Hi !

Just to go straight to the point, my doctor is thinking of trying Strattera in me, since it was recently made available as a generic and I tend to have prevailing side effects with stimulant medication (ritalin, Rubifen, elvanse).

I have some questions that would like to hear from people that are/were on this medication to share:

  1. I understand this is non-stimulating and seems to work akin to an antidepressant. Therefore, do I have to take it every day? Even on days I do not need ? With stimulant medication I only take it when doing theoretical work, and skip it when on the laboratory or other minor tasks and would never take it in days I’m not working, because I can’t just interact with people and gives me a baseline anxiety the whole day.

  2. What benefits did it gave you ?

  3. Any prevailing side effects?

  4. How does it compare with stimulant medication (after taking it for some weeks)?

For a bit of context:

I’ve been diagnosed for about 6 years now, and started with Ritalin XR. However, I could only keep using it for some months since it gave seriously side effects that persisted 3-5 months after stopping it. I later switched to Ritalin IR, which worked for some time and gave me less side effects. But it started to be ineffective after some months.

Then my doctor tried Elvanse (Vyvanse), it worked on keeping me focused, but the anxiety and the huge time frame of action of the drug led to me only taking it once or twice a week.

I’m now back on Ritalin IR, but always feel the anxiety and aversion to interact with people that I always feel with these 3 stimulants.

  • zero_spelled_with_an_ecksEnglish
    7·
    6 months ago

    1. take it every day

    2. more executive function overall. I wasn’t exhausted after a day’s work.

    3. sexual side effects, anxiety, high blood pressure, blurry vision

    4. once onboarding was over, it worked better for me than simulants because there was no ramp up in the morning and no crash in the afternoon or evening.

    I stopped taking it because once the starting side effects (nightmares, even worse anxiety, even worse sexual side effects) started to wear off, so did the efficacy.

    • procrastinare@discuss.tchncs.deOPEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      Interesting. I’m sorry about your side effects.

      After you stopped medicating did they go away completely? If your conformable sharing, did the sexual side effects include ED and/or reduced sexual appetite?

      • zero_spelled_with_an_ecksEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        Yep, they seem to have gone away. Currently trying Wellbutrin. Too early to tell if it’s working, though.

        Sexual side effects included some ED but the main one I noticed was separation of orgasm and ejaculation. Ejaculation came first then orgasm maybe 20 or 30 seconds more of stimulation after. And that was a problem for penetrative sex because part of me wanted to be in a refractory period and the other part wanted to continue to have an orgasm.