It's taking a year to find the right meds. Common? What to expect?

[nsearch22182]

Hi,
The past year, I have been diagnosed with adult ADHD-Inattentive, GAD, MDD, Adjustment disorder at various times by the same MD. My MD has tried me on Prozac, Cymbalta, Vyvanse, Zoloft, Adderrall. I noticed much better concentration and even a feeling of cheerfulness (with no GAD or MDD symptoms!) with Vyvanse combined with Zoloft, but my MD had me stop Vyvanse after a month due to side effects. When I was put on Adderall instead, I did not feel any noticeable change at 10mg dosage. My MD has been trying me on various meds for almost a year, and while my general anxiety levels have gone down and MDD improved, my ADHD symptoms are the same as ever.

I understand that individuals can react differently to the same meds, that individuals can react differently on different dosages of the same med. I expected this to take a few months, max half a year. But it’s been almost a year, and I have been tried on SSRIs, SNRIs, Stimulants. Now my MD wants to try me on Concerta. At this point, I am beginning to question whether I should try yet another new category of meds, or whether I should get another psych opinion!

I was given the ADHD diagnosis by someone else after about 10 hours of detailed tests. To my memory, my executive functioning was not as good. I consider myself high functioning depressive, in that I do keep a FT job, and I attend to parenting duties to two young kids. But I am struggling with all kinds of mental symptoms, whereas not every parent out there working FT with two young kids is on psych meds.

Before this, I had never been on meds. I had something happen to me last year that brought up issues to the surface (avoidance behavior and whatnot). I decided to try to at last try to treat it. I started weekly counseling and psych meds.

What to expect in terms of time frames, and should I keep on trying new meds. How many of these meds does one try before saying enough is enough and switch doctors or focus the time and energy to non-meds options, such as exercising, meditation, yoga, whatever? At the moment, I have not been doing any of the non-meds options. But I will make the time if that is more effective (I’ll have to drop kids classes or farm out cleaning or dropoffs or whatever).

Thank you.

[Penny Williams]

For some people, the road to getting the right medications and dosages can take a long time. It can certainly be a frustrating process.

Take a look at this Guide to ADHD Meds:

The Ultimate Guide to ADHD Medication

And this article too for some insights to help with your journey:

10 ADHD Medication Mistakes Even Doctors Make

Penny
ADDitude Community Moderator, Author & Trainer on Parenting ADHD, Mom to teen w/ ADHD, LDs, and autism

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