#strattera

[wikipediapictures]

Atomoxetine

“picture taken of an atomoxetine (Strattera®) 60 mg capsule.” - via Wikimedia Commons

[candlebel]

My personal experience with Strattera (+fluoxetine):

I'm not pissed that there's something I really want to do like drawing or sewing but I have to do this chore first. No, I'm just excited to get there.

I don't need to mentally prepare for an hour before doing the chore.

I'm not bored out of my mind. I can work with no music, no video running in the background, I don't have distracting thoughts. No thoughts at all actually. Just PEACE.

I have ENERGY, both physically and mentally. I'm not tired, I don't drag myself through the chore. I work fast, even sort of multitasking, ideas are organized, ideas flow well, good workflow.

Short term memory is better.

I crave less sugar/junk food.

Among other things.

Things that haven't changed too much:

I still hyperfixate with activities (and in general). The past months I haven't touched my drawings or crafts, I've only been wanting/craving to sew.

I still leave things unfinished to start something else. I not only have art WiPs but also clothing WiPs. Imagine.

Now...... There are days/weeks when the medicine doesn't quite work. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what causes it, but I guess it's poor quality sleep. I'm not quite good at recognizing changes in my own behavior, this is what I've noticed so far. And since I'm taking two meds, I'm not sure what to attribute to what.

Edit: i think it's the sleep schedule, if it goes messy, it's as if there's no strattera.

[uraniumshark]

My psychiatrist won't put me on stimulants because he thinks I'll get addicted. Keep in mind that I took only my prescribed amount of any stimulant for years. If I abused a stimulant, it was caffeine. Not anything I was prescribed because stimulants are a pita to get a hold of.

Strattera and Qelbree make me want to sleep before I can be functional. Clonidine has become my sleeping med instead of anxiety because I passed out multiple times after taking it.

Please. I just want to be able to focus. I cannot focus for shit right now because half the time I'm passed out.

[drrrtygirl420]

would go to the psych ward but I have school

[dashingtothestars]

I just started taking my new adhd medication four days ago (generic strattera aka atomoxetine), and so far, the only side effect I've been experiencing is drowsiness! When I take my pill after eating dinner, I end up falling asleep before 11pm because of it.

While I appreciate the forced correction of my sleep schedule, this leaves me waking up crazy early in the mornings once my body's decided I've had enough sleep. The silver lining to this is that it means I've been awake to catch THREE different Ateez livestreams happening in the early morning because I was up in time to watch them live 😭 So worth itttt

Apparently I'll start noticing the first signs of improvements to my adhd symptoms and their intensity as I approach one month of taking my meds--I struggle most with time blindness, task initiation, and habit maintenance, so I'm really hoping that I can get better at those with time. For now, it's just a matter of adjusting to the medication and not suffering from too many side effects. So far, so good!

[grumpyoldsnake]

So!

Life. Changes. ADHD meds & brain wrangling…

I’ve been on Strattera after switching off of Wellbutrin for several months now. (I did not necessarily *want* to stop the Wellbutrin, but the dose that had been working for me started giving me side-effects, and while I tried the next lower dose for a year, it proved insufficient for ADHD management.)

.

Pros:

- My anxiety is WAY lower. That’s been fantastic!

- I can tell I’m driving more safely again; far fewer instances of getting caught off-guard by things I should have seen coming. Also fantastic.

- I have more energy and focus left at the end of the day for creative pursuits, which has been nice. Been writing more than before!

- Basically no side effects since I started taking the pill before bed rather than in the morning. (In the morning, it was leaving me mildly nauseated for most of the day.)

- My weird undiagnosed shooting phantom pains and twitches/spine chills have almost disappeared. Not a huge deal, they were more annoying than distressing, but it’s certainly a minor perk. (The fact that Wellbutrin affected them does make me wonder whether they might have been super mild seizure activity or something though ffff. Alternatively: maybe they were just psychosomatic anxiety nonsense??)

.

Cons:

- The Strattera is not helping my working memory whatsoever, where the Wellbutrin did. I’m back to forgetting why I’ve gone to a room by the time I get to said room, only remembering to run half my intended errands when I’m out and about, making mistakes at work like accidentally leaving scientific instrumentation running over the weekend… it honestly kind of sucks. :/

- I’ve been feeling more emotional & self-critical than I’m used to. Might be a pretty natural consequence of making more mistakes throughout life, or might be because Wellbutrin was being helpful as an antidepressant too.

.

In conclusion… more pros than cons, and some of the pros are pretty major! But the cons are major too. :’)

I remain conflicted.

[bootdork]

Strattera people how do you deal with the nausea

[weirdpersonifiedpills]

What animal you have in mind for Ritalin to be?

Ritalin has been a hard one for me since Concerta and Ritalin are technically the same medication, but I feel like they need separate characters. They’re names for the same medication, methylphenidate, but they’re different in doses and release. I switched from Concerta to Ritalin when I needed to up my dose since the next dose up of Concerta was too high for me. The stimulant meds are squirrels!

(Pardon the old art and older art here)

Ritalin came first name-wise. Methylphenidate was synthesized in 1944 in Germany, and the man who synthesized it named it after his wife, Rita (full name Marguerite). She used the drug for her low blood pressure. It was sold by Novartis, which was known as CIBA (Company for Chemical Industry Basel) at the time (Novartis came about in 1996 after two Swiss companies, Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz Laboratories). An extended release form of methylphenidate was approved by the FDA in 2000, known as Concerta, marketed by Alza Corporation. I almost feel like, lore wise, this would mean that the chemical got a second personification. This older medication, marketed with similar tactics to big names like Valium and Miltown (that being the “Mothers Little Helper” flavor of advertisement), has been used for so many different things. Ritalin was only approved for hyperactivity in 1961, and I love this ad from that time:

Very similar to what happened with Valium and the benzos, Ritalin became controversial despite the newfound blockbuster status thanks to treating hyperactivity. Both Ritalin and ADHD as a disorder were placed on the chopping block as people compared it to illegal amphetamines (we’ve all seen someone make that “well it’s basically meth they’re selling meth!” claim, it’s been around forever). Of course, Ritalin was being used a street drug as well. Ciba was against reclassifying Ritalin, worried about stigmatizing their patients. Ritalin ended up getting banned in its parent company’s home county of Sweden in the 1970s. Even back then, ADHD was criticized for being “overdiagnosed” and stimulants for being “overprescribed.” Jump to the 2000s and now here comes Concerta, a new, young, hip take on Ritalin, now with a fun new shape and a longer duration. Look at these pills!! Fun shape!!

Give it two years and now here comes Focalin, DEXmethylphenidate. Ritalin has a sibling, a twin. Just like Celexa and Lexapro (Citalopram and escitalopram), where Celexa is a racemic mixture of its two isomers and Lexapro is a pure formulation of the active isomer only (the s enantiomer), Ritalin is a racemic mixture of its two isomers, and Focalin is a pure formulation of the active isomer only (the d isomer). It was developed to try and reduce side effects and adverse drug interactions. Focalin ALSO got super fun shapes for its pills, going the benzo route and getting a letter shape, with a D for D-(dex)methylphenidate

How cute is that?? Hell, Novartis was even gonna name it Ritadex, but the FDA was like, “come on guys that’s too similar to the other one” and they went with Focalin instead (side note but I love how all of the ADHD drugs got funny names. Adderall, like ADD, what ADHD used to be called. Concerta, like concentrate. Focalin, like focus. Speaking of which, can we tell that MY Ritalin has worn off for the night?).

So imagine you’re Ritalin. You spent your life jumping from career to career, treating depression in the elderly, exhausted housewives, helping those locked away in asylums for YEARS, then transitioned to helping children with hyperactivity issues. You become a blockbuster, huge new responsibilities are placed on your shoulders, but you’re getting recognition finally. Then, people start to criticize you, your parent company, they want you rescheduled, but even when you’re made schedule III in 1970, and then schedule II in 1971, predictions continue to rise. The movement against you expands in the mid 1970s, spreading to the diagnosis you now mainly treat, ADHD, resulting in the American Academy of Pediatrics coming to your aid, basically saying “hey guys cool it, you can use non-medication therapies if you’d like, but there’s a place for stimulant drugs in this treatment.” 1980 rolls around, the DSM-III comes out, and ADD is finally included. The text revision in 1987 changes this to ADHD in 1987. Finally it seems like things are calming down, but then another company decides to basically release a new version of you ‘toy animatronic from FNAF’ style in 2000. Hello Concerta. Then in 2002, your parent company hops on this and now you’ve got a twin. Hello Focalin. On top of that, the first non-stimulant ADHD treatment is approved that same year, and here comes Strattera.

Basically, I think Ritalin is a tired older guy who, after half a century of turmoil, was suddenly handed like, multiple children he did not ask for. “Here’s your clone, here’s your twin, and heres Strattera they’re here too enjoy!!” A big part of the reason why I think Ritalin and Concerta need separate characters is because of how I’ve already characterized Concerta; it doesn’t fit what I’d wanna do with Ritalin. Concerta is nearly hyperactive herself, she’s fast and quick witted, headstrong and incredibly extroverted. Ritalin is the opposite, he’s calm and more serious, he grew up in a completely different time than Concerta would have. Ritalin is a boomer (technically he’d be part of the Silent Generation since he was 1944 but still) while Concerta, Focalin, and Strattera are Gen Z. I wouldn’t wanna do something like I did with Prozac and Sarafem, since Sarafem was literally just a recolor and rebrand of Prozac, nothing about the medication or its duration, function, or makeup was changed. I’ve struggled with the Ritalin/Concerta thing for a while but typing it out and reading it back it helping it come together more. Anyway, Ritalin would yell at Concerta and her friends to get off of his lawn probably.