meds causing paranoia & aggression | ADHD Information

We could not handle Adderrall either, also due to what it did to anxiety. Many, many people do not have this issue. We didnt have the anger/aggression, but the sadness and lots and lots o tears. Her doctor said the same thing, it was the Adderral and in our case it was. There is know way to know AHEAD of time how some one will react. Everyone is so different. The Clomiprimine is in the same family as Nortriptyline (which we used for a year and a half) and Desipramine, which we just started using. It will help with anxiety and a lot of the ADHD symptoms, especu=ially impulsiveness. It generally does not work as well as a stimulant for focus, but can help. This family of meds has been around a long time. It has it's own possible side effects. we have found it a better path for us and it is a 24 hour med so no dealing with rebound. Good luck. Keep us informed I'd love to know how you do. As I said we are in the process of building up to optimum dose for Desipramine as we speak, WE go for our labs, EKG this week.

Wow, we've been through hell the past few weeks. I'm just curious if anyone else has had these experiences too and also I want to warn others.

   My 10 year old son has adhd and has recently been diagonsed with GAD and now OCD.  The doctor put him on effexor which really helped the anxiety - he has slept through the night by himself for a month now! He was also on Adderall XR for the focusing in school.  After a week or two of these new meds we noticed that he was getting extremely mean and aggresive in the afternoons.  We tried to calmly and rationaly talk with him.  It got to the point where you couldn't talk to him - he just got more angry.  He began using profanitly and other inappropriate language.  We tried the loving approach, washing his mouth out with soap, taking things away from him, restriction, etc... NOTHING WORKED!  He just got madder and madder.  He blamed everything on others. He felt like everyone (including us) was against him and picking on him.  He took no responsibility for his actions.  This became the ritual every afternoon/evening.  Days seemed better. About a week ago we realized that he had no one to play with after school.  Everyone was mad at him.  He had become so paranoid that he actually felt like aeveryone was talking about him so he was yelling and fussing at classmates.  We finally go in to see the doctor today.  As we describe our son's extreme anger and complete loss of control over his temper, the doctor immediately said, "it's the adderall!"  The doctor never gave us a hint that the meds could have this extreme effect on our son.  Had we known we would have flushed it immediately.  We  stopped the Adderall today and are weaning him off of the Effexor.  Once off both, he will start Chloramipramine.  We pray that this will give us back our loving and happy son.  Has anyone else had any extreme reactions to drugs? 

 

Geesman, I don't blame your son.  I once took Effexor XR as well, and combined it a few times with Adderall.  The rebound left me a little more paranoid than usual, but the effexor xr alone made me the devil.  I can still remember how the smallest things ticked me off, and how much I craved confrontation.It does sound like the anxiety is being made worse. Diane has given you a lot of good information. We are starting risperdal for anxiety issues that have slowly increased with the school year (teasing incidents at school had become really bad before any adults knew about them and could act). vickie39224.3293634259Adderal was a devil's potion here.  My child became very violent andangry.  We switched to concerta and what  differnece!Wow, I could have written your post, I am so saddened that you have experienced this as well.

My 7 yr old daughter was on Adderall XR, she started off on 20 mg back in January and began to hallucinate and have other very frightening side effects (saying there were bugs in her bed, saying weird things etc). After research we found that this was an extremely high dose to start off at and she seemed to be having symptoms of overdose, so we went down to 10 mg which did nothing. So we went back up to 15 mg one last time which was the highest I was willing to try and that seemed to work as far as the attention and school work went, she went up to the front of her class in reading levels when beforehand she couldnt focus to read more than 1 page.

So that was all good but her behaivor/personality has become reprehensible. Just...I cant even describe all the ways she has become on this med. Angry, antisocial, so negative (she hates everything and everyone is out to get her). She has no friends left and claims everyone hates her, she is so lonely but cannot see it is her actions that push people away. Finally tomorrow she starts Daytrana, the patch, at 15 mg of that as well. I pray it works, even if it doesnt we will never ever go back to the Adderall. I hate the way it has changed my child so completely so as I do not even recognize her anymore. It has also greatly strained our relationship, and caused me so much guilt and sadness as I do not enjoy being around her much anymore with this new personality. I am ready to get my daughter back.

Hugs.

Tina