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Maybe this is a good thread to ask if it's worth trying adderall to help with my procrastination/anxiety/attention problems. During the previous years I tried ritalin, concerta, modafinil or provigil, bisoprolol(betablocker) (all giving me serious headaches without much of a positive side); And zoloft, valdoxan (giving me a wide range of side effects without any positives). Is adderall different or is it very similar to any of these? My problems aren't that bad, and I can get by without. But still, it's sometimes very hard, mainly due to the fact that I work at home alone. The only medication that has had a positive effect on me is lorazepam.
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Oct 3, 2013 11:59
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Found out that I can't get adderall in belgium. That was probably the last med I could have tried. Everything else failed badly.
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Nov 2, 2013 00:05
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Qu Appelle posted:Oh, wow - I'm so sorry. Is it something where the health plan won't cover it, or it's not physically available anywhere in the country? Is it even possible to try to go to a neighboring country to try to (legally) get it? Yeah it's illegal here from what I've heard/read. wilfredmerriweathr posted:Did you try Dexedrine? Or maybe vyvanse if its available? I'll look into these, thanks. It's not easy since about every medication has a (or multiple) different name(s) in europe. The last meds I tried were Provigil (Modafinil) and Sertraline (Zoloft, Lustral). And before that valdoxan, ritalin, concerta, bisoprolol(betablocker). It's also hard to get a psychiatrist to subscribe these. Most of the medication I proposed myself and he had never heard of them. Anyway, I'm doing what still helps me the most again. namely going to work at a colleague instead of staying at home to work.
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Nov 4, 2013 13:28
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Tried adderall 10mg for the first time yesterday. Or rather a generic version of it, specially mixed-up by the pharmacy. This is the only way you can still get it in belgium. After reading about it and seeing the doctor's and pharmacist's concern I was scared the side effect would be massive. But not much happened. side effects were a bit like ritalin or provigil, but the headache was not as bad. The dizziness and generally feeling weird was. It did help a little with my concentration, but not to the extend that I feel it is worth the side effects. It was the last type of medication that I could try I think. Seeing that I have all these bad reactions I start wondering if it's because of my rather sensitive liver. I know most of these pills put strain on it. And the only thing that has always helped a little is lorazepam, and apparently it doesn't ask too much of your liver.
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Dec 12, 2013 13:29
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Goddamn posted:mrfart, I've always found amphetamines to be really weird for the first few days, especially the very first. If it isn't awful, try it for a few more days (up to a week or so, unless nothing's changing at all) and see if the side effects subside. Need to drink more water too. I think the only cases of liver damage were from abusers injecting high doses intravenously... But it's best to double-check with a doctor. Thanks. I'm aware of the need to drink sufficient water (even if I'm not using any medication). I drank 3 liters of water yesterday. And to NeilPerry, I didn't get Adderall, I got something generic that only a pharmacist can prepare for you. Now that I read the label on the bottle I realize it's not entirely the same ( my doctor told me it was ). It's only one ingredient, it's dextroamphetamine sulfate in English I think. Anyway, my doctor was clear that stuff like Adderall is of the market here. And I think it's even illegal in some european countries.
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Dec 12, 2013 15:13
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Well, this week I tried to take my generic adderall (dextroamphetamine sulfate) for 3 days. The results weren't great. Every night I felt a massive headache coming on and I took a painkiller before it got too bad. Also kept using some lorazepam to keep the "coming down" in check and to be able to fall asleep. Yesterday, day 3, I went to a restaurant and had to leave mid dinner because I thought I was gonna be sick. The small improvements are just not worth all this. Maybe I've should try it longer, but I just don't have the courage anymore.
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Jan 11, 2014 08:28
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Wow, I had to do a test in my night class of french this week. During, the teacher continued to teach and talk to the rest of the class, because i was absent on the original date. It was impossible to concentrate for me with all the noise. And frustratingly, the teacher was talking to the class about how he thinks ADD is a made up thing for psychiatrists to make more money. test will be a total failure no doubt.
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Jan 17, 2014 11:43
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wilfredmerriweathr posted:^^ this is pretty hilarious because I am someone who the navy desires due to my schooling and they wanted me to do a direct commission thing and then the second they learned I have ADHD they backpedaled so hard and basically told me there's no way I would ever be allowed in any military branch. Ha, my friend was in training to join the Belgian military. He was almost done and about to be shipped off to Afghanistan when they found out he had been taking Ritalin. Immediate discharge. On the imaginary conversations stuff: I do this ALL THE TIME. As long as I'm not mauling over something that really happened and keep thinking what I should have said, I'm fine with it. And I think it's better to leave it be than to fight it too much. My biggest problem remains with music, I feel. It's impossible to concentrate if there's music playing in the background. And my girlfriend is somebody who likes music in the background all the time. It's funny that I don't have a problem with TV, or noise in general. It's just music. It's impossible for my brain to not get emotionally involved with it. I wish I could learn to block it out. Maybe some of you have some tips on that matter. Actually, this was the reason why I became a DJ I think. Because I couldn't just listen to music. So I started playing it. So I could listen to music and do something at the same time. And most importantly, be in control of it.
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Mar 9, 2014 11:40
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bad posts ahead!!! posted:I also have no memory for faces, I mostly go by hair, build and clothing style. Someone changes their look and I'm totally lost. I also have this problem. When I was younger it wasn't really important and I didn't even realize it, because I didn't meet a lot of people. But these days I meet so many new people and I really have to focus on remembering their faces and names. It also doesn't help that I meet a lot of these people at concerts and clubs. Although it's a good excuse the next time if they discover you don't remember them. I just say the music was so loud, blablabla...
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Mar 12, 2014 19:24
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Sub Rosa posted:Which medication? If Adderall I had a lot of GI issues until I switched to Sandoz generic. I wish I had the chance of trying different versions. I only had the option to try a generic version made by my pharmacist. With very bad side effects. Something tells me a lot of the side effects I got from medication in the past was not necessarily the medication itself. But maybe the generic products used in some of them. As I said before in this thread, I'm a bit at the end of the road when it comes to medication. Over the years I tried so many things, and nothing works. Only the lorazepam to keep me calm a bit. But it doesn't help with any of the concentration problems.
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Jun 20, 2014 22:04
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Horrible Smutbeast posted:You should be able to feel it, especially on the first day. Whether you continue feeling it actively and not just in the background of your mind is a different story. You should feel *something* though even if it's the negatives like sweating. I only got to try something generic the pharmacist had to compose herself. The side effects where rather bad. I'm very curious if the results would be different with real adderall. But there's no way to get them in europe. Would be nice if I could get them on my holiday in the US with a prescription from a belgian doctor  But there isn't a chance in hell that's gonna work.
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Sep 13, 2014 22:26
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wilfredmerriweathr posted:Ritalin in general gave me headaches. Same here. Together with itchy skin.
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Sep 15, 2014 20:14
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strange posted:Does anyone find certain styles of music or specific songs particularly good for ADHD? I find pretty much all jazz and songs like Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook calming because they tend towards the unpredictable. I'd love to know if you guys experience anything similar. I can't work with any music in the background. It's incredible annoying that I can't and wish i could learn somehow. But when there's music playing, there isn't a chance in hell I'll be able to do anything productive. Not because i don't like music, it's more the opposite, I get too emotionally involved. I used to be a dj, and in part I did it because of this problem. Because when you dj, all your attention is going to the music anyway. You're not supposed to do anything else. When I can't take the silence while working, I 'listen' to old animated shows or tv shows that I already know. For some strange reason this doesn't have the same distraction on me than music.
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Sep 16, 2014 06:40
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Anybody here who takes wellbutrin now with good results, and who had bad results from Ritalin or adderall etc....? I think it's one of the few things I didn't try over the years. ADD medicine like ritaline gives me massive headaches, and medication that's more towards the anti depressant type just gives me nothing but side effects.
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Feb 6, 2015 11:36
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I've recently come to wonder if my difficulties aren't closer related to OCD than ADD. I remember that as a very young kid (more than 20 years ago) I had very typical symptoms of OCD , like touching stuff the same number of times etc .... Obviously I didn't know what this was, and I never told anyone about it. After a year or so, the symptoms went away by itself. But now I wonder if my anxiety and difficulty concentrating perhaps still are an expression of these problems, but in a different form. I have certain actions and thoughts that keep coming back. Like going to the kitchen 30 times a day, usually just when I need to work on something important. Or replaying the same conversations endlessly (whether fictional or not) in your head. I asked about it to a psychiatrist who's specialized in OCD, but apparently he thinks it's better to go to a colleague of him, a more 'mainstream' therapist  Maybe someone here had/has similar problems?
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Mar 20, 2015 20:38
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Baby Babbeh posted:My doctor has decided to prescribe a beta blocker along with my Yeah, i was given beta blockers at some point to see if it would help with anxiety in public situations. It didn't have much of a positive effect, I remember having very bad headaches from it. But if your heart rate is really at an alarming rate, it might be a good idea. Or maybe stratera just isn't gonna work for you?
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Mar 20, 2015 21:35
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, since it seems even Stratera raises my heartrate to a dangerous level. Anyone have any experience with this?
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I did the single best thing in years to help me with my concentration issues. I started working in a studio, instead of working at home. I still work on my own stuff, but less on a computer, more on paper ( comic books). The difference is huge. I'm surrounded by other artists and suddenly I manage to keep drawing without stopping to do other stuff, from 7 in the morning to 5 in the evening, only stopping for a quick lunch. I'm even amazed I'm capable to listen to music in my headphones ( there's a strict no speaker music rule, which is a necessity). Normally I go nuts with background noise. Hope I can keep it up, it's beautiful.
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Apr 11, 2015 14:33
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Do you guys know of any good self help books? Specifically for creative people who have to live with ADD/crippling insecurity/anxiety. I've listen to/read some books already, but nothing really impressed me.
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Sep 26, 2015 16:15
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Yesterday I had a very odd conversation with my mom. I'm in my thirties now and she told me for the first time that when she was pregnant with me, she had the flu with extremely high fever, and they didn't know how that was going to affect me. Sure enough, after some googling I found a study on more than 6000 Finnish kids, that shows that moms who had the flu/high fever during pregnancy, their kid had significant more chance on having ADHD, anxiety and even bipolar disorder. Although it's an ongoing study, a lot of these things show up later in life.
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Jun 16, 2016 08:04
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Gaspy Conana posted:I'm a bit concerned because I could tell that the doctor I saw for preliminary discussions was giving me the stinkeye after googling Adderall (she was only familiar with German drug names). I thought adderall was illegal in Germany, like in most (all?) EU countries?
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Nov 1, 2016 11:18
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Gaspy Conana posted:Ahh, that might explain why she didn't recognize it initially. Hopefully whatever alternatives they give in Germany will be as effective. Well, let me know if you get something similar. I was given Dexamfetamine, which is one part of the ingredients of adderall if I'm not mistaken. But the side effects made it impossible to keep taking, like most medication I ever tried. It was clearly frowned upon by both doctor and pharmacist. But it's the only thing that comes legally close to adderall here in Belgium, and I think it's similar in most eu countries.
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Nov 3, 2016 17:12
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TheBigBad posted:Jogging is for weirdos who want to run to nowhere. ADHD prefers riding bikes. Jogging is one of the few things that keep me sane. Traffic and the streets are so bad where I live that riding a bike takes full concentration sprinkled with spikes of adrenaline when cars honk at you or nearly miss you. When I get home from a bike ride I'm furious. I love going for a run in the forest and fields. My brain still trails off, but it's ok, I'm not gonna ride under a truck or something.
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Nov 5, 2016 01:49
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Solkanar512 posted:So I've had a really odd reaction to music. Back in college I was essentially a music minor, and I was in the orchestra (viola) and was a bedroom DJ. When I was performing with the orchestra, I would always get this kind of light headed feeling where I would suddenly have a million ideas of things to do (which of course never actually happened). When I was DJing however, the whole thing would take up my entire focus (beat matching, finding the next track) and I wouldn't be distracted by anything. Perhaps the fact that I only had around 5-7 minutes to get the next track set up meant I was always under the gun and thus my mind didn't have a chance to wander off. I was a dj for many years. Looking back, one of the reasons I started was because I was unable to listen to music and do something else. When there's music on, my brain will focus on it and will make it impossible to concentrate on something else. A family member/neighbor playing music could destroy my day. With dj-ing you were supposed to pay attention to your music anyway, no time to do something else. The problem was the never ending stream of new music and me trying to follow everything. It was so unbelievable exhausting when I think about it now. However, it did get me out of the house, pushing myself to overcome my crippling social anxiety, and a lot of friends I have today, including my girlfriend for 7 years now all came through that clubbing/dj stuff. So I shouldn't complain.
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Nov 20, 2016 23:20
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Well, I've been on a very strict diet for the last four weeks. It was my final hope in trying to do something about my extreme concentration issues/brain fog/anxiety. Since medication doesn't work, and I always had trouble with digestion, a doctor proposed this to find out if it would help. I have no real food allergies, but apparently some people are helped a lot whit diets like this. I don't know if any of you tried something like it, but for me it didn't help. And I'm actually surprised at how little a difference it made mentally and physically, seeing as it was very extreme: No gluten/dairy/added sugar/nightshades...
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Mar 30, 2017 21:42
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Pikestaff posted:Is sensory overload/sensitivity an ADHD thing? I'm very sensitive to things like sounds, smells, etc. and I also find crowds really suffocating You sound like you have the same problem as me. I tried all adhd medication, and a lot of anti depressants, all had very bad side effects. In the end I had the choice between nothing or my anti anxiety meds. Hope you find something that works. mrfart fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Nov 5, 2017 |
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Nov 5, 2017 13:49
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So after all these years, I had a neurologic check up. The neurologist send me to a psychologist who concluded that I might be 'on the spectrum' and instead of looking into ADHD, she gave me a basic test which confirmed her suspicions. I'll now have to do 8 hours of in depth tests to see where exactly my brain is floating, and what kind of therapy and/or medication might help. It's 'funny' that 15 years ago I kinda floated the idea of having some autistic tendencies myself to my then psychologist, which he quickly brushed aside. Oh well...
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Feb 15, 2018 20:00
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Keret posted:To start with, I have always had a big problem with forgetfulness. I will very easily forget just about anything, especially tasks or what I’ve done earlier, even if just moments before. Objects get misplaced, left behind, or entirely lost because I can’t remember where I put them, or if I even had them with me at all. Names are, of course, forgotten multiple times, unless I write them down. When I was in school, exams were a nightmare because I would always feel that the information had left me — even if I studied a lot, it was as if it had been swept away when the exam came around. All of that made me incredibly harsh on myself — which I still am, honestly — and made me a terrible student. Memory retention problems continue to plague me to this day, most frustratingly with reading: I want so much to read a book or poem or essay and remember the words and phrases used, and recall the points that were made later on, but I often have such a hard time doing so. It’s like sand through my fingers, sometimes. Often I will read a page and immediately realize that I don’t know what I just read. I have all of these. And psy/ therapists all thought I might have ADHD and anxiety. Problem was/is, the medication for it never did anything remotely positive for me. I gave up on therapy for a long time and just tried to cope. But recently I went to a neurologist and a psychologist, and they concluded it's a lot more likely I'm slightly on the spectrum. I will begin extensive testing for that next week. I really hope it will help me a little bit. Of course, it's a lot more likely that you have ADHD.
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Mar 31, 2018 21:00
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BoneMonkey posted:
I never got there  After all these years, I’ve been diagnosed with a mild form of autism. I’ve always been hypersensitive, especially for sounds, and throughout all the tests I was above average, except my processing speed dragged everything down. I’m literally slow. Sadly, I suspected something like it way back in 2003. But my therapist back then thought that wasn’t the case. They kept looking into adhd. But yeah, it’s all very similar. Except none of the meds work for me. Has anybody here ever had any experience with MAOI? And if so, which ones. They are hardly used anymore but apparently have great results with people who respond badly to other anti depressants/anxiety.
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Jun 19, 2018 23:55
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Sub Rosa posted:
What I heard was that the most extreme interactions with food were with the older versions of MAOI's and that ironically the newer versions often have less side effects than more common anti-depressants. I only use lorazepam, a benzo, since literally every other med, be it anti-depressant or ADHD med, had negative results on me.
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Jun 20, 2018 10:05
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Gnossiennes posted:Should've clarified more on Emsam: it's a patch based maoi that doesn't require dietary restriction at the lower dose. dietary restriction is advised on higher dosage, but this is also because of limited data on the 9mg and 12mg dosage, so the restrictions may be overstated. I'll look into it, thanks. But I don't even know which of these are available in europe and if my doctor will want to give me a prescription for it, let alone that he has ever heard of them. Because it looks like it's a bit of a forgotten type of meds?
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Jun 20, 2018 21:16
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'maybe you were just meant to be gloomy'. My psychiatrist yesterday. She had given me risperidone to try and cope with my anxiety, disability to focus and hypersensitiveness. And as an alternative to the benzos I take (lorazepam). They only found out fairly recently what I have is more spectrum disorder than ADD. Although they don't seem to be sure about anything. The risperidone didn't help, and she doesn't have an alternative. I tried pretty much all types of meds over a time period spanning 2 decades (most of that time I didn't take anything). It really floored me, deep inside I guess I already knew current medical science can't really help out, but it's nice to have hope. Now I don't know what to do.
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Nov 27, 2018 10:15
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signalnoise posted:Part of this whole "focus" thing is picking the right things to focus on, right? Try applying that to your life as a system of prioritizing your focus not just moment to moment for tasks, but also just for whatever activity you're engaged in, if it contributes to your overall gloominess, try not doing that thing. You make a lot of strong points. And for sure, I learned to stay away of certain things that I know will trigger me. However, looking back, a lot of the good things in my life came from facing my fears, and in a way it's good that I didn't know that I was on the spectrum. I always flipped between anxiety or gloominess when I was alone, and a different anxiety and over-stimulation when I went out. But for years I forced myself to get out there and meet people. In the back of my head, I always assumed that I would conquer my fears. To a certain degree I did, but it remains difficult. The psychologist who tested me for spectrum disorder almost fell off her chair when I told her I had been a dj for years and organized events and stuff. And if I had had my diagnosis back then, I would have concluded that I wasn't able to do things like that. A lot of my friends I have today, and even my wife, I would have never met without pushing myself. I did all that without medication too. But I got tired of fighting, because it stays a fight, and you realize that everything will always be a fight. So it's a good question of when you should push yourself, and when you should stop doing whatever it is that makes you anxious. My problem is that a lot of the things that make me happy are also the ones that make my anxiety go nuts. The same with concentration problems. I'm in a luxury position that I can do what I love for a living, but that doesn't mean I can focus on it. On the contrary. Anyway, thanks for the replies, I'll watch the video later at home.
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Nov 27, 2018 14:25
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Hate Fibration posted:No poo poo it didn't. Shoot your psych. Risperidone is a dopamine and serotonin agonist, that is basically the opposite of what you want for someone with ADHD. To be clear, this was an end of the line medication, because they tried everything else, and it was the lowest dose possible. They also found out very recently that I'm ASD and not ADD, like they used to think. So she wasn't really handing it out like candy. More a 'I don't loving know what else to try' sort of thing.
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Nov 30, 2018 12:34
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So my psychiatrist convinced me to give wellbutrin another go. Years ago, I had tried it after a number of other medication had failed badly, but I had given up on it after the first week also seemed to have poo poo side effects. But I gave it another go for 4 weeks and the side effects were pretty manageable. There were no visible positive effects yet, but I was hoping that on the long term it might. Then my wife pointed out that my thinning hair had shifted into a much higher gear and I was losing hair fast. It took me a couple of days before I made the connection and check the wellbutrin side effects, and yes, in rare cases it does cause hair loss. For gently caress sake.
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Jan 9, 2019 11:24
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Geisladisk posted:They use Concerta here, which is basically adderall but better and less abusable. I thought concerta (ritalin) and adderall are very different meds.
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Feb 26, 2019 21:04
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Is there a psychological term, other than procrastination, for people who always start doing something less important than the thing they’re supposed to be doing, or that is extremely urgent? My brother does this to an extent far beyond the comical/maddening.
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Mar 9, 2019 10:15
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