About Strattera & Adderall

[Alex]

Hey there,

I am new to the board, im a 27 year old guy

I took Methelphenidate for years and then moved to Ritalin and took it through high school and university.

I was hoping to find a forum with intelligent people talking about ADD and I hope this board is when I am looking for.

A few things I have noticed, one is the mention of dr. phil, anyone who thinks hes anything more then just a slightly smarter anthony robbins is a complete idiot, dont trust a quarter of anything he has to say.

I noticed that many people here refer to " DS" not sure what that is, also I notice that many ppl here refer to their kids, does this forum also take adults into account ? are there many adults with the disorder ?

Also are there any real doctors visiting this forum ? I am sick of bored housewives listening to dr. phil and thinking they have a clue about mental disorders, it would be refreshing to have someone with some intelligent standin to back up or discount the many misconceptions about ADD.

I havent taken Ritalin for years now and decided to take a look at the market, there seems to be a lot of corporate pushing of adderall and strattera, what does this crowd recommend ?

Thanks,

[tridlette]

Hi Alex

We are glad you are giving us a try!

I am the mother of a 14 y.o. DS with ADHD (darling son, dang son, dumb son... whichever fits for the moment!)

I also have ADHD. My son has used Adderall, Concerta, and Strattera, and is now med free. Most of our people on board are parents of kids with ADHD, however we also have a lot of adults with ADHD as well... some with kids some without kids.

As far as I know, right now we have no active doctors, although we do have a some nurses, and lots of school counselors. Mostly, we are just experienced adults who try our best to share our experiences, success and failure, with others in an attempt to help each other through the every day problems that result from our ADHD, our kids ADHD, and everyday general problems with life, even the non-ADHD related stuff.

I hope we can help you through. When someone sees an interesting show, we will discuss it, critique it, and usually wish we could find a way to get the REAL story of our lives out to the general public, instead of the propaganda offered up by the talk show "experts".

We will not judge anyone about their choices, we will support you, and suggest ideas to try, and we will listen to you when you need to vent.

I hope this is what you need, and I hope we see you visiting us frequently. Look around the various threads, you will see that we have some fun stuff and some serious stuff, success stories, and some unfortunate tragedies as well. We are mostly working folks, or college folks, with a few SAHM (stay at home mom's) sprinkled in.

Welcome aboard!

Laurie

[AnneM]

Hello Alex and welcome to the board.

Tridlette has given you an EXCELLENT introduction and overview !! ..

One thing I should say that this is "primarily" a board for the parents of adhd/add children BUT we also have an adults section and this is covered pretty well in that area.... take a look at the Adults section ... I hope it
helps.

Our main objective on this board is to offer support. We don't set ourselves up as doctors in any shape or form but we get a lot of very helpful information from each other ... we all share one thing in common ... we either are adhd/add ourselves and/or we have a member of our family who is and are dealing with the obstacles that can bring on a daily basis.

I hope you will find the support you are looking for right here ....

[Linda]

Hi Alex and welcome....First of all I would like to think we are all intelligent people here that are dealing with a common disorder called ADHD!

Personally I don't like the word " Disorder" because I think probably everyone has some kind of disorder...ADHD or not.

This forum is all about support and help,because for most of us we live with ADHD on a daily basis.

[rosyred45]

Hi ALex, they summed it up pretty nicely I have never been on meds, but repect those that have been,

We respect the fact that others have opinions that aren't our own. I personally don't like Dr. Phil, but other people hear do. That's them this is me.

I also believe in natural learning. As Linda says, we all have some type of deficit.

I personally can't stand math, but that doesn't help my son tha tdoes, so I gotta learn it for him.

And You have been pointed to the ADULT section of these forums. Please feel free to vent when ever you want, I do it all the time. BUT remember our terms of service, and we do have younger eyes that might catch a glimpse of what you write.....they don't need to see vulgarities.

Welcome Alex

[finnmom]

:)Alex and welcome!!

I agree with all the other´s; I think we all are intelligent people with lot´s of personal knowlidge of adhd, some through our kid´s and some from our own experience´s. I think any "bored housewife´s" couldn´t handle it in here It´s way too complicated to deal with adhd, there is just no time left to get bored!! ( I dont mean to offend any sham´s/housewife´s, with ahdh-kid´s all of us are quite educated and interested of the way´s to work with this)

Your referrance to dr. phill got me thinking; that was just one thread among thousand´s of thread´s in here, so one cant really say we relay on his experience´s(wich we dont do, we just discussed about his show), we talk a lot in here, as you can see if you surf around a little bit. As for doctor´s in the forum; I dont recall any doc´s, but we come from wide variety of profession´s.

There are mostly parent´s(of adhdérs) in here, but we have quite good adult´s section, as has been mentioned before, so go on and take a look!!

[jdmom]

Hello Alex! I am a 28 year old single mom with a 7 year old ADHD son. After learning everything I could get my hands on about his condition (that's how I found this place, lots of research) I came to the realization that I probably have it too, but have never had the gumption to get a diagnosis.

I was all over the web looking for help and answers, and can tell you that this place is the greatest when it comes to support. It's a great place to vent, or just play around, and share your troubles or accomplishments with a great group of people who have "been there, done that".

My son has been on both Adderall XR and Strattera if you have any questions about our personal experiences with either of those meds. He has been on Concerta for about a year now and it seems to be the med that has worked best for us. But everyone is different....

The adult section isn't as populated as the rest of the board, but there's a solid group of people of various backgrounds and experiences who tend to hang out there on a regular basis, if your interested.

Hopefully, we'll see you around some more!

[mskris]

Hi, Alex! Welcome. I won't go into the philosophy of this board, as the others have already done so.

I work in the pharma industry, but am not a doctor and don't pretend to be. I do, however, have access to resources that sometimes aren't available to the public at large. I try to provide substantiated info.

As for strattera, it is the first non-stimulant product approved by the FDA for adhd. It's been a godsend for us (my 9 yo son has adhd and Tourette's syndrome). It doesn't cause him the insomnia that drove him (and us) crazy with the stimulants. He tried Adderall and had a very emotional reaction to it. Concerta was nearly as bad. Strattera was our last resort and he's been taking it with great success for nearly 2 yrs now. His dose was just upped from 40 mg to 50 mg, taken as one 40-mg capsule in the a.m. plus a 10 mg capsule after school, to get him through homework time. The only side effect he experiences is nausea if he doesn't consume a high-fat meal about 20 mins before taking his dose.

Adderall is a stimulant, a combination of dextramphetamine and amphetamine; like the other stimulants (ritalin, focalin, etc), it's a controlled substance and can be addictive.
You can find info on both stratter and adderall info by typing in the product name into your browser and going to the manufacturers' websites (Lilly and Shire Pharmaceuticals, respectively).

Why did you stop taking the ritalin? Were you having stimulant side-effects? That's why we stopped. Good luck and I'll try to answer any questions you might have. Douglas is a great resource on adult adhd. We also have nurses, school counselors, and very experienced and knowledgable people in this forum. Welcome!

MsKris