hiya!

i am two weeks into taking 54mgs of concerta after a months trial on ritalin IR which bummed me out cos i had to keep topping up all the time - i suggested a longer lasting, less bumpy ride medication ie..concerta.

however, since taking it i have been really dissapointed - for example, i may take my dose around 9am then by 12 midday want to sleep!

get this, the other day after my dose i drank 3 cups of coffee and two red bulls then went to bed!!! that was around midday! WHATS WITH THAT??? :confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

i have a nap for about an hour and a half then up again - can feel the drug in my system cos my heart is pounding and really noticable when i lie down.

other than that, no major benefits and just the feeling of dissapointment cos i thought i mite have found the answer to my condition.

i think im going to go off it however wonder what other alternatives there are - i am in australia and cost is not a major issue if i can find a medication that doesnt make me feel like a pill popping freak.

:cool: also, i have got into a bad habit and not sure if im going too hard on the caffeine but since starting stimulants i really enjoyed the initial buzz id get in the morning so id find myself drinking a few coffees to keep it going - can too much caffeine cause problems? can this be interacting with my concerta or over stimulating my adrenal glad making me fatigued??

any feedback would be appreciated!!!!

reggi, How much Ritalin were you taking prior to the Concerta? I wonder if your dosage of Concerta is too high. Are you feeling 'drugged' ?

As for Coffee, it is a stimulant albeit a rudimentary one. I would actually remove it altogether to simplify your medication troubleshooting. I know that might sound difficult, but you need to be very careful with meds.

yeah it could be too high of a dosage , but all things considering I'm thinking that it sounds more like he's not getting enough, it's hard to tell and that's why I think ir meds are many times better suited. For example , I was having many of the same issues until I started adding more ir boosters at critical times and guess what, I didn't get zoned out actually my attention improved, so many times I don't think that most of us will get sedated at higher dosing, thats more indicative of a dose thats too small.

hey hey!

well i ended up taking 50 mgs of ritalin before switching....

i dont think the dose is too high..i just think that its not absorbing correctly or its just a dud.

i was on holidays with some friends and i was such a drag!!! i wanted to go back to bed a few hours after being awake and felt really zombie like and introverted....

i was thinking of asking for dex next to see how that goes???? i have read about other ppl topping up with IR drugs during their day on concerta but this to me sounds counterproductive...surely there must be a better solution ?????

and yes, the coffee intake is really naughty on my behalf but if anything i thought it would get the drug moving rather than nothing at all!!!!

thanks!!

I DEFINITELY felt extremely tired on Ritalin IR (40mg) as well as Concerta (36mg). Not immediately, but a few hours in. I could sleep literally anywhere! Did your psychiatrist titrate your dosage or did he just smack you on 54mg? I read that 36mg is a starting dose (even if you were on Methylphenidate IR before) and it has to be titrated upwards weekly. The dosage *could* be too low or too high.

I was initially started on 18mg which I promptly fell asleep with and didn't feel any other cognitive effects. After about 5 days I was titrated up to 36mg. Still fatigue, but less. What I found useful to combat the fatigue was stimulating my brain. Urmmmmm my 'stimulus' involved racing my cars, doing weird crazy stuff. But it worked. Whatever your 'stimulating' activity is. I found that if I was not "stimulated" (different to kept busy) I would become really fatigued. The fatigue lasted close to 4 weeks (if I didn't stimulate my brain) I've been on Concerta for 7 weeks now, and it's been OK, no more nasty fatigue states. I wouldn't say it helps with everything but it helps with the H in the ADD.

Yeah I too have been wondering about the "top ups"... Concerta lasts 8 hours MAX for me, and because I start work at 6am and finish at 5pm, I become a complete fool at around 2pm. I have been thinking of taking another Concerta at noon. I guess we can't really help the rate at which the medication is absorbed in our system hey?

Probably would be worth staying on the Concerta for another week or 2, as you really want to give it a shot. Unfortunately we don't have many drug choices in Australia, so you'd really want to give it the benefit of the doubt before moving on to another medication.

Another thing that is apparently new (well in the Western Australian psych circle) is mixing the stimulants. At the moment my psychiatrist has been getting me to combine dex IR with my Concerta, but I get very bad withdrawal irritability at the end of the dex dosage.