ADD Medication

[Rubia Warren]

Does anyone here take medication for ADD?

If so, what is it like?

How long did it take before you noticed it affecting you?

WHat changes did you notice?

And more specifically, how did it affect your work or school performance?

Any side effects?

[themuzicman]

"I don't have ADD.. I'm just.. hey look, a chicken!"

[Rubia Warren]

"I don't have ADD.. I'm just.. hey look, a chicken!"

:lol:
I see MUz has skipped his pill today.

[neosnoia]

My husband has ADD. We spent a few hours Saturday at Barnes and Noble looking through books to see what he can do.

He thinks he'll talk to the doctor about Adderal. It has a different chemical profile than the other ADD drugs.

Some doctors are trying less dangerous drugs, like Cymbalta, as an option to the amphetamines. We are going to ask about that as well.

[Pilgrim]

I have ADD and I take Concerta once a day for it. Early on, back in 1990, I was on Dexadrine which really took it's toll on me. For starters it's a controlled substance and so a lot of Pharmacies just did not carry it because of the security risk. It also caused a tremendous crash as it petered out leaving me listless and tired. It also affected my sleep patterns.

I was diagnosed early on. Over 15 years ago before ADD was the diagnosis of the day. I had to go to childrens hospital in Philadelphia and spend a could of days in intense interviews and observation. Now a days you just go to your GP tell him your kid is hard to controll and you get a script just like that.

Anyway. Now I take Concerta and that is wonderful. I notice almost no side effects what so ever and I noticed the difference almost immediately.

One key thing is not to go the way of most parents and let your kids only take the meds on weekdays. ADD affects everything from academics to relationships and the meds have a cummulative effect. If you stop on Friday and restart on Monday the whole weekend is rife with behavioral and relationship issues and you have lost the cummulative effect of the meds.

One new drug in the past few years is Strattera (http://www.strattera.com/1_1_about_strattera/1_1_about.jsp). Unlike Concerta and Addoral it is not a stimulant. It takes a month or two for the effect of the drug to be fully appreciated and many doctors continue to prescribe the stimulants for the first month or two that one starts on Strattera.

Of course, the thing that most people forget is that the med is not a magic pill. People with ADD have built up coping methods over the years. They need to be in therapy to deal with that and they also need to be trained out of bad habits especially where studying and job performance is concerned. It's combination of things.

[D. Medvedev Fan]

Does anyone here take medication for ADD? If so, what is it like? How long did it take before you noticed it affecting you? WHat changes did you notice? And more specifically, how did it affect your work or school performance? Any side effects?
I took Ritalin when I was little, then I took Cylert and it's generic Pemolin, then Ritalin again because the manufacturer that was providing for our local pharmacies stopped making Pemolin.

I don't notice as much of a difference as when I was younger. I think part of that is that I have developed better coping skills. It's helpful though. When I changed back to Ritalin again, one of the ways of telling whether or not it was enough was by whether or not it was enough was by whether I was having trouble settling down to sleep. I still had the recent experience of being on Pemolin to compare to this time.

I don't realkly remember the time when I first started very clearly, but the effect was pretty soon after I started taking it. I could do my school work. I could start paying attention to what I was doing without always having my attention wander off. The effect was quite positive. I could sit down and do my work.

For myself, I mostly remember that when I was little and on Ritalin, I had to go for an annual blood test. The test was to make sure my kidneys or liver, I forgot which, were/was working right. They never found any problems. I don't believe I ever experienced any real side affects, but that is me. The annoying thing about Ritalin is that it is controlled to the extent that the doctor has to see you to give you the prescription each month, so that means monthly appointments.