Medication and side effects

[craigs]

So I was diagnosed with ADD/ADHD at the age of 40.  Didn’t do anything about it until my eldest daughter was diagnosed as well and was put on medication.  The change was amazing.  I’ve tried dexadrine and concerta of varying doses over the past 9 months.  While I find my focus and my ability to retain information in the short term to be greatly improved, I’ve found that the meds exacerbate my fidgiting.  I didn’t realize I was a fidgiter until I started the meds.  What appears to be a manageable habit of mouth fidgiting is magnified by the meds to the point where my tongue and mouth become raw after 4 or 5 days of taking the meds.  I tried giving myself weekend medication vacations which help my mouth heal but not much else.  I then tried taking my meds on alterate days which helps a bit, but I’m still ending up on Friday with a sore mouth. 

Has anyone else had this experience?  If so what did you do?

REPORT ABUSE

[Patte Rosebank]

@Craigsobering, this is definitely something to discuss with your doctor.

Meds are never one-size-fits-all, and it takes a lot of medically-supervised trial-and-error to find what the med(s) and dose(s) for each person. Even when you’ve found the right combination, things can change over time, so your doctor should still be monitoring your situation on an ongoing basis.

All meds carry some risk of side effects. You and your doctor need to decide if the potential benefits of a med outweigh the potential (or actual) side effects.

In your case, it sounds like the side effects are enough of a problem that your current med &/or dose need to be re-evaluated by you and your doctor.

Are you keeping a journal of your med/dose and effects (good & bad) and any other factors that could have affected you that day? This is the only way for you and your doctor to track things on a daily basis. Take your journal with you to your doctor’s appointments, and discuss it.

Your treatment is a partnership, so if something doesn’t feel right, let your “partners” know!

 

 

REPORT ABUSE

[craigs]

Yes, you are right – I need to just schedule an appointment and discuss it.  Its certainly not right to keep on this way.

REPORT ABUSE

[ridiculoushit]

I have tried a number of different medications and they all caused me to bite my lower lip, Adderall being the biggest instigator. Like you, I would gnaw away at it until it was raw. I didn’t realize I even had the gnawing habit until my bottom lip suddenly turned up raw and painful. Without even knowing it was a listed side-effect, I immediately blamed the pills.

After 5-years I was taken off all medication for six months due to a heart attack. Thankfully, the doctors gave me the “all clear” to start them again and I have been slowly increasing my dose of Adderall over the past 7-weeks.

On my second day, within a few hours of popping my morning pill, I sunk my teeth into my bottom lip. This time, however, things were different. First, because I was expecting certain side-effects, I was immediately aware of the action the second I made that first chomp. Second, I was able to recognize the physical comfort that action gave me, something I had missed the first time around.

Conscious of not only the effect, but the reason for doing it, I was able, over the course of a few days, to suppress it considerably. I continued to stop the action the millisecond I became aware of it over the following few weeks.

As a result of being vigilant, I haven’t bit my lip for weeks and wasn’t even aware that I had overcome it until reading your post suddenly caused me to slip my teeth around it once more. LOL

It is a comforting habit. Just because I was able to overcome it, it doesn’t mean you can as we all react to these things differently. My experience, however, shows you that getting your lip down to its normal size again is possible.

REPORT ABUSE

[Patte Rosebank]

@Ridiculoushit, we ADDers tend to have a lot of dental problems anyway.  Jaw-clenching, teeth-grinding, chipped teeth, root canals, dental implants…

I swear, if my dentist and my oral surgeon gave Air Miles, I’d have been to Australia at least twice!

REPORT ABUSE

[blackdog]

Hi @leroyanderson, welcome to the forums. 🙂

You will find a ton of good info here. And everyone is pretty nice all the time.

You are right of course, we should try to keep the amount of medication we use down as much as possible. And if the side effects outweigh the benefits, then it’s not healthy to continue taking medication.

Reading the above posts, this one gave me a chuckle:

“As a result of being vigilant, I haven’t bit my lip for weeks and wasn’t even aware that I had overcome it until reading your post suddenly caused me to slip my teeth around it once more. LOL”

When I first started taking Vyvanse I was sucking and chewing on my lower lip a lot. I haven’t done it for  awhile now, until I read the first post. And sure enough, out came the teeth and in went the lip. The power of suggestion.

I think whether or not you have this side effect, and how severe it is, depends a lot on whether you are a person who normally gets tics or not. Which is why I was surprised when the psychiatrist chose Vyvanse for me because when I filled out his questionnaire I clearly stated that I have always had nervous tics. When I was a kid I had permanent indentations in my lips from sinking my teeth into them and the insides of my cheeks were often raw from gnawing on them. I also chewed on my fingers, had facial tics and a twitch in my neck, pulled my hair out, scratched and picked at my skin……

So I was a little worried about taking the Vyvanse. But so far, it hasn’t been that bad. I am aware when I am chewing on my lip and usually able to stop, or at least do it more gently. When it was really bad I found that just lightly touching my fingers to my lip and tapping/rubbing/pinching it a little helped to calm it down

 

 

 

REPORT ABUSE

[helenboll]

Oh wow, I’ve always done that lip- and inside of mouth-chewing thing! Also I use my nails and teeth to go after my poor tongue. Wonder why that is so comforting? It never feels worth it when the pain comes afterwards. But then again, instant rewards are the only rewards worth having. 🙂

REPORT ABUSE

[Author]

Posts