Posted by metric on March 21, 2009, at 15:42:58
In reply to ADD meds/motivation/concentration, posted by Garnet71 on March 16, 2009, at 18:26:51
> I have anxiety and ADD-inattentive type. It take Buspar 15 mg x 2 and Xanax .25 mg at night. I've had no anxiety symptoms for over a month and don't feel depressed or sad.
>
> So I quit Ritalin 20 mg x 2 a few days ago and started taking Wellbutrin SR 150 mg x 1 just 2 days ago. The Wellbutrin seems to have barely started to work (I know, I know its only been 3 days), but I'm feeling more irritable and unmotivated than before I took the Wellbutrin w/o the Ritalin.
>
> I have about 10 doses of Ritalin left over from the last script so I called my PDocRN to ask her if it was okay if I tried them with the Wellbutrin till it kicks in (if it even does). She said it would be ok as long as my heart doesn't race or anything like that.
>Wellbutrin doesn't seem to be anything more than a stimulant -- and a pretty crummy one at that (poor central/peripheral stimulation ratio). It has low "abuse potential" (meaning that few people like its effects).
> I'm so overwhelmend and behind in my deadline and can't seem to get stuff done-it seems like there's holes in time each day--like 8 hours of my day just disappear and I think-where did the time go? So I took a Ritalin today--again, it only lasted about 2 hrs., now my head feels fuzzy again and I feel yucky like before I took it.
>Methylphenidate (Ritalin) is very short acting. Daily low-dose selegiline can potentiate and prolong the effect of stimulants, but trying a longer-acting stimulant would probably be more sensible before resorting to that, which isn't altogether free from side-effects and risk.
> So I was a reading part of an ADD/ADHD a book on Google books which said one type of ADD med is not dependent upon the brain's dopamine availability as much as the other. One ADD med facilitates an increased production of dopamine and blocks uptake while the other just more or less blocks it/keeps it where its needed but doesn't aid production.
>"ADD" isn't defined at a biological level. One has ADD by virtue of having whatever cluster of symptoms is voted into the latest DSM. People can have difficulty concentrating for a limitless number of reasons. Perhaps there are a subset of children labeled ADHD (like the genuinely hyperkinetic ones) that share a discrete neurological abnormality, but with the absence of scientific rigor with which psychiatry proceeds, we'll probably never know.
In any case, don't pigeonhole yourself into the ill-defined diagnostic entity known as ADD. Psychiatry has convinced countless individuals that there's something fundamentally wrong with them for responding naturally to the stresses of modern life.
> I feel like my brain doesn't make enough dopamine or something.Since dopamine is associated with pleasure/reward, it's not uncommon for depressed people to reach that conclusion.
> I don't know how else to explain it. Zoloft/Prozac seemed to make my dopamine levels hit bottom, though I quit taking them a couple of months ago after feeling miserable because they have been prescribed to me off/on for 3 years. They made me depressed and miserable and unmotivated, alhtough they worked for the anxiety--all of them did.
You're not alone. SSRIs are lobotomizing drugs. They turn down the volume on all experience, both good and bad.
> Any advice on the dopamine issue or ADD meds?
>Just try 'em out and use whatever works best...
> It seems I should give Adderall a try, but PDocRN didn't mention it and I don't know if its okay to ask for a med like that. Is it really much different from Ritalin? What if I was prescribed a small dose--like a third of what people start at just to see? Has anyone tried both?
>Dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine, DestroStat) is superior IMO to Adderall because it has less peripheral/cardiovascular activity per unit of mental stimulation (Adderall contains levo- in addition to dextro- amphetamine). I elaborated on this briefly in a couple of other recent posts, so I won't comment further unless you want me to.
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