ADHD medication making me more anxious

[Believer21]

I have suffered from anxiety and was placed on an SSRI as an adult which helped immensely. My daughter has recently been diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety but is not on meds yet. I also realise that I have ADHD and the doctor now placed me on Vyvance but it appears to be causing anxiety again. Anyone experienced this? I am scared to place my daughter on meds now.

[LAJ12345]

my husband found SsrI made him very anxious and agitated. He takes a tiny dose of clonazapam now 0.5 mg per day cut into quarters and can’t take the ssri any more. That takes the edge off. He also gets anxiety on higher levels of Levadopa drugs. It is a side effect some people get.

[Hidden]

When you look at side effects of stimulant ADHD medication such as the one you take- it can cause anxiety. It’s something to do with what neurotransmitters it affects. It helps with focus but because it’s dopamine whatever (do read what else it ‘stimulates’) it can cause anxiety and many more.

It might be that when you reduce the dose you will be fine.

Also if you have a blood pressure device at home- do check your BP and pulse regularly because stimulants can raise both. If your pulse is significantly raised then physiologically you are in a ‘fight or flight’ mode and next thing is anxiety.

By the way- non stimulants also can raise BP and pulse or cause the opposite - dangerously lower pulse and BP.

So either way- it’s important to self monitor pulse and BP whilst on ADHD meds.

To give you an example how I think it is dose dependant- I know that in a certain country in continental Europe guidance is to give to children up to 18 years old no more than 5-10mg per day of a stimulant ADHD medication.

Yet in the UK I think there is ‘oversubscribing’ going on and kids as young as 8 are prescribed 50mg Methylpenidate per day! Yes, then the child will be anxious in my opinion, and suffering from all range of other side effects and possibly cardiac side effects such as increased heart rate. I wish I could tell psychiatrist ‘Why don’t you take 50mg per day yourself and see how ‘well’ you will be feeling’.

With stimulants I don’t believe that ‘more’ means better. I think often ‘more’ means more side effects and then adding other meds to counteract and next you will find out your kid is on 5 different meds.

I’d say if you want your child on stimulants - go slowly, start from 2.5mg, go up to 5mg and if you see your child can sit and watch a boring film or read a boring school book or do a maths homework on 5mg, just don’t go up. Doctors will tell you ‘oh, this can’t work because that’s not a therapeutic dose for this age’ but at the end of the day you decide.

Otherwise skip stimulants for your child and try a non stimulant. However what I’d say- do a routine heart check before. Like a simple EKG to check that your child’s heart is okay. And then commence on one of the non stimulants- they kind of act on mood positively as well so it’s 2 in 1.