Adult ADHD on Concerta

I have had ADHD my whole life. I am a 31 yr old military mother of three. I have never been on medication for it before. My ADHD seems to have gotten worse with every child I have had. I don't know if it is a chemical thing or if the added responsibility has just made it harder to cope. I finally decided to take a stand and get on something to fix it. I started for the first month with Straterra 120mg because it is not a stimulant. (I sleep about 4-5 hours per night due to insomnia and did not want to add to it by taking a stimulant.) Straterra didn't do anything but make me throw up about 2 hours after i took it. No change in my attention span at all, however, it did help me sleep better at night. So my doctor switched me to Concerta 36mg. I have now been on it for 2 1/2 weeks and so far it's not doing anything during the day. And when i get home at night and it wears off, the Mr. Hyde to my Dr. Jeckel comes out!!! I am gritting my teeth in anger at the dumbest little things. I am yelling at my husband, throwing things, and pitching absolute fits over nothing. I am so mean since I started on it. I told my doctor and he said that it takes a month or so to level out in my system. Has anyone else had this effect with Concerta, and if so, does it go away? I am thinking of trying out Adderal instead. Any thoughts???

Originally Posted by ADHDMOMOFTHREE

I have had ADHD my whole life. I am a 31 yr old military mother of three. I have never been on medication for it before. My ADHD seems to have gotten worse with every child I have had. I don't know if it is a chemical thing or if the added responsibility has just made it harder to cope. I finally decided to take a stand and get on something to fix it. I started for the first month with Straterra 120mg because it is not a stimulant. (I sleep about 4-5 hours per night due to insomnia and did not want to add to it by taking a stimulant.) Straterra didn't do anything but make me throw up about 2 hours after i took it. No change in my attention span at all, however, it did help me sleep better at night. So my doctor switched me to Concerta 36mg. I have now been on it for 2 1/2 weeks and so far it's not doing anything during the day. And when i get home at night and it wears off, the Mr. Hyde to my Dr. Jeckel comes out!!! I am gritting my teeth in anger at the dumbest little things. I am yelling at my husband, throwing things, and pitching absolute fits over nothing. I am so mean since I started on it. I told my doctor and he said that it takes a month or so to level out in my system. Has anyone else had this effect with Concerta, and if so, does it go away? I am thinking of trying out Adderal instead. Any thoughts???

From what I've read, this can happen with any stimulant, which Concerta is. The "leveling out" is merely your brain's ability to adapt to the chemical, usually by shutting down some of it's own stimulating abilities. Downregulation of brain receptors is common when taking a psychoactive drug over an extended time. Bad thing about that is that the brain becomes more dependant on the drug for normal functions and also eventually builds up a tolerance to the effects over time.

you sound like me iam on dexedrine 10ml slow release morn 6 noon then when it wheres off or i drope down or i take a 5ml fast release to get me 2 bedtime.. and i finally sleep at nite 2

I've tried Ritalin (which is short-acting Concerta) and Adderall, but have had the most sucess with Dexedrine. It's a highly personal thing as far as which medication works best for you, and you may have to try a few before you find one that works best with your chemistry. Your mood swings sound very hard to deal with, and, as a parent myself, I know what effect that can have on you and your family. If I were you, I'd try a different med. You may not have as severe of a rebound effect. Good luck, Sue

My son used to take Concerta. He was on 54 mg. It seems to me that at night (evening) with him when any of his meds, no matter what he's on, he gets irritated easily when he starts coming off of it. The Concerta worked with him though for a few years and it didn't take a month to notice the effects. Eventually as he got older it didn't work anymore for him so he was switched, yet again. We tried him on Adderall and it didn't work at all for him. He is now on Dexedtine and that doesn't work all that much either so I'm not much help there either. I do know that with most meds when they are weaing off it can have that irritable effect on you.

I have tried both concerta and adderall. Concerta did absolutely nothing, while Adderall worked like a charm. If you are worried about sleep, don't take it within 4 hours or so of going to bed. Adderall works, but you mentioned having an extremely short temper with concerta, and I found that after a week or so of taking adderall, I got the same type of results when I stopped taking it. It has an extremely high potential for abuse and you can build up a tolerance to it very easily. I would talk to your doctor though, because it does work and it may work out well for you.