13 year old girl ADHD new to Adderall XR

[jennygn]

My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD (inattentive) 3 years ago. She has an IEP and accommodations and was succeeding with some difficulty on this path until 8th grade. School became a struggle and her grades dropped fairly drastically. She just started Adderall XR 15 mg, taking half a pill. I'm wondering if anyone can share side effects, emotional issues (she has outbursts lately and has some anxiety too), and overall feelings of med helping or not helping. I'd like to know what to expect and how best to help her succeed. Thanks so much!

[Darinder26]

Hello. I myself have been on adderall xr and my only side affect was insomnia. I improved on it greatly, a lot better then concerta(made me severely depressed and suicidal). I was also on celixa (depression meds)and I was better within 2 days. I was also on the depo shot(heavy monthlys) which made my mood change drastically which resulted in the med change. Also depends how many mg she is taking. I always took 20mg but my sister had to take 40mg. If she is still showing a mood change I would either try vyvanse or focalin. I myself am about to get my son switched to focalin by his therapist this week.

[Eclecticentric77]

Hi there, I as well have Inattentive ADHD. I have been taking stimulant medication for my Inattentive ADHD for 3yrs , and in that time I have researched many facets of stimulant medication. I take 10mg of the same medication your daughter is taking. After taking stimulant medication for around 6 months to a year, the neurotransmitters the medication helps out with (Dopamine, Serotonin, Norepinephrine) will start to deplete, which is why negative side effects start popping up, like irritability and feeling like the medication is no longer working. This is why I highly recommend supplements to take with the medication, to combat negative side effects, help eliminate the irritable/emotional come down once the medication wears off, and help the medication work to its best potential.

For this I recommend:

N-Acetyl Tyrosine: To help the depleted Dopamine and Norepinephrine neurotransmitters (to be taken an hour or 30min before taking the medication)

Tryptophan: To help the depleted Serotonin, thus greatly lowering anxiety and elevating one's mood/sociability.

Also as a plus, I highly recommend CoQ10, to keep her heart rate and blood pressure healthy and stop them from rising, as is common with stimulant medication. A good organic multivitamin with antioxidants is also highly important.

If you click on my picture, it will take you to my profile where I have a few links where I have a list of every supplement I take and why, a link to a helpful website for great supplements for people with ADHD, and a video series I made for people with Inattentive ADHD the issues we face from Elementary school through adulthood.

[anirush]

One of my grandsons never could take stimulants. It made him really angry. He was on Vyvanse for a while but has been on Strattera for a long time. It sometimes takes a couple of weeks so the medication to get into their system. But we've had a couple of medications that have made them physically violent. Just keep an eye on things

[jennygn]

Thank you everyone for responding to my post. Yesterday my daughter's math teacher emailed me to say what a great day she had in math. Math is her hardest subject and the one where she typically zones out, and doesn't follow along and then gets lost. This is three days on slightly less than half of 15 mg (so around 7 mg). Our protocol is to increase to slightly more than half for the second week, then the whole pill for the third. If it's working on this amount, I wonder if we shouldn't increase. I will talk to her doctor. I assume it's best to be on the least amount possible. Thanks again for your input!