I'm wondering if any of you experience a wave of sadness/depression at the end of the day as the medication wears off. I'm taking 27 mg of Concerta in the morning, around 6:30, and notice that after about 10-11 hours I felt so down. :( How many of you take a stimulant in the evening? Does this prevent the kind of crash I seem to be feeling? And does it then keep you awake at night?

Thanks.

I can't answer as I'm not on stimulants but I would be interested to know from anyone if stimulant medications taken in the evening do cause sleeplessness?

Stimulant rebound should not cause depression in normal circumstances. Are you withdrawing from caffeine right now? (i.e. drinking a lot of coffee/pop, then tapering/ceasing down after taking stimulants).

I can't answer as I'm not on stimulants but I would be interested to know from anyone if stimulant medications taken in the evening do cause sleeplessness?

Because of the stimulant is still in your system, or because of the ADD coming back?

Stimulant rebound should not cause depression in normal circumstances. Are you withdrawing from caffeine right now? (i.e. drinking a lot of coffee/pop, then tapering/ceasing down after taking stimulants).

I'm actually not withdrawing from caffeine. I drink tea all day and haven't changed my habits since starting Concerta. Should I be decreasing the caffeine? I do love my tea and milk! Sometimes I drink coffee, but not regularly. Maybe I was just feeling down yesterday for other reasons. I'll see if it's a pattern. I am being treated for major depression as well - had been in treatment for about a year before the psychiatrist and I realized that inattentiveness was a real problem separate from the depression, which has now greatly improved, for which I'm grateful.

I have a couple thoughts here for you mochakk:

I take (starting again if you've read my other posting) adderol twice a day, but don't take it after noon because then I cannot sleep. I had been taking 10mg at 8am and 10mg at noon, but I too was having a bit of a "crash" near the end of my day. I bumped up to 15mg at 8am and noon, and for whatever reason it keeps me going till the end of the day. I don't know if a slight increase is possible for you, but it may be something to discuss with your doctor.

My other advice is to keep a journal. I jot down what I take, when, and what I eat and drink each day. (Nothing major, just a line or two of writing per day). After awhile, you may see some surprising revelations. I had one about coffee. My journal trends showed me at my worst crashwise at night when I drank coffee, and thus I totally stopped. Glad I did too.

Good luck to you. Please stay the course and keep tweaking things until you find something that works, but don't give up. I quit meds I was so frustrated for awhile and I am glad I started again and used the journal to help.

Oddly enough, I can take Concerta (54 mg.) as late as 5 PM and still go to bed at a reasonable hour. I've found that I can't drink a certain energy powder mixed with water (it's called from Fatigued to Fabulous I think) after NOON or else I'm an amped nutcase until 2-3 AM.

Oddly enough, I can take Concerta (54 mg.) as late as 5 PM and still go to bed at a reasonable hour. I've found that I can't drink a certain energy powder mixed with water (it's called from Fatigued to Fabulous I think) after NOON or else I'm an amped nutcase until 2-3 AM.I don't think this is odd at all :) I myself sleep much better medicated because the meds stop my hyperactive brain from going full-tilt all night long.

I have a couple thoughts here for you mochakk:

I take (starting again if you've read my other posting) adderol twice a day, but don't take it after noon because then I cannot sleep. I had been taking 10mg at 8am and 10mg at noon, but I too was having a bit of a "crash" near the end of my day. I bumped up to 15mg at 8am and noon, and for whatever reason it keeps me going till the end of the day. I don't know if a slight increase is possible for you, but it may be something to discuss with your doctor.

My other advice is to keep a journal. I jot down what I take, when, and what I eat and drink each day. (Nothing major, just a line or two of writing per day). After awhile, you may see some surprising revelations. I had one about coffee. My journal trends showed me at my worst crashwise at night when I drank coffee, and thus I totally stopped. Glad I did too.

Good luck to you. Please stay the course and keep tweaking things until you find something that works, but don't give up. I quit meds I was so frustrated for awhile and I am glad I started again and used the journal to help.
Thanks for your encouragement! I haven't had as severe dips since I posted that note, but I think the journal is a good idea. I won't give up. I definitely notice that my concentration and overall sense of motivation have improved, and I'm grateful for that.

I'm wondering if any of you experience a wave of sadness/depression at the end of the day as the medication wears off. I'm taking 27 mg of Concerta in the morning, around 6:30, and notice that after about 10-11 hours I felt so down. :( How many of you take a stimulant in the evening? Does this prevent the kind of crash I seem to be feeling? And does it then keep you awake at night?

Thanks.
Not sure why I didn't reply to the original post initially.. but to answer, yes, I had that problem when I was taking 54 mg. Wow! When it wore off at night, I would briefly become depressed because of the rebound of ADHD symptoms coming back.

Know what fixed it for me? Going up to 72 mg. :o It seems to last all day and I can go to bed RIGHT when I feel the rebound coming on. I tried it yesterday for the first time and was very happy that I didn't have to deal with the rebound.

I don't think this is odd at all :) I myself sleep much better medicated because the meds stop my hyperactive brain from going full-tilt all night long.
I never thought of it that way. So true..!

vvyanase...switch to it and you'll feel better.

Funny that this thread has been revived. In the past 3 weeks I've increased to 36mg/day and my mood has been here, there, and everywhere...but I'm not sure if it's connected to the meds since a lot has been happening in my life. I'm intrigued about whether Vyanse might help in general - how is it for ADHD with comorbid depression? What a weird word comorbid is!

I went from concerta to vyyanse and now back to concerta. I became irratable on too high of a dose of vyyanase. Now I'm on concerta and I'm depressed. I am way more suseptable to depression on concerta. I crash and stay down worse than ever. I come out of it the next day. I do have a mood disorder, and concerta makes it worse.
Concerta has an odd release pattern. Ups and downs. On the possitve side my hands are not cold.
Have you been on anything other than concerta? I'm curious what ritalin xr is like.
Comorbid is a weird word indeed! Doctors probably use it because it sounds better than "along with". Crazy doctors...

I went from concerta to vyyanse and now back to concerta. I became irratable on too high of a dose of vyyanase. Now I'm on concerta and I'm depressed. I am way more suseptable to depression on concerta. I crash and stay down worse than ever. I come out of it the next day. I do have a mood disorder, and concerta makes it worse.
Concerta has an odd release pattern. Ups and downs. On the possitve side my hands are not cold.
Have you been on anything other than concerta? I'm curious what ritalin xr is like.
Comorbid is a weird word indeed! Doctors probably use it because it sounds better than "along with". Crazy doctors...
I saw my dr. today after the meltdown of the previous week. We're actually going to go back to the 27 of Concerta, but raise the dosage of fluoxetine (generic Prozac) to 60 mg/day. I started that today. We'll see how it goes. WHen you say that Concerta has an odd release pattern, what do you mean? I'd originally gone up to 36 because of the late afternoon crash of mood and energy, but it didn't seem to make a difference. My psychiatrist doesn't seem inclinded to do much jumping between medications, but I haven't been adament about changes either, mainly because I know relatively little about it. I did try Adderall at one point, and boy did that ever send my mood plummeting. Very dark. I didn't last more than a couple days on that before returning to Concerta. WHen I first began taking Concerta, my mood just soared for a couple of days. THat effect wore off but it must be helping my mood in some way.

Another favorite medical term: "contraindicated" :)

Oh man, I'm sorry that your going through this. I hope your new combo works out ok. I have been on both adderal and Vyyvanse and I find them different. I swear I'm not a drug rep pushing vyyvanse, but I hope you might be able to try it. $40 bucks for a co-pay though : (