Hi everyone! New here, I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and about 2 years ago finally decided to go the medication route as life was becoming increasingly difficult without help. Unfortunately, my medication trials got some truly weird roadblocks. I was on XR adderall/Vyvanse for a little over a year (switched from former to latter due to the shortage) and it did wonders for my overall ability to get things done and generally silencing voices in my head. However, I developed a weird side effect of half of my face going numb when on stimulants. A battery of scans and invasive (and EXPENSIVE) tests didn't reveal anything immediately malignant, so doctors binned me into the 2% of people who get numbness/tingling while on stimulants.
Fast forward to my attempt of taking Straterra. While it didn't do anything to inattention and also made me feel really dumb (like I would stare at a program I use every day and wonder how to initiate kind of dumb), it overall gave me a sense of inner peace and also made me less impulsive with things like shopping. Straterra, however, made my very benign pregnancy induced hemorrhoids (sorry for the TMI) EXTREMELY painful - I literally avoided walking because I was in so much pain, so I had to give up on that as well.
I was just wondering if anyone encountered any weird side effects with medications and how you went about it in terms of either trying something else off label and/or compensating in some other ways
Thank you all for the community!
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DandelionClock7
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I had super cold hands and feet when I started on Straterra to the point that I considered it may be Raynaud's! It went away eventually, I hope you will get better too <3
I'm yet to start medication for my ADHD, as I was only diagnosed last month, but when I was put on antidepressants in about 2009 I had major side effects with all of them. I was working full time and put on Fluoxetine which made me sweat profusely. There were other tablets tried for attempting to ease my OCD, but they all exacerbated it and some made me a hundred times more depressed than I actually was.
The worst for me though was Duloxetine. When I was on that I lost my sense of humour, became suicidal and was so majorly depressed. It also affected what I now know to be my ADHD to fever pitch, where I became verbally aggressive to people in the street, I pushed an overweight man on the bus because he was taking too long, I literally hardly spoke beyond one word answers, I became morbidly obsessed with reading about murders, serial killers and spree killers. I started collecting knives and was contemplating murdering (stabbing) a girl in work because I thought she was lazy (once the fog lifted, I realised she wasn't lazy, but just very efficient at her work which gave her free time). Obviously that never happened , but that was not something I'd ever considered before until those tablets. I lost control of my impulses and asked out a girl in work I'd never spoken to. The really frustrating thing was when I told my psychiatrist, psychologist and my own Doctor, they all found it hilarious - genuinely! They told me to continue with the medication, so I gave up and came straight off them and went cold turkey. This was all whilst working full time. My weight ballooned from about 14 stone to 20 stone when on Duloxetine. I dumped my then girlfriend in a very cold and impersonal way and began a brief relationship with a girl who was completely not my type. I also developed type 2 diabetes when I was only in my 20s and had no history of it in my family, but it happened when on the antidepressants.
I just became a very bizarre and weird person. I suppose I'm still a bit bizarre in my own way, but when on the meds I collected snails off the street. I kept them in a container filled with salad. I would also move them from place to place where I lived and in the years since they are now all around the streets in places where there were none before.
I was really angry at the 'medical professionals', as none of them took me seriously. I've often found that to be the case. When I was in school in 1997 I was going through a major depression due to mental bullying and problems at home, so much so I went to the Doctor about a fear I was going to commit suicide and he just literally laughed it off and told me to cheer up, so I went to several pharmacies and bought painkillers and that night took 13 pills with alcohol (I don't drink). Anyway, it wasn't enough, as I'm quite a tall guy and my parents were embarrassed, so I didn't go to hospital about it.
Apologies for going off tangent there, but I'm curious to know if anyone else had issues with antidepressants. I'm dreading being put on meds for my ADHD, as I seem to be quite susceptible to side effects - I make sure not to read about them beforehand.
I am so sorry you went through so much struggle! It is really frustrating that with meds we have no way of knowing the correct dose and/or what weird side effects may pop up. At least the nice thing about stimulants is that they work when taken so you can see if those medications are for you and then figure out the dose/side effects etc or abandon them right away if they are not working. The non-stimulants are trickier unfortunately :(.
Thank you. I'm still quite new to the ADHD world, even if I have had it basically all my life. I've read that Omega 3 and Omega 6 supplements can also help with symptoms.I had to go privately for diagnosis, so I need to see if our British National Health Service will recognise the diagnosis, especially regarding medication. I try and avoid reading about any side effects until I experience them.
try taking a gene sight test. It will tell you which meds will have adverse effects since it tests your genetics with each med. it won’t tell you which meds will help your adhd, but it will tell you which ones you have negative side effects with.
My side effect for one was it just not working.on another mental health med, I had suicidal ideation and such intrusive thought within the first month, that my partner got me off of it asap. My daughter was given a stimulant and she started getting tics. My stepkid tried a med that wasn’t a stimulant and he feinted.
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Has anyone taken the GeneSight test? What was your experience, was it helpful for your medication management?
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