Hi !

Just to go straight to the point, my doctor is thinking of trying Strattera in me, since it was recently made available as a generic and I tend to have prevailing side effects with stimulant medication (ritalin, Rubifen, elvanse).

I have some questions that would like to hear from people that are/were on this medication to share:

  1. I understand this is non-stimulating and seems to work akin to an antidepressant. Therefore, do I have to take it every day? Even on days I do not need ? With stimulant medication I only take it when doing theoretical work, and skip it when on the laboratory or other minor tasks and would never take it in days I’m not working, because I can’t just interact with people and gives me a baseline anxiety the whole day.

  2. What benefits did it gave you ?

  3. Any prevailing side effects?

  4. How does it compare with stimulant medication (after taking it for some weeks)?

For a bit of context:

I’ve been diagnosed for about 6 years now, and started with Ritalin XR. However, I could only keep using it for some months since it gave seriously side effects that persisted 3-5 months after stopping it. I later switched to Ritalin IR, which worked for some time and gave me less side effects. But it started to be ineffective after some months.

Then my doctor tried Elvanse (Vyvanse), it worked on keeping me focused, but the anxiety and the huge time frame of action of the drug led to me only taking it once or twice a week.

I’m now back on Ritalin IR, but always feel the anxiety and aversion to interact with people that I always feel with these 3 stimulants.

  • MehBlah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    I’m not suggesting this will happen to you but for me strattera made me throw up every time I stood up for about 4 weeks after quitting it. The reason I quit was a massive surge in my blood pressure. It was so extreme that my doctor probably weened me off too quickly. There was nothing in the official side effects about this kind of reaction. After a few weeks of scouring the internet I found a message board where someone described the exact same symptoms as I had. There was one other person who had commented about it happening to them. Both described when they started to get better and both felt they nearly died. at the four week mark I finally could stand without immediately throwing up. By week five I had a appetite for the first time in a month. I went from 240 to 175 pounds in that time.

    I’m only sharing this to let you know that if you start having massive blood pressure induced migraines and you can’t get your blood pressure to drop you need to go to your doctor immediately. I waited a week like the others and think it may have not been as bad if I had started reducing my dosage sooner. My reaction was extreme and not at all common but I will never forget the spring of 2012 because of it. I really feel like I could have died.