Posted by Xevious on July 5, 2002, at 3:56:37
I'm looking for some advice from folks here before I go back to my doc to try new meds...I have ADHD, inattentive subtype, with minimal hyperactive and impulsive symptoms. Although I have every imaginable inattentive symptom, my symptom "hit list" of critical ones to stamp out includes:
Dreaminess, fogginess, spaciness, internally-drifting attention when reading or attending lectures. (All aspects of wakeful focus) In a typical lecture setting, I will only be able to pay attention for a couple of minutes before drifting into an eyes-open, half-sleep of internal daydreams and tangental thoughts until, many minutes later, I snap out of it, wonder what the heck I missed, and re-focus for another minute or two before the cycle repeats. I get about 10% of the content of most lectures, but have some great dreams and ideas this way!
I've tried Ritalin and Adderall thus far. Two weeks on Ritalin at various doses gave me very little CNS benefits while treating me to a host of perepheral nervous system side-effects. I really didn't like this drug at all.
Adderall has been a godsend in many ways. After more than ten years of chasing the solutions to incorrect diagnoses of depression, anxiety, etc., this one drug, at low doses (10-20mg/day) dramatically improved or eliminated ALL of my various symptoms except the ones on the "hit list" above. I feel more relaxed, stable, capable, and just generally good on Adderall... until it leaves my system in the evening, that is.
Higher doses (40-50mg/day) of Adderall improved the "hit list," improving my lecture focus to perhaps 50% (a dramatic improvement) but also dramatically increases my pulse and already hypertensive blood pressure to dangerous levels. (Beta blockers get me "drunk," so I've just started Aceon for the BP; we'll see how that goes...) I also don't like the way Adderall feels in the first two hours - I'm guessing that this is because of my sensitivity to methylphenidate.
My doc is willing to try dex or Focalin, but baulked at my suggestion of Provigil, saying that it was "untested for ADD." I'm sure I could talk him into it, however, if I felt that it would really be worth a try. (I'm assuming that since my "hit list" are similar to sleepy symptoms, a stim like this might work well.)
Any suggestions, especially from other dreamy inattentive types out there? Where do I go next???
Thanks,
-Xevious
poster:Xevious
thread:111452
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020628/msgs/111452.html