Meds Experiences Thread!!

Oh, good. This is the thread I’ve needed.


Day 5 of trying a new medication. Not sure it’s working out. I didn’t sleep last night and I feel no hunger pains even though I barely ate anything. Was beautiful for abt 3 days. I would be thankful if someone would do me the favor of asking me to assess my state in 1 week so Ican decide if this is worth taking.

 

@leitstern slightly over a week, how's that new med treating you?

 

It’s Better. I see what went wrong and I think I can avoid it. That was my worst day by far in the past two weeks and the rest were better than normal.

 

I just want to give an update on this because, two weeks ago, I unintentionally went cold turkey on my atomoxetine. (I moved into a new place, and somehow in the process of moving, I lost my medication...I've unpacked all my stuff and I still don't know where it was that I packed the pills...I'm lucky that I had a refill for my Prozac already waiting for me at the pharmacy.)

...As far as I can tell, it's made zero difference...no withdrawal symptoms at all. Wtf is this drug actually.

 

Couldn't find a more specific thread for this question, but felt like there might be others here who experience this shit:

Sometimes I'll look at my night/morning meds and feel neutral, but other times... other times I just kinda sit and look at the many fucking pills in my hand and just feel disparaged. I definitely struggle to stay positive when I'm staring at 5+ pills (and a couple doctor recommended vitamins) and I can't help but feel like I shouldn't have to.

How do I deal with that? I'm not gonna suddenly stop even if I want to, but. It's hard, sometimes.

 

Trip update: I have been taking doxycycline for about two and a half months now, and I'm partway into a three-month course that my doctor prescribed me to continue on from the month-long trial of it she had me do.

It's working out okay, although I really need to make sure to eat something right before or right after it, because taking it on an empty stomach leads to some pretty awful nausea. Another side effect is

Spoiler: tw: poop

diarrhea. Which I haven't exactly been having? It's not runny enough for that, but I have been pooping a lot. Like, a lot a lot.

Next time I speak with my doctor, though, I need to ask about figuring out something more aggressive to deal with my allergies because the Singulair alone is not cutting it. Even Singulair with an otc allergy tablet is not quite cutting it. And in this time of plague, I'd rather not be constantly sniffling and trying to make my nose stop running.

 

So recently (like - yesterday? day before?), I discovered that Vitamin C deactivates stimulant ADHD meds. Even small quantities, like "citric acid in a soda" amounts will turn it into an insoluble salt. (Link here, for anyone who wants to avoid accidentally nerfing themselves: https://nw-adhd.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ADHD-Medication-Information-Sheet.pdf )

So I've been making sure to take my meds without anything with citric acid in it, and I'm now getting headaches...from clenching my jaw. And my stomach doesn't feel great.

I probably need to reduce my dosage.

 

That’s a really good article! It’s so clear and well written, and describes on no uncertain terms how these drugs are not recreational nor in any way comparable to addiction for people using them therapeutically. Thank you. I will be saving this as an informational assist in case I need to explain that to someone again in the future. (I do believe that these things are also true of average people without clinically relevant issues with focus, that a therapeutic dose of these stimulants also makes them more calm. It’s just that a therapeutic dose would be incredibly small, which is not the kind of dose people tend to try when abusing a drug.)

It does sound like your dosage was compensating for impaired absorption. I’ve had similar issues with thyroid, which has a small host of seemingly unrelated items that interfere with its absorption, including coffee and bran for some reason. I basically take my meds when waking and avoid all food and drink besides water for an hour in the morning and offer a prayer of thanks that they don’t interfere more with each other, because hell if I can remember the whole list of things not to eat with each.

I don’t know if anyone else here besides me takes ritalin by transdermal patch, but if so, this does not apply. It’s an absorption issue in the digestive tract, which is not relevant if you are absorbing your meds through your skin. I guess unless you’re also coating your epidermis with vitamin C, then who even knows.

 

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Because the meds were working. I was definitely absorbing some of the dosage, it feels very different when I don't take my meds at all compared to when I took them before. But I'm on the extended release version and was only taking a couple sips of liquid to get the tablet down - so it wouldn't have completely wrecked the whole dose, just probably the first little bit of release.

I really, really wish that someone would've told me about this when I first got prescribed, though. I definitely didn't get told anything about even needing to be careful when I drink orange juice or lemonade, and I'm pretty sure I asked if there was anything I needed to avoid, too.

 

1. oh hey nw adhd good!!
2. [cries in Gets Up Early For Work And Doesn't Have Much Time For Breakfast]. au revoir, poptarts, i guess. at least i'm on the extended release?

 

Has anyone here ever recced drugs.com? It's really thorough for checking drug to drug and drug to food reactions, I use it every time I get put on a new med

 

I think I have used it before, and I did just check it to see if there's any interactions between my meds and what it'd say about citric acid.

If I specifically list citric acid, it'll flag it as an issue for a couple of my meds (Concerta, plus doxycycline). But as far as drug to food interactions go, it doesn't mention anything about Vitamin C. And if I specifically list Vitamin C, it says fuck-all about there being any interaction between methylphenidate and Vitamin C.

...which means that this is, quite possibly, not nearly as widely known in the medical world as it needs to be.

 

I have sent them a message about it, including the article, so we'll see if that helps at all.

 

And I just got a response that honestly feels kinda snotty?

idk. Maybe I'm just tired and reading too much into it. Pretty dang sure I didn't say anything about methylphenidate, though. What I said, specifically, was that I hadn't gone in and checked to see if their site has the same issues for Ritalin as it does for Concerta, with not showing Vitamin C to be a problem if you take it at the same time as a stimulant ADHD med.

Also, the issue isn't with acidifying agents in general; it's with ascorbic acid specifically, because that particular acid neutralizes the meds.

 

I mean, I do think the interaction is probably usually quite mild - it's never been a problem for my wife or I, and we've both been on (different) prescribed ADHD meds - BUT if you're someone who's already quite sensitive/taking a low dose, I'm not ruling out that you can't, personally, be experiencing an interaction.

It does kinda feel like a brush-off, like whoever replied thinks you're just overreacting and grasping at straws, which sucks; just because the reaction being enough to matter is unusual doesn't mean it isn't happening.

Then again, also re: mild, the reason I stopped taking prescription meds for ADHD was because my dosage was wildly, inappropriately high. "My starting dose was twice* the recommended maximum daily dose" high. Talking to other people who were diagnosed and prescribed medications as children, that kind of overdosing is actually pretty frequent (I think because, when you have a child with problem behavior, ALL behavior starts to look like a problem), so it's possible that at Appropriate Dosages, the effect *isn't* mild and I just don't know anyone who isn't being given more than they should

*I can't remember if my starting dose was 40 or 60mg, and the maximum is 20mg. I've probably claimed elsewhere here that it was three times as high (60mg) but I can honestly say that I don't remember which at this point. My final dosage was about 120mg tho

 

120mg??? jegus fuck :U

 

Yeah, one of the things in the NW ADHD article was that a dosage shift of 2 to 3 mg is enough for patients to see and feel a difference. So if you're on an appropriate and low dosage, and the Vitamin C neutralizes maybe 5mg of the dose, then you're going to notice a difference. But if you're on a whopping high dose - especially one with an extended release - you're probably not going to notice a major difference.

Also holy crap that dosage. I just checked mine, and I'm only at 36mg. Although that may partially be because they just plain do not make extended-release Concerta in larger doses if I remember right.

It's nice to hear that I'm not imagining feeling like it was a brush-off, though.

 

@turtleDove

also this has been sitting in my open tabs for almost a month now and i keep forgetting to link it to you: https://adhdrollercoaster.org/adhd-...-foods-affect-stimulant-medications-for-adhd/

i don't remember if you were still looking for stuff about this, sorry! but this seem really detailed, and i thought the breakdown by types of adhd meds and different acids than just Vit C was really helpful

 

Hey I've been looking for a place like this!

I am on Baby's First Medication, Prozac (for anxiety/ocd, not so much depression) and I absolutely concur that it makes me SLEEPY as hell. I am yawning so powerfully now.

I also concur with the really vivid dreams thing, but generally I think the sleepiness is causing me to sleep well (weirdly enough, having a sleep with a lot of dreams is a sign of a really good, deep sleep for me). Tbh I don't mind the sleepiness, it sure as hell beats mentally feeling like a frayed copper wire but unable to sleep because Bad Thoughts Happen when I lay down and turn my phone off.

I've been kinda feeling like anxiety spirals happen more, but I'm honestly not sure if they're ACTUALLY happening more now or if I just perceive it that way because I'm consistently mood/symptoms-journaling now when I never did that before, so I usually would just forget the last time I had a bad day, even if it was recent.

 

IDK how long ago you started Prozac, but when I was on it I got a week-or-so-long uptick in anxiety for every dose increase, then I leveled out (until the dose where I didn't level out and had a semester-long nervous breakdown until my mom convinced me to talk to my psychiatrist about switching meds lol)