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How do you get more dopamine?
Any thoughts on meditation? Has it helped you?
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All stimulant medications can cause or exacerbate anxiety. This applies to Concerta, Adderall, short-acting Ritalin, and so on. These effects are unlikely to spontaneously resolve over time, as often happens with antidepressants; in fact, they may compound with longer-term use.
Your options are to push through and try to manage the physical anxiety, reduce your dose, try different stimulants to see if they work better (possible but unlikely), start taking an antidepressant or other medication indicated for anxiety in parallel (eg, Lexapro), or stop taking the medication altogether. All of the above should be done in consultation with your prescribing physician.
I used the lowest dose of Concerta for 7 years. It improved my concentration significantly but also led to anxiety and OCD-like thinking. The trade-off ultimately wasn’t worth it so I stopped.
No, I assumed it would be even worse. Anxiety and other such symptoms are well-known side effects of Adderall and dexamphetamine.
I have noticed that when I drink coffee with my meds I feel a little more of the physical side effects. I have spoken with my doctor and they OK’d taking a supplement like l-theanine and/or Ashwaghanda at the same time to decrease this.
Consult your prescriber, as sometimes certain herbals can interfere with other meds you might be on or aren’t right for people with certain other medical conditions.
Also, if I drink green tea instead of coffee, I feel stimulated but calm. Green tea also has l-theanine in it.
I will try different meds this week and see how it go
Chief
Can you describe the physical anxiety - I'm assuming muscle tension, increased heart rate, sweating?
Most ADHD medication, incl. Concerta and Adderall, are stimulants and it is not unusual to have some physical side effects. That being said, the two medications have different active ingredients and everyone processes them differently.
We cannot know what switching medications will do for you, but you should definitely discuss this with your prescribing physician as soon as possible.
Chief
Have you mentioned this to your prescribing physician? This could be a good reason to adjust your dosage, change your medication, or pair it with something else. For example, I take a low dose of Guanfacine with my Concerta and that has done wonders for making the ‘ramp up’ a lot smoother and less intense.
In my personal experience stimulants make my GAD much worse and increase my physical symptoms of anxiety very noticeably. I often have to decide if I want to be able to focus or if I have the spoons to combat the near-panic attack levels of physical anxiety taking my prescribed dosage can cause me.
What can help (if I have the time and can muster the ability) is meditating/breath work exercises. It's not a cure-all for the anxiety symptoms, but it absolutely helps. Calm vitamins from Olly can sometimes help, too (they also come as a gummy, but gummies hurt my teeth).
Up to you and your physician, but it is not recommended to drink coffee or other caffeinated beverages when you’re on stimulants. Adds to the cardio and blood pressure issues; you should be alert and stimulated enough without it, if not need to revisit your dose.
Yes, and weird enough it doesn’t happen with Ritalin (they have the same principle). Using concerta felt like I was PMSing constantly
You won’t know until you try. Both meds are fast acting so you should find out fast. The switch worked for my kid, not 100% resolution, but definitely helped
Yes, you can ask your doctor for a 7-day script to try it out vs longer