I’ve been having good results and just wanted to share how my changed treatment plan has already been having a big impact on me.
Two weeks ago my doctor reduced my Adderall xr dose and started me on Strattera (Atomoxetine) at the same time.
While on just Adderall my hyper-fixation was getting way worse to the point it was affecting people around me, and I was skipping eating and even sleeping to do whatever I was hyper-fixating on.
Once Strattera was added on after about a week my hyper-fixations have been drastically reduced, but more than that I’ve been having a lot of hard to describe positive effects, like its easier to think. I have an easier time stopping before I say something and thinking about the consequences or if my emotions are appropriate, and the best part are that the effects last all day and night and into the next day.
Strattera does nothing for my crippling lack of motivation to do things, but with both Adderall and Strattera I’ve been getting significant relief from symptoms that Adderall didn’t solve alone.
Adderall makes me want to do things, but as my dose went up, I felt more emotionally ‘muted’, but also anxious at the same time, and each dosage increase of Adderall made my hyper-fixation worse and worse, and my interest in things I used to like went down, I started isolating myself socially.
Strattera has started to make me feel calm, collected, and in control of myself in a way that I’ve never felt in my entire life.
My girlfriend says I’m more present and attentive than ever before. My house is so clean now - I’m getting projects done at a rate no one that knows me would believe if I told them, and its so much easier to think that it makes me want to cry. I used to have so much trouble using the voice in my head, or verbally describing my feelings to people. I used to struggle so much to follow people in conversations before without repeating the words they were saying to me out-loud. Now its like I can hold information in my head now and move it around and act on it.
At my dosage I’m not getting anywhere near full relief from my symptoms, but with both medications I’m getting relief from the full range of symptoms I have by a noticeable amount, and it has me so excited for further dosage increases. I’m very encouraged by the knowledge that Strattera usually increases in effectiveness over longer periods of time.
I also want to add that before this, when I started Adderall treatment in February, I’ve been making a Herculean effort to build organization tools and strategies for myself, like a whiteboard with a weekly schedule on it and a ton of other useful information I need to go about my day and whatever project I’m working on, but Strattera has made it so much easier to follow now.
My fiance was diagnosed recently but we didn’t have insurance to get started with treatment. Just the diagnosis has helped him figure out what parts of him aren’t just “not trying hard enough”. But to be honest, I’m really heartened when you talk about a clean house because I need that for my own anxiety and it takes him so much effort that it’s hard to ask it of him.
One thing that I found helpful is to break chores into smaller tasks, and track everything on a whiteboard we keep in a place I walk by often. Then set timers throughout the day to go check the board when they go off. It has also helped me to color code things on it with lots of different markers. Going to go check things off the board always feels nice. Just don’t fall into the pitfall of adding too much to it at once. I did better slowly adding more tasks to it over a period of weeks
Yeah - we set up chores on a Google task list (which is what we already use). I tried to make each room its own thing (and only have 1-2 tasks per room). He also uses a white board so I add things there too. Good note of not adding it all at once.
Living together is super challenging. (It’s overall going well. Im just grumpy atm.) I hope that medication and/or therapy will help make things easier for him.