Anyone had success medicating ADD?

Post Reply New Topic

Anyone had good results medicating ADD either naturopathic or drugs? My brain is either bouncing frantically from subject to subject or hyperfocussed on one thing. I can plan a career path and believe it's the right one, and 4 hours later have another one planned. I've spent thousands of dollars on hobbies only to drop them once I've done the research and bought the stuff. Want slow my head down, and gain some impulse control.

Unfortunately, this is one that can take some trial and error. Conditions other than ADHD can make it more complicated.

I have a 7-yr-old with only ADHD - For him, the first medication we tried was AMAZING. He is on Vyvanse. It makes a HUGE difference for him.

My 9-yr-old who has ADHD and AS - We tried stimulants, but they made him very anxious. We tried some of the non-stimulants, but with not much success. We really haven't found ANY medications to help him with anything yet.

For myself - I have ADHD, AS, anxiety, bipolar...When I tried a teeny tiny dose of Ritalin, my mind really calmed down. It was great! Unfortunately, it also caused panic attacks.

So, the best thing I can say, is talk to your doctor and give it a try. Start somewhere and see what happens. Just be prepared to try a few different things. If you are dealing with more than ADHD, it will be more complicated.

Good Luck!

Adderall XR and Omega-3s are helpful for me with respect to hyperactivity, impulsiveness and frustration-tolerance/self-control and making me more aware of myself and my surroundings. The medication is way more effective than the Omega-3s, but I can say with certainty that the latter had some mild effect because tried natural remedies (and then natural rememdies+loads of structured exercise) before trying medication.

The medication helps a bit with regulating attention/focus issues, too--but then I have an ASD as well...so it's not all just ADHD (I have no idea where the dividing line between ADHD-executive functioning issues and ASD-executive functioning issues may lie.....)

I'm interested to see what others have to say on this subject.

Our 15 year old son is on HIGH doses of stimulants, AND Strattera, AND clonodine for the tics that come as a result of the stimulants, AND an anti-depressant/anti-anxiety. I can tell you for sure that this helps greatly with the inability to focus. His ability to work consistently and quickly on homework is like night and day compared to his performance before on low dosages of stimulants.

On the bad side, our son is now quiet, sometimes a zombie, has inabilities at times to makes decisions, and has no motivation to do anything unless he it is structured for him. His social skills are non-existent. Without drugs at all, he is fun, happy, buoyant, but somewhat impulsive and inclined to say lots of stuff without thinking.

I guess that my point is that, as you may have already heard, drugs can be good -- but there are always side effects or negatives associated with the drugs. It's extremely frustrating.

I use cannabis, and it not only calms me, but it makes me WANT to do things and focus and get involved.

The problem with the ADHD stimulants is that they don't provide symptom relief for the entire 24 hours, not even the long-acting stimulants like Vyvanse or Concerta (they work eight hours, max). Sure the manufacturer states that symptom relief is supposed to last for about 12 hours, and that long-acting stimulants are to be taken once daily, but no ADHD stimulant has lasted 12 hours for me. I don't want to have to take a "booster" dose in the afternoon.

I (only) have experience with methylphenidate.

Bear with my English on this one, descriptive terms and even brand names are way different in German.

The effects I get vary greatly between instant-release generics. Ritalin probably doesn't work for me because it contains lactose.

Why put lactose in some anyway? It's important to note that in stimulants there isn't just one single ingredient (can I say it like that?). As with almost all medications colour, shape and texture as well as influences on how/when the active agent is released result from the use of other ingredients that were add during the manufacturing process.

Similar to the differences of positive effects and side-effects I experienced differences in how long it takes until they wear off.

Generally it's said that the effects of instant-release mph last 2-4 hours. Some more or less than 3 hours seem true for most but I heard from not too few people that the stimulants wore off after 1-2 hours for them. Yes, there are people who experience the full positive effects for 4 hours or for less than 1 hour. I think 45 minutes was the lowest I've heard so far.

I have a fast-working metabolism and surprisingly, instant-release mph lasts for pretty long. I sincerely doubt there's a simple consistent relationship between the two as some reckon there might be.

When talking about dosage, is it more common to talk about the daily dosage or the single dose in the US? I never know, I totally fail at picking it up from the context. Just 2,5mg or 5mg + or - than the single dose that works best for me totally change how effective it is and what side-effects there are.

Talking about co-morbids and how they likely influence meds, I have ADHD, autism and tics. Side-effects I experience vary between generics. I have none of the "more than 1 out of 10" side-effects listed in package inserts on the stimulant I ended up with.

Some may have to watch out for hypoglycaemia though. The brain may need more energy and makes its need known. You can't expect stimulants to work when you're lacking the energy to focus. Normal people can't think straight either if they're exhausted, starved or think it's a brilliant idea to not eat or drink before doing physical or mental exercises.

Also of importance for me is that when this generic (some others too) wears off I can have a rebound. After hours of being "less" like ADHD while on the medication, the ADHD all comes back and that can be unpleasant.

A rebound doesn't occur for everyone, it can occur on some dosages but not on others and it can occur with some generics but not with others.

You'll hear about reports of aggression, withdrawal from others, moodiness, headaches, tiredness, "the ADHD is way worse!" or even "no rebound, all's great". I'm sure there are lots of others ways to experience the rebound. If it is only that rebound, it's temporary and short.

For some, there's a simple way to avoid the rebound by taking a tiny amount shortly before their last dose for the day starts to wear off.

Mixing stimulants with alcohol = can fail. Never mind that you shouldn't do it in the first place. Make sure you're careful until you know if something happens to you when combining stimulants and alcohol or if something is different for you even 3-5 hours after the stimulant wore off (it's not gone completely yet).

Then, you'll hear of a group of people with ADHS being "non-responders" to stimulants. I don't know enough about non-responders to feel comfortable talking about it.

When to take stimulants is tricky. Generally, you'll be fine skipping them for a day, stop them abruptly or use them only for when you need them. That works for some but there are others who get confused, feel uncomfortable or can't cope with being "less ADHD-ish" one day and "totally unfocussed and slow/fidgety" the next day.

While on mph, there is a chance to feel more vulnerable to negative responses from people and negative situations. That goes for the beginning especially. If lots of things bounced off before and you were not as aware of them as others because of your hyperactivity, sluggishness or distractedness, you may take notice of them now.

With good things that effect is... well, good It's nice to be able to enjoy something pleasant without distractions and getting bored of it way too quickly. With bad things things, these can seem to affect you more too now that you are able to really "get" them.

This took ages to write.

And I forgot to say how stimulants help me. With the ideal amount of mph I'm more focussed, my conversations are way more animated and intelligent, I'm less impulsive... things like that.

I'm testing a sustained-release stimulant at the moment. It's really different... Can't really say anything about it yet.

I have ADHD and ASD. Ritalin helps me focus but it does have a few side effects tough.

There is no cure of ADD. Maybe weed?

It could be either a lack of discipline, or the fact that you realize that the hobby is boring, once you've researched it.

How old are you? Are you under 25? The brain doesn't fully mature until 25, 26, or even 27. Boredom and restlessness is young man's affliction. I went through it in my late teens and 20s. I dealt with my ennui with drugs and vandalism, because I had a lot of anger and lacked impulse control. I don't recommend that, because there are a lot more police patrolling the streets now, and it's a lot easier to be caught with petty crimes like starting fires, smashing windows, or spraying graffiti.

Give it time, you'll outgrow it. It will seem like forever, because time just seems to inch so slowly at that age. I'm 27 now, and the days go by at a snap of the finger.