What I hope to do in this thread is to log my progress adjusting to strattera. Perhaps it could help someone else who is starting it. Perhaps it could help me as well as I am still experiencing sort of a roller coaster of side effects and benefits. Part of the reason (I think) it seems discouraging to me was the response I got from my PCP (primary care physician) when asking for ADD meds. I told him about the reason I'm seeking treatment now( at age 27) is that I'm going back to college and the degree I seek (pharmD) is not possible with my Add complications. To that he responded about how he didn't do well in school either but later he went back to college and "tried harder". At least he gave me a shot with the strattera. Anyways on with the diary or whatever...

Days 1 and 2 (40mg/day)
I was tired all day. On day one I went home for lunch and took a nap. Took another after getting home from work and fell asleep at 11:00 like a rock. Day 2 napping wasnt an option and I felt horrible pretty much all day.

Day 3 (40)
I felt "different" all morning. Had a runny nose. The strattera seemed to be wearing off around noon though. Its a particularly unconfortable feeling.

Day 5 and 6 were about the same as day three so I stopped the 40mg pill early and started the 60mg sample bottle on day 7

Day 7(60mg)
Tired all day again. I hate being tired all day.

Day 8 (60)
Tired all day. Runny nose. Dry mouth. All around crummy day.

Day 9 (60)
Felt decent all morning with some improvement in focus. Distractability was lessened a noticable amount. This all ended around noon when it felt like the meds were wearing off again.

Day 10 (60)
Today is the first day without a bad side effect. It didnt feel like it was wearing off at noon either. I still feel odd. I don't know how to put this odd feeling into words really. I barely drank any coffee today (typically I drink 3-5 cups to fight off my inattentive ADD). The runny nose is gone too but it was replaced with dry mouth all morning. I'm not getting bored as fast as I usually do either. I also noticed more focus during exercise. Typically I lose focus during the most technical lifts but was able to focus on my squatting much more than normal.

The doc put me on 10mg/day for now. I took my first pill today, I haven't felt anything at all.

10mg or 100mg?
You must be a really slim person to take so little:p


day 11 (60)
Felt normal (or my typical ADD if you will). Then I tried to study and was unable to remember anything. Even things I could normally remember through repetition wouldnt stick. I know I took the pill in the morning.

day 12 (80mg)
Ok, I'm done with the sample bottles the doc gave me. I had the prescription filled and I wanna find out if this stuff will work for me already. The prescription was for 80mg/day so i started it today. I'm going to feel tired all day anyways as my 10month old daughter got me up at 3:00 am. I dont usuall wake up till just now and I'm already at work. Oh well....

At one point I was on 70mg a day. I did find it did make me a little sleepier, but I don't remember..

My problem is that if you fall off the Strattera wagon, you're right back at square 1. I should get back on it again. Ugh, but that requires food in my stomach something that's hard to do at 5 am!

It's good to hear that after 9 or 10 days you stopped feeling most of the side effects. I am on day 5 and I find if I don't drink water pretty much non-stop and eat crackers I will feel 1. Edgy, and 2. Nauseous.

But as long as I do these two things I feel pretty ok. I am only on 25 mgs but I don't think there has been any noticeable difference yet in my life. However, I did notice that every now and then I zone out. It's not like daydreaming OR focusing. I just feel very calm and at peace so I just sit there and stare at stuff. Can't figure out if that is good or bad. Probably bad if this becomes a regular occurence. After all, the whole point of me taking this stuff is so I can focus. I am hoping that my body adjusting to this medication and the higher dosage will resolve some of these issues. I'm going to watch your posts.

Well its somewhere during week 3 now.
I've had a lot going on these last few days.
The prescription for 1 month of 80 cost me 60$ (dunno if my insurance paid part of it or not?).
I got food poisoning on monday morning from the mcdonalds I ate sunday morning. I think the pill absorbed before I threw up cause I didn't feel sleepy the next day after taking the strattera. Right now I'm super stressed out and angry. Not at any one thing in particular. It's just about several things happening all at once and not having any communication outlet (my wife is out of town visiting family). Ugh... the calmest i've felt all morning is while writing this post. I've definatly got an increased ability to focus but right now there are so many negative things going on (that I used to be able to ignore) and I just can't help but think about them. I'll definatly have to bring that up with my doc next week.

On the downside I have not noticed any memory improvement like when I took ritalin during high school (only for 1 month. the thought of somthing being wrong with me was disturbing. So I resisted treatment until my parents gave in. Definatly regretting that now...). Still its only week 3.

Had what I think was a panic attack yesterday. I was totally worn out afterwards. That'll be the last day I take strattera. Guess it just isn't for me. Also had a terrible time trying to go to sleep, and felt kinda tweaked all day like I had drank 2 pots of coffee.
Well, I guess this is the end of this log...

Oh and by the way anxiety is very unlike me. Typically I can laugh things off that would bother my wife for days. I've never experienced anything that felt like what happened yesterday.:confused:

Day 2 of being off now. Wow, my focus has gone from a moderate improvement to being almost nonexistant. Perhaps my dose was too high? If others are using as little as 10mg a day that could be possible. I hadn't noticed teh constipation until yesterday(too busy paying attention to how well I perceived the meds working). Had to start up a regimen of Colase:p. I've been irritated all day too. I just wanted to scream in my car on the way to work but then when I did it seemed that screaming was irritating too so I stopped.
But hey, don't let me scare anyone away from treatment (thats not what I'm trying to do). Just gotta keep on truckin'....

It really is a **** drug isn't it. Its not the minority of people that take it that see how crap it is its the vast majority. Only the rare few seem to react well to this drug. I suppose you can't know until you try it yourself but I don't know why the doctors want to waste a few weeks of our lives playing around with this useless bull**** when the other drugs out there work instantly and don't even have a fraction of the side effects. The only reason they started marketing this poison is because drugs like Ritalin can cause euphoria.

The side effects of strattera are drowsiness, depression, loss of motivation, decreased motor skills, loss of memory, dry mouth, migraines, liver damage, and lots more but as long as it doesn't cause euphoria its alright. The thought of a medication causing someone to feel good is frightening.

my doctor put me on 75 mg/day which seems high but the worst of the side effects went away after the first two weeks. after that i was still left with drowsiness everyday and lost of interest among the other side effects present wth most ADD/ADHD medications. after an entire month of only negative results, I stopped taking it