Hey everyone:

I'm a new user here on ADDForums, but I've been following the Strattera forum with a lot of interest for quite some time now. I have a question for those of you who have used Straterra, since I'm very interested in this drug and am hoping that it'll be the right one for me.

Let me give a little background about myself, and then ask the question(s) I came here to ask.

I'm a 25 year old male, currently out of school, don't have a job, and am living at home with my parents. I started considering that I had ADD a few years ago, during my first year of medical school. You see, I'd always done well in school by pushing myself like crazy, neglecting all other aspects of my life (i.e., friendships, religious duties, even my basic self-care). But, no matter how much I pushed myself during medical school, I just couldn't keep up with everyone else, which was so frustrating because I knew that I was just as smart as anyone else.

So, I decided to take time off and try to get some help for this problem. I'm almost 99% certain that I have ADD-I, and I'm hoping that Strattera will be the right medicine for me.

Now, I've been searching a lot about this medicine. It seems to work for about 1/2 the people who use it, and even then, sometimes it "poops out" after a few months/years. I just wanted to hear from some of the people on this forum: what's been your experience with Strattera? Have you found that it has kept working for you, even for years?

As you can imagine, as a med student, I'm hoping to find a drug or combination of drugs that's going to solve my attentional issues from here on in.

Thanks in advance, guys.

I found stattera to be wicked evil stuff. Seriously, I have add but I'm perfectly sane otherwise and on stattera, let us just say, that was not me............kooky, kooky thoughts not my thoughts but some pharmaceutical company's inane potion of thoughts. But to be fair, you may not experience this and studies have shown not all drugs work or are effective in all people. I am a cheerleader for adderall. Adderall, makes me normal..

I'm going on eight months and still find it's working for me. I'm curious, but hesitant to try, going off of it for a month to see how I do. if it wasn't for having to titrate back up on it, I'd do it.

All the Best!

I don't want to discourage your medication search, and I hope Strattera works for you. But I agree, 100 percent, with blink. Strattera f****** with my brain. It forced me to think linearly (read: slowly); it made me verbalize in my mind every thought I had; it caused depression; and it altered - probably permanently - the neural pathways in my brain.

Adderall has worked better for me, though still not perfectly, of course.

I'm no medical expert, but from what I've read, the d- and l-amphetamine mixture in Adderall increase levels of both dopamine (linked to euphoria) and neuroephedrine (linked to attentiveness) in your central nervous system, but Strattera only raises the level of neuroephedrine.

I think stimulant medications generally work better for a higher percentage of the population, but when I was on Strattera I found it worked great for me. My oldest was on Adderall till it gave him tics; he's on Strattera now and doing fine. I think it varies a lot from one person to another.

I don't want to discourage your medication search, and I hope Strattera works for you. But I agree, 100 percent, with blink. Strattera f****** with my brain.

I found stattera to be wicked evil stuff. Seriously, I have add but I'm perfectly sane otherwise and on stattera, let us just say, that was not me............kooky, kooky thoughts not my thoughts but some pharmaceutical company's inane potion of thoughts.

I have to agree with Blink and Eminorsoul... at the time, I was prepared to believe it was going somewhere but the side effects kept increasing and I felt no benefits. I was just zoned out the entire time and had trouble controlling my less rational thoughts. But, as said by others, it could work for you, Dexedrine seems to be doing a lot more for me.

Good luck with finding the right meds for you!