Drowsy: ADHD-meds.

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I began taking Concerta around 1,5 months ago. At first my body reacted with something like a shock when I started on 36mg (which is the medium dosage), and I quickly realized I better start on 18mg. But I soon got used to the drug and raised dosage to 18mg twice a day. Today I take 36mg to 54mg daily.

But this post is not about dosage...

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... It's about another issue I experience on a daily basis:

Sometimes I become so sleepy after I've taken the day's first dosage of Concerta that I have to go and sleep for a few hours!

Why is it that some people become drowsy or sleepy from the effect of a stimulant drug, when others (most people) become more awake?
Does it perhaps have something to do with one's energy level, i.e. your body being too low in certain nutritions (vitamins, minerals, i.e.)?
Or maybe it has to do with one's general "Happiness", so that a person who is generally discontent and unhappy with his life will be likely to become sleepy/drowsy, whereas someone who's happy with himself and his life will feel more awake?


The drowsiness has sometimes made me dread taking the meds, and that's too bad, because in other regards Concerta benefits me, and I would like to keep taking it for at least another year ... or maybe even two.

Concerta helped trigger my ability to stick with some of the projects I've wanted badly to get (re-)started with for years - in some cases I've battled procrastination for more than two decades without luck, until I recently began taking Concerta. And even though I'm aware that I could probably continue doing what I do now, but without Concerta, I fear I might not be able to uphold the faith in myself if I quit Concerta. In other words: At heart I'm not really sure how much of my recent progress is Concerta and how much is me.


Can anybody tell me if I will always become sleepy when I take meds like Concerta?
Or will it perhaps change if I give it more time?
I'd really like to understand, and so I'd like to ask if anybody can/will enlighten me a little on this topic?

Thank you all in advance! ^L^,

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Ps. I can see how it may look as if I'm a very weak person without any sprite or self discipline. But I can assure you that my self-discipline goes beyond that of most NTs, and there are some very definite reasons why I've ended up in the situation that I'm in now! Most of the aspects that makes up my life's issues, the ongoing Hell that is my background, don't show in the few words in the description of my question here above. I'm sure many can relate to why I feel a need to accept being on medication when it so obviously is preferable to not take any drugs at all.

"prolonged sleepiness" is listed as one of Concerta's side-effects. i was on it for roughly 2 years, until Strattera replaced it in my shrink's preferred-script formulary. Concerta gave me the opposite effect, that i was almost never drowsy. i wish i could tell you more about the sleepy side effect but i couldn't find much about it on google. i took 54 mg after a quick titration from 18mg. the only physical side effect i noticed right away was my "hydraulics" shut down, a notably nasty side effect. it also made me lose 20 pounds right away, and i was hot and sweaty most of the time, as well as being "cross." but aside from those concerns, my cognitive processes greatly "speed"ed up [naturally] and became far more organized, IOW i was no longer as much of a disorganized scatterbrained slob as i was before the drug. but the side effects eventually predominated as i grew tolerant to the maximum dose, so my shrink took me off of Concerta and put me on Strattera which was fantastic- i became calm and level-headed as well as cognitively sharp, but the major side effect of GERD was eventually too much for me to take. it's always something, man
so i've been off of the pmeds for 5 years now, and the drowsiness returned with a vengeance, but i found that an hour a day [most days] of vigorous exercise sufficient to make one hot, sweaty and short of breath] got rid of it, with the side benefit of falling asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, at bedtime.
anyways, if i were you [with no history of GERD] i would at least ask my pdoc about Strattera, it is a good [but expensive] drug of real therapeutic value and minimal side fx with many users, at least from what i've been able to read about it.
good luck

The same happened to me when I was on ritalin. Switch to dexedrine or adderall if you can it doesn't have half the tranquilizing effect ritalin or concerta does.

Stop taking them.

They won't make your life better.

EVERY ADHDer (I only know them on the net) who took such "meds" has regretted it later for taking it , or were ended up in a worse condition.

Psychotropic medications do not cure underlying health conditions or learning differences, these medications only mask them.

In fact, many psychiatric diagnoses have no valid test to even prove they exist

ADHD (or whatever it is) itself is the least terrible when compared to the effects of those sh***y drugs.

Untrue. It's just that everyone wants to drug up really bad and goes on way higher of a dose than they really need. My mother and pediatrician when I was younger always favored the smallest useful dose, only raising dosages if the old ones proved fruitless (over, say, a month), and I got on rather better off for the whole thing. The typical thing from other doctors was always to pick the highest dosage with minimal side effects, and adjusted from there, whereas with us, it was always the lowest dosage that could work, and adjusted from there.

I prefer ritalin over any of those things you need to keep in your system though. I still have some ritalin left, and you really can just take one when you really need to focus, even if you haven't had any for months, and don't plan on needing any more for months. It's been a few years since I've had any though, and I think they've all expired. Still though, it has helped me immensely in the past. I think I had some 8-hour, slow-releasing, 20 mg ones, and some nice little 2-hour 5 mg ones, last I was on it, although I don't know how that dosage compares to concerta.

I definitely don't regret it. I never got addicted or dependent, and in fact, as I kind of mentioned already, eventually weened myself off of them. No less, I would've been totally screwed without them.

I take Focalin XR for ADD/ADHD/Whatever and some of the main side effects are sleeplessness and anxiety ...Because that is just what I need more of right? It does help me stay focused in class though. I was doing worse in school before it was prescribed, but I can't tell if it was related since that isn't really conclusive.
I was on Ritalin when I was in intermediate school... I can't remember it at all

Auntblabby,

I did some research to find out if sleepyness was listed as a typical, or even an a-typical side effect in Methylphenidate (Concerta, Ritalin, i.e.). But I didn't find it mentioned anywhere. At some sites the list of side effects was extensive and included rare side effects as well as how many % of subjects had been reporting said saide effects. So it's interesting that you did find it to be included.
I payed a visit to several ADHD-fora and saw that a lot of Concerta users wrote about having the drowsyness experience with Concerta! - However, I also found that there seems to be a myth about people with ADHD will become sleepy from stimulants whereas people who does not have ADHD will not. There doesn't seem to be much explanation to why the drowsyness side effect occurs, and the debates generally ends after a number of individuals have stated wether or not they too experience drowsyness.

-Strattera was the first drug I was prescribed, but it gave me side effects I just couldn't live with. I had to stop taking it after a week of displaying all the discipline that I could muster in order to stick with it.

What does '[GERD]' mean?

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SeaMonkey,

Adderall was the first drug I suggested to my psychiatrist that he prescribe for me. But it has been banned where I live, along with all other drugs containing Amphetamine.

I've never tried Dexedrine, but I'd really like to. I have a feeling it may be even better for me than Adderall ... or Concerta (Concerta has it good sides too). I just fear it may be banned too. I'll be sure tomention it when I talk to her next time though.

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Funny Troll,

To stop taking Concerta may not be bad advice. - But how can I explain that I do have good reasons to continue, at least for a period. As a matter of fact it IS making my life better at present. I'm aware that it will not change things fundamentally, unless I do the work to make changes myself, but it is helping as a kind of "trigger" or "kick-starter" to begin doing exactly that.

You know how often a situation can become so "knotted up" in a self-reinforcing vicious circle", and when you finally manage to change things it often happens in relation to some change or event in your life's outside circumstances. But sometimes such outside change is not a possibility, and you have to do something more extravagant about it.


After I've learned about ADHD I realize I've known several people through out my life who no doubt fit the criteria. I just didn't know it had a "name" at the time. It is estimated that 5% of the population - in any part of the world and at any given time - have the kind of personality that we in modern day call ADD and ADHD (5% of people with ADD and ADHD combined, not 5% of each ADD and ADHD). And once you know what ADD and ADHD are, it's hard to not realize that you have met at least a few people who fit the descriptions.


I agree with you, when you say most psychiatric diagnoses have no valid proof they really exist. But the point is if it is practical to use the destinction between personality types. In our time it's just gone too far, and personality types have become "syndromes' and "disorders", because society tries to mainstream everything to the extent that everybody has to more or less alike.

In any other period of history (and pre-history) than our own, such a thing as Asperger's Syndrome was not a psychiatric term, not seen a "syndrome", and much less a disorder! It was simply a personality type that meant we were suited for a certain type of functions in society that most other people could (and can) not fill. In present day we see Asperger's as a "syndrome", a problem, because there're few positions and roles we can fill. But it's a very isolated pehnomena (historically) which is connected to the lack of spirituality in our time.

In a YouTube video (actually Alex Plank was one of the persons featured in it) a native american and a Shaman expressed perfectly what I mean ... I will try and see if I can find the video and link it, because what this guy says points to the very heart of what "Asperger's Syndrome" and being an aspie is all about.

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Freak Contagion,

Some of the issues I have are related to what you say. But taking a smaller dose isn't the answer, since it would take the positive effect away along with the side effect.

I wish I could get some short-term variety of Ritalin along with Concerta. But it is so hard to make my psychiatrist understand the issues.

What you say last makes me optimistic, and I know I'll do the same thing and stop taking Concerta - or anything else - eventually. I never intented to take it forever anyway. =)

Would you tell me how long time you took these drugs, and how long you've been off any drug?

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Book Noodles,

Focalin sounds like the very thing that would have the best effect.

About the anxiety:
I've always had very strong anxiety, and I continue having it when on Concerta. Sometimes I do tend to be even more anxious on Concerta than without it, but it's something that's always been there and I can't do much about it except try to ignore it.

It would be really great if Focalin didn't have this effect, and evn greater if I could have it prescribed. And it's shorter half-time is great too! Thanks for mentioning it. I'll talk my psychiatrist about it.

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Thanks for replying to my question, everybody! ... ^L^,