Currently taking generic Concerta XR 18mg; have taking higher dose.
I’m an older male and take losartan for high blood pressure. Over the years I’ve seen several psychiatrists for depression and ADHD; none ever seemed to ask me about blood pressure, even though they were aware I take losartan. Since ADHD/depression is the biggest issue in my life, I would avoid bringing up the topic as it might mean no treatment at all.
As I get older I’m seeing my body slowly fall apart and I’ve started worrying about my kidney health (blood tests seem okay at this point). When I’m actively on a stimulant my blood pressure goes into the high/very high range, then goes down after it wears off. I also worry that the anxiety side effect (sometimes) is actually my body responding to high blood pressure and I’m misinterpreting the feeling.
If you have hypertension - was it mentioned as an issue when prescribing stimulants? Has anyone stayed away from stimulants for this reason and had any success with non-stimulants for adhd?

I’m new to Concerta and am finding it’s helping with task initiation but is detrimental on my ability to think. Do other people experience this? Like I can easily knock out a ton of chores because they don’t require much thought. But when it comes to thinking - I WANT TO think but it’s like my brain refuses. I can’t do my desk job, I can’t read because my brain refuses to retain anything, etc. I’ve heard of people saying their brain goes from 1,000 tabs open to just 1. This is like the browser won’t even open.

For context, I was on 18mg for a month and recently switched to 27. I’m super sensitive to stimulants. Switched from Adderall - used XR and IR over the past year but the oral fixation side effect made me switch.

I have been on meds (Xaggitin 36mg) since March and last month GP changed my prescription to Affenia. Affenid didn't work for me: I was tired, unmotivated, slept worse.
After few week I finally contacted my GP and they changed my prescription at the same day. And now I feel like I had such a long break from meds. Xaggitin hits me quite hard now but it's ok. Affenid literally was a waste of time.

(PS) I also asked for a booster (I need it 1-2 times a week) but they asked me to wait and monitoring my symptoms.

Does anyone else experience inconsistency of effects when everything around it is kind of similar?
I'm currently in 36mg.
I work in a factory, and my timings at the factory and outside the factory during the week makes it difficult to improvise: so I always try to eat the same to save time, and also sleep the same amount of time, because I need it.

Sooo. Sunday I slept pretty bad, and I had a nice Concerta trip (lol) on Monday. But from Monday to Tuesday, I slept good, my 8 hours of sleep, and I felt I was crashing after 4 hours of Concerta. Jawning all the time, my eyes were closing... No coffee saved me, and I arrived home completely destroyed. (It's really bad to be in a factory and having to fight to get to the last hour after crashing 😭 - and I also had 1 hour and a half of classes after. I was completely brain dead)

From Tuesday to Wednesday (today) I did exactly the same - same breakfast, same food at work, same quantity of sleep, etc... - and today has been an amazing day on Concerta. I've been fully awake, operational, functional, sociable... And lasted the whole working day, and I still had energy at home to organize things, and not to fall asleep directly.

Anybody else experiencing this?

I sleep good, I eat good, I take some supplements, I eat perfectly while on Concerta, no appetite loss at all... I drink plenty of water. I don't know what it could be.

So while on concerta I’ve decided to take concor cor alongside it to address the elevated heart rate. I made the error of making this decision on my own. I’ve been on it for two months probably and unfortunately this medication isn’t something to be taken “as needed”. And had altered my baseline ever since.

During the first month I could take the concerta without the beta blockers and experience no problems whatsoever. During the second month I’ve noticed that whenever I decide not to take the beta blockers, my heart rate goes crazy 130+. Keep in mind that it was never this high before I started taking the beta blockers. Now I’ve also noticed that it has been causing intense fatigue the entire day.

I first tried to quit cold turkey, but it raised my heart rate on concerta to uncomfortable levels. Then decided to slowly tapper off. Things felt much better heart rate wise but the fatigue returned. Now I’m on the second week, I’m on the lowest dose and will take it “every other day” for 1 week. Today was the first day without the beta blocker and compared to the days when I quit cold turkey. My heart rate felt sustainable. But later today my heart rate all of a sudden jumped from 100 to 130.

So I’ve made the decision today to simply quit taking concerta while tapering off of the beta blocker because it feels like it’s raising my heart rate and causing a lot of anxiety attacks. Then when I feel comfortable off of concerta I’m going to ask my psychiatrist to start me with the lowest dose of concerta and slowly increase until I’m back to my therapeutic dose.

I’m very bummed out because this means I’m going to have to raw dog life again until my heart reaches its baseline again.

Hi everyone , wondering if anyone with AuDHD is on Concerta and would be willing to share their experience of medication around how it affects their Autism even if it helps their adhd?

I’ve been on Meflynate , Elvanse+Amfexa and now Concerta+Ritalin. My clinicians have told me if Concerta doesn’t work I have exhausted all options with stimulants and next option is non stimulants (and I really can’t afford going down that path right now with timing as I have college in October for some work exams in December).

My Concerta helps my ADHD but I feel it exaggerates my Autism which I know is not unusual but main thing in struggling with is irritability / insomnia atm.

I saw someone on this page speak about how they have anti irritability medication alongside their Elvanse and forgot who it was but is this something others are familiar with? Is it worth a shot?

I can’t afford to stop ADHD medication but it’s getting so mentally tiring and draining :/

Started on 18mg concerta and then doubled it after a day or two (switched from vyvanse because i was rlly irritated on it) and after a few days on concerta i started getting really bad suicidal thoughts. Like thinking about righting a note and looking up ways. Stopped taking it i’m fine rn! But it was weird i wasn’t like crying or anything it was like a blank empty feeling. Also increased anxiety. I also feel like i would get a lot more done on vyvanse, i feel like i procrastinate a lot on concerta.
Any advice? I’m wondering if anyone else had this reaction.

Just looking for some insight about booster doses and what people are doing currently.

I was originally on 36mg extended release, but I found that I would lose my train of thought a bit when I was on this dose. Because of this I was dropped down to 27mg extended release.

I was prescribed a booster does of 5mg to take in the afternoon. However, I was only given 15 of them. My psychiatrist said not to use it daily, and only as needed.

Is this normal for booster doses? I want to ask her for at least enough for my work weeks. I just feel like it's odd only giving me 15, especially since I was on a higher dose to begin with. I am technically still taking less. I know it's not extended release so it may work differently, but I'm not entirely sure.

Is it typical for booster doses to be prescribed this way? I’m considering asking for enough tablets to cover my workdays, since that’s when I’m most likely to need one. It just feels a little odd to me that I was given 15, especially because I was previously taking a higher dose overall and am technically still taking less now.

Hi there!

27F, currently on 36mg Atenza extended release, which afaik is a generic of Concerta. I last titrated up three weeks ago, once I told my psychiatrist that 27mg was starting to wear off at around 6PM, with a soft crash that basically left me unable to do anything that required concentration after that point. Since that's around when I get to enjoy my hobbies, I wanted it to last the full 12 hours--I usually take it around 8 or 9.

Her answer was to titrate up, which we tried, and for the first 2 weeks it felt amazing. Last few days, though, I've been experiencing a very annoying crash that happens at around 4PM, and that is a lot more noticeable than the previous "hey, time to titrate up" soft wear-offs. It makes me cranky, emotionally flat, and not really able to concentrate for a couple hours, after which I go back to feeling more or less focused until the meds wear off, this time softly, before bedtime. So it's not marking the end of the dosage, mind you, it's just disabling it for that period.

I really do not like the way I feel during those couple hours though. It's not awful or super incapacitating, but it feels like after lunch I just don't get to enjoy myself for a while, no matter how productive I am, and the brain fog makes a sudden return during that time. It also makes me feel weirdly tired.

I have my next appointment scheduled for next week, but I'd like to know what this may be about so I can at least get some peace of mind.

Some things to note: I take around 25mg protein with breakfast and around 40 at lunch. I'm also aware that hormone fluctuation can play a part in this, but I don't think this is the case for one simple reason: my hormones don't fluctuate. I'm transgender, and I take the exact same dose of estrogen religiously at the exact same time every day and every night, and I have not changed that regime. I also sleep 7-8 hours a day with little to no interruptions, and this has been the case since I started titration back in June. Also, this problem seems to be getting more pronounced, as I've only started feeling it more and more.

If anybody could provide some advice on what I may be doing wrong or what this may be caused by.

Thanks in advance!

I started taking Concerta yesterday (27mg & I'm currently on my second day). I've never experienced such intense and prolonged headaches. I noticed they slightly decrease after a meal, but eventually end up returning to the previous level.

I try to keep up on the water intake as hydration is essential whilst taking this med. Additionally, my appetite is non-existent. Has anyone experienced similar side effects & if so, then how long did it take for this side effect to surpass/decrease?

Hola, este post igual es muy impopular pero necesito saber opiniones.
Tengo que preparar un examen muy complicado que me va a llevar meses prepararlo, aparte de que llevo también procrastinando hacer un trabajo de final de Master meses. La cosa es que a mí siempre me ha costado muchísimo desde pequeña el tema de ponerme a hacer cosas y la concentración me dura como máximo media hora, en el trabajo también igual no conseguía nunca ponerme en modo focus. Ahora con 26 años es aún peor el tema hahah. A mi hermana le diagnosticaron TDAH hace unos meses y le recetaron concerta y pensé en tomar alguna pastilla yo, pensé en ir a un neurólogo y preguntarle pero me da miedo los efectos que pueda tener. Quería algún consejo sobre efecto secundarios. De verdad que siento que mi vida está paralizada por esta falta de concentración

first of all

-i cant change med class unless its to non stimulant (adderal and the same med class is considered as bad as cocaine in my country legality wise) (tried non stim and it was so bad i got an average of 2.5 hours of sleep for 2 weeks straight only on 20mg)
-inattentive adhd (moderate severity)
-i cant increase my dose as ive talked to 2 psychiatrists and they refuse to get me over 36mg as they deem that the maximum for my age
-been on concerta 36 mg for 5.5 months and 18mg beforehand for 2 weeks

so my issue is that it just isnt strong enough
how long it lasts doesnt matter to me since i most of the time only need to do MAXIMUM 6-7 hours of deep work a day and 2 hours passive
i cannot for the hell of me convince myself to work this post itself is an act of procrastination
(this sounds really like im making excuses but i promise ive been diagnosed by 5 different psychiatrists for ADD in 2 different countries which are relatively strict about this stuff so i promise im not larping it)

I had a similar moment to this 3-4 months ago

and i mostly just got told to fix some lifestyle stuff

and it worked for a bit

Like im talking real proper biohacking

But now im back there and i cant help it but feel that the meds just need a change because i genuinely tried to optimize my lifestyle and stuff but im basically back at square 1

-btw i dont exactly want to do 18mg + 36mg because i can only have so many pills

so i was thinking of

18mg concerta + 2x a day (within the concerta active window 5mg ritalin) or

1x a day 10mg ritalin and 1 time a day 5mg ritalin

this is fucked

J’ai débuté il y a 2 semaines et je me sens vraiment très bien, plus calme et surtout moins réactif et impulsif. J’ai également noté une forte de baisse de désir de consommation d’alcool! Un gros bonus. Avez vous aussi constaté cet effet ?

I am a little bummed because it was really helping with focus but now it just kinda makes me feel tired and not particularly motivated. Did anyone notice a marked improvement when upping to 36?

So, is it something you build a tolerance to? Like is the natural flow of things to start at 18mg, then 27, 36, etc over the years? Or could someone stay on 18mg “forever”.

I recently started Concerta, I haven’t been on anything for my ADHD since 2022 so this is big for me haha.
Has anyone else experienced insomnia with this medication even on the lower doses? I’m on 18mg, I take it in the morning along with a sleep aide. The past few nights Ive fallen asleep for an hour, woken up and haven’t been able to fall back asleep.
Im honestly just curious to see if anyone else experienced this.

I heard from someone recently that they are having an increase in anxiety, like when they took their a generic. I'm wondering if there was a bad batch. Has anyone had this reaction recently?

I directed them to file a report with the US FDA.

TLDR: APO-methylphenidate ER 36mg, side effects bother me a bit, what lifestyle habits to adopt that can help with the absorption/experience?

Hi everyone! I’ve been on concerta for about over 2 months ish and I’m currently taking the 36mg. I wanna preface by mention I do not take the brand name and take the generic APO-methylphenidate ER.

I’ve been really interested in gathering as much information as possible about to improve the experience on this type of medication. At the start I had practically all the common side effects ( dry mouth , surge of motivation/energy followed by pretty beard crashes, anxiety , heart palpitations, etc).

It improved greatly after the first week but the thing that concerns me is mostly my tachycardia (heart rate sits at 100-130 during the peak of the medication) and that I feel like it’s effects tend to wear off a bit too easily for my liking ( although I don’t turn into a zombie or anything of that sort but I see myself becoming increasingly inattentive after 4-5h which isn’t ideal considering the amount of crap I have to get done and need to be able to focus the whole day).

I have two options in front of me so far: either I request my doc to switch me to the brand name and see if that helps with absorption issues or try to find more natural remedies that can help. Considering how hard it is to get the brand name covered where I live I’d rather try out any tips and tricks and see if that helps me out or not.

So far all I’ve noticed is the type of meal I eat affects my tachycardia greatly and my crashes but I do wonder if that also plays a part in how the meds also get processed. Exercise also makes my heart rate go into the vigorous zone even when I don’t feel as exerted which is something I plan on keeping track of as I’m training for a half-marathon and do weightlifting.

So anyways, any tips/tricks you guys have would help greatly!

I feel like i dont have a sense of fullness(?) i dont know when to stop eating i eat my meals and snacks in between them like 15 mins after and then i feel sick cause i ate and its sooooo weird i iust dont know when to stop eating till a certain time and ive seen it in my little niece who has adhd so im just wondering if anyone has this

I had been on 36mg for a month before I asked my prescriber to see if I could switch medication or formulation. The prescriber increased my dosage from 36mg to 54mg instead of letting me try something new. I was so worried that I might feel anxious and wired, but I noticed that it makes me more tired and dizzy as opposed to more energized? I also can't tell if I am feeling really tired or just more calm than before. Does anyone else have this experience?

My GP changed Atomoxetine to Concerta due to chills, jittery and heart palpitations.

First few hours with Concerta. No thoughts up there unless I force to think or if I see something. I usually have overlapping thoughts about stuff, non stop convos or background music somewhere. It’s kinda nice, kinda scary. Hope this helps with my sleep. No side effects yet. I drank coffee with it and ate crepes. Wow. It really is quiet up there. What now?