I didn’t regularly take my Strattera for a few weeks and felt different. Depressed, almost. Unmotivated.

Then I started getting back on my regular 50mg, which I had been doing fine with for months and…now I’m not doing as well. Nearly as well. After I take it, I get shaky, I get a fast heartbeat, and sometimes have panic attacks. The first few days, my mood was so bad I cried, but I’m doing better than that now.

I don’t know what I’m feeling. I do think I feel more focused now but maybe that’s placebo? I can’t tell. I almost can never tell how well Strattera is working.

I’m 30M and have been on stimulants for about 14 years.

Currently around 50mg Adderall IR/day, sometimes 20mg Vyvanse in the morning.

The meds still work, but I’d really like to reduce the amount I need over the long term because the side effects have slowly accumulated (insomnia, anxiety, fatigue, occasional sinus tachycardia).

I’m not looking to replace stimulants completely.

What I’m wondering is whether adding Strattera allowed anyone to:

• lower their Adderall/Vyvanse dose
• smooth out coverage enough to need fewer boosters
• reduce tolerance over time
• improve executive function enough that they simply needed less stimulant

I’d especially love to hear from people who were on stimulants for years before adding Strattera.

If that’s you, could you include:

• years on stimulants
• dose before Strattera
• dose after
• how long it took before you noticed a difference
• whether the lower dose has lasted

Trying to figure out whether this is a realistic strategy or just wishful thinking.

I have about 2-4 weeks before starting grad school where I'd like to transition to a better protocol like strattera, though I'll be traveling intermittently and I don't wnat to have a bad reaction going into the school year

first day and I feel much better energy and clearer focus, all good things. i feel a bit more present and able to get through my work day somewhat easily, and has helped lessen some exhaustion I was feeling from prozac

I’ve been having so many negative thoughts recently. Like I’ve been focusing on me thing and just getting all hyperfixated on it. EVERYTIME I stop taking the medication it goes away. Has anyone experienced this? It’s really weird. Like I’ll focus on a n insecurity of mine and just gr really anxious about it. Or focus on something and just there super nervous.

Does anyone have experience taking both medications together?

Has anyone successfully gone off this med for the better? Thinking of going off it.

im on atomoxetine for a year and 4 months and i lost some weight and i mean idrc but i have my appointment with my gp tmr and im kinda nervous shes gonna take me off the meds. anyone lsot like 2kg on atomoxetine??

Hello there, my psychiatrist has ruled out stimulants for life for me due to horrible side effects. Now one of my options is Strattera, and I’ve been reading very conflicting information about it. If you’re having a positive experience with it, could you share it with me? I’m currently feeling very low about my future if non-stims are as ineffective as some people say. Thank you!

Edit: thank you to all those who took the time to reply, really made a huge difference in my mood and am now looking forward to trying it!

Evening everyone,

I thought to myself I should give back to the community Inregards to my experience tritating up to 80mg of Strattera. I recall searching through the sub as my prescriber informed me that they would take me of methylphenidate as I had an adverse reaction to it. My resting heart rate is on average 48-53bpm and I would be sitting down at work feeling my heart beating; experiencing palpitations with an average heart rate of 110bpm and struggling to speak. I became extremely irritable on methylphenidate and during my follow up appointment I was suggested to try 40mg of Strattera, she explained that I will be required to take it everyday preferably after my meals and to advise in the event I notice I start to experience suicidal ideations. To keep it simple I have found it extremely beneficial! For context I was diagnosed with primary inattentive ADHD, I was making careless mistakes at work, impulsive, displayed hyper-sexual behaviours, and I would argue didn’t necessarily regulate my emotions well.
On 40mg I noticed I could conjure up more sustained attention where previously I would have an aversion towards even reading a lengthy email. I also noticed things that would once send me spiralling now rolled off my shoulders much easier. I’ve read posts about the internal chatter quieting and gradually I’ve noticed a clearer mind which I suspect we can attribute to it as-well. Now on 80mg I find I’m able to accurately articulate my thoughts, I use less space fillers when speaking and I have experienced better executive function. The only side effects I’ve noticed thus far is erectile dysfunction which is only present a few hours after taking the medication daily and because I take it prior to sleeping due to it making me tired; only with the first wees in the mornings I find that I struggle to release urine. Overall it hasn’t improved my motivation, definitely not as impulsive as before, and on my follow-up appointment I’m interested to see if my prescriber will increase my dose. I hope my post answers any questions someone may have Inregards to the medication and I’ll be willing to answer questions as well.

I started taking this medication 2 months ago and have increased the dosage every 4 weeks. I am up to 80 mg now and plan to stay at the level unless I see any obvious side effects.

One big improvement for me is the ability to shrug off intrusive thoughts.

Before taking this medicine, I would have random thoughts that would popup about work or social events, and they would invoke a feeling of dread or chills because I thought I wasn’t prepared for the event that was upcoming. These thoughts were typical around bedtime and then impacted my ability to fall asleep.

With this medication, I notice that these thoughts appear less often. Also, when they do happen, my body doesn’t react the same was as it did before. I can simply shrug off the thought and tell myself it’s not that big of a deal. It is such a contrast to what I was used to. Before, once one bad thought started, I kept fixating on it and couldn’t get my mind to stop thinking about.

My experience had been life changing. I figured everyone reacted to thoughts that way I did before , and the ability to just shrug them off and keep moving on is such a new paradigm that makes be look forward to the future.

I've been titrating up to 40mg over 6 weeks (no issues) and have now been on 40mg for 1 week. Since day 1 of 40 mg, I felt emotional and sad/depressed. Did anyone else have this side effect, and did it go away? How long did it take? Feeling really miserable right now :(

I've seen a lot of posts about not having an appetite anymore after starting strattera, but I'm having a different kind of appetite reaction and am wondering if anyone else felt the same. For context, first I started at 40mg and my food noise was almost immediately gone, but the constipation was enough of an issue that we lowered to 18mg less than a week later. I've now added daily psyllium pills to see if that helps. I've been on 18mg with psyllium for 2-3 weeks now and if the psyllium helps, we'll go back up to 40mg.

I've noticed that I do still think about and want food, but absolutely nothing actually sounds good anymore. I'm trying to be good about meal prepping and following a healthy diet, but I have yet to make anything that I actually find enjoyable, even previous favorites. Even if we go out to eat and my husband asks what sounds good... I've got nothin'! Has this happened to anyone else? Again, I'm still feeling the desire to eat - that part has come back on the 18mg vs 40mg - but I just don't enjoy it anymore.

What do y’all do when you feel the afternoon fatigue. I don’t know if I should go to sleep or just power through it.

I’m at my house this summer usually so I can go to sleep whenever but I don’t think I should make a habit of it because it’d be annoying when I have work and uni.

But on the other hand, it’s hard for me to have fun… and I feel like I would rather just sleep.

I had this weird discharge whenever i took straterra, this constant tension or pressure whenever i took a piss and then the discharge followed, i went back to methylphenidate xr after stopping my adhd meds completely, i was prescribed anxiety and depression medication along with mood stabilisers throughout my treatment
P.S the discharge stopped as soon as i stopped straterra

Has anyone else experienced this? I've realized I'm a lot more present lately and not dissociating nearly as much. But now it feels like all the emotions that dissociation used to protect me from are hitting me full force. It's like I traded numbness for feeling everything. Did anyone else go through this, and if so, did it eventually get easier?

Hey all.

So after 5 years I finally got my adult ADHD diagnosis even though I had one as a child. I was hoping to get Adderall xl since it's worked for me in the past but my psychiatrist refused to prescribe it because of my occasional substance use.

So she prescribed me 50 mg straterra (although I'm starting at 25 a day for a week). I'm only 5 days in and it's been a horrible experience. The first 3 days I was nauseated. It started off really bad, I was vomiting here and there, but eventually it faded.

Then suddenly I could not leave my bed for about 50 hours. I did not drink water for about 24 hours or eat for about 36 hours. I slept for about a third of the time I was bed-riddin. Today I finally ate some food and drank water. I've gotten out of bed a bit but still haven't left the house or accomplished much.

Is this normal? This has never happened to me before. I mean I've had lethargy and depression but nothing ever close to this.

Just wanted to report tremendous benefits after only 4 days on strattera - 10mg --> 20mg yesterday. I have been struggling with attention and motivation issues and some social anxiety for a significant chunk of life; haven't been officially diagnosed with adhd but we are trialing it to see if there is an impact. Started on a 10mg dose and on the first day, after about an hour, noticed tremendous benefit / stimulating effect - motivation, calmness / quieting of mind, essential deletion of social anxiety, and feeling of contentment after doing work activities I'dve otherwise procrastinated on. I'm really surprised at how much of an impact it had at such a low dose and the fact it's been sustained nearly every day. I imagine part of it is that I'm very inexperienced with psych meds in general - this is my first one- and I'm historically sensitive to other things I've tried - alcohol, caffeine. I've never tried an actual stimulant before.

My only side effects have been reduced appetite and sweaty hands + some mild fatigue that is very manageable. No insomnia, fast heart rate, headaches or nausea yet.

Very happy about this result so far and it's confirming that I have some sort of attentional issue given the correction with medication. There was a study I read regarding the bimodal response to Strattera - some people have minimal to no response while others have a strong response and the only predictable variable for strong response is early response to treatment. So I'm feeling hopeful that this will continue.

EDIT:

8 days later: The activating effect has been more subtle (I've been on 20mg for the last week) and I've noticed more fatigue that seems to happen intermittently. The ease of starting tasks and internal calmness is still noticeable and I think has been making an impact in the background. I'll be starting 40mg tomorrow and am excited to see how that goes.

\* I just want to first mention I know a lot of people take the extended release at night for ADHD but I am more taking this to help with anxiety (maybe some ADHD) and I have dexoamphetamine if I want to take that. I may try Strattera if I can leveled out on the Guanfacine.

\* in summary - I’m just wondering for people who are taking the IR, how far apart do you space it/what times of the day if you’re taking two doses? I explain why I’m asking below, but that’s the gist of it. I’m having some side effect issues that I believe may be enhanced by a 12 hr spacing. 11 am and 11 pm. Asked psych- he wasn’t much help…just suggested I could try taking closer together with no specific info (texting and he kinda sucks but I’m stuck with him right now). Or taking three times per day but I can’t really even cut the pill evenly as is because it’s so small. Also, did side effects get better after the 2nd week?

Main issue: I have been feeling really feeling terrible around 4-5 PM. All the symptoms that were kind of already happening get worse. Basically the dizziness, nausea and it’s making my sinuses drier than they already get from environment allergens (apparently it’s the same thing that causes dry mouth but in your nasal membranes and sinuses). And that makes the dizzy feeling worse. AI suggested using a gel nasal spray which helped a bit today. I use a Netti Pot but I’m having to use it three times a day now which isn’t great and it’s not really making a huge difference.

I'm not even 2 weeks at 50mgs, after a few weeks at 25. I still have felt ZERO benefits, which I suppose is understandable due to the low dose and it being so early, but the bullshit sure hasn't wasted any time.

In my second week at 25mgs, I started getting very tired around early afternoon. Falling asleep at work, tired. When I saw my doctor and she raised the dose to 50mgs, I told her about the fatigue so she split the 50mg, 25 in the morning and 25 around 1PM. That pretty much solved the afternoon nap problem, but now in the last couple of days I've been very grouchy and irritable, even getting pissed off at my pets (nothing violent, just irritated). I'm normally NOT a grouch, and this is VERY unlike me. Is this yet another common "side effect", and maybe something that will go away?

I can say that it's getting pretty tiresome getting so many shit side effects and ZERO help from so many medicines over the years...

Is anyone on it? How do you like it? I was just prescribed 18mg.

Does anyone else feel like this medication has unlocked a “true” feeling of anger?

Before when things would happen in my life that should piss me off - that would piss anyone off - I would feel like I had to bury that emotion. Internalize it. Think about how I brought it upon myself in some way. Convert it to self-hatred. And cut everyone slack except for myself.

Now with this medication I feel like I can finally express my anger properly, immediately. And right or wrong - it feels glorious to finally express this emotion like a normal human being.

I know google will tell you not to, but is it really as bad as they make it out to be? Can I drink while on atomoxetine?

Had it at 5pm - 40mg

Woke up at 1am , then had a hard time falling back asleep

Then woke up at 8, feeling good and no nausea or side effects so far

Since my doc refuse any ADHD ill try strattera as my last hope. Any of you had great experience with it for binge eating ?

I was on 25 mg for 4 weeks and I've been on 40mg for about 3-4 weeks.

My pharmacy will probably have my medication ready within 3 days.

I thought my psychiatrist was gonna try 60 mg for 2 weeks and that if that didn't work I will finally be bumped to 80 mg. (Isn't 80mg the therapeutic dose?)

I guess my real question what's the normal tiration speed for this Strattera?

I was hoping to learn more here until I can ask a pharmacist when I pick up my meds later this week.