I was thinking, since this is all new to me. Medication might help in the problem areas, such as memory and attention, but will it take away those parts of my personality that I like? I knew a kid once who was put on Ritalin and his whole personality disappeared...yes, he was calm, relaxed, attentive....but DULL. The person I knew him to be wasn't awake.

Please advise.

Thanks,
Barbara

I experienced the same thing with Ritalin, and was the reason I switched to Strattera.

After researching ritalin for the last few years, the "dulling of the personality" is a recent but rarely-documented side effect of ritalin. I have not experienced the same dulling on Strattera :)

My daughter is on adderall.. it has not changed her, or dulled her. Just helps her to focus on the work she needs to be doing. When she is on it, I do not like being around her. Not because it controls her when she is, but because she switches moods and things she is doing at a faster rate when she isn't. Without thought or care of what happens or who might get hurt, etc. Trying to get her chores without it is a waste of time. Which is why I can't understand sometimes the doctors wish to keep her off it all summer.

Mary

I insist my daughter takes Adderal all summer. I agree that it does not negatively change her personality. In fact, I believe the Adderal allows more of her personality to express itself more fully.

I hold the belief that we are talking about the total development of a person, not just good school grades or good school behavior. We are talking about a person who can pay attention to who she is, who other people are, what needs to get done in a day, how to organize her bedroom, how to pitch in and be part of the family, how to make and be a friend, how to pay attention to a hobby, how to be better at a sport. All of these things improve when a child is able to concentrate and suffers less symptoms.

We love her either way. But there is a stark contrast between our daughter not on her medication, being lazy, watching tv and not doing anything constructive at all, and when she is on medication, doing what needs to get done, thinking, planning, growing, developing. Don't misunderstand, on the medicine she is willing to watch tv all day too, and is willing to do no chores too, and is willing to be totally unconstructive as well. She is a normal kid!

But if I ask her to do something, or suggest she get something done, coach her and encourage her, she responds very well. I don't see this as a school treatment. I see it as something a person takes to make their whole life go better. So why would I encourage my daughter to have less of that benefit just because school's out? She also takes it on weekends.

Being ADD myself, and knowing how different I am with or without medicine, in terms of my effectiveness in day to day living, I don't take summers off or weekends off for myself either. I have more fun and enjoy life better, whether on vacation or at home, when I do take my medicine than when I don't.

I used to take Adderal with Welbutrin, and now take Stratera with Welbutrin. I think my personality did change some with treatment; how could it not change with an increase in ability to pay attention. However, the basic me, the essence of who I am, is not different. I'm just able to express myself and be myself better when I have my treatment, whether Adderal, Welbutrin, or Straterra.

I did not take ritlin enough to comment on it, as far as dulling the personality. However, the drugs I have taken have not had that effect on me.

Jon

Great information, thanks. Please keep it coming!

Barbara,

If you do choose to take medication to help manage your own AD/HD the that should be something to watch for. Maybe also have those around you let you know if it's changed your personality for the better or for the worse. Everybody does react differently to each medication.

Well, I'm pretty far from taking medication at this point as I"m only just at the beginning of the diagnostic process. The only person I interact with on a regular basis is my daughter, so I hope I"m able to gauge how I'm doing on meds by my own assessment, and I just don't want any of this to affect my daughter negatively. Thanks so much!

Boy, things rarely turn out as you plan.....isn't that a fact!

No they don't but if they did life would be boring...lol

Barbara,

I found for me there is a tendency to get a little "snappy" or "irritable" on the Adderal, the Ritllin, and when the dose was too high on the Welbutrin. I have not had that reaction to the Straterra. I also found the long acting version of Adderal decreased my tendency to get that irritability, but I still got it sometimes. That is one of the negative side effects I think. However, the positive side effects of being able to function much better, all in all, had a much more positive impact on my children than the negative impact of my being grouchy sometimes. The Straterra has had the positive benefits of being able to function and think very clearly, while not having the negative effect of being a grump. The only negative effect I have had on the Straterra has been urine retention, which apparently effects 8% of subjects in the clinical trials. I have partially solved that by reducing the Welbutrin, which also can have the same effect. Otherwise, I have not had any negative side effects on Straterra. My mood is quite acceptable and very consistent on Straterra. As for loss of personality, as soon as I started taking Straterra, my friends said to me "Your Back!" because they could recognize the real me.

Jon

Thanks, I will continue to research it. I could actually use a little urinary retention:)

I think it's safe to assume that medication will change your personality. As much as we like to pretend otherwise (we like to pretend that there is some eternal, unchanging "us" underneath it all), the question of whether something is a symptom or an aspect of our personality is far, far from clear cut. For instance, I am easily distractable (duh :) so sometimes that makes me appear hyper-creative and as though my mind moves blindingly fast -- when in reality I can't stay focused on one task long enough to follow through with it. Instead of one or two "real" thoughts (fully developed, with follow-through), I have a dozen "mini-thoughts" (brief flashes of inspiration or interest, with no real potential for development). If the appearance of hyper-creativity was the most important thing to me, I wouldn't want to eliminate this "symptom" -- in fact, I'd be very resistant to labeling it a symptom at all! I would just say that it's an aspect of my personality. But the truth is that drugs would change this -- whether it's a symptom or a facet of personality is up for debate, but is ultimately academic. The real question is whether you like the "you" that you are while on meds more or less than you like the "you" that you are off the meds.