regarding medication and their side effects.

What I am wondering is these forums are a support network (I'm theorising this in my head as I go - it's all just a thought). Are people who need the support with meds generally those who are not having success with them. Maybe bad side effects etc.

When I read books on add and other things on the net they all seem to mention that 80odd% of people can be helped to some degree with medication, and usually the side effects will be light. My GP, 2 x add specialising psycologists and my add specialising psychiatrist have told me the same thing. My psychiatrist has told me that yes, there can be side effects, but don't worry 'cause they are usually mild and you probably won't notice any anyway.

But here it seems to be a different story. I see a lot of posts asking if someone else has experience 'this' side effect. After making a post in one thread I was followed by a 5 odd word post that is probably one of the simplest yet most negative comments regarding the medication I am about to start in a days time.

There is an old saying regarding customer service - do a good job and the customer will tell 1 person. Do a bad job and they'll tell 10. Is it along the same lines here. Am I not reading posts regarding successfull/low side effect accounts of medication because those people don't need the support. People who aren't having any luck need the support.

I'm sorry if this question seems out of line. But I am wondering about it. If I hadn't been reading books or talking to docs about the meds I may have been really put off trying meds. Is the success rate on meds lower than what appears to be documented? Or on these forums are we mostly hearing from those 20 or 30% who have had no luck/meds don't work for/have bad side effects.

OR am I just a dope who only reads the negative stuff. I've always had a negative outlook (drives my wife nuts) and am I just not seeing the positive posts?

Hi goughy;

It's funny... initially I was wondering the same thing.

There is another board that I sometimes look at in which people discuss psychopharmacology and their experiences with different medications. There are alot of negative posts there too. My thinking is similar to yours - people who do well on medications are probably less likely to relay their experiences - those who have questions or difficulties or side effects will write about them. Try not to get discouraged.

By the way, how are things going with the Reboxetine? I am going to start taking it soon, and am interested in others' experiences with it. (Sorry if this is a repeat question from another thread :) )

I have found it great for my depression. At times I found I could be in a bottomless pit, but that has pretty much gone now. I have been on antidepressants before but nothing as effective as this. And I really havn't noticed any side effects. Unfortunately it dosen't seemed to have helped my focus at all. In fact I could say that my add tendencies are more pronounced now as I am more outgoing and less down on myself.

Just lucked out with that one. I'm starting ritalin tomorrow (I hope) but my doc wants me to keep up with reboxetine for now as he dosen't feel it's hurting at all. I was happy when he said that.

So it's approved for use in canada. Strattera is very expensive in Aus and is well out of my affordability range. Hence trying reboxetine.

Thanks for the words. I 'spose it wasn't so much that what I was reading was getting me down (probably would have once) but it might some other people. And there seemed to be a lot of it.

I will certainly be reporting anything I can with regards to myself. Fingers crossed it's good.

People are more likely to be verbal abour a problem than a solution.

Some of it also might be BS. I refer specifically to those posts that go along the lines of:

"after I started taking this, my skin got itchy and reddish, and then I would puke at random times. after a few months of this, one of my kidneys had to be removed and I spent a month in the hospital. I am still taking this drug and am in pain every day."

The first medication I took for add had some nasty side effects, ones that are not common. I stopped taking it after two days and talked to my doctor. This is how most true negative side effect stories go. Occasionally people will also experience side effects that don't show up immediately, but again, most intelligent people will discuss this with their doctor, and stop using the meds immediately if there are serious problems. When you see posts where a person claims to have continued using a drug after prolonged side effects, I'd tend to disbelieve it.


Posts which describe odd or uncommon side effects should be considered carefully for a different reason: rare side effects are rare. Duh. But what I mean is that I had very odd side effects to the first medication I was put on, but because these were not common side effects, I don't claim that many people will experience these effects, and I'm not mentioning the drug specifically because I don't want people to mistakenly assume that if they take it, they might get these bad side effects.

By the way, how are things going with the Reboxetine? I am going to start taking it soon, and am interested in others' experiences with it. (Sorry if this is a repeat question from another thread :) )Just caught your post in the other thread. Only took me most of a day :rolleyes:

I was hoping it might have helped more cause I can get it very cheap here. But to no avail. At least it didn't help with my add.

I have and will for the foreseeable future, avoid medications.

I have had ADD all my life and only found out about it when I was 25 (im 31 now). No one ever helped me with anything, I had zero support on anything from my family, parents, school teachers, health care professionals and truly believe that ive been let down by all of them and had a very lonely life on my own

But ive managed to get through, and thats without any medication, its simply been a case of getting on with life, trying to see the good in everything, doing a good turn rather than a bad one, and in a lot of situations, extreme resourcefulness

Sure id like to see the world as a 'normal' sees it, but ADD is now who I am. Id hate to change the person ive become, and I think ive done much much better and had far more life experiences than I would have had if id been 'cured' of my ADDness at an early age

Its too late for me now, I just have to accept my alternative perception of the world and acknowledge that im special and gifted, not retarded or disabled :)

Lord Henry saying to Dorian Gray: "when the music is beautiful not a soul seems to listen but when the music is bad everyone seems to notice". From a novel by Oscar Wilde; the picture of Dorian Gray.

Yes it's true :-)

I think that you see a lot of negative comments from people who have alterior motives. There are those that litterally spam forums like this, posting highly negative and questionable comments for reasons that elude me. You don't see this happening with positive comments - tho I'd like to spam some scientology forum - if such a thing existed - and post postitive comments about psychotropic meds. If course, they'd delete them immediately. Here, people are generally given the benefit of the doubt, for fear that we could be censoring legitimate free speach.
Meds are generally very helpful and have few serious side effects. Stimulant meds are safe and have been used for years - they are one of the safest medications around!

I think that everyone has off days and goes off on one now and again, especially those of us which have short attention spans (ie the whole of this forum lol) but ultimately I believe in the good in people and that people communicate with each other for a greater good and altruistic motives.

Ive been known to go to some sites and post devils advocates replies, but thats mainly sites occupied by small minded people who are too right wing with their views - such as bush supporters or christian fundamentalists. But thats pretty much the exception and they are fair game in my opinion.

Other than that, I post in order to enhance my life and try to help those that I come into contact with on a daily basis :)

The research is crystal clear that stimulants help in the treatment of ADHD; and have done so fo many years.

Partial non-compliance or a "passive-aggressive" approach to taking meds like I know that in order to get adhd medications in me as a child... was war. But now I realize the benefit to being slowed down... an excuse to "not have to take it" pacifies the unconscious desire to refuse it... other types of mental issues that people have such as bipolar disorders or Schizophrenics have similar issues with their medication... I was dx'd bipolar due to the way i responded to an SSRI type antidepressant and had a brief stint on a mood stabilizer and once i was actually able to stop falling asleep all day I definitely can understand why bipolars hate their medications so much... I may be on the right track about some of the negative posts...