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I take clonidine (with adderall and *used to* before bed) fwiw and it makes it so I can't sleep longer than 4 hours (pretty much 4 hours exactly, which suggests the drug wearing off likely has something to do with it). I've tried various dose sizes with similar results. If I don't take clonidine before bed I normally get 6-7 hours of sleep.
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Feb 17, 2015 20:19
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I end up just taking an extra dose of my Baclofen when I need to sleep and have trouble doing so. However, I already have it prescribed for my Spastic paraparesis, so I don't know how you'd get a hold of it otherwise. It also turns out that one of the formulations of Baclofen, R-Baclofen, is showing good signs of being useful in treating Narcolepsy. http://www.fountia.com/baclofen-for-narcolepsy-promising-new-treatment/
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Feb 17, 2015 20:26
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Horrible Smutbeast posted:Medications for sleep disorders are scary as hell. Stuff like Ambien requires you to go to sleep IMMEDIATELY after you take it or else you'll actually get high. Worse cases you'll end up waking up from it not remembering where you were, what you were doing or why you suddenly have ordered 10 duplicates of the same item off amazon to be sent to you in separate packages. Pseudophedrin isn't much better. My problem with Ambien is that it knocks me out for a 4-6 hours and then I just wake up and can't get back to sleep.
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Feb 18, 2015 21:26
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Pseudophedrine just acts as a very mild stimulant, in my experience. It's such a mild effect that anyone who uses it for anything but a decongestant is probably wasting their time. They might have been thinking of Benadryl; that poo poo will gently caress you up in a bad way if you take too much or for too long, even within "safe" dosages.
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Feb 19, 2015 08:29
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I started a new dose of Concerta yesterday and I spent half the day feeling like poo poo because every little thing was bugging me and it didn't stop until I took productive steps to improve my living situation. I take it this counts as Working?
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Feb 19, 2015 10:09
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Freudian posted:I started a new dose of Concerta yesterday and I spent half the day feeling like poo poo because every little thing was bugging me and it didn't stop until I took productive steps to improve my living situation. I take it this counts as Working? Yes. Tell us how the next day goes once you've improved the little poo poo.
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Feb 19, 2015 16:38
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Speaking of Benadryl, does anyone else here get unbearably twitchy and jumpy on it? I used to handle Benadryl just fine, but now I can't take it without experiencing serious, all night restlessness
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Feb 19, 2015 22:09
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bad posts ahead!!! posted:Speaking of Benadryl, does anyone else here get unbearably twitchy and jumpy on it? I used to handle Benadryl just fine, but now I can't take it without experiencing serious, all night restlessness Benadryl causes a dopamine drop in the system which produces restless leg syndrome frequently as a side effect, completely loving its use as a sleeping aid. If you want to use an OTC sleep aid, take Doxylamine (Unisom Sleep Tabs, not other Unisom products) instead of Diphenhydramine (Benadryl, tons of other stuff. Just about everything). Benadryl also loses effect as a sleep aid after 3 days, and the typical resistance to Doxylamine takes longer to develop.
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Feb 20, 2015 02:46
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So, hey. Hi. Hi. 1. Strattera - 10 mg is indeed my sweet spot! I don't really have any side effects anymore, and I feel just 'on' when I need to be. I even got a job interview, and am participating in a hackathon project with some other people - something I couldn't even have imagined before. SO thankful I decided to give this another shot. 2. Questions times: Is it possible to 'veg' on Strattera? Like, give the brain an 'off' switch for a little while? Because its in my system all the time, I like that it's 'on' all the time, and I can do things like take on a phone screen for a job with no notice, plan things out at all times etc. However, I sort of miss just sitting in a coffee shop or on the beach or something, and just staring into space. When I've tried to do it recently, though, my brain is still churning along. I'm also thinking that meditation will really help with this; that or yoga. I also know that Strattera is a drug you have to take every single day, so there's no drug 'vacations' possible, like with the stims. But hey - viva la  !
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Feb 21, 2015 10:42
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Qu Appelle posted:
If you can't turn your mind off, maybe work on mindfulness? Try looking up the "raisin meditation" by Jon Kabat Zinn. It seems corny at first, but it's about experiencing a single raisin for like ten minutes. Feel, smell, taste, etc. so then maybe when your at the beach or something and you want to veg, you can focus on every aspect of the beach the same way... Just focus on how the sand really feels on your feet, how blue the sky is... I also got some today!  My blood pressure was too high to go on adderal, so I really watched what I ate for two weeks and got it back down to 130/80. So Dr said we could try Concerta. She thought it would be a little better suited for what I need. Taking 40mg for two weeks and if I don't get a spike in blood pressure, or other wonky effects, gonna go to 80mg. Took the first one today, and noticed a little something, also a little tingly, and a little quicker catching run away thoughts... But definitly no then"omg I gotta clean everything in the house with a toothbrush!!!!" Speed feeling that Ritalin gave me. Adderal is somewhere between. I even had some coffee and didn't tweek out. Also had a great chat with my shrink today. He was hesitant for me to try stimulants, but we are also just getting to know each other. He grilled me on a bunch of poo poo today, in order to figure out if it's focus, or memory (lack of, due to depression) that is occurring. He finally came down on the side of it's focus and felt positive about the catdrugs, or at least as a starting point. He had a great analogy of when you copy and paste something in a computer, it stores it and then there it is again. But when I have a task, and something interrupts, when I go to paste the original task is not there anymore (or scrambled around, etc). So two Dr visits and I finished my taxes this morning  productivity!
Interstitial Abs fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Feb 22, 2015 |
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Feb 22, 2015 00:26
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Fuuuuck I hate being on SSRIs. This is the second time I've accidentally poisoned myself and gotten serotonin syndrome. First was on a sleeping medicine that had 5-HTP and now on DXM. Are there any ways to soothe welbutrin/amphetamine combo side effects like tension headaches and teeth grinding?
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Feb 22, 2015 02:25
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The Door Frame posted:Fuuuuck I hate being on SSRIs. This is the second time I've accidentally poisoned myself and gotten serotonin syndrome. First was on a sleeping medicine that had 5-HTP and now on DXM. Are there any ways to soothe welbutrin/amphetamine combo side effects like tension headaches and teeth grinding? Tension headaches no clue but clonidine and guafacin or any other a2 med has shown to decrease sleep bruxism.
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Feb 22, 2015 03:53
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WALL OF TEXT: The beginning: So last fall I was getting my yearly physical done, and I mentioned to my GP that I was having a lot of issues with sleeping properly, anxiety attacks and getting research work done that required concerted effort. The programming parts of my work were a joy to do and I could work all day on programming. However, any reading and writing that were not immediately associated with a short-ranged, targeted progress report to my advisor was a chore that would drive me up the walls with frustration. I frankly suck at regular sustained effort. The sleep I was having was terrible and I would snore loudly, stop breathing for a while, turn pale, and have terrible night terrors. Once or twice a week my wife would have to shake me awake when she would hear me start to hyperventilate from a night terror. This had scared the hell out of my wife, who knew about sleep apnea from a co-worker’s husband who had made a complete 180 after getting a CPAP. The GP recommended that I get checked out for sleep apnea, and that she could write me a prescription for paxil to help with the anxiety. I mentioned that I had been on paroxetine (paxil) for about four months during my first attempt at graduate school five years previously, but it actually made things worse. It had made me feel like was being smothered by a pillow, coupled with being feverish, shaky and confused from pretty much the first week of treatment, despite it being a really small dosage. It sapped my energy, but left me more agitated simultaneously. I, oddly, did not feel any less depressed or anxious, but had so little energy that no longer cared about it. I still can’t watch a scene in a movie where someone is drowning because it is too close to that experience. (I would find out that was probably serotonin syndrome/toxicity, but while I was taking it I didn’t know about this or have the wherewithal to do anything about it). It also left me with a strange gulp for almost a year after cessation. I also told her that I did not feel depressed, and the problems were far more about not being able to concentrate, racing thoughts, not being able to get things organized, and the anxiety was associated with falling behind in work. She then mentioned that I should try taking ADHD assessments to try and explore that route too. Sleep Apnea? Nope: At that time I was 100% on board the sleep apnea train because I have always slept poorly since infancy, my parents snore like cartoon characters, and I was becoming afraid of going to sleep at night. Besides, one of my closer friends in college had ADHD and was completely off the wall when he was off meds, and I did not see much similarity between the him and myself. I then went to a sleep study first, and waited to schedule an ADHD consult until after I heard back about my sleep results. (This was stupid, stupid, stupid!). I actually had a night terror during the sleep study and woke up gasping for air during it, and so I was shocked to get the results back that I did not have sleep apnea. ADHD Consult: Okay, then, schedule ADHD consult, I guess. I did not do any research ahead of time because I did not want my misunderstanding of information found online to screw up a diagnosis. (This was also stupid). I am completely horrible in conversations that exist primarily to relay information, but I can chitchat like a pro. I always have a notebook with me to write down things I hear in conversations, but I seldom stick to the script when it comes to getting my point across. I am also prone to getting hyper-involved in things related to my research, but not my research. If it feels like I was doing things useful to my research, maybe I am. (I do computational drug design.) The psychologist gave me a lot of “homework” with respect to getting a personal history done. This required input from my wife, and one of my parents. Both my parents are in the mental health fields, so good for me? I knew my dad always leaned on the side of me being a paradoxically accomplished, but lazy, anxious perfectionist, who never listens or follows instructions properly, and so I went with mom. But mom is a chain-smoking, iPhone-addicted, space-case, so I still had to cross my fingers. My wife and I both rank me as being a disorganized, distracted, creative type, who accomplishes most of his work via sleep deprived procrastination fests, despite the sleep problems has high-energy, and changes hobbies every few weeks. I will mention at this point that my wife and I have been married for about seven years, but we have been together basically since we were both seventeen (so about thirteen years now). Childhood, School and Coping: Long story short, probably because my mother is forgetful and has two other kids, as well as the fact that she teaches children with far more impairing behavioral and cognitive disabilities, she was unable to provide a useful line of evidence for my bad childhood behavior and school difficulties as a child. Back to the childhood: as a kid, I actually got in all sorts of trouble for fighting, arguing with adults, intentionally annoying teachers, and disrupting class. My teachers, apparently, never passed on this information to my parents based on my mother’s responses because I did really well in pretty much everything but citizenship--Unsatisfactory/Fail. “This kid is real bright, but kind of a lovely person,” so we won’t get him into trouble with his parents, and so he’ll appreciate this and shape-up on his own. Us kids in the family were allowed to consume caffeinated sodas for the first time once I hit middle school, and consume I did. School was boring, I could get good grades without paying attention or trying hard, and homework periods set aside in school were best used for drawing or cutting up with my weird friends. “I’ll do this work at night, when I feel like it.” Trying to be better, not procrastinating, and working before playing and having fun was excruciating, even if not having my work done was giving me a bit of anxiety. Let’s not get stress headaches from trying to read or do work right when we get home from school, and do it when we really, really have to (like at night, right before it is due). It feels easier when I’m getting tired anyways. Sleep became the kind of thing I got to around 1 am or so most school nights when I finally got my own bedroom. If you do well on things, you get a lot less grief from teachers if you nod off in their classes. The days before papers were due or tests were had was the optimal time to get “sick”—only to do nothing all day until about 10 pm when I became tired, but found doing work a lot easier. Work all night and then turn in that paper or take that test, and the system worked! It worked as an undergraduate too for the most part. It almost got me fired from a part-time summer programming job because I was doing very little work in a shared cubicle space (full of chatty friends from classes), and I logged most of my work hours between 10 pm and 3 am from home, but I quit before they got the chance. It almost got me fired from an on-campus job too, but then I actually advanced to the point where I had underlings and that went, oddly enough, much more smoothly when I could delegate tasks that I hated doing. After graduating, I had a stretch of unemployment, and the lack of structure led to me getting nothing done at all except for getting married and doing quite well on the GRE. Graduate school (the second attempt) went swimmingly throughout the coursework and qualifying exams, but as soon as unstructured, open-sky, research started taking place without the background of classes, and I couldn’t take the pain in my joints and stomach from going long periods of time in sleep-deprived mode any longer—KABOOM! Why, yes, advisor, I will tell you stream-of-consciousness-style all of the other interesting things I learned while I was supposed to be doing work for you. No, that part of my brain that should shut me up about this is faulty. A filter? You mean like for coffee? He is a nice guy though, and when I told him of my treatment he was not surprised, and is willing to work with me through it. The Diagnosis: Well, since your mother says you didn’t have school problems as a child, you did remarkably well in your undergraduate education, and you can pay attention and click when some numbers appear on a screen for about 15 minutes--you win GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER. I learned that this is pretty much an “Ask again later” magic-8-ball / really rough-draft kind of diagnosis. I was really surprised about the computer assessment results, because I remember almost exclaiming “Oh poo poo!” when I completely glazed over and clicked through the last set of instructions without reading them and almost asked for a do-over. I guess playing a lot of FPSes, and having a job that has large components of “search for stimulus, point and click” may have helped here. However, the computer test was coupled with results from another assessment indicating that I have a lot of problems with executive functions, but with just enough with anxiety and depressive results so those must be the problem. Honestly, if it were just the anxiety and depressive results here, I would have sucked in up and started back on another SSRI or SNRI because my wife has seen such improvements on them, but my interest became piqued in exploring executive function deficits. They explained me a lot better than the anxiety and depression bits because I actually followed the advice of my sleep doctor and no caffeine after 2 pm and cut out the computer poo poo at night and I relaxed and I exercised when I got home from work/school, and that had basically eliminated a lot of my anxiety and made me happier from sleeping better. So sleep had improved my mood and anxiety, but it did not really prevent me from getting bent out of shape trying to concentrate on things. It was probably a good thing that I did not rely on getting work done in the evenings anymore, because my brain was definitely not going to concentrate then either. I am suspicious that the caffeine really wasn’t really an issue, but it was the fact that there was sugar in it. As a plus, I also had a minimal number of night terrors and breathing difficulties since then, hooray! I would sleep from 9 pm until about 2 am habitually, despite setting an alarm for 5 am. Okay, work during the early morning then, whatever, brain. However, happier and feeling well-rested, concentration actually seemed worse than before and, actually, less work was being accomplished, but with increasing amounts of frustration and difficulty concentrating. What the gently caress? In Which I Learn Something Important About ADHD Therapeutics: Fortunately, the psychologist doing the ADHD diagnosis was able to recommend a psychiatrist that would be willing to work with me to treat the symptoms and not only the diagnosis. She suggested that stimulants may not be the best option for me because of my previously-mentioned-but-now-greatly-reduced anxiety, and it was at that point I learned that stimulants were used to treat ADHD and that people (especially students) liked to abuse them to study more or something. I seriously had only vaguely ever picked up on this information before. I mean, I feel like caffeine helps me to get stuff done, but the body jitteriness is only effectively countered in me by being almost intentionally sleep-deprived constantly. It made no sense to me at the time that stimulants would be a treatment for something that seemed to be due to an excess of energy. Do your friggin’ homework on mental health stuff before dropping money on consultations, people! Help them help you. So I read up more on executive functions, and found that ADHD falls under it, but executive function impairment does not explicitly have any standard drug intervention; however, clonidine, guanfacine, atomoxetine and bupropion were mentioned as being non-stimulant treatments. I was leaning toward guanfacine and clonidine as my first choices because I am hypertensive and stimulants would likely not play nice with that. I had read that they could be used alone with some success as well. When meeting with the psychiatrist for the first time, she actually suggested that I just had too much caffeine in my life and that would explain problems with sleeping (9 pm to 2 am consistently) and concentrating on work I found uninteresting. That got under my skin, but I did not really have enough information at the time to counter this. I learned the next week at a sleep follow-up that it looks like I naturally need about five hours of sleep, and that makes some amount of sense given that my father also sleeps that amount. Huh, so the eight-hour thing is a myth—good to know. I will also mention that I did a bad job of reporting the facts of my methods of coping and getting through school as a child and undergraduate and graduate coursework. I think it is important to emphasize that you should not dispassionately report this information, but should mention how things made you feel. You should also be careful about cause and effect. For example, I found my work hard to concentrate on and so I thought that was because I was not interested in it and felt forced to do it, but it was really just me giving pushback to a situation that required me to go deeper intellectually than I was previously accustomed to. That realization changed the way I approach my thinking about my research. I am very bad at being swayed in conversations and getting off track without referring to written notes. I honestly got off to a bad start with my current psychiatrist, but because the one who works at my university sent in her two week notice the day I scheduled my first treatment, and I don’t drive because go into the same headspace as showering while driving, I was desperate. I also did not want to go to through the process again and have to fight off anti-anxiety and anti-depressant meds likely to be suggested. I also learned that she was my university’s previous psychiatrist and it kind of sounded like she has had enough with college students. She hadn’t heard of guanfacine (Intuniv), and wasn’t willing to prescribe clonidine because she thought it was more used for oppositional defiant presenting ADHD, but she was willing to try me out on atomoxetine (Strattera). I did not know very much about it, but I accepted the trial bottles and the prescription. A New Hope and Unforeseen Consequences: I felt very positive about the experience, despite feeling like I did not get my points across successfully. However, on the walk home (her office is basically across the street from my place), I managed to lose the prescription on my person (somehow) and spent 10-15 minutes searching for it in panic. When I found it, I was convinced that experience was a strong indicator that I should get this filled immediately even though I had not tried Strattera out yet. No generic exists and $100 dollars a month with insurance for the 80 mg pills--dang. I took a single 40 mg does from the trial bottles at 7 pm with a meal, as indicated. At 12:30 am I woke up hearing an amplified version of the racing thoughts that used to wake me up before I implemented my chillout routine in the evenings. It honestly felt like 100 restaurants full of chatting people chocked full of busboys with clanking utensils and plates in my head. I then noticed my arms felt like they were numb from cold, and then waves of tingling pain shot all over my body. There was a bit of nausea too and it hurt to go to the bathroom. It felt like a series of explosions going off during a demolition, but it was crotch-centric. I was unable to go back to sleep and decided to just go about my day in the sense that I was furiously researching to see what had gone wrong. I was uneasy to be working from home alone that day, because I thought it was a good idea to be in public in case something bad happened. By 10 am most of the tingling sensations had gone away and I was mostly left with that ache (but not the tiredness) of sleep deprivation, but I had been unable to reach my psychiatrist (the day after she prescribed a new patient new medication). I then went to class. I was noticeably calmer than usual, and I did not feel that pressured sensation that I was trying to write fast enough to keep up with my thoughts, like would have been normal for me on a full night’s sleep. My notes, upon later inspection, were more useful to me and my handwriting was a lot better. I have a habit of writing down everything during lectures and such, but never really referring to notes without a great deal of difficulty because my handwriting is so bad and the notes are so disjointed. I am hesitant to attribute this to the Strattera because it is supposed to take a while to become effective and this is mostly how I am when I am sleep-deprived—calmer, able to concentrate more, and able to actually pay attention to class rather than just sit through it. I did still have the sensation that I was racing against the tiredness from sleep-deprivation catching up to me, which is a normal “thrill” of the sleep-deprived state—how long can I stay coherent and together until I pass out or start babbling? It is a lot like Hunter S. Thompson at the police convention trying to keep it under wraps in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. As someone who has not done recreational drugs and drinks very little alcohol, the sensation of sleeplessness is about as altered as my state gets. I called my psychiatrist many times during the day trying to catch her, and I left the message indicating that I would not take any more Strattera until she got back to me. I forced myself to stay up until 9 pm for a normal bedtime and then woke up at 3:30 am (which was almost caught me up for sleep), repeated most of the previous days frantic research (without any tingling), skipped going in that day, and went to bed at 9 pm again. I woke up at 12:30 am and was very much pissed off about being awake: I had a lot to do that day and I could not just skip it without a lot of repercussions and letting some friends down. I scheduled an emergency session with my counselor/CBT when I got to campus and explained my what had happened. I have never talked so fast, yet, in my mind, coherently in my life. Normally you can’t get more than a few sentences out of me before I have changed the conversation or lost track of what we were talking about, and I interrupted her constantly. I had to get my point across before the lack of sleep turned my brain to mush. She scheduled a psych test for me the following Monday. I learned that my follow-up with my pulmonologist for the sleep study conflicted on Monday and made several phone calls to get everything in order. The rest of the day went very well, surprisingly. However, that evening I was still trying to track down what was happening and still felt very much awake past my bedtime when I decided to look at trouble signs for Strattera overdose. QC interval elongation and that is what--correlated with fatal heart events? gently caress! I then plead with my wife for her to pick me up some activated charcoal from the grocery store, took them and tried to relax and go to sleep. I took several more doses of the charcoal the next day and finally cleared the Strattera out of my system in the process of helping some of my friends move house and then slept for like 12 hours. I spent the rest of that weekend researching explanations for my brief and early sleep period (9 pm to 2 am) to ask questions about for my pulmonologist appointment on Monday morning. I spent a lot of time trying to find studies that would help me to explain my improved functioning (for a period of time) while sleep deprived, but to no avail. I woke up again at 12:30 am on the day of the appointment—argh! I then remembered while at his office 30 minutes before the appointment, that pulmonologists primarily work with lungs and that I was seeing him precisely for sleep apnea associated with an obstructed airway and he would likely have no little idea about sleep hormones. gently caress again! Why/how did I spend so long researching for this meeting that I didn’t look up what it was he was actually a specialist in? He did explain to me about features of my sleep, and, if what I said about my dad’s sleeping habits were true, not entirely unexpected for me to wake up feeling rested after five hours of sleep. Whew, a bit. I was also curious about my EEG results, but when I looked into where in the brain they paid attention to in the polysomnogram versus what I had read about EEGs of folks with ADHD, I realized that there would likely little overlap, so I did not ask him. I then walked from the hospital to campus to the counseling center to take the psych test only to realize that I had rescheduled it like three times on Friday afternoon and it had found a resting spot on Tuesday afternoon and not on Monday. They took pity on me and allowed me to take it anyway. The MMPI, if you are interested. You’ll Know It When It Happens: I took the long bus ride home exhausted and depressed about my situation. I had tried calling my psychiatrist about three more times that day, but still no answer. I then did some research about self-medication that some folks with ADHD try/use as coping mechanisms: smoking and pseudoephedrine. I did not like or trust myself to get nicotine patches/gum/lozenges because my mom and the entirety of her side of the family are smokers and I did not want to pick up that bad habit. Additionally, because it could be purchased through Amazon it would be up to me to stop myself if it started being addictive, which troubled me. Pseudoephedrine is a BTC nasal decongestant that idiots some time use to cook meth, and so you cannot just buy as much as you want. That eased the perceived burden on me somewhat. I decided that I was feeling a bit stuffy and with the impeding snowstorm, my nose would likely only get worse, so I bought some. I called my sister who is a pharmacy student and my dad to check in with them about this, and they were not exactly supportive, but they did listen to me explain the situation. I knew it was a stimulant and that I wanted a good night’s sleep, so I waited until the morning. I took a single 30 mg pill, which is not even a dose, and went about my day. About 30 minutes later I felt much calmer. I, actually, no longer felt my heart beating in my chest like I normally do when I am concentrating on getting work done. My arms felt a little colder. My wife yelled at me across the house for some request, an act that usually sets me off a little due to my dislike of yelling, and I notice that I emotionally/mentally perceived it the same way, but it no longer had a physiological reaction of making me clench up a bit and causing me to a shoot a bit of (adrenaline?) into my system. We had just about an hour prior had a minor argument that set my blood pounding, but now there was nothing happening to further spike the anger and so no argument resulted. What the hell was happening? I told her about this, but she did not really give me an opinion or decisive reaction, so I went back to work. I was making progress on something I had been unable to concentrate on for over a week. I was able to feel passionate about my work in a positive way, rather than hating it and getting frustrated and angry with myself. I was still able to free associate and connect ideas in strange ways, but it felt more like I had choice or control in the matter rather than getting pelted by ideas and trying to grasp hold onto relevant ones. That was pleasant. I felt right as rain—like when I would start to get exhausted in the evenings, without that overwhelming race against sleep. It was the clarity without the chase. I had recently disallowed myself from thinking about work on Saturdays, and I was even calmer than then. The Dude abides. I really wanted to share this sensation with the world. I took another about seven hours after the first in order to test insomnia that is sometimes associated with pseudoephedrine. I kind of forced myself to eat something and then fell asleep and awoke without feeling groggy. Another thing that was really pleasant was that at some point during my work, one of my cats snuck up and meowed loudly as she rubbed against my leg. Normally this would have had me jump and drop my pen, but now it was more like “Oh! Hi kitty!” No longer jump-scaring was a real nice benefit too, and it increased hopes that I could maybe begin to drive again some day in the future. The next day I did the same and I noticed that I no longer stomped around while I was trying to be quiet before my wife woke up, and I no longer randomly started to lose my balance. I later learned that some folks with ADHD have balance issues. My psychiatrist finally called me back and I explained what had happened on the Strattera, what was happening on pseudoephedrine, and I asked her if I could give clonidine a try. She promptly sent in the prescription to the pharmacy. I am still a little cautious about stimulants because I am borderline hypertensive, and she is reluctant to prescribe them for me anyways because I wasn’t very effective in communicating my experiences. I then had a nurse take my pulse while under the effects of three cups of coffee and a single 30 mg tablet of store-brand Sudafed that Friday and it was still higher than it ought to be, but not nearly as high as it was on Monday before I started the pseudoephedrine. (That was pre-clonidine, by the way). I’m cutting back on the caffeine, but continuing on the pseudoephedrine (with breaks on weekends and check for “clonidine alone effectiveness days”) as I wait for the 2-4 week period for the clonidine to kick in, but I do have follow ups scheduled with my psychiatrist and CBT counselor. Spoon!: I did not realize this next part until I took a day off of the pseudoephedrine, but I had stopped picking and biting on my nails on the days I was on pseudoephedrine. I also realized that I 1) had some tics I had not really noticed (spontaneously coughing and clenching my arms and rustling my hair vigorously) and 2) that they stopped while under the effects of the pseudoephedrine. When would do them as the pseudoephedrine was wearing off they struck me as being very weird behaviors to do and they do not illicit the same physiological response as they did previously. It is annoying and concerning to find out (more) weird things that you do that you were previously unaware of. I had always had a hunch that the nail-biting was more of a self-stimulating than anxious behavior in my case and this kind of lends support to that hypothesis. My lack of self-awareness for many of my odd behaviors and habits probably led to this going on untreated for much longer than it had to. Self-conscious =/= Self-aware. It is a Mystery.: Some people may, contrary to common sense, work much better and have an easier time focusing when sleep deprived, and apparently this is a coping mechanism to an extent. Circadian rhythms and serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine are all interconnected, but this remains largely shrouded in the tangled mysteries of both genetics and biochemistry. I was the king of otitis media up until I was about ten years old—no hearing damage thankfully—and I have read studies correlating chronic ear infection (and mothers who use nicotine while pregnant) with ADHD rates. The mechanism behind this is largely unknown, but some Harvard folks recently made a dopamine-hydroxylase knockout mouse that got a lot of ear infections without having otherwise unusual hearing. So regular (unwittingly therapeutic) sleep deprivation propped up by caffeine is a rather odd coping mechanism that I cobbled together, and so I jokingly recommend a more traditionally recognized means of self-medication. I have not found many studies that would explain this other than some paradoxical effects of sleep deprivation on concentration in a subset of the population, and some information about dopamine expression changes upon sleep deprivation. Not sleeping enough is very bad for you is a common theme in all of these papers! I tried to have fun while writing this because at times reflecting on my experience oscillates between being very upsetting to absolutely hilarious (to me anyways). I still think that a mind map with all of the nonlinear, connected bubbles works better for me than straight-up writing, but I hope this is found to be helpful. This is actually kind of a reduced version of what has been happening to me over the last few weeks, but I am mostly willing to expound upon things if asked. Let me know if I need to remove any sections about self-medicating as I wish this post to be taken as my experience and not as advice in any way.
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Feb 22, 2015 17:36
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thats a nice wall you got there
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Feb 22, 2015 18:07
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jesus christ the fact that he expects anyone to read that poo poo in the ADHD thread is pretty funny though
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Feb 22, 2015 18:37
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Wellbutrin gives me the crazy dreams, ya'll. Holy poo poo. If I took it too many days in a row (you know, like you're supposed to), I get insane dreams and can't sleep, but if I don't take it often enough I get insane goddamn harrowing nightmares, and can't sleep. Oh well, appointment on monday, let's see what happens.
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Feb 22, 2015 18:53
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Was it me or was there a big paragraph in the middle where it was about masturbating alot one day?
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Feb 22, 2015 19:31
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i didnt read it because it was to long. i feel from looking at the size of that thing hes probably purging his whole like system and putting everything into that post so i dont know how fair it would be to actually read that thing. i remember when i found out i had add when i was like 20 something and how loving relieved i felt because all the hosed up poo poo in my life was because of this thing that i had very little control over and how i could just attribute everything that went wrong in my life to something else and how good that loving felt to like not feel like a complete loving failure. maybe he did that in post form??
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Feb 22, 2015 20:06
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I guess the "know your audience" aspect of writing escaped me.  In short, a really confusing situation came to an ADHD conclusion the other week and I am still processing things. I'm not really good about sharing things about myself with others, but I was excited and motivated by a lot of the posts made here and wanted to contribute. I had written out a lot of that stuff before in preparing to talk with medical folks, my psychiatrist and my CBT, but either chickened out or got derailed and forgot about it in the course of my conversations with them. Additionally, filtering is kind of a hard thing for me. Sorry for the wall of text, but maybe a complete narrative will be useful to some.
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Feb 22, 2015 20:38
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etceterability posted:I guess the "know your audience" aspect of writing escaped me. I'll let you know if I can ever even get through this.
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Feb 22, 2015 20:50
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etceterability posted:I guess the "know your audience" aspect of writing escaped me. We're just teasing a little. Don't worry about it we all do the wall of text post- yours is actually well written.
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Feb 22, 2015 22:27
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I don't know if I actually have ADHD or if lack of focus is just a symptom of dysthymia or whatever but gently caress man it sucks just the same. I've been on Ritalin, Adderall, and Vyvanse, and of those the Adderall is the only one that seems to have helped and even that's seemed like it's lost its effectiveness now. This isn't the sort of thing I want to keep upping my dose in, either. My psychiatrist keeps telling me it's probably okay to go up (I'm doing 20 mg a day at the moment) but I also have pretty severe anxiety periodically and I've found that too much of a stimulant really makes that go nuts. :\ I tried Strattera once, but I wasn't on it for very long and it didn't really seem like it did anything for me. I wonder if it'd be worth it to try again. I also tried Provigil once and that stuff was like a loving wonder drug, but my insurance flat out refuses to cover it unless I have a sleep disorder, my general doctor is convinced that I don't, and that poo poo is loving expensive as hell without insurance. So that sucks. So yeah, stream of consciousness posting but long story short I'm having a rough go of it right now and don't really know what to do about it. Edit: I'm on Wellbutrin and Zoloft as well for the dysthymia/anxiety and I have no idea if that would be loving with the ADHD meds or not.
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Feb 23, 2015 01:42
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Qu Appelle posted:It also turns out that one of the formulations of Baclofen, R-Baclofen, is showing good signs of being useful in treating Narcolepsy. http://www.fountia.com/baclofen-for-narcolepsy-promising-new-treatment/ This is really exciting news! I have narcolepsy and it seriously messes me up and makes my ADHD about a million times worse. Often I'm so tired that I'm still unfocused even on Ritalin. Sometimes I wonder if I even have ADHD (I can fully relate to everything people say about it, but) because I know the fatigue can mimic most of the symptoms. In other news, I had to fill out a form to prove I have ADHD (one of those questionnaires that asks you things like "do you constantly interrupt others?") to get prior auth for my Ritalin, and I read the directions so quickly that I filled the form out wrong three times. When I finally handed it in after getting it right, I inwardly laughed. It was so typical ADHD. 
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Feb 23, 2015 02:52
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The Rokstar posted:
That's really good to know - because, of all things, my GP wants me to get a sleep study for a sleep disorder. I have been sleeping like crap for a while now, and nodding off in the middle of the day, when I didn't have any problems with sleeping before. I've held off, because I thought that it was GERD related (which I have and is being treated.)
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Feb 23, 2015 07:48
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Fluorescent posted:This is really exciting news! I have narcolepsy and it seriously messes me up and makes my ADHD about a million times worse. Often I'm so tired that I'm still unfocused even on Ritalin. Sometimes I wonder if I even have ADHD (I can fully relate to everything people say about it, but) because I know the fatigue can mimic most of the symptoms. I got burned by those forms because when it asked about memory I said my memory is great. It is! For things that happened months/years ago. In high school I had to pack every book to bring home because I'd forget my homework daily. I'd fail tests because I forgot to box answers. I wasn't thinking of those moments. I'd forgotten that I forget.
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Feb 23, 2015 15:48
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Wish I had the attention span to read this for real
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Feb 23, 2015 16:36
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MJBuddy posted:I got burned by those forms because when it asked about memory I said my memory is great. It is! For things that happened months/years ago. In high school I had to pack every book to bring home because I'd forget my homework daily. I'd fail tests because I forgot to box answers. I wasn't thinking of those moments. I'd forgotten that I forget. Hahaha, I can relate to this so much. I also have a good memory - for conceptual things. But that doesn't mean I also don't have an enormously hard time focusing on keeping a consistent train of thought while I'm learning about these concepts - it's just when I can pull it off, I'm good. You really have to think carefully about those dumb forms. Which is pretty much the last thing you want to do when you're out of Ritalin and struggling to make it to appointments on time. For me, it's my answers to the hyperactivity questions that always raises questions with people; I'm not a very active person. I am not "driven by a motor." I just happen to also have narcolepsy which would kill anyone's uh motor.
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Feb 23, 2015 17:51
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Fluorescent posted:Hahaha, I can relate to this so much. I also have a good memory - for conceptual things. But that doesn't mean I also don't have an enormously hard time focusing on keeping a consistent train of thought while I'm learning about these concepts - it's just when I can pull it off, I'm good. You really have to think carefully about those dumb forms. Which is pretty much the last thing you want to do when you're out of Ritalin and struggling to make it to appointments on time. Hyperactivity in adults is usually internal, rather than how it is normally exhibited in children. That perplexed me last year when I got my diagnosis as well. Additude has a good article on the subject.
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Feb 23, 2015 19:24
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slogsdon posted:Hyperactivity in adults is usually internal, rather than how it is normally exhibited in children. That perplexed me last year when I got my diagnosis as well. Additude has a good article on the subject. I'm not sure what that has to do with hyperactivity - that's about sensitivity to criticism and worries about being judged. It's a good article, though.
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Feb 24, 2015 18:00
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Freudian posted:I'm not sure what that has to do with hyperactivity - that's about sensitivity to criticism and worries about being judged. It's a good article, though. I think the point they're trying to make is that as you age hyperactivity becomes more of an internal thing. Sensitivity to criticism and worry and that sort of things are signs of a hyperactive mind.
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Feb 24, 2015 21:15
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Those articles mention a weak working memory, something I've struggled with for a long time---has anyone found ways to work around that besides list-making? I tend to lose lists, or forget to make them in the first place. People don't believe me because like someone else mentioned, I can recall things that happened a long time ago just fine.
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Feb 24, 2015 23:50
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Astrofig posted:Those articles mention a weak working memory, something I've struggled with for a long time---has anyone found ways to work around that besides list-making? I tend to lose lists, or forget to make them in the first place. People don't believe me because like someone else mentioned, I can recall things that happened a long time ago just fine. There's a piece of software called Cogmed that's supposed to be effective. It's only available through health care providers and iirc is a bit expensive.
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Feb 25, 2015 00:35
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Astrofig posted:Those articles mention a weak working memory, something I've struggled with for a long time---has anyone found ways to work around that besides list-making? I tend to lose lists, or forget to make them in the first place. People don't believe me because like someone else mentioned, I can recall things that happened a long time ago just fine. Memory is a nutty thing for us AD(H)D folk. My shrink was grilling me because he wanted to make sure I wasn't interchanging the word memory for attention. If I met you once at a party five years ago, I will remember your face and your favorite band, but drat if I can remember your name the next day (sometimes five minutes later). And I never remember street names, but I can find my way back to my first house (we moved when I was six) if you put me at the McD's at the center of town. I hear you on the "lists would be nice.... If I could remember a list" frustration. I think I heard it in here, but maybe read it: ADD is like putting in the work to learn how to tie your shoes, and then having to re learn how to tie your shoes EVERY loving DAY.  Ps: still trying to figure out what Concerta us doin to/for me. On a marginal dose. Been tired more than focused, but this week has sucked as far as sleep.
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Feb 25, 2015 00:37
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So after talking with an ex-coworker buddy of mine and reading part of this thread, I decided to talk to my Primary care Doc about being tested for ADD. I've been struggling at work recently with my ability to focus and other items, its really hard for me to describe. took the test, and basically because I put down that I can read and enjoy reading that I'm not ADD. If I had marked those questions in regards to reading that I was unable to read because of XYZ, I would of been in the mega-positive zone as ADHD. I don't know if I actually am ADD, or if there is something else mentally I need to have addressed but do any of you guys who have been diagnosed enjoy reading? I read nightly to wear my brain out so it shuts down and I can sleep. I basically force myself to read for an hour+ nightly, if I don't my mind doesn't turn off and I'm up all night tossing and turning trying to rest. Should I just step up and go see a psychiatrist/psychologist to discuss mental issues further instead of my primary care?
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Mar 5, 2015 23:58
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Langolas posted:do any of you guys who have been diagnosed enjoy reading? Langolas posted:Should I just step up and go see a psychiatrist/psychologist to discuss mental issues further instead of my primary care?
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Mar 6, 2015 01:12
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Langolas posted:I read nightly to wear my brain out so it shuts down and I can sleep. I basically force myself to read for an hour+ nightly, if I don't my mind doesn't turn off and I'm up all night tossing and turning trying to rest. From my experience this is one of the big traits ADHD people have in common with each other, that 'neurotypical' people don't. We listen to radio, watch TV, read books or news in order to get to sleep, which is the opposite of how people normally work lol Just go make an appointment with a psychiatrist and do some research online on what ADHD is like so you understand the symptoms, it will make it easier to communicate your state of mind and ask questions to a shrink and ignore the jerk off ADHD quiz he prob pulled off google to shut up people asking for Adderall.
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Mar 6, 2015 01:27
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I have no problem reading for hours and I'm VERY ADHD, something like two to three standard deviations away from normal attention in the tests I've taken. One of the things that sometimes happens with ADHD is you can actually become hyperfocused on something you like doing, in which case your symptoms magically disappear and you can do it for hours. But you're still not really in control of your attention — try tearing yourself away from the book your focusing on to do math homework or clean your bathroom and you'll see.
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Mar 6, 2015 01:32
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Baby Babbeh posted:I have no problem reading for hours and I'm VERY ADHD, something like two to three standard deviations away from normal attention in the tests I've taken. One of the things that sometimes happens with ADHD is you can actually become hyperfocused on something you like doing, in which case your symptoms magically disappear and you can do it for hours. But you're still not really in control of your attention — try tearing yourself away from the book your focusing on to do math homework or clean your bathroom and you'll see. I'm actually kinda having that issue with your avatar as we speak... 
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Mar 6, 2015 01:43
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i like sitting down to watch 3 movies on dvd in a row when i take a break from my meds. i cant watch movies when im on ritalin because i just get bored so easily unless the movie im watching is really good
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Mar 6, 2015 01:51
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i become absoulutely transfixed watching almost any half decent film when im off my meds
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Mar 6, 2015 01:52
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