Hi everyone, i was just reading the post on DEX intolerance "2+ Years on Dex". And being a newly diagnosed, newly medicated ADDer at 42,i am keen to "get it right" with my medication. I am switching from Ritalin to Dex, tomorrow, for my second drug trial, my point is this........

How do we know what we are meant to be feeling????

Having spent 42 years living in various states of fog, stimulants are a revelation. BUT a few things occurred to me after reading the Dex post....

1. how easy it would be for me to take more than i should.
im not sure that im really talking about addiction here, please anyone correct me if im wrong, but now that i know what it is to be awake, i want to stay like this for as long as i can each day, mind you i am still sleeping fine.

2. the other thing that is becoming blindingly obvious, is the lack of information given to us by our prescribing doctors. I really like my pdoc, he is listening to me and happy for me to "steer" myself through treatment, while he sits beside me in the bus, so to speak, (i like metaphors). BUT, adult ADD being so controversial in Australia he only has a few adult patients. I dont think we can inform ourselves enough, with the risk of really ***ing of some doctors who dont have the same "listening and learning" attitude, (there seems to be alot of those around), i think we need to be ACTIVE NOT PASSIVE in our treatment.

i remember some years back when i was trying to be diagnosed , a pdoc in a public mental heath facility was trying to push anti-depressants on me. Me being me, after reading up on this drug, i was worried about any potential side effects. The doc simply shrugged off my concerns as being irrelevent.....I turned to him and said,
"So have you ever taken these yourself???"
He seemed shocked by my question, like wow "she has a point" needless to say i didnt go back to him.

As i see it all we have is each other for the FULL STORY, of course meds are different for each of us, and we really have to try each one to know whether they will work for us, but i am finding it tricky trying to work out WHAT WORKING AND NOT WORKING IS.........


peace and questions :)

RABBIT

hey Rabbit,

What a question! I would say based on your post, that the medicine is clearly working very well for you--you call it a "revelation." Well, that's a great sign! ... And you're having no trouble sleeping, so the side effects are OK. Well, that generally suggests that your dose is NOT too high.

You will know your dose is too high because you will run back to the doctor's office and say, "Doctor, I'm miserable. Please lower my dosage." Seriously, that's as good an indicator as any. Basically, it's a trial-and-error thing. Frankly, I myself figured out that I had adhd after I asked a doctor to increase my anti-depressant medicine, wellbutrin. I was going through a period of high stress, and I asked him about increasing the dosage. Well, once I got the increase, I was shocked about how quiet and focused my mind was.

I could not believe it! ... I was like, "you mean, other people walk around life feeling like this?" ... So that set effect set me off to researching, and of course I found out that wellbutrin is the one anti-depressant that sometimes helps with adhd. From there, I sought an official diagnosis.

By the time I got an official diagnosis, the higher dosage of wellbutrin wasn't working as well as it had for the first 6 weeks or so. (By the way, this could happen to you. I don't know exactly how long you've been on the medicine, but your body may adjust and the medicine may become less effective. Just monitor this.)

Now my trial and error involves trying to find a stimulant that works well with my wellbutrin (which is excellent for my depression). My goal is to find the stimulant that will get to that astonishing clarity I felt during those first six weeks of the higher wellbutrin. I'm on adderall currently, XR 30mg. It has NOT been a revelation for me, and I don't have the clarity of the early Wellbutrin. But it has definitely quieted my mind and allowed me to concentrate better on SOME things. It has also definitely made sleeping harder. I find it hard to get into bed before 3 a.m. or so now.

So how will I know this is the right drug for me? ... The answer is: I can't know that this is the best drug for me until I try other drugs. I'll probably try Concerta or Vyvanse and see how they work. And once I try those, I will have to play around with the dosages until I find the "sweet spot" of maximum effectiveness and minimum side effects.

So this will be an on-going process. One way people try to determine if they are on the right dose is they ask to go down on the dose for a few days or conversely go up on it. Literally, people have to try various dosages before they decide which one is best.

By the way, there is still willpower involved in all of this. Different drugs make different tasks easier. But few drugs work magic and so there will usually be some aspect of our lives where we will have to rely on practice and therapy and willpower, etc.

Good luck!

i have been on Ritalin for 4 weeks, slow release, started slow, but it became obvious i needed a 3rd dose in the afternoon. Now i am finding i need a fourth, as i am a 14 hour a day worker (self employed). SO even though i an prescribed 60mg, i end up taking 70 0r 80mg, and still topping up with caffeine and chocolate as well.

Before diagnosis i was a 12 cup of coffee a day drinker. Before medication i could barely function before 11am, and my productivity was spasmodic, but its only now i know HOW slow my brain was. Also, i have had an added "spanner" thrown in during the Ritalin trial of a relationship ending, (for the best, but bad timing), which may be why i have been experiencing panic, and high anxiety, that i didnt during the first 2 weeks of Ritalin. But hard to say.

My pdoc wanted to trial me on Strattera next, but i have convinced him to let me try DEX next, after hearing some have "smoother" results, im thinking i should try all the faster acting drugs first, before tackling the slow to build up Stattera.

Actually to be honest, i dont really mind the high anxiety, its way better than being asleep in a fog. Im just not sure if this is what i am aiming for as far as the best result goes, and im not sure whether its particularly
good for my body after reading that dex post. But as you say i need some comparisons, im probably being impatient too, after waiting 42 years im kind of in a rush to get on with things.....thanks for your reply:)

peace

Rabbit