New to Stimulants, Lots of Questions! | ADHD Information

John D, Thank you so much for your reply, it helps a lot. I am going to take your advice and try to stop reading up on the meds so much. I feel like I am almost obsessing over it. And everytime I google concerta side effects I see all of these things about sudden death etc. I think that is the main reason I became so concerned about the heart rate stuff. I am going to try to just listen to my body for the next week and see how things go instead of comparing my experience to everyone else's.

So the anxiety may not go away. That's good to know, I'll start looking for ways to cope with it.

Anyways, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to my questions. Thank you again!

another thing I've found on exercise and the med effect....if I have a good workout at the end of the day, after work, about the time or a little before the time the meds would normally trail off and the "rebound" feeling comes up....the exercise seems to work all that rebound stuff out of my system.  Result:  I go home feeling totally relaxed, sans any (well hardly any to speak of) feeling that the medication is still in my system.  Nice!

Perhaps, and hopefully, for you the anxiety will be fleeting.  I've found that, when I start to feel anxious, best thing to do is get my body active doing something...anything!... and that helps distract my mind.  Today I split wood, and that worked better than any anti-anxiety med!

Hi everyone,

I should apologize in advance for this incredibly long post! I started taking concerta a little over a month ago and have titrated up to 90mg. Yes, it is a pretty high dose, but it has improved my adhd symptoms greatly. I had my final adjustment last week. From now on, I will visit my doctor monthly.

I have had some pretty intense side-effects at this dose. I have only been on 90mg for 8 days, so maybe I need to give my body a little time to adjust. Is anyone else taking a high does of concerta or another stimulant?

Okay, the side effect that worries me the most is a pretty fast heart rate. My resting heart rate is often around 105bpm. When I stand up, it jumps by about 30bpm. I am a person who is/was pretty atheletic, and before concerta my resting heart rate was around 70bpm. I had to exert myself to get into the 140bpm range. Now, all I have to do is a little a housework, and my heart rate is as fast as it would be if I were on the elliptical machine. Oh yeah, and my endurance has dropped substantially. I used to go to they gym religiously six times a week. Since concerta I have been to the gym about 5 times in the past month. Oh yeah, and I have trouble taking a deep breath. The wierd thing is I am a lot more alert, despite the lack of exercise. Before, I had to exercise in order to lift the "brain fog".

Other side effects of note are anxiety/nervousness. I just cannot seem to relax. I feel tense all of the time, and noises really really annoy me now. If I am really feeling anxious, my hands will kind of shake. The shake probably isn't noticeable, but I am aware of it. I also have a little tension in my neck and should areas. The last side effect that is worrying is the weight loss. I think I have lost about eight pounds over the last month. From what I have read on these boards, this is pretty normal. But I don't want to lose anymore weight. I am thin already, and I don't want to be skinny. Any suggestions for keeping the weight on? I really don't have an apetitie like I used to, and food has become somewhat unappealing. Although when the concerta wears off, I have no trouble eating.

Socially, I am feeling a little withdrawn, not really interested in hanging out with friends. I am kind of off in my own world. I do seem to hyperfocus a bit as well. My mind is no longer all over the place and I can actually complete things. I feel like I have lost interest in television, although I was never a big TV watcher before Concerta. I must say that I am able to articulate myself a lot better, and retain information, something that is really helpful.

I guess the main reason I am posting is to see if these side-effects are usually transient, or is it something I will have to deal with? I spoke with my doctor about this last week, and he encouraged me to stay at this dose for a little while and see how it goes. I guess the heart rate and weight loss are supposed to even out as my body adjusts to the medication. I have had a full medical work up, including an ECG, and everything is normal. I just want to decided whether these side-effects are really worth the benefits I have been getting from this medication. I would appreciate your help!

I'm not on a high dose (40 mg Adderall/day) but experienced similar side effects.  My heart rate jumped around at first but settled down.   I was jumpy too, but that's pretty much gone now.... anxiety is still with me though.  Like you, I exercise regularly and have to be careful not to lose any more weight.  After a couple-three months I stopped losing weight.  I just have to "work" at eating, and eating "right" since I also border on high cholesterol.  One trick I read about for maintaining weight is adding powdered skim milk to regular skim milk. 

Yeah, the heart racing thing is pretty wierd, but I am glad to hear that it will pass. I have read so many horror stories about heart problems with ADD meds, that I get really freaked out soemtimes. I think that is part of the anxiety that I am experiencing. I keep wondering what  this med is going to do to me. Do you exercise while on medication or do you wait until after it has worn off? I am kind of nervous about exercising while on concerta because of the fast heart rate. Oh, one last question, is your anxiety equal to what it was when you first started medication? Thanks for your feedback! I really appreciate it.

a few thoughts/offerings for you:

a) everybody is different, so what you experience will be different from what I experience and also different from the generalized, summarized reports from all those study groups.

b) stop reading stuff about the meds.  really!  you know your body--trust yourself here and just stay tuned as you go through this initial phase--especially if you're not compromised by co-morbid conditions like alchohol addiction.  this will help with c) below.

c) regarding the medcations effects: focus on the present--how you feel now, and avoid forming expectations (more likely concerns) about what the meds will  do to you.  Stay focus on the present.  that way you can learn by comparing to what you experienced a day or a week ago--building up knowledge based on you (as opposed to others' experience).

d) experiment on the exercising stuff.  my preferred form of exercise is swimming (4x week, 1000-1500 yds).  I did a fair amount of bicycling when I started up on meds aslo.  The effects (heart rate, lightheadedness) change with time (diminished or disappeared, as my body adjusted) and also vary with where the level of medication is in my system on any given day.  here are some generalized observations regarding exercise and my twice daily dose of adderall 20 mg xr:  (1) the first few weeks I was noticeably faster while sprinting in both swimming and bicycling (2) I monitored my heart rate the first couple of weeks and found that a good swimming workout lowered my heart rate considerably, (3) when exercising under full med effect, I find it takes longer to feel "in the groove" but once I'm there, I can't really tell a difference from other times, (4) because of (3), I prefer to exercise when I am not under full med effect, but other than the longer "warm up" there's really no difference that I can tell.

e) ahhh anxiety!  never had it before being diagnosed...but now I have it "in spades"!  I can't say it's any better or worse from when I started the medication...but it's with me and I am still working on how to handle it/avoid it as best I can without medication--although I have medication (and use it) when have an anxiety attack.