Not loving it, looking for suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Hey, has it been 2 days already?! Where did those hours go?! Peggy Hill is my hero! I live in a town in in midwest that has a population smaller than an apartment building in a city, that show makes perfect sense to me! I live in town, and one neighbor has horses, the other races lawnmowers. Life can be so strange.

I have been hearing more and more that the hoarding can be due to his sobriety/depression/ anxiety combo, and while my head understands, and my heart aches to be able to help him, I also feel like inflicting serious bodily harm! We are so very WRONG for each other, that I’m actually chuckling thinking about it! But I love him beyond reason, have since the very second I laid eyes on him, so we endure the extra work involved with trying to get our relationship back on track. He fails to see how going to auctions/ estate sales/ the dump and bringing 12 boxes of miscellaneous crap into my house and scattering it around could cause anxiety and stress for me, or throw me off my plan. I CAN’T BE THROWN OFF MY PLAN! Usually I am very easy going and if things change, I’m the first to be excited about a new adventure, but with the meds, I get angry, frustrated, hurt, and unbalanced. Plus it’s not like I don’t have enough to keep me busy, without having to deal with all the extras he brings home. But it is good to have more information, and I will keep looking myself too. And because of the recommendation of some great friends, we’ve started going through The ADHD Effect on Marriage book and website. If anyone hasn’t checked it out, please do! In 12 years together we’ve not managed as effective, calm, & positive communications as in the first bits that we’ve tried with this help. Seriously astounding, can’t recommend it enough!

I as an artist, do like to find my share of “treasures,” but I’m able to not keep everything. If I have a number of projects waiting for start or finish, it doesn’t bother me to leave a new one at the store. I don’t like feeling overwhelmed, and my studio is only so big, if it gets piled up with stuff I find myself too distracted to accomplish anything at all. One important lesson I’ve learned about myself over the years. I have yet to meet a medium that I don’t enjoy! ADHD much?! My favorites would be acrylics and oils, graphite drawing, sculpting, pottery, weaving/ jewelry, and refinishing furniture. I have thought about going back to college for graphic design, but I tense up and quit breathing when I even think about going back, so I’m not pushing myself! I excelled in high school, as far as grades went, but that was only because hiding in a book was more comfortable than facing the other kids!

I did try college for awhile, dropped out before I was kicked out or OD’d. Thank God! That’s when I realized just how different I really was, and I didn’t take it well. I had kept hoping and praying that the nightmare was over, now that high school was.Wrong again! It was in fact a very wonderful and patient man, who loved me way more than I was capable of loving him (at the time anyway) to sit me down and patiently make his points clear. I thought that since I reacted differently than my friends to all the drugs and alcohol, I must not be taking enough. Or in the right combinations. Jeez, the stupidity. He was scared for me, and made it known, and helped me save my life, which I have thanked him for since. Props to you Allan for remembering to apologize and wish your ex well! It’s an uncomfortable thing to do, I know. After that, I looked back at my family, their own issues with alcohol and hard drugs, and its not been hard to stay away since. I did however smoke pot until about a yr ago, it was the only way I could find to eat and sleep and endure being touched.

While I have Plenty of nightmare stories from the distant past I have tried really hard not to become crying, puking, fighting, crazy, drunk, and high on goodness knows what for over 10 years, with success! (pat on my back) I would say that I have never been so crazy as to drive mountain roads at high speed with no lights! Glad you made it out alive!!! Also I have yet to see the humor in my past (and present, apparently) behaviors. Maybe someday I’ll be able to laugh about all of this madness.

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[Langstrump]

Sorry if I’m out of topic now, I din’t read all the replys.

I had pretty bad downs with concerta as well. Was SOOOOOOO irritable in the evening! Than, my doc prescribed me some 10 mg regular Ritalin for an extra boost, when the concerta stops working. It helped a lot. Most of the time I take one at 16h, than I’m in a better mood for the evening.

About 6 months ago my doc made me try Vyvance and for me the effects are the same as concerta except for the downs. They are a lot smoother without, radical drops. I still take some rialin for the logner days but I don’t need it often now. Maybe you can ask your doc about Vyvance (sounds like an ad )

Good luck

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[Anonymous]

Langstrump,

What do you mean, off topic? Is that a real thing?! Saw Dr. yesterday, she lowered Concerta & increased anti anxiety and mood stabilizers. I guess we’ll see, so far spending the day in that new med stoned state, so I’ll keep updating as I go.

On the up side, my family is now starting to see why I am frustrated with Dr. and feel like she just doesn’t want to be bothered learning about any other meds. She actually asked me what I wanted for meds and doses yesterday! I almost wish I was a drug seeker, because now I know the perfect person to go to! So I told her that’s her job, not mine, but that I can’t keep feeling this way where positives don’t outweigh negatives. I’m willing to try this for a bit, if no improvements, next will be new Dr. and I will ask them about Vyvance, (she said she didn’t know much about it, so was unsure if she would try it at all) Unbelievable. Thanks so much though! Here’s hoping for the future.

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[Anonymous]

Not that I have any business prescribing medication, but after a lot of trial and error, the best combination of medication with concerta was something called Remeron (mirtazapine). I had bouts with the jitters something awful while I was on concerta and Wellbutrin. Tried the switch to Remeron from Wellbutrin and it was a minor miracle. It’s and anti-depressant also used for OCD. It helped me stop ruminating about all of the worlds problems, especially at bedtime.

Amazingly, with all the negative affects on sleep from ADD drugs, this combination helped me kick 5 years straight (every single night) of taking Ambien.

One side affect- look to gain 10 to 20 pounds.

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[Anonymous]

Langstrump-

I do the same thing in the afternoon, though I take 20mg of Ritalin. 72mg of concerta.

On a side note, I’ve begun to set my alarm for 530am, take my concerta, then go back to sleep until 7am. The concerta takes to long to kick in, so my mornings were still a complete disaster trying to get ready. See if this works….

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[Anonymous]

Ok, so a bit of an update. I went down to 27mg of concerta and doubled doses of anxiety and mood stabilizer, and I can only say that this is too much of the anxiety and mood stabilizer. So the next step is waiting to hear from Dr. about which of the 2 I should cut back on. I feel sluggish and sort of drunk, unbalanced, and that decreases any positives that I normally feel from the concerta. On the upside I haven’t been having the very negative sides either. I am able to eat and sleep, which is very nice. And the come downs haven’t been as rough for my family. Anyway, I have more hope of finding a balance now!

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[jennifermac]

My daughter just started taking concerta 18mg a few weeks ago. She is 14, and had anxiety/stress related to school. She seemed to get very irritable and moody almost immediately and within a few days it had escalated to crying for “no reason’ and feeling jittery in the evening. I read online about taking 5-HTP with concerta to eleviate these symptoms and since I have taken it for years, I had it on hand. Wow, the very next day she was her happy easy-going self again! (I gave her 100mg, Happy-Sense, by Preferred Nutrition.) The theory is that if you had anxiety to begin with, a stimulant is going to exacerbate the problem. 5-HTP is a serotonin booster available at health food stores( a naturopath can help you with dosage). The 5-HTP works well for depression, anxiety and a host of other mental health issues. It CAN’T be taken with prescription anti-depressants, so you need to talk to your doctor. It is a very effective alternative to these drugs, and may allow you to tolerate the ADD meds. with less side effects. Trying to cope all these years without meds. has been very stressful for my daughter and I feel she has paid dividends in her health. I think its important to take stock of your general health and realize that stress wears you out! It may take a more holistic approach to find that balance because the meds., while necessary, may not solve all your problems. Hope you feel better soon!

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[Anonymous]

Jenn-

Thanks for the info! I will put it on my list, both for the dr. and the health food store! I cut back the anxiety, but Dr. was wrong again, its the other that gives me issues. I will be searching for a new Dr. very soon (new insurance) and hope to find one either more knowledgeable, or at the very least willing to learn!

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[Anonymous]

Jenn-

So my Dr. never called me back, so I lowered my mood stabilizers according to physician, kept the anti anxiety at a lower level and physician said to try 5-HTP. I did, and it’s better! Thanks sooo very much, from everyone in my family! It’s not perfect, but I’m not as wound up and nasty as I was, can’t wait to find a new Dr. and get levels figured out and get on with my life!

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[Author]

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