r/Concerta

I got my diagnosis for adhd in January and have been on meds since end of Feb. I started off at 10mg of vyvanse and went all the way up to 40mg but it caused me to feel anxiety all throughout my body and my heart rate was always high. My doctor then switched me to 27mg of concerta and I found it didn’t help so we went up to 36mg and now I’m on 54mg. I have found that being on 54mg, my brain feels like fog, I get irritated easily and it sure as heck doesn’t help me focus. It also really suppresses my appetite and when I try to eat, I feel sick. The ONLY positive thing was that I actually have energy from the time I take it, around 8-9am, and then I crash around 5pm. At this point, I don’t know what to do. Should I try another medication, like adderal? I’ve heard so many things from different people and I just want to be able to have my own success story.

Thanks in advance!

I had some drinks and did smoke weed yesterday for 420. I woke up feeling so tired, but I took a whole Concerta and I still feel like I’m bout to fall asleep. It usually keeps me really wired and awake. I know we’re not supposed to depend on medicine, but I was really hoping it would help me be more structured and focused today but all I wanna do is lay around.

I have taken vyvanse in the past a couple years ago with some decent results at very small doses- like 10mg was enough! But stopped altogether and just started seeing a new psych. She had me on Ritalin first—10mg felt like 8 cups of coffee and jittery so I did half of a 10mg pill for a bit which was ok but maybe not enough and also wore off quickly. So I asked to try concerta at the lowest dose of 18. Have only taken it about 3 days but it feels…gross? Also a bit jittery, kind of irritable, spent a lot of time staring at the wall with anxiety. Felt like I had taken too much. Obviously I need very small doses (and gene testing has verified this too as I’m a poor metabolizer) but is this a common response to concerta? Sort of an anxious/speedy feeling without much of a positive impact? I will try it a few more days as I know it can take a bit. But I’m open to suggestions from anyone who may have experienced this too. Thanks!

I want to preface this with saying I'm on Day 3 of not smoking.

Week 1 was nice - the voice in my head was quiet, I could get work done, I was a nicer person. My anxiety was completely gone. I did have the dry mouth and headaches. And I was exhausted and had a low mood. But I felt hopeful things would pass.

I'm now halfway through week 2 and I just want to stop Concerta. I can't start anything even though I want to. I feel sad, tired and miserable. Everything feels to be on hard mode - cooking a meal, WFH, going to the gym etc. And even if I start, I can't focus. The only positive is that my brain isn't going at a million miles an hour but this can't be right?

Has anyone else been here?

Hello everyone. I've (35 M) started Concerta two years ago. It helped me a lot and made a huge change in my life, but the road was not easy and smooth. For some reason, I am sensitive to Concerta. In the first year, I could not increase the dose beyond 18 mg because of the side effects (very horrible anxiety). Now I am on 45 mg. It is still not optimal and the only way to make it "work again" is taking the weekends off.

I wrote this background for you to understand the urge to optimize my dose through other means like diet etc. However, I've found that the biggest myth (for me) is eating rich-protein meal in the morning. There are no scientific studies supporting this idea, but it is running like fire. For me, it is the opposite. After 2 years, I've learnt that the best thing for me is to take it on an almost empty stomach (light breakfast). So, when I eat rich-protein breakfast, I feel more tiered and less focused. I wonder if it is true and I am the outlier or is it some placebo effect?!

My friend told me that this idea can be biased because people who are like me will not talk about it, so I am only hearing the positive stories. What do you think? If you are taking Concerta, is protein really helping you?

Also, water doesn't matter. It doesn't make any difference at all!

I will add more about my experience:

• Days off is the biggest reset.
• Empty stomach (or light breakfast).
• I tend to believe that sugar has bad effect (sometimes it increases side effects and decrease beneficial effects!)
• Timing is important. It should be regular. I also feel early time is much better.
• Stress is the biggest enemy. It flips the focus to some kind of anxiety.
• Productive schedule. When I am productive this boost the positivity.

Hey, so I’m 21F and I got diagnosed with inattentive ADHD like two months ago. At first my psychiatrist gave me Concerta 18mg, I took it for a week and felt nothing at all, not even side effects. She told me to take 2 pills instead so it's 36mg, and when I did I got tachycardia, I couldn’t sleep and felt restless all the time but it still didn't help with my ADHD.

Now I take a beta blocker every time I take Concerta so the heart racing is gone, but I still don’t feel anything and it’s been 3 weeks on 36mg already. I actually did an echo and an ecg and my heart is completely healthy, so i know it's just the medicine and the low iron causing the racing. I also have low iron levels and I’m sure that’s a big reason why it’s not working because I read iron is essential for producing dopamine? I started iron supplements but still nothing.

My psychiatrist says I have 2 options: either take 54mg Concerta (18+36) or try Ritalin. I don’t like the idea of Ritalin because it only lasts 3-4 hours and I’m a uni student so I need it to last longer, and I heard the crash is bad. But I’m also scared of 54mg because of what happened to my heart on 36mg. In my country we only have Methylphenidates, other stuff is illegal.

I know the meds aren't magic but I feel like I have depression too. I’m just tired of trying... I always feel sad and small things ruin my whole day. I think it’s called emotional dysregulation? I can’t do anything when my mood is 1% not good, like I can’t even brush my teeth or study for exams. I asked about CBT but my doctor says I need to find the right dosage first. I'm getting so impatient because I have a lot of responsibilities at uni and I don't know what to do.

J

I have been in titration (Xaggitin XL) for about 2 months and I have never experienced any appetite suppressing but it’s been quite the opposite: I am always hungry. And if I don’t eat, the meds stop working or I am very tired. It’s very annoying as I have proteins in every meal.

Anyone has the same problem?

Hi everyone,

I’m male, 40 years old with ADHD (diagnosed last year) and autism (diagnosed when I was 27). A difficult childhood left me with intense fear of abandonment and a pattern of people-pleasing and self-sacrifice that often harms me.

I began generic methylphenidate about 23-24 days ago I think.
My titration so far has been 18 mg for one week, 36 mg for nearly two weeks, then 54 mg for the past few days.

I'm currently studying. When school started again after last summer, I quickly ended up being quite exhausted. I wasn't quite keeping up with school and I wasn't doing my assignments. I stopped exercising, started eating less healthy, cleaning less. All signs of heading towards a burnout. Then five months ago my best friend tried to kill herself. I wanted to help, so I supported her daily for four months. Cooked, cleaned, did her laundry, everything. I carried her fully when I wasn't really able to carry myself. We fell for each other after about a month and started dating. We were together for about three months, until about a month ago, when I burned out and crashed hard. She dumped me over text that same night, when I left because I couldn't handle the situation anymore.
I started medication just days later, already anxious from the situation. Since then our shared friend group (including my ex, it's five women and then me who's the only male), has distanced themselves. My ex (still my best friend) has pulled away too and I don’t think she wants to stay friends. We’ve had sex and spent nights together a few times since the breakup, but she has also been verbally and physically abusive. These friends are the best I’ve ever had, I've known them for 1.5 years now (I started eating lunch at school with my ex 2 years ago, we hung out sometimes but not outside of school at that point). I love them deeply and the thought of losing them terrifies me. I’ve always made friends easily, people tend to like me and they all liked me a lot, but this past month everything has gone horribly wrong.
I've tried reaching out to them for help and support, tried saying that I need them because my mental health is very poor and I'm terrified of losing them.
They feel that I’ve been emotionally manipulative and mean. No one has ever called me that before. My attempts to fix things, to explain that I never wanted to hurt them, that I didn't mean things that way and that I love them, that I appreciate them and that I desperately need them, has only served to worsen the situation. The more I try to explain, the more hurt they get and withdraw further from me.
I may have lost them completely at this point, I don't know what I can do to fix things.

The medication calms my racing thoughts a bit and helps focus somewhat, but my anxiety has risen and emotional regulation is worse than ever. I can’t tell how much is the medication versus the breakup, fear of abandonment, and old trauma.
I've never experienced anything like this before. No breakup or loss of friendship has caused a reaction like this from me, but I have also never risked losing friends so precious to me before.

Has anyone been through something similar, starting methylphenidate right in the middle of a breakup/crisis and feeling everything spiral?

I want to continue the medication because it gives some benefit, but right now I'm scared it might be making things worse.

I do need to deal with my trauma and I've requested to start seeing a professional to start dealing with some things. I want to save my friendships if possible, they're by far the most important thing I have in my life.
I've also reached out to my doctor who prescribes the medication.
I have told her about my life situation, the anxiety and the rest before I even started the medication and since, and she felt like it was just normal things when going through a break up, but I reached out again, because my emotions are all over the place in a way it's never been before.

So I have reached out to professionals. I'm just posting this looking for advice and experience from others who may have gone through something similar.

Im on 36 mg ,have been for about 4 weeks now ,took a while to get used to, seem to settle in but last few days ,washes of anxiety ,high pulse rate ,general feeling off and not feeling benefits . I thought once you settled in then it would be stable, either you don't suit it or you do, I didnt expect to be having days like today where I have been anxious all day and just been off . Is this commonplace or does it mean I'm not suited to it even though I had a decent week or two on it

first of all, please don't judge!

so i have 2 addresses, one pretty far from where i'm currently staying at. i was very sure that i'd return tomorrow, and so i left my medicine there because i was doing a drug holiday. but a few circumstances came up, which i definitely didn't expect, and i can't return for 2-3 days! i usually don't leave my meds, but this one time i figured it'd be okay. and it came back to bite me😭

i have a lot of school work to catch up with during those days, and i can barely function without them. i can't get a few pills either because i exhausted my prescription already and it's very hard to find them in my country.

how do i manage these 2-3 days? in the future i'll be sure to take them with me all the time😭

Last week I switched from 80mg of Strattera to 27mg of Conerta. I'm a 29f recently diagnosed with inattentive ADHD. I had very few side effects on Strattera and had some positive effects but the week before my cycle started I was a complete mess and emotionally all of the place. My doc then took my off Strattera but thinking I shouldn't have. I feel Basically nothing on concerta with some background anxiety and unease. She put me on 14 days of prozac which has been amazing for my mood. I guess I want to see if anyone has been on Starttera and prozac and if thats been a positive experience?

So I have been on concerta 36mg and if I'm being honest it took so long for me to figure out a routine that makes it ACTUALLY WORK

But there's this very strange side effect that I can't decide whether it is a loss of appetite or a general inability to decide what I'm feeling. I have no idea if I'm hungry or not most of the time. I'm not disgusted by food like some people are when they lose their appetite on meds (tbh I have experienced that once but the food was genuinely gross then), like I can just grab the food, eat it , stop whenever I want and I don't feel any different from before. I don't even feel full.

I'm kind of struggling to identify whether this is just me being used to rely on dopamine to mark the feeling of fullness so now it feels weird that I don't experience it anymore, but shouldn't I also feel something else ? I don't feel anything at all😭

If I had to describe it would be like having a mysterious void in my stomach that would absord whatever I feed it with absolutely no end goal.

I’m on week 3 and my main side effect is jaw clenching. I’m currently wearing a retainer on my top jaw due to being in the middle of dental work but does anyone have any tips to reduce the amount I’m clenching? It’s making my jaw ache!!

I am given 18 mg and 36mg to start low and titrate

started with 18

moved to 36 it works but now feels weaker

took 36+18 felt numb

took 36mg and 18mg after 2-3 hours

and felt better

so will taking single 54 be feeling better than one 18 and one 36

I started on Elvanse (Vyvanse) 30mg and while it was moderately effective for my focus, it heightened my anxiety and made me feel agitated.

I’ve been switched to Concerta 18mg and the prescriber said I probably wouldn’t feel anything on this dose, but I actually feel worse than I do without any stimulant at all - spaced out, foggy and not really with it. I think the dose is too low. Has anyone else experienced this, and did it get better with a dose increase? I’ve read that 36mg is usually where people start to notice positive effects.

Guys recently I switch dosage. 27mg -> 36mg after talking with my psychiatrist about the inconsistency of the medicine that was bothering me. Since the new dosage I can’t eat well, ( on 27mg I felt lack of appetite but now is way WORSE) and i notice that yeah i got better focus less hyperactivity but I CANNOT EAT, I’ve been forcing myself to eat for a week.

Mine seems to around high 80s low 90s everyday now even when just sitting around . Is this normal , my blood pressure is 134/84 , i take blood pressure meds because concerta was raising it too much .

I was on 40mg of Vyvanse for a year and two months. The first two hours were great, I’d feel a surge of energy and motivation.

However daily this was followed around four hours later by an emotional crash. No jitters, no insomnia, just pure impending doom and a sense of intense vulnerability. I couldn’t take it any longer so I switched to concerta.

My psych has put me on 27mg and I’m glad I don’t experience that same crash anymore however this week I’ve noticed that I have zero motivation to do anything at all. Even today, I was supposed to go to the gym and I’ve just been lying here for like three hours thinking about it. Is this normal? Did anyone experience much of a difference when they went to 36mg?

I have been on this dose for some years now and i know all kind of tricks , so let the questions come!(i took all kind of meds along this journey : benzodiazepines , antidepressants etc.)

>Hope i've been helpful!