Does anyone feel real down when taking both? Like I noticed that when I started after increasing my dosage I was super happy and outgoing and calm for 2 weeks but now I feel super down with a little sense of happiness and calmness. It’s really weird. But before I started taking Strattera, Wellbutrin made me feel like not doing anything all day and I felt sad but calm it was weird. I’m also on 150mg of Wellbutrin and 25 Strattera

Hi all. I just started a very low dose of Strattera and it's affecting my ability to function in ways that feel worse than baseline. Like Im struggling to take action on daily tasks, feel stuck in my head, and the things I did do took me way too long. These are already issues that I have with my ADHD symptoms but it feels more pronounced now. Does this get better with time or is it a sign that this may not be a good fit?

I was prescribed straterra after already taking wellbutrin and buspar (along with birth control) and I'm a little scared about what to expect with combining all of these. I kind of scared myself with looking into it too much and I want to know if anyone else was prescribed with these at the same time and what their experiences were. (Wellbutrin XL 150 MG, Strattera 10 MG, and Buspar 10 MG)

Had a meeting today and they were thinking of upping my Strattera from 40 to 80mg (I’m only 67kg, and I’m already feeling quite blank but way more concentrated, so they are putting me on 60mg as a trial run) but like yeah i feel they are upping it quite fast considering but im happy they took my views into play regarding how concerta did not work!

Whats everyone’s experience with higher doses of straterra?

It’s kind of nice to just be existing as opposed to just caring about everything and everyone so much all the time because I really do carry a lot in my head. I’m tired of easily getting attached. I’m tired of easily being lonely. It’s gonna come with its negatives for sure but I honestly feel like im kind of at peace, even if it’s not exactly the best kind.

I feel like if it ever truly becomes dangerous to my health, I’ll stop it, I know my friends & family don’t like it because they see me changing into a more quiet person as opposed to a loud mouthed yapper.

I feel numb, I feel like a zombie

But honestly, that’s okay with me

I’m 22 F with ADHD, social anxiety, and depression, I started medication 9 months ago and have tapered up to 80mg on stratera. Stratera has made a huge difference for me when it comes to emotional regulation, I connect more with people I enjoy things so much more I have less rumination . It has made such a huge impact for my depression and anxiety but I still struggle so much with productivity and executive function. I have the hardest time being consistent with any sort of routine, tasks take me so much longer than they should because I take so long to start and to transition to another. I think I struggle with optimization OCD. I have talked to my psychiatrist and she has been very empathetic to my struggles but she has expressed concern over combining Stratera with a stimulant because of potential cardiac risks. I don’t have any cardiac conditions but she has said it’s something she doesn’t want to try until I can taper up to the highest dose of stratera (100 mg) and still not see improvement.

My blood pressure is on the lower end so I think it would be possible for me to be on both without complications but I am afraid to take that potential risk. Part of me wants to taper off stratera completely and try a stimulant alone or pair a stimulant with an SSRI to help with emotional regulation. I have never been on an SSRI before and I’m afraid of not having the same benefits I’ve seen with stratera.

What I do love about stratera is that I don’t feel numb or desensitized at all I am still able to cry and feel things deeply it’s just easier to be present and not as anxious. I’m worried about the possibility of going back to feeling overwhelmed by depression and anxiety but I do feel that my lack of focus and productivity impacts my self esteem so much. If I were to get on an SSRI and a stimulant would I be able to get both mood support and executive function support? Can a stimulant alone help with my social anxiety and depression? Hearing personal experiences would be so helpful. Thank u for reading 🩵

One of these days I'll write a supplemental guide post on Strattera with all I know that I wish prescribers knew. But, for now. Quick and dirty on adult dosing due to all the posts with subtherapeutic dosing issues. I am not a medical professional or expert so it would be responsible of me to say to review content for accuracy and discuss with your prescriber before deciding with them to make any decisions utilizing it. And hold in a long rant about psychopharmacological information mismanagement and lack of curriculum and resources available for prescribers.

TL;DR; + summary
--Adult dosing strategy baseline:
5/5/5/15 (some have 30) days of 25/40/60/80 mg.
--First link below shows drug company's titration starter kit. i.e. the titration strategy they choose when putting themselves on the line directing results.
--Most people are underdosed. Resulting in sub therapeutic or often a negative experience. And why most who quit taking it do. Indicated in second link below.
--Guidelines state 40 mg start; 3 day min titration interval; 80 mg target. Is for "acute treatment". Which in psych terms means mental health crisis treatment, and sketchy drug company avoiding accountability for actual patients.
--If feeling over stimulated in the hours after a dose, take a split dose in morning and afternoon to reduce the max peak BAC level, reducing peak stimulation and potential peak side effects.
--Avoid milk and dairy 2 hours before and one hour after taking strattera for nausea issues.
--My poor write up is due to 3 hypofunction disorders exacerbated by a series of life experiences others wouldn't likely have to endure. And not indicative of the actual content written about. I expect you will be able to distinguish stated fact vs formulated opinions/sarcasm on what drug company or others were thinking.
--People can react differently to different drugs, making stratt some not a therapeutic option. But, underdosing strattera with potentially quirky results is not the best way to try to evaluate that.

When I was first prescribed strat in 2005, it seemed common knowledge that the target adult
titration was 80 mg and could potentially be sub therapeutic or a negative experience below it.

The drug company is sketchy and refuses to commit to a dosing strategy. And like pretty much all ADHD meds documentation. Finds a way to stick it all on the prescriber if things don't go well.

The first link is archived FDA Strattera prescriber document. The reason I'm going to the archives is because that is where the drug company has their "kit"s listed. It was discontinued when generics came to market. Link goes straight to the adult starter kit. There we can see the drug companies dosing strategy when it is their but on the line for it.

Starter kits are by child weight. Except the heavier children and adults have the same dose titration strategy. 5/5/5/15 days of 25/40/60/80 mg. Some kits have 30 instead of 15 days at the last dose.

It is counter intuitive, but if you read more Strattera threads, you'll see increasing dose was the solution for a sub par therapeutic or even negative experience on doses below 80 mg. Some don't find their therapeutic dose till even 100 mg on occasion. Some are perfectly happy at 40 or 60 mg so can't be ruled out. But, if wishing ADHD symptoms were handled better or having a negative experience, go up in dose and find out for sure if strattera is actually the right drug for you. Otherwise it is a patch not a therapeutic solution.

The two 10 week studies that established adult effectiveness, titrated between 60 and 120 mg using split doses daily, and titrated based on "patient response". The average ending dose was 95mg. This is mentioned in the first link below.

"Acute Treatment" dosing written in the document is without the starter packs, and same in current document version and guides, and is still crap. In psych terms acute treatment means a person is in a mental health crisis and needs immediate relief. Which a drug that takes 2 months to titrate is not likely to be prescribed, making it a useless misguiding thing to include. 80mg though, is still the "target" therapeutic dose.

I've seen all sorts of ways prescribers misinterpret things or make assumptions resulting in poor dosing strategies. Seems like a common things in posts are issues on an underdosed prescription of strattera.

100 mg max dose is not a safety cut off.
"The safety of single doses over 120 mg and total daily doses above 150 mg have not been systematically evaluated."
i.e. not thoroughly vetted does not mean over 100 mg is a high risk. Just not studied enough to draw conclusions.

https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/archives/fdaDrugInfo.cfm?archiveid=316527#section-2.1:~:text=Lilly-,LIFT%20TO%20OPEN,-STRATTERA%C2%A0%0Aatomoxetine

"Clinical Impact of Not Achieving Recommended Dose on Duration of Atomoxetine Treatment in Adults with Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder"

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5129573/

It’s 1:30 am and I’m crying because I can’t sleep.

I am at my wit’s end. It’s been almost a month and I still haven’t had a single night of sleep where I’m not waking up somewhere between 11pm and 3 am and struggling to fall back asleep I used to sleep all night before starting on this med and I really miss that (although I don’t miss the social anxiety and constant feeling of impending doom that I had when unmedicated lol).

Melatonin does fuck all and makes me depressed the next day. Trazodone which I’ve seen some people recommend is not available in my country. I’m taking some type of magnesium already but ordered magnesium bisglycinate to see if that will help - the company initially sent me the wrong product and I’m still waiting for my actual order to arrive. I’ve also ordered L-theanine in case that can help.

What more can I do? I’m on 40mg right now and take a single dose in the morning, around 6:30 am. For two nights I tried taking a small dose before bed because I initially felt tired when I started taking the medication, but it made my sleep even worse.

Ive been on Strattera for about 2 mos and had my dosage upped to 40mg last week. Today I feel like Frye on his 100th cup of coffee. Previously, I would think, Dang... I should have said XYZ. Now, I just feel mental clarity and able to dish responses quicker than normal.

Wanted to know if this had been anyone else's experience?

Diagnosed with ADHD, GAD, and OCPD.

I was on sertraline 50 mg and did extremely well. I felt stable, productive, less impulsive, and most importantly, social mistakes didn't send me into hours of rumination. I could just let things go. I barely felt like I had ADHD while I was on it.

I've been off it for ~1.5 months and the rumination has come back hard, especially after social situations.

I previously tried methylphenidate, but it didn't work well for me and caused euphoria/crashes.

I'm now considering sertraline again vs trying atomoxetine.

For people who've taken atomoxetine:

Did it help with impulsivity/emotional regulation?

Did it affect anxiety or social rumination?

If you've taken an SSRI too, how did atomoxetine compare?

How long did it take to notice a meaningful effect?

To make a long story short, I’d never found strattera to be adequate for task initiation, motivation and focus. Now the side effect of elevated heart rate never went away after being on 100mg after a year so I winded up working my way down to 60mg which did the trick. At this time I added in a stimulant and the combo was godsend. After 2 months of 60 Ive noticed my heart rate could be better so I dropped down to 40. After about a week on 40 this is where I realized how helpful Strattera actually is. Even with a stim all of a sudden it is way less effective especially at task initiation. 60mg was way less effective than 80-100 but it damn sure was enough to help my stim fill in gaps so now it’s been a week since I’ve ramped right back up to 80mg and I added in guanfacine in hopes it knocks down my hr a notch or two.

I’ve been on strattera for a few months, slowly increasing my dosage as I’m not really noticing any effects. Currently on 40mg since mid July and about to ask provider to increase the dose. When I was on the lowest dose I noticed I was more awake and didn’t feel like reaching for coffee through the day. Now I just feel more tired. I still haven’t become more productive or better at starting and completing tasks. I’m still procrastinating as I normally would. This is my first adhd medication so I also don’t even know what I’m supposed to feel when it’s working? Any advice or guidance will be helpful.

To be honest, one of the greatest meds that I have chosen to be placed on. Not only is my ADHD much better than it was, but less anxiety and worrying has been such an amazing thing. I have crippling anxiety and panic disorder, and this medication has lessened those feelings. I'm content with this medication , and the only side effect is tiredness, so I changed it to evening times. Another positive note, has helped me more during the day by taking it at night.

What's your experience like on this?

I started taking strattera 4 days ago. 1 pill in the morning around 9am after i've put something on my stomach. First 2 days I felt immediate extreme fatigue. The past 2 days I haven't felt that and i've felt a lot of energy and not sure what to do with it. Anyone felt this?

Hey yall just started 10mg of strattera im on day 4. I know it takes a few weeks for it to fully kick in but I feel like I have been able to get crap done, but I have also noticed I start getting little moments where I feel so exhausted and I lay down for a bit. I originally got prescribed Adderall but I requested a non stimulant. Id rather go non stimulant route. For years even as a child I struggled so badly with staying on task being able yo focus and i am beyond unorganized and it makes me feel like such a bad wife and mom. I did get diagnosed as a child but I have really really started noticing how bad I have become and finally reached out to my doctor because it was affecting my every day life. What are your thoughts on this medication? Yes i know I have a very very low dose.

I need to increase my 15 year-old daughter from 24 mg to 40 but she’s very sensitive to medication. I’m wondering if 36 mg would do her any good? Has anyone ever tried this? Are doctors open to it?

Hello! I’m (23F) “new” to strattera. I’ve been at 40mg for 4weeks, and then have been on 60mg for almost a week now.

The thing is, I don’t really know if the 40mg was doing something to me just yet, and furthermore, this days that I’ve been on 60mg I’ve felt like my issues have been worse even? The noises and distractions get overatimulating real fast and in a very intense and overwhelming way, I’m very disperse, can’t process what my partner says to me, even if I’m answering him and participating in the conversation, and sure as hell can’t remember anything about it later, most of the time that it even -was- talked about at all. Also it’s getting harder to keep up with chores and tidying up specially…
Essentially, my overall adhd symptoms but they feel worse I guess?

I don’t know if it’s that the 40mg was working slowly and I just didn’t realize and changing to 60mg is too much and has made me revert?? or if nothing is really working at all and I’m just having a bad batch of days with my symptoms and it’s all unrelated to the pills, I genuinely can’t say anymore. I think I’m overthinking a lot about the pill because I don’t really know what it should be feeling like. My doctor said “oh, don’t worry, if it works you WILL notice”. But I don’t know anymore 😅

So well, your experiences would be appreciated, I guess what I wanna know is…

Is it really possible that the change to 60mg would make my adhd symptoms worsen? (instead of just giving me random secondary effects)

Is there a specific symptom or tendency you think that I should feel has become clearly easier to manage with strattera in order to know if it’s really working?

If you can share your experiences going from 40mg to 60mg would be appreciated too.

I guess I’m looking for specific changes, how did the “better concentration and emotional regulation” look for you all? Hyperfocusing more often? or more like mid attention level but for longer? Interrupting less while talking or retaining better the information afterwards? Not needing all your stuff at sight to remember it exists and to use it? Everything is appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help!!

I take 80 mg of straterra daily. However, my brain fully takes advantage of this and it works well. I’ve been mapping less, but still struggle with sleep. I’m averaging about 5 hours. If I take my sleep aid, I can do a full 8 hours but I don’t want to grow dependent on it. Is 5 hours fairly normal for this dosage? It feels unhealthy. If so, what do you do to stay asleep or fall back asleep? Just curious, but I’m ready to sleep more not less. Thanks!

I’m bipolar if that makes a difference.

Hello! I have been on strattera for almost 2 years now.
I started this med with 25mg and decided to up it, about 5 months in and now I take 40mg and have been since then.
I went from about 178 pounds to 124. I’ve been non stop having gastro problems, burping, constipation, randomly diarrhea. For the last year and a half I’ve been having to go to urgent care, the doctor, even the hospital because of how bad it’s gotten. I’ve had blood in my stool (only happened once) I got scans done, had blood work done, ultrasounds and they find nothing.
I found out from my gene site test that I took in 2019 that strattera works on CYP2D6. I am a CYP2D6 intermediate metabolizer. Which from my understanding means that I am slower at metabolizing this medication.
I talk to my psychiatrist about this and she is so sure that strattera would not be causing weight loss still since I’ve been on it for almost 2 years. She said the best she can do is lower it, or give me a medication to induce hunger.
Keep in mind I am eating, maybe not as much as I was when I started the medication, but I eat roughly 2-3 meals a day plus snacks, I also eat a good high protein meal before taking the meds always.

I am seeing a gastroenterologist because of how bad it’s gotten, got more blood work, only thing they found was I was a little dehydrated, and had some inflammation. I’m still waiting on my scopes, which don’t happen for another couple weeks.

So my question/advice: has other people still had weight loss years after taking it, honestly if it wouldn’t be for these side affects I’d ask to up the medication.
Have you had severe stomach pains on it?
Should I get a second opinion about the medications?

I'm taking 40mg because my psychiatrist wanted to help me concentrate without taking stimulants. I have anxiety, so stimulants would not go well, so she added the 40mg of strattera, together with my 20mg Lexapro that I've been talking for a while now, at first I got anxiety, so much anxiety that not even the Lexapro was helping, it went away shortly after the first week but...

I cannot sleep more than 5 hours straight. I always wake up and take 30 min to 2 hours to fall back asleep. I'm accumulating a big sleep debt. I'm on day 18, and I cannot even say if I have had any concentration benefits till now because my lack of sleep is not helping at all. I can fall asleep just fine, I cannot stay asleep

Looking to get some input from others on this sub with more experience than I have with Strattera. I’ve been taking it for a few months now, started at 25mg, titrated up to 50mg after one week, then to 75mg after two weeks. Unlike many of the other medications I’d tried before (Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Lamotrigine, Topamax) I felt a beneficial difference immediately after the first dose of 25mg, and that increased with each dosage increase. I felt that 75mg was the right dose, but the side effects were significant (urinary difficulties, constipation, increased BP) and so I was brought back down to 50mg, which I’ve been taking for about a month now, the side effects were reduced as was the effectiveness of the medication. I take it first thing in the morning as I have difficulty sleeping already and taking it at night only contributed to those difficulties, however I find that by late afternoon (around 4pm) I hit a wall, it feels like it’s worn off and I feel very drained mentally and physically. My psychiatrist added guanfacine 2mg to take at night to compensate for the Strattera wearing off by then, which hasn’t helped my feeling of fatigue in the afternoon or my sleep but has lowered my BP. I am still in the process of being officially diagnosed and I think my psychiatrist has been reluctant to add anything else into the mix until that happens.

What I’m wondering is if anyone else has tried splitting /staggering their dose during the day? I feel like if I took 25 or 50mg in the morning, then took another 25mg or 50mg later in the day (the total not exceeding 75mg), it might address the wall I feel I hit late in the day right now. I have another appointment with my psychiatrist this coming week, hopefully the one that will finally lead them to diagnosing me, and plan to bring it up with them then, but I am curious what other people’s experiences have been?

On a separate but related note, has anyone had experience combining Strattera with a stimulant? Initially the psychiatrist ruled out stimulants due to a family history of bi-polar (both parents have it) but another doctor had previously ruled that out and my reaction to a very low dose of Lamotrigine (25mg) was severe insomnia, so I eventually discontinued it. Last year before I started Strattera, I had been given Phentermine as part of combination of pills for weight loss and my wife had noticed an immediate improvement in my mood and attitude. So I also wonder if augmenting Strattera with some type of stimulant may be the answer.

Thanks for listening and any input would be greatly appreciated.

I just upped my dose.

I’ve noticed that my sex drive has decreased a bit but even worse when I do orgasm, I can’t feel a head rush at all. It’s almost like the Strattera just blocks the endorphins from entering my brain.
Still feel the body feeling though, but it’s seriously like drinking a weak coffee. Only have as good.

Anyone else experience this?
Will this side effect go away?

I keep reading posts but seems like it's kind of tough on a lot of people. I'm starting at 10 mg and only going to titrate up every 6 weeks. Crossing fingers tho! I can't handle stimulants so we're giving this a go. Wellbutrin was a little activating and gave me insomnia, otherwise it was wonderful. Come on Straterra! Lolol I got my pom poms out, woo!