Clarification / Question | ADHD Information

Actually most people find adderall/dexedrine makes them alert - some even a bit on edge!  Ritalin has been known to slow down attention and reflexes for some but it's a small portion.

Now stratterra - that seems to have the slow down and "zombie" effect with many that you describe.

I'd say maybe you are getting the wrong dose, or at the wrong time of day.  Also - make damn sure you get 8 hours sleep or there will be a price to pay a few weeks down the road.  Even if you feel alert and fine the meds are carrying you and eventually your body will not work right.  Keep that in mind - the meds you take have the affect of giving a "false sense of well-being" and may not notice the changes until they are severe.  Do take care of the little things - they need to be focused on my friend.

Best of luck!

I had to back off and lower my dose.

 I went from 30 mg of adderall xr once a day to 10 mg xr once every two days.

 It removed the "zombie effect".

 actually your feeling the over medicated effect. zombie is a close comparison, but over medication is the term your looking for. Zombie means laid back and dead, with no feeling of dead,

 over medicated means, racing , confused, shutting down mentally, and feeling dead.

 Maybe it is time to really cut back and see. I forced my dr to run me to 10 mg of xr once every 2 days. It is working for me, but ask your dr. and see.
Hey, thanks for the responses. Today was better in that it didnt make me
feel strange at all. In fact I didnt feel like I had taken anything. I will call
and ask but my guess is we will be increasing the dose. Thanks again for
taking the time to read and answer my post. I appreciate it and will try to
keep a keen eye out for signs of over medication and paying attention to
sleep, food, ect. I will keep you all posted as I see some come with
questions get advice and then unfortunately we never hear how it turns out.
My best wishes to all. I have read, either on this board or others, that Adderall makes some "feel
like a zombie" and I wanted to kind of clarify if that was what I was
feeling. It was like I could concentrate a little better. I could read with
out falling into a daydream and loosing my place every other paragraph
but I couldn't process the information. Also I felt really unmotivated, still
fidgety, and just pretty much weird or not good, for lack of a better word
or words.

So thats the first part of my question. Second is the all to familiar newly
diagnosed bla bla that you guys have had the patience to read so often. I
was diagnosed by a psychiatrist and we are currently running the guamet
of medication. I have read enough here to know that everyone reacts
differently to medication. However, I have seen some similarities between
my self and other here so in hopes of finding someone who might have a
similar chemistry to me and could offer some suggestions as to what
worked well for them, or just getting a little friendly support I though I
would relate my experience.

My psy is a pretty cool guy and is really working with me and taking my
feed back seriously. That or he has me fooled. Probably the latter.
Regardless we started with a generic methylphenidate as I could get a
months worth for like seven dollars though the VA hospital. 10mg to
start moving up to 20mg 2 to 3 x a day. It worked really well for about
three days then I started getting this combination dull headache /
pressure in my head. When the pressure came the meds stopped
working. Tried it for a couple more days and the pressure just came
earlier and earlier each time.

Next we tried Dexedrine barr generic 10mg spansules 2x daily moving up
to 20mg 2x day. It seemed to help a little but was really subtle, and
didn't address the main reasons for me seeking help. My focus, short
term memory problems, and organization are my main concern as I had
been recently accepted to the school I wanted to go to, and didnt do so
hot the first semester. Also the 20mg seemed like too much, couldn't
sleep, periodically felt like bugs were crawling on / biting me, some
fluttering in my chest that might have been heart palpitations.

Then today we started the Adderall 5mg 2x today 10mg 2x tomorrow and
see how we feel. I am supposed to try it for a week but if it keeps making
me feel the same way, I am not interested. I want to find something that
works even half as good as the methylphenidate did at first and I will be
happy.

Any way thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to take the time and
lend some advice. No real new break through news.

I was ten minutes late to my doc appointment today and when I got there
they told me he had already left for the day. What can you do? L.A. traffic
really puts a damper on drive time.

I am assuming from out last conversation that we are going to go back to
some sort of methylphenidate. I will have to give him a call tomorrow.

I have since my last post tried taking the gen ritalin just to see if I could
maybe figure out something with the pressure in my head it produces. I
have found as long as I don't do any super strenuous exercise or use
certain types of chewing tobacco I don't get the pressure. Kind of strange
huh?

Hope all are well.Well today was the first day using Concerta 18mg taking two once a day
till I see what my metabolize time is like and then trying to figure out how
to fit a twice a day dose in if its not covering my whole day.

Kind of a strange day. I started with just one this morning to get a feel
for it. I only did this because when I took the suggested 20mg of
dexadrine it seemed like two much. I like to start small and increase
rather than letting to much medication run its course in me. four hours
in I didn't feel anything.

I took a second 18mg at that time and about 45 minutes in I could tell
that it was in my system. Seemed pretty much like Ritalin, which didn't
surprise me as we all know its just another form of methylphenidate.

Now this is the strange part. I have a two hour break in between classes
during which I rode my bike the 10 minutes back to my house and was
checking email and doing my daily reminders going over my calendar and
such. From what I remember I had been looking at the clock periodically
and when it came time for me to leave for class I gathered my books and
rode back to school. As I walked into class my professor was gathering
up her things and the class was empty.

She must think I am a total moron because I just looked at her all
confused and asked her if class was over. She said yea and I asked her
what time it was. As she told me the time it registered that I knew what
time class was and that I knew it was over. I don't know how I could just,
after having class for 4 weeks, suddenly convince my self that it was at a
different time.

Well I hope tomorrow goes better.