He said it in so many words last night. :( We've been together for four years. I didn't start taking Concerta until last year. He notes that I used to be fun, carefree before the meds and now I'm angry, irritable, stubborn, and don't want to have sex anymore. And, it's true.

It is true that Paxil killed my sex drive, but I've been off that since March and it's come back a bit.

My boyfriend is the kind of person who is healthy in every way. Never had any type of medical problem. He also thinks that a medical issue isn't "real" if he can't physically see it, but he's come over more to my side.

I realized that I cry more, pick fights and am basically a terror sometimes.

Do you think it'd be a good idea to go on Wellbutrin (and dex, since they evidently work well together)?

On one hand, I NEED to do well at work and school, but on the other, my anger + disinterest in intimacy is ruining our relationship and I feel awful about it.

The best thing to do is talk to your doctor, Concerta made me irritable as well and dexedrine didn't. I hope that you discuss this with your doctor as opposed to listening to your boyfriend.

Crying, picking fights, a terror? I invite you to visit us in Co-Ex Bipolar...sounds a little familiar to me.

And of course, report ALL of the above to the doctor.

Crying, picking fights, a terror? I invite you to visit us in Co-Ex Bipolar...sounds a little familiar to me.

And of course, report ALL of the above to the doctor.

You really are psychic

I had the exact same situation, selby.

I felt that pills were a 'trade-off'. The more regularly I took my pills, the better my grades would be, but the more my relationship suffered. They absolutely killed any intimacy between me and my fiancee. I felt like a zombia 'acting' out the role of future husband.

She knew they helped me with school work, and would even encourage me when I was really disorganized, but still hated my attitude while I was on them.

I find that instead of taking concerta everyday, I'll take it when i have exams or have a full day of classes and I'll never take it on weekends unless im in an exam period. This way although sometimes I'm boring and irritable because of concerta, there are days that even it out so that it never becomes the norm.

Hey, I hope your doc is open to another med.

If you've had periods of "crying more, picking fights and basically being a terror sometimes" before in your life you may be bipolar as Crazyfeet suggests, but if this is the first time you've been like this in the four years your boyfriend and you have been together, I think it may very well be a side effect.

Have a good, long talk with your doctor - I'd bring the BF if I were you, so he can help shedding light on the matter and maybe learn a thing or two about you from your doc.

If your boyfriend is good to you, you need to be with him, and keep the relationship on track. And that means being happy and having sex sometimes. It seems that not many things can throw a man off like not having sex regularly. No amount of hugging or reassuring can help it in the long run. (Or am I alone with that experience?)

I think that should be a priority for your doctor to help you and your bf get things moving (but what do I know, I'm only another patient myself) as it will keep you more stable than most meds would be able to.

Have you tried out sophphoph's advice yet?
If not, I think it may very well be worth a try.
You should be able to recognize whether we're talking Concerta side effects or bipolar (or something else) fairly quickly.

Or at least it would in my logic. ;)

If you're having these irritability symptoms 100% of the time, I'd guess it's a dosing issue... but if it's an evening / when they're wearing off occurance... that's pretty normal.

I found that when my medication wore off in the evening, I felt like I was on sensory overload... I became really easy to anger, and really irritable... It was like, in the evening, I would just hit a brick wall. My husband started getting frustrated with me because when my meds wore off was right about the time he got home, so every evening he had to deal with me throwing a fit over the fact I was being asked to decide what to have for dinner or something else equally silly to be throwing a absolute hissy over.

If you're having evening meltdowns and they're really causing problems, you can bring that up with your doctor, and usually it's combatted by adding a lower dose short acting stimulant med in the evening to level you out a bit.

It might be your boyfriend's just seeing you at the worst possible point in the day and is making his judgement based on that. I'd say his observation is valid, but I wouldn't make any decisions to go off of meds based on his opinion alone.