Sorry about the double post.


I'm completely new to this whole ADD society and don't know much at all so please bare with me on these probably ignorant questions. I have many to all of the symptoms and my whole life would make sense if i was diagnosed a sufferer. I am going to talk to my doctor to look into it but I have had one worry that was brought up again after looking at all the negative side effects on the medication page.

After seeing all the side effects people have on the meds board, it seems to me that when u start treatment your just exchanging bad add syptoms for equally bad side effects (depression,no alcohol,mental fog, low or no sex drive,etc.). Not to mention the expressed side effects. Is that essentially true? Also, is there some sort of dependency to the meds? Will it change me forever? even i stop taking them. I'm scared it might lower the add syptoms slightly when im on but raise them considerably when im off.

All of that makes me think im better off dealing with the add myself and keeping my otherwise normal life than to take on all those added problems and still have to be in constant fear of increased symptoms reoccuring.

Are there cases where medication is perscribed and the patient goes on to live a normal life with little to no side effects? Is this very rare?

I have always felt something was off in my life. Since childhood i was never able to live up to my potential i knew i had. I would love something to change that all forever. Please help with anything you can. Thank u very much for your time.

I kinda of look at it like you'll hear way more about the few with bad experiences than the many with good. it's true if you are on a board like this or on one about trucks or whatever.

talk to a doc...if you are diagnosed, try some solutions til you are satisfied with the results. for some it takes months even to get treatment going in the right direction, but some are lucky (like me) and get it pretty close first shot.

fear is related to the unknown. you've started down the path...keep going and good luck.

I have the same take as secularist, people (myself included) tend to hit the med boards more to complain about things going wrong than celebrate the positives. I think you're generally right, though: fundamentally meds just change one set of sympoms/positives for another. But usually it's a trade up. After all, there's dozens of drugs and countless individual responses to them, so usually some combination in there's a winner.

When I was first seeing a counselor I was really hesitant about treatment myself. Even after diagnosis I wasn't sure if medication was the way to go. But now, three years and four drugs later, I'm so glad I did. (Only one of those four was a bad experience overall.) Definitely bring it up with your doctor if you're concerned, but medication can be so helpful it'd be a shame not to try.

Are there cases where medication is perscribed and the patient goes on to live a normal life with little to no side effects?
Well, there's me, I guess. On the other hand, like Traveler, the first med I tried didn't work very well, but I recognized that it made me feel unpleasant and stopped the second day. It wasn't a first-line medication anyways (Wellbutrin), and I was only placed on it because I was in college at the time and the dumb**** doc didn't want to give stimulants to college students. When I finally saw a doc with half a brain, he put me on Adderall, and it completely changed my life for the better.

Now, not everyone has a great experience. Some people have certain health conditions, like heart defects or extremely high blood pressure, that might prevent them from taking stimulant medication. Others just have a bad reaction. The good news is that the instant release versions of these medications take effect fairly quickly (within an hour, usually), and they're usually out of your system within 6 hours, maybe 8 at the most in an odd case. This means that if it's going to have bad effects, you'll probably notice them quickly, and it'll be out of your system fairly quickly as well. With the exception of Strattera, these aren't like anti-depressants where you take them for a week before they start to have an effect.

Also, most good doctors will start you out on a very low dose, just to make sure that there are no serious problems. For instance, when I started taking Adderall, my doc had me break a 10mg pill in half, and take 5mg at a time, which is an incredibly small dose. He had me do that for a few days, just to make sure that it wouldn't cause any serious problems or side effects. When it did not, I moved up to 10mg, taken twice a day. I took it like this for a year, and eventually moved it up to 15mg when I felt that I was still having a little bit of difficulty in getting started with some tasks. I still take it at that dose (although in XR form...a 30mg AdderallXR is the equivalent of taking a 15mg dose, followed by another 15mg dose a few hours later, when the time-release part of the pill dissolves).

Talk to your doctor about it. He can tell you about the different medication options, and what the side effects are and how long they last in your system. He can also answer any questions you might have. Also, if he does prescribe medication, he should also schedule another appointment in a week or two to see how you're doing. If he is a good doctor, he will also be available by phone if you have any serious concerns. One time my doctor accidentally wrote out a prescription for 20mg pills instead of 20mg per day. Fortunately, different strength pills are different colors, so I noticed immediately and called his office to ask if he wanted me to take that dose or to split them in half. It was after office hours, so I got his answering service, but he called me back within 15 minutes.

Secularist is also right that you hear a lot of the negative. This is because after a while, the posts along the lines of "oh my g_d, I know where my car keys are!!!" tend to get repetitious and boring. But trust me, there are a lot of success stories. There are also mounds of scientific evidence showing medication not only to be effective, but to be more effective than any other method of treatment. Scientific evidence is the best, because it's not one person's subjective account, but objective observation designed to withstand the highest scrutiny.

As for side effects, it really depends. If they really bother you, stop taking the medication. I really do not understand posts along the lines of "I've been taking Ritalin for the past 6 months. First it made all my hair fall out, then I started puking blood...then two weeks ago I started speaking in Swahili even though I've never heard that language before...do you think I should stop taking it?" #%^@$*@^#! yes, what do you think? :)

For me, the side effects are that it increases my sex drive (not necessarily a good thing, but not a horrible effect), and it causes a little bit of jaw tension and grinding my teeth, but a pack of chewing gum solves that one very easily. It also increases my metabolism, although I think that training in a full-contact combat sport with internationally acclaimed trainers may be the bigger cause of those issues. Adderall also had a powerful decongestant effect for me, which was very welcome with my sinus problems.

I haven't had any bad side effects...well, the ritalin was yuk for a day or 2, but now I am fine :-)

You won't lose *you*...you will be the same, just a bit more relaxed and not in a constant attempt to get it together..it falls into place easier, but not perfectly..

good luck, make that appointment :-)

Thank you all very much for your input. Maybe there should be a success story board here for people like me who were unsure if all the trouble was worth it. Any more stories out there?

P.s.im making the appointment tomorrow morning.