Posted by bennett on February 7, 2003, at 15:30:55
In reply to Re: Anybody else sedated on Straterra? Please resp » dancingdp, posted by mshyper on February 7, 2003, at 10:32:31
Sedation? Oh yes. Only with food? Oh yes!
2nd day - 5 hours after taking 18 mg – middle of the afternoon, I had to lay down – two hours later I woke up still tired
I’ve experienced this off and on since then – and it doesn’t seem to be related to lack of sleep.
High side of this is that I’m weaning myself off of Ambien because I don’t seem to need as much as I used to to get to sleep – and I’m hoping I can get by with out it. By 11-11:30 I’m pretty tired and ready for bed – that’s very unusual for me. 2-3 AM has been my normal “bed time” ever since I had a choice in such things.
Dizziness (if I smoke a cigarette) and sedation are the two side effects I’ve experienced the most so far.
The stimulants I’ve taken in the past had a similar sedative effect. Ritalin and Dexedrine calmed me down so much, I would sometime fall asleep in the afternoon. But by night time I was on a roll and had to knock myself out to get to sleep.But I’m very happy to say that the strattera finally started to help with focus and ADD sx.
I nursed the dose from 18 mg/day, to 18am/18pm with no positive effects. It wasn’t until I took 2 -18 mg caps on the morning of the 8th day that I noted some very positive effects. And on day 9, when I moved both AM and PM doses to 36 mg (I only have 18 mg caps) I began to see results very similar to when I used to take stimulants.
I had to get off Dexedrine about two years ago and went on wellbutrin.
The welbutrin helped in a sideways kind of way by stabilizing my mood so I was able to be quiet enough to attend better but it didn’t help the focus at all. I had to leave my job as a result of this shift in medication – I’d moved into administrative duties that my un-medicated ADD self was entirely unsuited for.I’m on day 12 now, and very pleased with the Rx as far as some ADD sx are concerned. I’ve started finishing old projects (the kind that require reading lists and numbers that I'm not particluarly interested in - but that I really need to get done) that have been sitting around forever.
Yesterday, I found myself going through my running 2 year old to-do list updating it to the present. Without Rx. I cannot get myself to look back at the undone items in a list without getting sidetracked and not getting back to what I was in the middle of when I started.
However, if I were still working in the office I used to work in, the side effects I’ve experienced so far probably would have precluded my staying with it.For instance, this morning I took the dose 1/2 hour before breakfast and an hour later was so nauseous and dizzy that I had to lie down. I spent the next hour and a half on the couch trying to stay centered and quiet till it passed.
Then, as suddenly as the nausea and dizziness came on –it was gone – and I felt fine. I opened my eyes, got up and started working. Fortunately I was at home during all of this.
I won’t take this without food again.
Well, that’s my story so far.My sweetie is coming to visit this weekend and I’ll get to see if the socially interactive sx. have improved. I still talk a lot, but I seem not to interrupt as much. In any event, she’ll let me know since she has seen them at their worst (and their best) over the years.
We’ll be at a festival with lots of people and booths screaming for my attention. If I find I can keep a conversation going with her while we’re walking along – without stopping mid-sentence to talk to someone else or getting totally distracted by something I see … ...
She’ll let me know how this stuff is working….
By the way I'm a 61 yr old male diagnosed ADD in 1992.
thanks,
bennett
poster:bennett
thread:133458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030204/msgs/140009.html