Dexedrine withdrawal | ADHD Information
Has anyone here been on Dexedrine and switched to something else? I had been doing better but Friday I changed from Dexedrine to Daytrana. At the same time my lamictal upped from 25mg to 50mg. I am crying and so tired now. I wonder if it could be withdrawal from the Dexedrine? Does anyone have any experience with this?lymom338914.5199189815
lymom - have you ever tried one of the Ritalin formulas? For many who cannot use Adderall it seems to work for them. There are many choices now so you may want to try.
Whatever you get onto might I suggest you set up a med holiday schedule with your doc? If you arrange to wean off a week every couple months you shouldn't find the same tolerance issues. Just ask about it anyway.
Also whatever med you choose unless the side effects are totally intolerable give it the chance to work. Some meds take months to get to full effect.
[QUOTE=lymom3] Has anyone here been on Dexedrine and switched to something else? I had been doing better but Friday I changed from Dexedrine to Daytrana. At the same time my lamictal upped from 25mg to 50mg. I am crying and so tired now. I wonder if it could be withdrawal from the Dexedrine? Does anyone have any experience with this?
lymom3
A resounding Yes!
Due to GKB lab having (brand name) Dexedrine on a 5-6 mth back order, I tried generic dextroamphetamine sulfate from barr labs. I became very ill w/symptoms of an overdose; these are listed on the mfg's sheet. I spoke w/my doc about them and he told me to stop taking them immediately. (Knowing something was wrong, I discontinued them hours before talking with him about it, anyway.) This was just last week, and that part of withdrawal lasted 5 days. I imagine it would have been less time if the toxic effect didn't happen.
The symptoms of withdrawing from (brand) Dexedrine/of being forced into abrupt withdrawal were exactly as you describe. I became atypically emotional w/ongoing crying bouts along w/episodes of the crying ranging from gutteral to high-pitched. The tiniest request or task increased my anxiety/stress to where I broke down and cried, "I can't handle any stress!"
I'm now on day 4 of having had no meds at all and like my doc told me...I've been sleeping a lot. This is also atypical for me. The good news is that I have been quite calm-yet another atypical for me.
Sporadically, I suddenly have very short bouts of anxiety in my chest area where I must get up and move about for a few minutes, and then it's gone.
For anyone who, like me, is very sensitive to medications I discovered that the coatings on some generics are very difficult to digest, which, in turn, causes a buildup leading to a toxic/overdose effect. (My low dosage is 2.5 milligrams-no typo-every 2.5 hours.) I don't know if, indeed, the generic I took has such a coating, but it's more than coincidental that this happened to me seeing that I've been on low doses of the Brand Dexedrine for approx. 9 years.
Btw, the coating on a generic anti-depressant caused an overdose effect on my daughter after having taken the Brand only.
lymom3, how do you feel now? Let us know :)
marzie020
I have come out of my fog I think. The overwhelming need to sleep has for the most part passed. I'm still crying at the drop of a hat, but I've always had some issues with that....not this bad though. Of course, there are external things contributing to that. I have 3 ADHD people living in the same house; myself, my 18 year old who is trying to learn how to be a grown up even though mentally he isn't quite there yet because of his ADHD and a 14 year old who fights being diagnosed with anything every step of the way. He has a learning disability in writing also. Put a normal husband (step dad to my kids) and his normal daughter in the mix who have never experienced anything like us in their lives and it's a recipe for heartache sometimes and right now it just is that way.
My problem is that I don't know what to try next. I have switched to Daytrana as I have problems with crashing in the afternoon. The pdoc thought that would be more even release and alleviate that problem. I am currently on 2 - 20mg patches roughly an equivalent of 100mg of ritalin released over the day and I feel nothing at all. Focalin helps but makes me horribly depressed. Adderall helped but made me so irritable and mean. I clearly need a stimulant...all my docs agree on that, but what to try?
Enough boo hoo about me...hope everyone else is doing well.
I have recently started to taper down dexedrine and I have been
experiencing similar problems. I have been taking it for 5 years on and
off and in the past year i have taken it much more regularly. I switched
from taking about a 15mg spansual in the morning and 15mg non-time
release in the evening to taking 15mg non-time release in the morning
and a concerta in the afternoon. I have tapered down to 10mg in the
morning and sometimes no concerta. But this week i stopped taking the
dexadrine all together because i ran out and have not had a chance to get
more from my doctor and i've just been taking concerta. I can't work, i
feel slow and lethargic and i'm very irritable and depressed. The worst
part is not being able to get work done. I am actually trying to get off
the dex because i am going to be going out of the country and won't have
access to it. I do have more finally after not having it for about 5 days.
Given how long i have been taking the dexedrine, does anyone have any
idea how long these symptoms will last? I am going to start taking the
dexadrine again until this project is done, but i feel i may be dependent
because i feel i can't work without it. This morning i had a lot of difficulty
waking up, as i usually take it in the morning and i've felt like a zombie
all week.I have given my shot to the Daytrana patch...no help there. The dexedrine sleepiness went away eventually. Now I'm trying Ritalin LA...not bad effects so far so here's to hoping!!
[QUOTE=lymom3]I have given my shot to the Daytrana patch...no help there. The dexedrine sleepiness went away eventually. Now I'm trying Ritalin LA...not bad effects so far so here's to hoping!![/QUOTE]
lymom3 - I hope things work out for you. Today is approx. day 16-17 (?) since I've not taken any ADD meds. I still feel fatigue certain parts of each day, but it's not as severe as last week. I'm still in the evaluation stage of whether I want to try something other than Dexedrine.
Good Luck
marzie020
dexexdrine is probably the harshest. I have never had that kind of problem with any other stimulant that I've taken. I'd give something else a shot.Thanks Lymom, i'd love to hear more about your process too.Saturday I slept until very late, but tried taking concerta without drinking
coffee and slowly let myself wake up while I was listening to NPR and sort
of dozing. I felt groggy most of the day until the afternoon and I finally
started to perk up. I had the motivation to get some laundry done and
clean my room, which was LONG LONG over due. I hadn’t had the chance
to do that or the motivation in a while, because I was either too busy or
too tired. I went out to some bars with friends and got pretty drunk, so I
don’t know if drinking has an effect on my days, but today went much
better.
When I was doing laundry two 5 mg non-spansuals popped out of one of
my pants pockets, and I was delighted. Sometimes I take the smaller
doses to work to take later in the afternoon so I can keep concentrating.
I overslept again this morning, but I took the two dexadrine and was
feeling much better today. I didn’t take the concerta at all because I was
feeling focused enough on just the 10mg of dex. I don’t know if they
were stronger for me because I had gone so long without them, or what,
but I felt fine except for a minor headache which went away after I made
sure to drink a lot of tea to stay hydrated.
I didn’t feel drowsy at all today and I noticed that I had been walking a lot
slower when I didn’t have it before. It is amazing how much 10mg can
do. I was taking 15mg non spansuals before in addition to 15mg of
spansuals, and smoking a lot of marijuana a few months ago. Now I’ve
stopped the marijuana and cut my dexadrine dose and started using
concerta. I hope to just use the concerta eventually and only take the
dexadrine once in a while when I have a lot of work or reading. I am
going to start trying to only take the dexadrine one at a time instead of
together. My doctor says its okay to experiment with tapering it down.
Unfortunately since I am going out of the country my doctor can’t
prescribe it for me over there and I probably won’t be able to have a
doctor there prescribe it. Since I will be gone for a year I would like to get
off the meds completely and see how I do for a while. I’ve been on the
meds for more than 4 years now, and I really don’t know if they are
helping so much anymore.
Tomorrow I will be able to get my new presription, so i won't have to go
cold turky anymore.
Sorry, that was long, but i really appreciate the help.
-Pink Umbrellapinkumbrella38921.8500115741
[QUOTE=pinkumbrella]I have recently started to taper down dexedrine and I have been experiencing similar problems. ... not having it for about 5 days."
pinkumbrella - Not having taken any for 5 days caused you to go into abrupt withdrawal, and it's very hard on the body. (as I learned from my recent experience).
"Given how long i have been taking the dexedrine, does anyone have any
idea how long these symptoms will last?" ~~~
Today is approx. day 12 since I took my last Brand Dexedrine and it's the first day I awakened that I needed only 20 minutes + 2 large mugs of coffee for my brain to activate. 
Each person is different so this may not be your experience.
I don't know if this will help you. >> My withdrawal log went like this: From day 1 to 5 I was a total wreck, as I wrote about in my post above. Day 6 to 11 I slept a lot for a few days and felt fairly calm, albeit very slow-thinking. For quite a few days my sugar and blood pressure repeatedly dropped causing lightheadedness. (Yes, there's a connection, for me, that is.) For my safety and others, I didn't drive. And I had only had one short crying spell.
I've been oscillating between hyperfocusing and being scattered much more than before I started meds.
I am going to start taking the dexadrine again until this project is done, but i feel i may be dependent because i feel i can't work without it. ~~~ If you have a new 30 day script, you might want to talk w/your doc about using this month to taper down. The doc might want to prescribe non-spansules in smaller doses taken more often.
Please post updates. 
marzie020
[QUOTE=GlenW]"have you ever tried one of the Ritalin formulas?
There are many choices now so you may want to try."
Glen - What's a Ritalin formula?
Thanks!
marzie020