ADHD Meds & Gastro Issues/Antidep Pairing | ADHD Information

Hey all. I was diagnosed with ADHD in July of this year and began taking Adderall XR and IR. Mine had always manifested in impatience or uncomfortableness in social settings, anxiety, multi-step processes and concentration on things I didn't find enjoyable.

For about four months, I was the best I had ever been in my life both in work and my personal life. It had a relaxing, energizing effect on me, eliminated a lot of my anxieties and evened out my mood. In November, I began to deal with some additional stresses and depression and felt like the medication had started to lose effect. I had always had some seasonal depression so I started on Wellbutrin along with Adderall to see if it helped.

The results were not favorable. It started out great but I had a lot of really extreme mood swings and irritability, I was either feeling amazing and up and active or like I couldn't get off the couch. At abour week four, I started to have extreme panic attacks and insomnia, so my doc discontinued it abrubtly and lowered my Adderall dosage. What followed was a withdrawal period so intense and miserable that I'm lucky to have a job or girlfriend. Adderall seemed generally ineffective during this time and the smaller dose I was on didn't do much for me.

During this mess, I developed some pretty intense gastointestinal issues that seemed to coinside with changes to Adderall's effects. I've started back from zero with Adderall and raised my dose up to 30mg XR / 10 mg IR (40 total), but the effects have changed. I feel physically tense and irritable and don't have the same lift on my mood and energy some days - Sort of all of the side effects, none of the benefits. I will get days when it works as normal and I'm able to think clearly, get things done and be upbeat, but there isn't any consistency and the duration of XR is 3-6 hours at best. Instead of feeling lifted on it like I was before, I feel more blunted or stuck inside of my head. It used to clear my mind, now it just jumbles it up more on days where it doesn't seem to take right. All I can do is fixate on trying to figure out why I feel different.

I'm perscribed Prilosec for LPR GERD, which started around the same time this whole mess did. I've tried to take it before, after, with, etc Adderall and have had no luck finding a good way to get consistently positive results. Due to the inconsistencies in Adderall and the depression, anxiety or fatigue that comes at the end of each "crash", I'm requesting an antidepressant to team with it. I figure if I can medicate that, it won't be so awful and if I do have to discontinue Adderall altogether, I won't have to do it without a safety net.

My questions are:
How do you get better and more consistent absorbtion of all the chemicals in Adderall within an acid stomach, or while on PPI blockers? When to take them, what to take them with, etc. Has anyone else had digestive issues impact ADHD meds, and if so, how did you deal with them?

How normal is panic and anxiety in ADHD? Is over-fixation on things (especially stressors, anxieties) while on medication part of the trade-off, a sign you should add an anxiety medication or a sign that you're not ADHD?

What antidepressants or benzos should an ADHDer with anxiety as his secondary concern take with a stimulant? I'd like to team Adderall with Zoloft but don't want to make my brain too fuzzy. Klonopin has also been discussed but I'm concerned about mixing two of the most addictice , hard-to-get-off-of psychopharms?

I have enough background to substantiate a bipolar diagnosis in terms of mood shifts and some of the behaviors, however I don't fit the profile entirely - I have anxiety, Adderall has a calming effect on me and my "up" phases are typically pretty mild. Mood changes and impulsivity on big decisions along with increased activity levels but a lot of that has been enviromental / seasonal. Should I take my reaction to Wellbutrin and the changes in effects with Adderall as a sign that my ADHD diagnosis is incorrect and that I'm actually in a down cycle of Bipolar?

If Adderall is having a negative impact on anxiety, do any of the other ADHD medications have less "tension" effects? I developed TMJ and some pretty rough muscle aches while on Adderall, how do most people deal with these and is there a med that isn't so physically rough?

Thanks!