I recently switched insurance carriers and my new insurance does not cover strattera, shocker, and I don't want to pay for it oop so I'm trying Ritalin instead. Strattera worked ok, I tried adderall last year and after 6 months of no effects at all I went back to Strattera. I'm about a week in from starting on 10mg 2x/day of Ritalin and some days were ok, others not so much. I am also weaning myself off of Zoloft and eventually going on Celexa for depression and my issue right now is the rebound that happens after I get home from work and the anti-depressants basically not doing anything at this point. I feel like I need an additional dose of Ritalin since I need to take it every 3.5 hours and the rebound is making me nuts. I'm fighting with my husband, sad and depressed all the time, patience is shot with my 2 year old, things are just not going so hot. I know it's only been a week but for us adhders that's like a year. I've got an appt w/a nurse that specializes in adult adhd on july 10th and figure I can make it until then but in the mean time my husband doesn't understand what i'm going through and it feels like he just expects me to be normal when inside my head there's a tornado-but it's not nearly as organized as a tornado. I'm just not sure how to explain what goes on inside my head because he's the antithesis of ADHD and really doesn't understand..... My insurance doesn't cover ANY ADHD meds, so they are all out of pocket for me. I understand your frustration about being limited - trust me. Why are you going off of Zoloft? Did it work for you? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. What is rebound? I've heard that before. Is that a recurrence of symptoms? I see a licensed psychiatric nurse practitioner for my meds. To see a professional that specializes in mental meds is a great idea! Have you tried calmly explaining to your husband that you feel like you have a tornado inside your head? Maybe if you let him know that you aren't behaving these ways on purpose and that you ARE taking steps to make it better (dr appts and med changes), ask him to be patient with you because you have none. If he really loves you, he will give you the time you need to sort things out. Let him know that you understand his confusion - and that you are confused too. But that together, you can get through this. Good luck to you.
BTW, I've tried (all generics of course because they're cheaper) Ritalin SR - gave me bad headaches, regular adderall - quit working after a couple of weeks, now i'm on Dexedrine - which I was on as a kid and it does seem to help but i do get headaches and the insomnia is bad. I'm running out of inexpensive options. let me know what works for you. can you get the insurance company to pay for the strattera for your depression as opposed to ADHD? why are they not covering it?
I'm with you: an additional dose (or less) of Ritalin should take care of your rebound problem. Here is an excerpt from an article by Thomas Brown, M.D. related to this topic:
"...One possible source of confusion in adjusting stimulant
medication dosing is rebound, a problem that is often
misunderstood. The medication being taken likely is being
dosed too high or is just not well suited for that patient if he
or she is experiencing any of the following during the hours
a stimulant should be working: excessive irritability, feeling
too “wired” (as if the patient has had too many cups of coffee),
or blunting of affect so the patient can get work done
but loses his or her “sparkle” and sense of humor.
However, if these symptoms are not present during the
hours in which the medication is expected to be effective
but do appear during the hours the medication is likely
to be wearing off, such problems may be due to rebound
(ie, the blood level may be dropping too quickly, causing
the patient to “crash”). Rebound often can be alleviated
by administering a small dose of the immediate-release
version of the same stimulant medication shortly before
the time of day when the rebound onsets, smoothing the
curve so the drop-off is more gradual."
http://www.drthomasebrown.com/pdfs/cmgarticle.pdf
I hope you find relief... my experience with rebound is that it is strongest when first starting the medication, but that doesn't mean you need to put up with it! I found that the rebounding "me" was far worse than the unmedicated "me", for all involved!
|
Enter Your Email below to claim your Free Book |
Copyright© 2006 ADHDNews.com. All rights reserved