Posted by SuperADDMom on May 29, 2010
I wanted to share with you my experiences so far with Generic Concerta 54 mg. I’ve been on it for two weeks now.
First… to understand the difference… let’s look at name brand Concerta, and how it worked for me for the last year.
I’m 35 years old and peri-menopausal. ( yes already, all the women on my maternal side hit it early. ) I have low progesterone in my system, which I now take supplements for to lessen the hormone fluctuations. Hormones and ADHD are not a fun combo for most women.
Concerta is an ADHD medication. It is a stimulant….I’m not going to go into HUGE detail on ADHD medications, because I assume anyone interested in this post, already has most of the info on ADHD medications. I’ll gloss the basics, because of people who might not know.
Concerta is a once a day, a slow release stimulant. It comes in 18, 27, 36, and 54 mg pills. The outer coating of Concerta actually contains 22 percent of the full dosage of medication, this is between the coating covering the pill and the wax compartment that holds the rest of your meds for the day.
The rest of the medication is held inside this hard wax compartment ( from what I can determine from web forums and info online, it might be made of something other than wax. I found this on a forum where a patient actually dissected his Concerta to see how it worked ) This design is unique to ADHD medication, and is what makes Concerta unique. The drug itself is not unique, but the design of the pill itself physically is.
Recently Courts overturned the patent that is left on Concerta until 2018, to allow a pharmaceutical company that makes generic medications, the right to make a slow release ADHD medication that would be an acceptable substitution to Concerta.
This was able to be overturned with the premise that Concerta is NOT a unique drug, but is a unique packaging, and therefore another company could make a slow release medication with the same standards of being a slow release, once a day pill, like Concerta, while technically NOT breaking the patent.
Health Canada was happy to agree to this because of the amount of money provincial government drug coverage plans in our social welfare system pays out for covering Concerta medications for people with ADHD.
The way Name Brand Concerta works is that it has the wax “tube” with a very small laser drilled hole in one end of the pill under the initial coating and immediate dose. The rest of the medication inside the tube is slowly delivered to your system through the small hole in one end with a “push” method.
The pill was designed with an osmotic pump inside that gathers water from the gut and the material that the pump is made of swells from the water, and being in a hard wax tube has nowhere to go but up toward the hole in the case. Thus, pushing the medication out of the tube into your system to be metabolized and therefore medicated slowly through out the day.
Some people on twitter, including doctors, that I have spoken to about Concerta, told me that the full mgs of the Concerta pill does not enter the system, and therefore they dose higher than what they had, say on Ritalin before, doing what they call Concerta math. They told me about how it compares to dosing of other ADHD meds that have the same drug, but a different delivery system. This made sense to me, because I’ve used Ritalin before the Concerta, and in my own case I am witness to how Concerta math works.
To me, this seemingly has to do with the pill travelling in your system through the day and where the osmotic pump can get water from your system to give it all to you, before it reaches “no man’s land” and is ready to be excreted in the wax tube, down the toilet. You’re essentially crapping out some unused Concerta every day in the waxy tube.
Therefore if you are taking say 54 mg of name brand Concerta, ( like I was) you would not get the full 54 mg dosage over the course of your day. Many teenagers and adults I’ve talked to take two 36 mg capsules for an effective dose of 72 mg in order to be properly medicated. or an 18 mg and a 54 mg Concerta. If you came from 60 mg of Ritalin a day, 54 mg would not be enough because you get less than the 54mg of the Concerta, which ends up being FAR below our previous dose of 60 mg a day. ( same drug, different delivery and name of pill.)
I was prescribed Concerta when it became available on my Ontario Drug Benefit plan with my Disability pension. It costs $ 120 a month for it, and it was fully paid for by my disability pension, which is called ODSP.
I’ve been taking it for over a year. I came from trying 20 mg 3 times a day of Ritalin, ( so 60 mg total) and even tried slow release Ritalin, which was COMPLETELY ineffective for me. Slow release Ritalin might as well have been regular Ritalin for how long it lasted in my system.
20 mg 3 times a day of Ritalin ( the same drug as Concerta) WAS seemingly effective for me… but only if I remembered to take it, and I would forget ALL THE TIME.
I’d take my initial dose in the morning, and then get rolling in my day doing stuff, getting sidetracked and not remember I’d forgotten to take my mid afternoon, AND my late afternoon Ritalin dose, until my husband was asking me what was for dinner an hour after I should have been making it!
So, due to this.. my Dr decided a once a day ADHD medication was needed.
I tried Concerta on a sample coverage from the pharmaceutical company for 4 months before my drug benefits covered it. We were going to apply to get it specially covered as a necessary medication with my disability drug coverage. But, before I needed to apply, ODSP put it on the list of covered medications. I was happy when it became covered! NO need to fight for something!
It found it took a LONG time to start me in the morning. I have a slow metabolism anyway, but this is apparently NOT unique to Concerta for people. So, I was taking the Concerta with 200 mg of caffeine pills in the morning, (because I don’t drink coffee) just to wake up. My Ritalin used to kick in within a half hour…so this was a BIG change for me.
I’d take my pills an hour before I needed to get up. I had two alarms clocks set for this purpose.
Once an ADHD brain is shut down in sleep mode it takes a LONG time to wake it back up naturally, and once it revs back up, it gets hyper in order to stay awake… this is essentially what ADHD is. Slow to start and hard to shut down. Stimulants make the brain act as if it is awake, and therefore doesn’t need to create the “hyper-ness” through brain chemistry and hormones, in order to keep it functioning.
Without medication, my brain would just like to sleep. In fact, if I’m not DOING something and I have no medication, I’d fall asleep. I’ve actually fallen asleep driving! Thankfully, my husband saved our asses that time.
I never complained enough to push for a higher dose, but I felt the Concerta was too low a dose for me. I was taking caffeine around 4 pm again everyday to be able to somehow prepare what MIGHT be edible food for supper, and doing evening/bedtime routines.
I’d told my Dr it was slow in the AM, and didn’t last long enough in the evening for me, since my job as a mom and wife /caregiver is not a 9 to 5 job. I need clarity until after supper and bedtimes are done. She suggested I take the caffeine in the morning and try to hold out until noon to take my 54 mg Concerta pill.
I did, but even then, I was hardly making it to 6 o’clock in the evening with clarity of any kind, and bedtimes were still a disaster.
Also, not taking the meds until noon meant my mornings were a disaster too. I never ate breakfast, because I wasn’t coherent enough, and by the time I took the pill, and made some lunch, I would have NO appetite at all with Concerta. The thought of eating while on Concerta made me literally sick to my stomach.
For over a year I’ve been eating late in the day and about once a day, I was starving myself all day and binging once the Concerta wore off, and I felt HUNGRY, and not sick, because the stimulant was out of my system. NOT very healthy eating!!!
I can be a SCARY driver ( so says The Mundane One) when my meds are not effective, so whenever we had to go anywhere I was saving my dose of Concerta to be as effective and on task as possible, for when we were out. So, sometimes I’d wait and not take my Concerta until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and I’d top it with caffeine pills, and Coke (cola). This meant that days we had to go anywhere, I really could not get anything else done, because I didn’t have the brain power to do it, literally.
I never said anything really to my doctor beyond my initial complaint of the slow start, and shortness of its duration, because I didn’t want to admit that the Concerta as it was, was not effective for fear she’d just take me off of it all together. She was adamant on NOT trying Adderal, because of the Health Canada recall a while back, and other meds are not covered on my drug plan.
So, because my Dr. was reluctant to put me on more than 54 mg of Concerta, and had said so at the start of it, I just kept my mouth shut and went with what I had. I drank caffeine pop most of the time, and took about 400 to 600 mg of caffeine pills throughout the day depending on my needs for more alertness.
Being under-dosed at the best of times was bad enough but I was totally a scatterbrain when I’d have my period, it was like I was not on it at all. When the Concerta would finally kick in, about two hours after I took it WITH caffeine, I’d start my day. Also, I could tell the Concerta was weaning down in my system at about 4 pm, because I’d start getting scatterbrained, and REALLY HUNGRY.
During my cycle, I’d over cook or burn supper at least 3 nights a week. I could not even go from the stove to the sink to do something, without forgetting I was cooking, and start hyperfocusing on the dishes. The kids’ bedtime routines were all over the place. Since we homeschooled it was not THAT big a deal, but with two kids with special needs, consistancy helps behaviour…BIG TIME.
For the last year I’ve been going between my monthly cycle of falling behind, and being so scatterbrained during my period and being undermedicated, that the house and any schedule or routine we had would explode in my face. Then I’d spend the next two weeks trying to just CATCH up with what I’d messed up in the two weeks or MAJOR hormone fluctuations. The arguments over clean socks to go places was a weekly event.
So anyway…my pharmacy seems to be run by a paranoid pharmacist. He INSISTS that my Dr write the Rx a certain way, and she has NEVER had to write a Rx for a controlled substance the way he forces her to write it.
Now,I know people can abuse ADHD drugs. But, I’ve been getting my meds from this pharmacy for over a year. I’ve clearly demonstrated that I am NOT an abuser of my medication. My Dr. has even expressed to them over the phone, she is not concerned about that with me. But, because my Dr has not written the Rx to his satisfaction he has on occasion refused to refill my meds without contact with her or a totally NEW prescription. In my opinion, I am lucky I had a Dr that knows me well enough, and long enough to know I’m not ripping her off more Rx’s than I need, because though she gives me refills on my Rx I’ve had to go back and ask her for a new Rx to satisfy the pharmacy, the next month. They have been in phone contact together and she has faxed them more times than necessary. She and I both are annoyed at the lengths she needs to go for the pharmacist to keep me in medication.
Also, I live rurally and my pharmacy is NOT just around the corner, or on my way to somewhere. I have to make a special trip to town to get my meds. I have to go pick it up on the DAY my prescription is due to be refilled if my Dr filled it out right this time and I’m going to get a refill.
It doesn’t matter if I was already on town three days earlier for something else, and I know my meds are three days way from needing to be refilled. The Pharmacist won’t let me pick them up a head of time ( even ONE DAY before) for fear I’ll abuse my medication or some such thing. I have to make a 24 km trip specifically for my meds and pay $5 in gas for the trip to pick up a prescription. This, on my amount of disability pension is difficult, and is LITERALLY taking food from my children’s mouths. Because, the only money from my pension that is flexable is my grocery budget. Everything else is a hard bill ( same every month) and ALL of my pension goes to these things, and leaves me with some money for gas and groceries. I even attend a food bank once a month to help, and grow a garden in the summer to eat, so we CAN afford gas to go places.
So, I tell you all of this because recently the Dr didn’t fill out the Rx to the pharmacist’s liking again and my refill was due. He told me he was “working it out” when I picked up my last Rx, and he’d explain to her how he needed the Rx written again, and get it sorted out for my refill. Somehow though,they crossed lines of communication and were faxing the wrong number for THREE weeks to get a refill approval from the Dr.
On the day I go in with my last Concerta in me, and none for the next day, they tell me they have been unable to reach the Dr, and I have no medication for the next day. I give them ways to contact her and leave with NOTHING. A wasted trip. A wasted $5. I tell them IF they get a refill Rx to call me so I can come in and get it. They assure me they will. I go home.
I tweet my life. So on the day I was supposed to get my Concerta and didn’t I tweeted these things.
- baking cookies, eating lunch, and dragging my ass with no concerta…gonna be a rough week til dr appointment and new RX 1:42 PM May 14th via web
- Taking caffine like it’s going out of style today uggg.if i can drag my ass to the gazelle it might help. #noconcerta 2:33 PM May 14th via txt
- Going for a bikeride with the kids to try & wake my brain up 2:53 PM May 14th via txt
It was a slow day…I could hardly stay awake, and I was consuming large amounts of caffeine to try and stay semi functional.
I ended up having a 45 minute nap in the afternoon, out of pure inability to function. It didn’t help that I was roller coastering in hormone fluctuations with my period due.
Then, the next day (day two with no Concerta COLD TURKEY, thanks to my pharmacist) I pulled out the pamphlet they gave me. The drug pamphlet SPECIFICALLY says, stopping a drug like Concerta can be hard on your system, and they recommend NOT stopping all at once. I’ve had Concerta in my system at 54 mg every day for over a year, and then NOTHING. I find the pharmacist to be very irresponsible in this regard. My old pharmacy would have given me two pills for the next few days until they got it sorted out and just took those two out of the refill count when they dispensed it.
More tweets on Day two with no Concerta.
- Oh ya! Could the next 5 days get any better! No concerta, low on caffine AND my period unexpectedly! Lets hear it for #ADD & #perimenopause! 1:10 PM May 15th via txt
- Went for a bike ride,loaded the dishwasher,fed everyone lunch,hung two loads of laundry…i’m wiped out
1:53 PM May 15th via txt
- not feeling very super, when i can’t even keep my attention long enough to even type twee. 3:46 PM May 15th via web
- ok….someone tell me how to tolerate coffee. I have some, but I hate the stuff, but I need caffeine…without my meds i”m useless *yawn* 4:12 PM May 15th via web
you gotta know that I HATE HATE HATE coffee. So, if I’m seriously considering coffee to stimulate my brain… I’m desperate… not desperate like “I need a fix”, like a junkie. But, desperate because I could not even coordinate my brain enough to plan dinner. I was literally standing in the kitchen, going in circles! By the time I got to the fridge, I’d forget why I wanted to open it.
- i feel fine when I’m bike riding, keeping the adrenalin going, but once I stop, I’m yawning and nodding off…..ADHD chemistry sucks ass. 4:13 PM May 15th via web
the responses to my coffee tweet created some chat…this was my side of the conversations
Then on the off chance that my pharmacy is incompetent ( yes, I’m being sarcastic, they ARE incompetent) I called them… “Ohhh, yess, we have your prescription right here. We filled it yesterday when we sorted out the Rx, it’s been here waiting for you)
here’s my tweets about that.
So, off we went into town before the pharmacy closed to get my meds.
When I got the pills, I noticed it had the word “generic” written in pen on my paper Rx bag stapled shut, so I stood there an opened it up, after I signed that I’d received it, and dated the signature, so I can’t get my meds before 30 days from that date goes by. They are STRICT.
The pharmacist didn’t even come to the desk to tell me of the switch, he would have let me go home without a word. I opened the pill bottle and looked at them.
I had not known before this of the generic brand of Concerta being made.They look NOTHING like the name brand Concerta, so I was taken aback.
If people in the ADHD community are all up in arms about people maybe not noticing the difference in appearance if they get switched, they’d have to be
1. blind, literally, or 2. never actually LOOK at their meds… and if people do that… I can’t comprehend that, you should ALWAYS know what your meds look like, Pharmacies CAN and DO make mistakes.
I asked to speak to the pharmacist, and he came to the desk. There is a little “tension” but it is nothing serious. The tension is due to me complaining each time he disallows the Dr’s refills on the Rx because she doesn’t fill it out to his specifications.
Let me just say that it is bad enough that I’ve considered going back to the other pharmacy I use to go to, a traditional small town pharmacy that has been a pharmacy since the beginning of time. The only reason I am at this pharmacy now inside a grocery store ( in our small town of 4000 people) is because they waive the $2 co pay my disability makes me pay for dispensing Rxs. When you have a family of 4 all with Rxs to fill $2 each adds up.
Anyway, the pharmacist printed off an info sheet for me with the usual info on stimulant medications and possible side effects, etc. He told me the generic had just been approved, and my drug plan stipulates a generic in place of a name brand anytime it is available, so I really had no choice.
He said it passed testing as an acceptable generic replacement for Concerta, and was ” the same”. I explained to him that I was concerned about knowing how it was slow released first, and it’s effectiveness compared to name brand, since Concerta has the push method. He again just said it was an “acceptable substitute” and “would act the same as Concerta.” He had no info on how the pill worked for me.
This generic Concerta looked NOTHING like the name brand it replaces. In fact it looks a LOT like generic ibuprofen. It is NOT round like a tube, with rounded ends, it is oval-ish, with a flat ridge around the pill, and has the mg amount actually press stamped into the pill. Concerta has it’s information edible ink printed onto the coating.
I had a conversation with my husband about taking my Concerta this late in the day, on the way to get my Rx. I’ve done it before, and sometimes it causes me some inability to sleep, but given that I was on my period and a total scatterbrain (I’m talking difficult to form sentences talking to people scatterbrained) we decided I’d take the med and chance the insomnia that night. This was when we thought I’d be taking Concerta, not a generic replacement. I’ve never had any adverse reactions from my Concerta and caffeine, no matter how much caffeine I’ve taken. Being a Saturday it was not that big a deal and we had nowhere to be the next day.
Once I saw it was the generic , I wondered again if I should take it, but Hubby thought it should be fine. I took it in the grocery store, and we shopped for a half hour and then started home. In the van driving home I started to feel sick to my stomach, like a caffeine overdose. We got home, and within a little bit I was feeling very jittery, and it was coming in waves every few hours.
here’s what I tweeted:
in retrospect, i felt jittery at the 5 hour mark, because I was getting the next dose of meds in the way it dispenses, which I describe better, further down.
It was apparent to me RIGHT AWAY that the dosing of a 54 generic concerta, was stronger than a name brand concerta…I’ve taken my meds late, with tonnes of caffine before, but with the generic brand, I have had 3 glasses of caffeine pop in TWO WEEKS. that’s it. and only because I actually miss having a bubbly carbonated beverage to drink. not out of necessity.
Yes that is correct. 54 MG of generic concerta is actually 54 mg of medication, i don’t believe you lose any to the porclin at all. I feel my body use and utalize ALL of it.
I took the meds for 5 days before my next appointment with my Dr. and I brought them with me to talk to her about it.
More Tweets
I was still curious as to how the pill was physically packaged, but I didn’t open one. Over the 5 days before my Dr appointment, I discovered a few things for me different than what the name brand Concerta did “for” me.
It worked faster in the morning. The first morning I took it with caffeine pills ( 200 g) and I felt sick to my stomach, and jittery. I spent a LOT of time on the toilet that day ( Sunday)…. ADHD medication STIMULATES me, and I always know when the first initial dose of Concerta works , because it prompts me to go to the bathroom as soon as the coating releases the dose. Maybe TMI, but I feel knowing how this med works is important for the ADHD community. Due to this, I decided that did not need to take Caffeine with this generic anymore in the morning.
I had CLARITY in my mind sooner, that morning fog was lifted faster, I was AWAKE. WITHOUT 200 mg of Caffeine! I was waking up after my first alarm, almost a half hour sooner then the second alarm is supposed to go off. This gave me time to have breakfast and not feel sick to my stomach at the thought of curing the growl in my stomach. I could have eaten after I took my Concerta in the morning, but it took so long to wake me up, the idea of trying to make even toast for breakfast was too complicated a task in my morning fog.
In the last two weeks I’ve eaten breakfast more than I have in the last year!!!
I also noted the first day taking it at a normal, early morning time, that I was suddenly REALLY hungry and DESIRING food about 4 to 5 hours after I had first taken it in the morning. This actually scared me at first, because for me I know the meds I’ve taken before have dwindled down in my system, allowing me to be hungry in a way I want to something about it. To me this spoke failure for the drug, because it seemed that this was how Ritalin SR was, and then after that NOTHING. there was no slow release in Ritalin SR. I might as well have been taking regular release Ritalin then.
But, something really neat happened after I made myself a hotdog and a glass of lemonade for lunch on Sunday! As I was finishing my food, I felt good chemically, not scatterbrained, or restless ( hyper setting in from no meds). I felt collected, on task, and ready to tackle the next thing I needed to do. I felt satisfied, not sick to my stomach, and I could tell my body just got another dose of medication, in a slow, ease in kind of way.
This, to me said this pill was made kind of like a jaw breaker where you suck off one layer of candy color to reveal the next layer… I explained this to the Doctor at my appointment 5 days after starting the generic Concerta, and she was amazed at the detail I gave in how the pill physically worked in my system.
The drug information she got about the medication explained it basically as how I was describing it to her as a user of the medication without that knowledge. Information, which any physician can obtain from the company if they call them.
This pill is basically layered the same way as a jaw breaker with variations of thickness of the coating between the medication layers. I don’t know the percentage of initial medication, or how much each layer contains, but i can feel the waves of medication gently rise and fall in a much healthier manner ( in my own personal opinion as a person with ADHD taking it)
It was designed in this certain formula to give you small rises and falls in the level of meds.
It was designed to do this, and as far I as I can tell, this is actually a REALLY GREAT benefit to this medication! As one layer of meds is fading off, the cover layer is being disolved away to reveal the next dose, and it allows a comfortable period of “down time” in the day to allow me to eat healthy.
For me, about 4 to 5 hours after I take it in the morning, I started to get shorter attention span in what I was doing, and I get HUNGRY… but for me it is a good hungry, and it makes me want to do something about it. So I stop what I’m doing and go make lunch. this cheap looking pill with a crappy looking coating seems to have a internal clock installed 
it does for me anyway. I find that ingenious!
For the first time in over a year I have had LUNCH EVERYDAY, because I was hungry, and NOT sick at the idea of putting food in my system! THIS IS GREAT! The constant push of the stimulant in my system with the name brand Concerta made eating between 9 am and 4 pm IMPOSSIBLE. I always though that was unhealthy, but I could never work any kind of routine around it.
By the time I went to the Dr and I told her all the changes, I was happy with the new generic medication and it’s effects on me, since I was under medicated on the 54 mg of name brand concerta.
I was no longer asking for an increase in my dose. I was advocating this new generic med! She was really happy it was working so well, and was interested to hear about the concerta math I explained to her.
I had told her I was all prepared to show her all this paper work on Concerta math from @drkenny and how I felt I was under medicated, and I needed a higher dose because of how much caffeine I needed all the time. She agreed that I was taking too much caffeine, but was pleasantly surprised at how the new generic med was working for me.
She was curious to hear an actual review from a user of it, because she had not heard of anyone using it yet, and how it worked. She was amazed as to how I described the pill in such accurate detail. She said how I described the pill is EXACTLY how the pill IS made, and is MEANT to work to combat the undernourishment concerns of kids who need ADHD medications, but end up with overly suppressed appetites.
So the initial first days of being on the med where NOT a good indicator at all, because I had so much caffeine for two days, and NO Concerta at all, (COLD TURKEY due to the pharmacy) and then took a “proper” dose, which technically to MY system was a bit strong to handle, and was what cause me the jitters, and sick to my stomach feelings. My system was adjusting and riding the caffeine i took so much of.
I still say the pill LOOKS cheaply made… and I suppose it is, since it costs HALF of what generic name brand costs. LITERALLY. They say you get what you pay for, and that usually means a bad thing, but in my opinion is does not indicate the effectivness or benefits *I* have found with this medication at all.
This medication works COMPLETLY different than Concerta, with the slight ebbs and flows in the dosage, but that is a benefit to this medication in my opinion. In my opinion, THIS is what Ritalin SR SHOULD have been!
There is no Concerta math to be done on this medication. 54 mg of THIS generic concerta, IS 54 mg.
I DO have concerns. As a Herbalist, I have some educational background in nutrition, metabolism, endocrinology, bio food chemistry and body chemistry.
As a herbalist/natural health advisor, and a patient of this medication, I advise caution starting this medication if you are switching from name brand Concerta.
IF a person is properly dosed on say 72 mg of name brand Concerta in the form of two pills, because of the Concerta math and the amounts that is wasted, 72 MG of generic Concerta could be technically an overdosing of medication, and they could have serious side effects from it.
To me, this could be a real health/medical issue for people using the medication, and also because it could end up giving this generic medication a bad name, which if understood, and used properly to start it, would not deserve, or be accurate.
It should not be assumed that generic Concerta will respond the same way name brand Concerta does. In my opinion, this medication should be treated as a TOTALLY unique ADHD Medication in and of itself, and dosing needs to start smaller than what people might be taking in Concerta NOW. Start a bit lower, and build back up to what works best.
This medication for me starts faster,which indicates a higher percentage of the MG for the initial morning dose. It ebbs and flows in a healthy way, gives me NO dry mouth, and lasts LONGER than name Brand Concerta did in my system, and I believe this is because of the totally DIFFERENT slow release system. I have taken NO CAFFEINE pills since the Sunday I started this generic Concerta… almost two weeks now. NONE. I don’t need it at all, and I don’t miss it! I’ve also only had MINIMAL caffeine drinks, like hot tea, ice tea, and a few cola drinks. I used to drink a litre of cola every day or MORE when I took the name brand Concerta.
I’ve talked to parents who have children taking Ritalin in the morning WITH their dose of Concerta, to jumpstart their day. IF A CHILD TAKES RITALIN WITH GENERIC CONCERTA IT COULD CAUSE SERIOUS NEGATIVE SIDE EFFECTS.
IF YOU TAKE CAFFEINE THROUGHOUT THE DAY WITH NAME BRAND CONCERTA AND YOU GET SWITCHED TO THE GENERIC CONCERTA (or wish to switch for the lesser cost if you pay out of pocket for your meds, or like the sounds of the ebb and flow delivery over the constant push delivery of meds), TRY IT WITHOUT THE CAFFEINE FIRST AND SEE IF YOU FEEL YOU NEED THE CAFFEINE, in case it makes you feel as sick and jittery as it made me feel.
Lastly, I also have noted for me, that this medication has a somewhat residual effect on me. Because, when I wake up in the morning, I am less groggy, before I take my pill, even without caffeine, I feel less on task in the late evenings, as the medication dwindles down, but that’s ok. I am not falling alseep watching TV. With no caffiene, I am having no insomnia, and I’m getting a good 6 to 8 hours of sleep every night now, and getting into a better routine in the morning, getting up easier, and not snoozing on The Mundane One’s lazy boy for an hour waiting for it to kick in. This medication is allowing me to feel less anxious, because I feel less overwhelmed by the to do lists I have. With better concentration on this med, things don’t seem as un-doable to me.
IF you’re a ADDmom, you probably know EXACTLY what I’m talking about!
I think I have FINALLY found the right medication at the right dose in a once a day pill to allow me to create better habits and routines, to lessen the WORST symptoms ADHD natually causes me. My husband and kids have had clean underwear for two weeks without arguments of my being behind on laundry! THAT is a MAJOR improvement.
