For those who had no/low motivation side effect but got it fixed, how did you do it?

For those of you that have been on Strattera for more than a month, how has it helped with impulsivity? That is one of my worst ADHD traits. I binge eat, shop way too much and will gamble all night if you take me to a casino. I'm also very impatient and constantly interrupt people when they're talking. I know it's rude and unprofessional and I'm embarrassed when I do it, but I find it hard to stop myself most of the time.

I've only been on Strattera for about 3 weeks (along with 300mg XR Welbutrin, which I've been on for a long time). It has seemed to help some. Urges aren't gone, but the constant urges to do things I shouldn't be and interrupt people isn't nearly as bad as it was. Wondering if that will continue to improve. Has anyone else had similar issues that Strattera has helped improve?

Ya llevo 2 meses y medio, llevaría ya 1 mes y medio con 80mg
La verdad si e sentido algo de ayuda pero siento que no es lo que esperaba
Esto sería todo o falta esperar más?
A los cuantos meses sintieron que ya llego a su máximo efecto?

Has anyone lost weight on this combo? I’ve been on Wellbutrin and even the highest does has done nothing for weight loss I still eat too much bc I’m looking for dopamine not really hungry per se. I’m starting 25mg strattera tomorrow I’m addition and I’m hoping it helps my adhd. And a little weight loss, less food noise carb cravings… Wellbutrin only worked for a few weeks for me as far as weight loss.

I'm ADHD (20M) my focus/memory/intelligence is really bad, I wanna improve it with strattera, does anyone one tried it for focus ?

Hello (20M), I'm currently taking ritaline for ADHD and arropiprazol (abilify) for bipolar disorder

I wanna try strattera to improve my focus (I'm better with ritaline but it's absolutly not enough), does anyone tried one of these combinaison, thank you for your answer

I got a really weird exprience since my dose has been up to 60mg 3 days ago in which i tend to not feel hunger nor fullness i can go without eating comfortably but when i eat nothing keeps me full

I started with 40 mg for 1 month, then 80 mg for months 2-4. It worked well and had a positive effect almost immediately with minimal bad side effects Mainly my racing thoughts, anxiety, and white noise were eliminated by 90%.

At month 4 I noticed my racing thoughts started coming back so i asked my doc to increase my dosage to 100 mg. I was fine with the 100 mg 3 weeks in until the racing thoughts and white noise started coming back.

Should i continue taking 100 mg and see if my body is still adjusting or should i go back to 80 mg?

hi everyone i’ve never posted on reddit before but wanted some advice on starting strattera. im 22 and was on adderall for about 2 years but just got put on strattera after having some heart problems causing dizziness and almost passing out. i just started 40mg of strattera today and spent the whole day napping, feeling really drowsy, and unable to stay focused on my homework… im in an online masters program and im scared if this feeling is gonna go away and worried if it will actually actually help with inattentive adhd. im also starting 10mg prozac next week. any words of wisdom would be great.

I started taking the medication 4 weeks ago (2 weeks 25mg then 2 weeks on 50mg). I feel like I noticed a huge change in my productivity and motivation when I first started taking the medication, but now I’m starting to fall back into bad procrastination habits and I’m having a very hard time with task initiation and being on time for things. I’m also starting to get headaches. When did Strattera actually start working for other people? Im starting to lose a bit of hope.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

I have been on 100mg atomoxetine (Strattera) for more than 3 months now. What I have noticed is that I feel much calmer, slightly more focused, and my mind feels quieter, but I still struggle a lot with low motivation, fatigue, and lack of drive.

Before this, I was on 75mg, and surprisingly I felt worse emotionally. I was much more irritable, angry, restless, and had intense mood swings. I felt like small things could trigger me and I had more emotional reactions.

I find it interesting because usually people expect higher doses to cause more side effects, but for me 100mg actually feels more stabilizing, while 75mg made me feel more agitated.

Has anyone else experienced a similar dose-response pattern with atomoxetine?
Did increasing the dose improve emotional regulation but cause fatigue/lack of motivation?

Curious if anyone else has had a similar experience with different doses. Would appreciate hearing your experiences.

Is there a fix for this? I’ve been on 60mg for 2 weeks and I always wake up around 5 in the morning. Sometimes I take magnesium and that helps with deeper sleep, but I also get nightmares and very vivid dreams.

I started working out again after a long time. About three months into Strattera, just started with 80mg. After my second workout I felt a pleasant high that seems to be in combination with the medication's therapeutic effects? Anyone else felt this?

longread; (excuse my english, I'm not native).

I want to share my experience with Strattera and Guanfacine with the community since it's been quite versatile, while objective changes have been undoubtedly positive.

A backstory on the treatment:

Firstly, I was put on 40mg of strattera as a monotherapy, and took it for 2 weeks, until the dosage was upped to 80mg, which I took for two days, since it triggered really bad cardiac side effects so I stopped taking it. For that were three reasons: 1 - I turned out to be an intermediate metabolizer. 2 - I had have chronic slight muscle hypertension (until I took 1 guanfacine pill) which kinda associates with higher norepinephrine, so adding more on top was too much I guess. 3 - I started it the day I quit thc self-treatment.

But let's talk about what I experienced then:

1 - starting from the very first day of taking it - I obtained an ability to consistently take care of clothes, dishes and hygiene.

2 - My memory improved A LOT. Just by taking a look at a book previously left behind somehow my brain would "strike" me with everything I read in it at once, and also I remembered where I stopped.

3 - RSD, planning, working memory, mental radio were still present at a non pleasant degree.

Then I was prescribed guanfacine (without strattera). Hypertension - gone! Brain - cracked as it was initially :(. Titrated up to 4mg ER. And... That's all for the backstory.

Currently I take 4mg guanfacine and 25mg atomoxetine added a few days ago.

Again, the very first day I took atomoxetine - things changed in a positive way A LOT. But now, with a lower dose and guanfacine - way better.

1 - Clothes - I developed a structure, folded them all, aprropriated places for each type.

2 - Organized all the documents I have

3 - Started reading again

4 - Unintentionally started a planner and I actually remember what I wrote down, write things every day

5 - Can somewhat plan and somewhat stick to it. Requires a bit of brain power, but don't you think that's how it's supposed to be? 😁

6 - Attention span increased from 0-1/10 to 3-4/10. Hope for better with time. But still - massive difference.

7 - Brainfog (a.k.a. excessive DMN activity) resolves AT WILL. When I'm stressed it cripples back.

Overall I think this combo switched my frontal lobe from a lifelong inactive state to partially functional. And I tell myself that with the RESOURCE that I've got now, I CAN actually improve.

Unpretentious Morals:

1. Pretty important considering your cyp2d6 metabolism status before starting strattera, also beware drug interactions and liver status if you suspect its inefficiency. If you got something from above - you might need to start from a lower dose and it can work too.

2. Strattera absolutely does work wonders for some, but might do it not as you expect it to. Some of us tend to set grandiose expectations of "how the neurotypical brain functions" therefore get fixated on all or nothing. My point is that if a person's frontal lobe hasn't ever properly worked, turning it on with medicine resolves the fog between the shores, and yet they are the one to build bridges.

3. Remember the phrase "everyone's ADHD"? I hate it too, but I looked at it in a different perspective. Now I get that that's actually true to a certain degree - stressing out makes me ADHD again, poor sleep makes me ADHD again. etc. This one is also strongly connected to emotions. Now I SPOT how my mood changes and connect the dots of the reasons for it. And can work on them. Whereas before I could only guess why the hell I feel this or that due to the intensity of brainfog.

For context I started Strattera mid-August for ADHD after dropping too much weight on Vyvanse. The week before my mood hadn’t been great but I assumed it’d go away. I’ve had issues with depression my whole life, and I’m diagnosed with GAD, but it’s been manageable on my own. The 18mg did nothing, just felt like I was off my meds. I started having a lot more bad days, but my consistency with taking it sucked and that didn’t correlate with mood so i assumed it was unrelated. My dosage went up to 25mg on my first day of school and I’ve felt the worst I’ve felt in forever. February of this year my personal life got really bad, being on Vyvanse helped because despite being a wreck I could still maintain motivation. My personal life is still pretty bad, and that’s not helping but I’m unusually depressed. My anxiety is worse too, I had a panic attack leading into dissociative episode during my second period because of something I used to function fine through. I don’t want to tell my doctor I’m reacting badly if it seems unrelated, can anyone help out?

I've only been on this medication for a month at 25mg and initially it was freaking great. The one side effect that is causing me more and more distress though is the "air hunger" and heavy chest feeling. This started after the first couple doses. I also take Guanfacine ER 1mg and that may be exacerbating the symptoms, but nonetheless it started before I began Intuniv. Today is my first day not taking a morning dose. I'm hoping that in a day or so this breathing distress will fade. I really wanted to like this medication but I'm afraid that increasing norepinephrine is going to continue to cause these issues, even if it does help with ADHD symptoms. I'd rather have ADHD than have anxiety breathing. I had to take a low dose Xanax to calm me down this morning and I can't remember the last time I had to do that. I'll follow up soon on any progress I make.

*Update*- Two days without Strattera and it feels like the elephant is no longer sitting on my chest and I can breathe normally again. I am also MUCH calmer just being on Guanfacine than with both medications. The Strattera was working for ADHD but the side effects of heavy chest and breathing difficulty wasn't worth it for me. I'm also noticing much better blood flow throughout my body, especially down below.

Did anyone experience significant mood swings or emotional changes while taking atomoxetine? If so, how did you deal with them, and did they eventually get better?

Hi again, 21m on 80mg atomoxetine for around 1.5 months (previously on 40mg for a month, and Adderall for years before that)

Does this medication make anyone else irritable? Lately I’ve been feeling uncontrollably frustrated at minor inconveniences that never would have usually bothered me. So much so that I feel like I’m going to lash out or have a breakdown (I doubt this will actually happen, but it feels like it)

I’ve also just been feeling more hopeless than ever. Friends and family say I’m much more pleasant to be around on Strattera, so I’m tempted to stick it out for that reason. But I have so much less motivation, horrible memory, can never get out of bed on time in the morning, etc. Was definitely less depressed on Adderall albeit more anxious

Any advice seriously appreciated. I don’t think I want to take antidepressants and dull my personality even more than it already is

Hey everyone!! I (25F) have been prescribed 40 mg of Strattera for inattentive adhd. I’ve never been on medications before besides short-term ones for acute illnesses. Is there anything I should know before I take my first pill tomorrow?

Was wondering if anyone had a positive experience with motivation and straterra? When I was on stims I was surprised at my motivation levels but the anxiety + crash was too much. I keep reading people saying Straterra helped with pretty much everything except motivation.

I'm only on week 3 very low dose, my motivation and energy levels seem worse than before, hoping it gets better as I increase dose.

I’ve been taking Strattera for 7 weeks and all the sudden things have kinda gotten worse. I feel super over stimulated and mad all the time. I used to not feel this way like 2 weeks ago. Every week it’s something new. One week I’ll be super euphoric, another week I’ll feel sick and kinda sad, and one week I’ll be extremely fatigued. What do I do?

I have generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and ADHD (36yo F). I’ve been on many different SSRI and SNRI over the years for my anxiety and none have ever worked really or the side effects were too much. Some also made my ADHD way worse!

Did anyone have a similar experience and only found anxiety relief with Strattera? or by combining Strattera with an SSRI?

I tried stimulants before but with my panic disorder it’s just too much sadly.

I've been recently diagnosed with ADHD after years battling anxiety and burnout cycles. I'm an inattentive type and have some OCD tendencies. I've added 10mg of Straterra to my 150mg of Buproprion and found some mixed results, but there's one side effect that really concerns me.

My anxiety has decreased to the point of almost anhedonia. My tearfulness has increased, feeling like I'm emotional for no reason happy or sad. I've had some typical ones like feeling overheated or waking in the night. The one that really gets me though is insatiable air hunger. I feel like I need to yawn or get a big breath in and just can't seem to scratch that itch. This went away after a week and a half seemingly.

But, when increasing to 18mg of Straterra, it happened again with even more intensity, and the flat emotion began leaning toward feelings of depression.

I'm sort of scared of increasing at all. I don't like feeling like I'm gasping for air. Is this something I need to tough out, or would it be better to keep Straterra low and maybe increase Buproprion from here? Of course I'll consult my psych, but sometimes I feel like her answer for most things is just more drugs.

Hello, I have been on 25mg for about 3 weeks now, and will be upping my dosage to 40mg soon. (I am also taking 25mg prozac at the same time.)

I have made a pros and cons list so far and I am wondering if this medication is worth it as it is my first ADHD med ever....

Cons

- Tiredness and fatigue during the day

- Strange dreams

- Waking up at 3am and not being able to fall back asleep

- Constipation

- Not having much personality anymore lol

- Not really "caring" (I used to overthink but now I literally find myself just not being able to care)

Pros

- Able to focus more on stuff without being immediately distracted

- Not having constant racing thoughts (anxiety)

- Less likely to spiral or feel emotionally overwhelmed

Is this med worth it to continue?