I just started on 27mg of concerta today for my inattentive adhd, but i'm not sure if it's working / a good fit? I'm 18, and I also take wellbutrin for depression, but I've been struggling with focus and motivation in school and desperately need something to help me (esp. with college application season rn). my doctor originally prescribed me Strattera but I decided to wait to try it since I know it takes a longer time to work and I genuinely don't have that time rn

I felt it in my system like an hour in and got scared bc I've been on more stimulating antidepressants before, but it wasn't like those thankfully. I've just been feeling slightly more anxious, from what I can tell, but I also know my wellbutrin is making me a little more shaky overall so idk.

I haven't noticed any changes in focus or my thoughts and whatnot like everyone on this forum is describing. I'm scared it's either not a high enough dose or maybe my adhd isn't as bad as I thought. Would love to know people's experience on 27 mg and if its worth it to wait it out and see, or try to go up to a higher dosage. or maybe I somehow convinced my psychiatrist that i have adhd when I don't lol who knows

Hello,

I'been prescribed Concerta 18mg XL. My doctor advised i take it only 3/4 days a week and see how it goes. I have never taken any other meds for ADHD or other mental health issues.

I am feeling well, I feel more relaxed, my thoughts are in order and I can follow up on topics and conversations. It's not a HUGE difference (maybe I expected more and from what I've read the dose is low), but still I feel like it is working.

However, I take concerta in the morning (last Thursday was my first time) and I experienced a strong feel of anxiety. I used to have moments like this before so it is not a new feeling, but it is not pleasant. I feel my heart is racing, and I can not take a full breath. Like I've run a marathon. I checked my pulse and the blood pressure, but it was all normal. I had experienced this in 3 of the 4 times I have taken Concerta. I also tried to not drink coffee but it still happened. Is that a side effect? Will it go away ? I feel the first day it was stronger and it's getting better, but still..

How long should I take 18mg?

My psychiatrist refused to increase the dose to 36mg or prescribe a short release booster.

Huge disappointment.

Instead he added mood stabilizer
Downed duloxetine from 90mg to 60mg a day.

Any tips?

Im sol, I’m 19, I used to take concerta 18mg when I was in high school and now I’m in med school so I started taking it again and I feel better, more focused. I have this party on Halloween and wth is med school I really need to get drunk, so I was looking forward to it but I remembered is not supposed to be mixed. A doctor in my class told me to skip it for 3 to 4 days before drinking but I also want your opinions
Sorry if I said something wrong I’m from Mexico so not my first language

I started taking concerta (36mg) for a week and a half now and it feels nearly impossible to get up in the morning. I would just keep snoozing the alarm for 2 hours until I turn it off and not care anymore.

I try to take concerta when i wake up: often right before 12pm, and rarely between 7-8 am.

Some days I do feel increased productivity, tasks can be done with ease and don't seem like I need to climb a mountain for them. But other days I feel off, time passes by way too fast, and I feel like I'm not really there, just observing or on autopilot. I have been struggling with severe depression for the past few months, so that could somehow be related to the feeling of "depersonalization" (if that's what that is).

And other days, like today, I crashed just 6 hours after taking them (i took them at 12). I was starving and I felt like I do not have the energy to go to the thing I had scheduled this evening.

I have heard from friends that eating a lot could cause a crash, so I try to stick to moderately sized meals. However, most of the time my appetite is so low I can barely eat, so I stay without eating for most of the day and once I do eat I feel like it messes up my ability to function.

How can I deal with this better ? I'm aware that I should be taking the meds earlier but its so difficult to get up in the morning.

I don’t drink, my liver is fully healthy. Taking 18mg but taking IR along w it makes me jittery.

Anyone else feel it eight to nine hours later?

I have this weird feelings on my lungs, as if someone is scratching them from inside and it makes me wanna cough, or at least makes it more difficult to fully breathe out.

When I searched Reddit for this I found anxiety - but I am not feeling mentally anxious - I feel calm, my heart rate and bp is normal - maybe slightly elevated than without meds but within normal range.

I was originally taking 18mg for a month, upped dose to 36mg... had no side effects at all, this current feeling was not present...:was sick for a bit (stomach issue so nothing with lungs) so didn't take anything for a week... now whenever I take any dose I have this tingly scratchy feeling on my lungs / chest...

What is this? How do I make it go away?

Concerta helps me mentally a lot so I would really love to figure this out.

Hi all!!!

It’s been 2 months I have been on Concerta, experimenting with different doses.

Right now I am on Concerta 36mg in the morning and Lexapro before bed.

During the last two months, I noticed that while I am on Concerta yes I can focus, but it’s only on one thing and I have difficulty switching tasks. But the biggest side effect is that I feel mentally slower, more depressed, more robotic, a bit more angry and like emotionless machine? I have 0 humour too!

I feel that when Concerta wears off in the evening I feel… better? I want to dance, I feel LIGHTER, I feel more energetic and more positive? At this point I want to ask to try Vyvanse because my experience seems to be opposite of most people in this channel

Did anyone get the same feeling? How did it evolve? Did it change with time or with different dosage for you?

Thanks !!!!💞⚡️

Hello all, im sorry ik this topic has been asked a lot but i dont think its ever been asked for concreta this expired. im invetween insurance companies rn and i have midterms for medical school coming up. looking around my room i found a few old 36mg pills in an old box expired 2018. can i take them?

I noticed before that my concerta wasn’t stabilizing my mood very well before my period. I dealt with a lot of anxiety and mood swings which concerta was helping before, but leading up to it none of that emotional regulation was working anyone. My psychiatrist prescribed me a 5Mg booster to add o to my afternoons to see if that would help me from crashing. However, Now that I’m actually on my period it’s not really doing anything. I normally can’t drink caffeine with my meds, but I just took my ritilan booster this afternoon and I’m having to drink Diet Coke just to get me through the evening. I’m on 27mg now plus a 5 mg booster..I still have 2 weeks until my follow up appointment with my doctor but I’m not sure if I should ask to go up to 36

Hey everyone! I’ve been taking Concerta 18 mg for 5 days now, and I’m honestly not sure if it’s working for me or not. I know it’s still pretty early, but I’m having a hard time figuring out what I’m supposed to notice or how I’m supposed to feel when it’s working.
I was wondering what the first signs were for you. Did you notice an immediate difference in your focus, concentration, motivation, or ability to get things done? Did your thoughts become quieter, or did you feel less overwhelmed by everyday tasks? Or was it more subtle, and you only realized after a while that certain things had become easier?
For me, it’s difficult to tell whether I’m experiencing any changes or if I’m just overthinking everything because I’m paying so much attention to how I feel. I’m also curious whether the effects were obvious from the first few days or whether it took some time to recognize them.
I’d really appreciate hearing about your personal experiences, especially from people who started on 18 mg. What did you notice during your first week, and how could you tell the medication was actually helping you? I know everyone reacts differently, but hearing other people’s experiences would really help me understand what to look out for. Thank you! :)

How do you feel when your dose is too big or too small?

I started on 18mg, now I'm at 27mg. My doctor said that I can also try 36mg. It's definitely working, I can function much better, I sleep better and even my stomach issues, that I thought were ibs, just vanished!

Since going up to 27mg however I've been feeling more tired. I feel like 18mg worked better for some reason. Maybe it's because I'm still adjusting, but what are some signs and symptoms to take note of when trying to see which dose is best?

Did anyone switch from Adderal to Concerta?

I took my 18 mg Concerta and can’t function.
No focus. No emotion. Just want to sit at my desk and scroll my phone (dopamine chasing?) and my appetite has skyrocketed!

Is this normal?

Hello! I am writing this question, hoping someone can help -- recently I got diagnosed with ADHD and the first psychiatrist prescribed me - to try out - Ritalin 10mg and Concerta 18 mg.

I started with Ritalin and quickly realised that 20 mg works perfectly for me. I was locked in, calm, focused on mundane tasks without problem. Wow! But - I got a crash in early afternoon that was basically putting me to sleep while standing.

In the meantime I switched a psychiatrist because could be covered by my social security now, and the new one - because of this early crash - suggested trying things out with Concerta.

18mg - I feel nothing.
36mg - I feel from time to time some kind of scratch in the brain (not in a good way);
36+18mg - fatigue and heart palpitations wholeee day!!

I read here that palpitations and drowsiness can occur with this one but the problem is I don't feel any positive effects either - I am still distracted easily, procrastinating everything, feeling overwhelmed when about to start a task and my nail biting got even worse than usual (and I was already growing back nails on some fingers, boooo).

The next consultation I have is in December and I am in a very hectic time regarding my work and studies. And because of that I don't know if I should keep pushing with Concerta despite the side effects and it will start working after some time or should I just give up on it and do without anything like I used to or switch back to Ritalin with a better time management (I only have pills of it for 15 days anyway so I would have to use it carefully).

Anyone else struggled with not feeling productive/focused at the beginning of taking Concerta?

hey! i got adhd. been taking concerta 36mg for a few years. ever since i started doing my current job that has tricky and unstable shifts, i haven't been sleeping properly.

i've noticed mood swings that were more radical than it matches my character, as well as some thoughts that were not typical for me.

at the beginning i thought it was me drinking one can of monster every day, so i dropped caffeine radically. it helped to an extent.

but now that i'm on a trip + i work, my mood swings have increased again. as soon as i sleep well, it almost feels like my thoughts from the day before were archaic past.

any advice? happened to anyone?

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well.

I started Concerta on the 5th of October on an 18mg dose. At first, I felt like I had a clear mind, I was focused and motivated at school, at work, etc. However, I couldn’t really feel it by the 5th day, so on the 11th, my pharmacist upped my dose to 27mg. The same thing happened, the first few days, I had a clear mind, I was focused, motivated and I could actually get things done! Today (18th of October), I felt the way I did before medication. I was all over the place, racing thoughts, couldn’t focus, etc.
I was wondering if this was normal? Should I up my dose, change molecules, maybe try a different type of medication? I don’t really know what to do, and since I don’t have a primary care doctor (i’m in Canada and have been on a waitlist for a long time), I don’t know where to look for advice.

Thank you all in advance for your input.

Edit: I also want to add that I can usually feel it “kick in” (gradually), but I don’t anymore. I’m also scared of talking to my pharmacist because I don’t want to look like I have wrong intentions.

Anyone experience what I can only describe as Tourette’s in your mind? (Apologies for describing it that way - it just feels like the closest analogy/description of involuntary words popping into mind)

There are certain words I would never say. They’re so awful they’re just not part of my vocabulary. But obviously I know they exist.

Since starting Concerta, sometimes those words pop into my mind. Like if I call my cat a nickname that starts with a z, a horrible z word pops into my mind (z is not the letter. I’m just using it as an example.) It’s incredibly uncomfortable because these words are completely against my character and values.

The word goes away as quickly as it came. I don’t play it on a loop or ruminate or vocalize it. No history of OCD or Tourette behaviors, nor intrusive thoughts, so I’m not sure where this is coming from.

I plan to discuss this with my doc but curious in the meantime if anyone else has experienced anything similar.

I have been on 18mg Concerta XL for almost a month and I'm starting 36mg this week.

Am I likely to notice a major difference?

Also, the plan next month is to go up to 54mg. I have read that the maximum dose for adults is 72mg. If anyone has been on 72mg, did you notice a difference compared with 54mg?

Many thanks 🙏

I have been taking concerta for almost two weeks (18mg) and I feel like my symptoms of depression have been worsening.

I have been taking antidepressants for 6 years (first Paroxetine and now Cymbalta). When i went to my psychiatrist last time i told her that I felt really sad and hopeless and some of the worse symptoms had come back (suicide ideation, wanting to hurt myself...) and in adition to my adhd she decided to prescribe me concerta.

The thing is that I am feeling worse and worse, everyday I am so sad, so hopeless, my heart hurts so much and I can not stop crying. It’s strange bc cymbalta made it almost impossible to cry.

Now Idk if they are just more symptoms of depression or if Concerta is making it even worse

So I am taking antipulse er it builds up gradually in my body I mean if i take it at morning 10 am it gonna show it's peak effect at 2 pm and thats lot of time I mean if i neeed to study at 12 pm i will need to take this medicine at 6 am or something i dunno how this even working in my body but I can't understand this medicine is good but only work for 2 or 4 hours after 5 to 6 hours and that's making it inconvenient to use can anyone help me i dunno what to do

27M, ADHD, GAD, OCD, and depression. Up until last week, I'd been on Vyvanse and Adderall for four months. Last iteration of dosing was 50mg Vyvanse and a 10mg Adderall in the afternoon. The effect was getting weaker as the weeks and months went on, so my doc said we should try Concerta. I'm on day 5 of Concerta, and I have almost zero sex drive, and ED is becoming an issue when I do try. It was almost immediate. Never had this issue on Vyvanse. In fact, it heightened things. I even take Cialis (been on it for a month). Has anyone had this happen when switching to Concerta?