What Meds

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone. I line in Kenya and found this site which I find absolutely fascinating. I was diagnosed with ADD about 5 years ago. Being a recovering alkie / pillhead, I was too scared to try anything other than straterra. For a while it worked beautifully, lifted the ‘fog’ in my brain, but only after I had combined it with prozac. Then after about 4 years I went to London and they put me on concerta XL. Th focus and motivation were a lot better. Within a few months I had anxiety, and a really bad bout of depression. I tried combining with effexor, but the anxiety was still there so back I went onto straterra. But it feels like its doing half the job. Certainly the motivation and organisation and logical sequence of thought are not there. Would anyone have suggestions on what I can try next?

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[Patte Rosebank]

Meds alone won’t do the job. You need a combination of meds and psychological and/or life coach counselling, to help you set up structures and habits to help you function properly.

Think of meds as training wheels for a bicycle. They’ll help you to learn how to balance, but you still have to learn how to ride.

I’ve been on Effexor for many years. When I went through the extremely difficult process of withdrawing from it, I was fine for a while, but then, my depression returned, and I discovered that I’m going to need to be on it for the rest of my life.

When I was on Concerta, it helped for a while, but then, the lovely calm & focus was replaced by extreme jitters & anxiety. Plus, my psychiatrist had taken on way too many patients, and only seeing your psych. for 10 minutes, every 3 months is NOT how to do the trial-and-error necessary to find the right meds. Especially, when he’s ordered to drop half of his patients (including me), by the hospital officials.

Ritalin and Concerta are only two of the forms of methylphenidate that are out there. Perhaps the drug is right (since it gives you focus & motivation), but the dosage & delivery system are wrong. Talk to your doctor and pharmacist about this. And do look into life-coaching/psychological counselling. Many life coaches work by phone or internet, so you don’t need to actually visit them in person. You could even have a life coach on the other side of the world!

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[Ricochet Rabbit]

Really good advice, Larynxa. Kenyagirl, I’m back on the meds just to allow me to focus — I’m less depressed when I feel I’ve improved my organizational pallet and accomplished some goals during the day. I find it useful to get feedback from my family/friends — perhaps you could journal your progress so that you can SEE your progress. It’s very easy to get bogged down in the medication side-effects if you can’t put a finger on your progress.

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[Robbo]

Yep, I agree with the training wheels analogy. I’ve never heard of a kid learning to ride a bike without training wheels. Sounds like a whole lot of trips to the doctors office for stitches etc. Hmm… That kinda sounds like my life!. if Only….

Anyways, yep, we also need outside support. I can’t quite afford a coach, but I can and have been trying to build up some more accountability partners in my life. Just friends who I can trust with all the ugly truth about my ADHD, lack of discipline, inability to keep on a solid routine, and umm, cope. It’s no fun to humble myself. But just having to answer to a few people about how well I’m doing just drinking enough water, or at least rinsing dishes off after I eat etc. Making progress, will make a difference.

It’s a bummer, I just don’t want to… But I got ta grow up some time, huh?.

Without the medications I take, I would just be screwed!!. LOL. whelp, it’s the truth. I would just be curled up in the fetal position shaking violently, and sweating bullets!!!. well, that’s kind-of an exaggeration, huh?, It was fun to write though. Maybe it was fun to write because that describes exactly how I have felt many times, and I’m happy to not feel that awful any more.

Also, I just didn’t have the energy to curl up… too lazy probably.

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[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for that advice. Its amazing to see all you guys out there with the same issues as me. The problem with Kenya is that there is very little known about this disease here, its more like I educate my psychiatrist rather than the other way round. What I am getting from all of you is that different meds work differently for people and there is no way of knowing the right ones until you try. But even concerta is not in Kenya – I had to get it from England!!!! So of course there is no life coach with such experience but I shall try to find one on line. I agree with Robbo – the meds make everything so clear but this time round straterra just isn’t doing it for me. Scary about the effexor……..any way around that? Prozac worked brilliantly and there were no withdrawal symptoms (what does that mean???? Am I more screwed up even????) 🙄

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