Posted by utopizen on March 6, 2004, at 0:15:31
In reply to Re: ADHD meds FRUSTRATION!!! pls help!!, posted by Laree on March 5, 2004, at 22:56:05
It doesn't sound like you'd want Desoxyn. It doesn't come in sustained release form (it use to until 200).
It will feel like it lasts for like 2 hours or 3 if you're lucky.
And forget tolerance. You go outside the avg. daily range your doc will read in the PDR stating "20-25mg/day" and you'll never get any again if you even suggest it's "not working like it use to" or "perhaps the dose is too low." I never got tolerance, and have been on it for a year now, but it sounds like you get tolerance to your simulants. For me, the side effects just get gradually more and more annoying.
So it's an annoying drug. Your pharmacy won't stock it, and that means I have to wait a week just to get the prescription filled after seeing my doc. I'm also bored with it. I want to go back on Adderall, but soon start Straterra+Provigil. I hate all the stims, but Adderall seemed better about getting me in dork mode enough to go to the library.
I'm 20. While I'm a pro at charming my docs and allaying their concerns for prescribing me controlled substances, let me give you some advice: just because it's challenging to get or is obscure to your docs doesn't mean it's a wonder drug. Your doc sees patients fail drugs all the time, and he knows what to do when that happens. Listen to him, and remain skeptical, but not too much. I wish I had gone on Straterra a year ago when it came out-- maybe I could have combined it with some Provigil and Adderall and would actually have time management during the day.
You know what ADD means for me when I'm on a stimulant? I have all my clothes cleaned and folded, my bed's made, I made it to class, my sleeping machine for my sleep disorder is cleaned out, I've got all my meds filled or refilled, I'm making my doc appts., and I read up a lot on boards like this and search Medline for the next great drug.
Well guess where I am? One of the top schools in the country, one you'd go "oh, you must be smart" if I named it. And I've slaughtered my GPA, I've got 2 incompletes I have about a week to start completing in time, I've got one course that could fail me out of a shot at rooming with my friends next year as a senior, no friends beyond my roommates from last year still because of my social anxiety disorder,
Last April, I saw a new psychiatrist and he continued my recently switched to Desoxyn script from my first psychiatrist and added Klonopin 1mg 3x/day for my social anxiety--- I thought I hit jackpot.
I didn't realize taking it everyday after a few months means you aren't as brazen to speak to strangers as you were back when you took it as needed at parties.
And the Desoxyn?
It hasn't changed the underlying problem about me, that I put off work because I can't actually read anything for school b/c it'll put me to sleep, which means I can't do anything unless I put it off until midnight of the day it's due, start the 7 page paper then, do the research, write it up, and pray you'll have something witty and clever and coherent while you feel half dead and are on far too much amphetamine just to stay awake and coherent enough for the paper.
Bear in mind my time management issues are a worst case scenario, but I am not the only one out there. I also have a sleep disorder, which I've taken 4 separate tests for at night and a daytime one just to prove I have and have seen a slew of sleep specialists who have yet to agree on a single diagnosis for why i'm so sleepy if I want to do anything like read for class.
I have a breathing machine that blows air at night. The Desoxyn will make your appetite disappear so much it's pathetic, like you can force feed, but even that's hard because you have to remember to force feed and not space out and clean out your kitchen cabinets or whatever the heck else those stimulants possess you to do instead.
So long story short, Desoxyn was cute at first, until I realized after a couple of months it still wasn't even helping me with my sleepiness very much.
If you can try out Straterra, I'd do that first. Tell your doc you don't like the side effects of the Adderall, and would like to combine it with Straterra and then down the road see if it's possible to stop altogether and stick with Straterra.
Provigil 400mg+Straterra at 80mg is an excellent combo if you fail to respond, and you can still take Adderall if your doc's cool with that.
Why exactly do you conclude you have tolerance to the stim? It takes me a few months after getting a new stim to realize I'm just as messed up as before, but I have side effects now. Maybe you gradually realize that the burst of energy you had in the start of a class for a few weeks or months had more to do with your optimism for the med, not the med itself?
I don't know how you can actually tell you have tolerance to it-- unless you were to say, take a higher, unprescribed dose to determine this, but it doesn't sound like the people on this site would even do that. So how do you know you have tolerance, and don't just simply need to switch to Dexedrine or Concerta or Adderall XR or a med that use to work but you haven't tried for a few months???
Anyway, listen to me-- I HATE not feeling the desire to eat, having trouble sleeping, rambling in my writing like this, having no sense of time, feeling tense, anxious, worrying about irrelevant things while ignoring important exams and papers until the last second---
if you can try Straterra at 80mg for your target dose, you might have a shot at not getting this same feeling. Many fail it, but you can try combining it with Provigil at 400mg as well (it has a synergyistic effect, and no, not just for sleepy heads).
IF I WAS YOUR DOC:Reasons why I wouldn't prescribe Desoxyn:
1. You don't seem eager about Straterra
2. You don't seem concerned over the side effects of the amphetamines
3. You develop "tolerance" quickly at prescribed doses
4. You complain of repeated dosing, even though you need to take Desoxyn more often than Ritalin
5. You may not be actively seeing a therapist for your ADD
6. Your ADD's severity may not be documented comprehensively enough through a neuropsychological evaluation to warrant a med change
poster:utopizen
thread:320139
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040304/msgs/320968.html