I'm feeling really down. I've been on Dexadrine for a week and a half and I'm really not noticing much of an effect AT ALL. I started off on 5 mg tablets three times a day, but then spaced this out to just two a day, as I felt too detached (and no more able to focus) on three.

For two weeks before trying the Dex, I had tried Ritalin, but it made me very jumpy and anxious, so my doc wanted me to try Dex.

By no means was I under ANY illusion that that this would be a miracle pill, but I am now strongly believing that all my brain receptors are so out of whack that nothing will help (ok, call me a drama queen). My mood hasn't lifted one jot either (I can't remember the last time I didn't feel depressed (note: I'm not trying to get sympathy here).

Sheesh - I don't know what I hope to achieve by posting this, but has anyone else had similar (non) effects when taking stimulants? I realise it's still early days though.

Earthgirl

I'm not doctor or professional with chemistry and the brain so take what I say with all the necessary caution.

My pharmacist tells me it takes three or four days for the dex to reach a steady state. So you should be well into that by now.

My experience is that small variations in dosage helps a lot. I had to reduce my dose.

I believe you dose is pretty low so maybe talk to your physician about trying and increased dose. I think if you do some reading in this forum you will find others with experiences with higher dosages.

I take 10mg slow release in the morning and then in the late afternoon I take a 5mg quick release tablet.

Hope you find some relief soon.

What does your doctor say about higher doses?
ian

Hi Earthgirl,

I took a single 5mg tablet (yesterday) after 7 months without -- and I must admit - that I felt an immediate (@15-20 mins) gentle euphoria -- which made me feel so very relaxed.

I usually have a nagging pain in my solar plexus -- which gets worse as I get more anxious, and a throbbing in the centre of my forehead too, which also becomes problematic on anxiety. Strengthening of these 2 feelings precedes brain fog.

At 30 mins post-Dex, I found that the sensation in the solar plexus region vanished, and at 1 hour - I felt as if the the whole region of my brain (behind my forehead) was released.
This last observation is tough to explain - but if you imagine any tightness across the forehead being relaxed, and then cool air being wafted onto the entire superficial region of the brain directly behind the forehead - then you have the sensation I felt....well kinda'

Unfortunately, on taking the second pill 3 hrs later - I began to feel some unpleasant other sensations and think that my anti-depressant was colliding with the dexedrine -- and so haven't taken any Dexedrine since.

SB

Earthgirl,
Are you prone to anxiety or this is an unusual feeling? Are you more the inattentive type or hyper? To you tend to be a bit obsessive at times, getting locked into things & trouble changing gears? I think it's this last issue for me that made the stimulants not quite helpful. SB's description was very vivid, can you attempt to explain what you are feeling or felt on ritalin? Growing to adulthood with ADD undiagnosed, I think it's hard for some of us to just get that light-switch feeling, our brains are so used to being this way & the coping mechanisms so ingrained. Trying to pay attention to the feeling of the meds and the feeling of your ADD & what your brain fog feels like is helpful and might take time and practice.

For me, I felt the stimulants as a tension in the back of my head or the forehead & they made me latch onto obsessive hyperfocusing stuff even more than my usual frame of mind. My brain fog feels like an unpleasant spaciness which can be either anxiety driven or sleepy. Meditating helps somewhat with this... deep breathing exercises (real simple stuff) by making me more aware of what's going on in there & relaxing.

The dex ought to be very similar to ritalin; there may be subtle differences but not dramatically different usually.

Hi,

Also - if this is of any use, to reassure my wife that Dexedrine isn't as scary a medication as Google might lead you to believe - she took 1 tablet and observed the following.
My wife has never taken *any* medication previously.

Effects at 15-20 mins
-- seemed as though her legs and body were slightly out of sync.
at 25-30 mins
-- felt as if she was on the verge of smiling/laughing at anything even if just remotely funny
30-45 mins
--felt as though noises were louder than they were and that her vision had improved - she saw more definition in things
45mins - 1hr
--Feelings of laziness, things she needed to do (that she does every day) -- that she didn't feel like and so didn't do.

I found the last one interesting - she like me, experienced relaxation and not stimulation on the medication. Maybe it's related to dose - 5mg/day is very low indeed.

SB

5mg isn't a lot of dexadrine, but it's enough for some people.
Perhaps a larger dose would help you?
It's also possible that you are one of those people for whom stimulants aren't effective.

i wish I could offer some helpful advice earthgirl. but the truth is i am feeling so depressed myself that i wandered over here to the forums, hoping to find some encouragement :(

my experience with the amphetamines (adderall first, and just switched to dextrostat) has been mixed. i experienced very positive results on adderall, but was experiencing side effects and it was hardly affecting me the way it had mentally when i had first started it. that was really depressing for me. if i do not accomplish a certain amount each day (and the amount is too embarassing to say, but it's not a lot) i just feel really worthless. on 80mg of adderall i still had such trouble with being distracted by the tiniest of noises... i was very irritated when i was "interrupted" by family members/phone ringing/dog barking... and felt horrible to be snappy at them but at the same time i was just so mad that i had finally felt i was absorbing some info, only to then be jolted out of my comprehension because i heard someone whispering 3 rooms away!!

i think maybe the key is a combination of different meds? not for everyone, i just mean, that for some people 1 medication is not enough. because we can have other problems too that result from the add...my symptoms of add result in other secondary symptoms but on the other hand i feel like most of the time i am just being treated for all these other things when that is not the root thing and it's very frustrating.

anyway i am rambling. and i'm sure this is not comforting at all which is what i hoped it would be...i'm sorry.

all i can say is hang in there :confused:

don't give up no matter how bad you feel. i know that's a trite phrase but it's kept me alive when i was seriously suicidal just to think "things MIGHT improve. it's POSSIBLE." and i would try to imagine myself feeling happier, because i was able to solve my problems/function the way i would like to... trying to sort of hyponotize myself i guess, mostly while falling asleep. i'm not sure how much that helped (admittedly not much during the day) but i had much better dreams anyway! usually woke up feeling a little more optimistic.

i don't know how i could help but if you ever want to private message me, i am all "ears" -- sometimes just getting everything that's bothering you on paper/screen is cathartic (even knowing this, i still have a huge problem starting to write, thinking 'i don't want to, it won't help' when it comes to journaling -- even though i have experienced that it DOES help! :p).

Mt Doctor switched me from Addrall to Dex for a month to see if it had a better effect on me and it doesn't at all. Have you tried Adderall it seems to help me with my depression and my outlook on life in general.

hi,

a rather belated "thanks" to all those who posted replies. It is now a couple of weeks later and unfortunately the status is more or less the same. I saw my psych on Wednesday and he advised to try the Dex for one more week, varying the dosage slightly, as it just wasn't working well for me. If that seems to work - fine, but if not I may need to look down other avenues. I haven't felt a lift at all in my mood. It may be that stimulants just aren't for me.

Earthgirl