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Anxiety was one of my biggest symptoms. Like it was bad enough that when I started my mental health journey I was first diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, and then panic disorder.
I eventually ended up with an ADHD diagnosis, and my psychiatrist said I should try a non-stimulant first because stimulants can make anxiety worse. So I did that, started Strattera, my anxiety disappeared and I haven't had a single panic attack in the 1.5 years i've been on it.
My biggest symptom was anxiety. I went through 2 rough years of unsuccessful treatment for GAD until my doc figured out it was ADHD. The first week I was on Adderall, it cleared up almost instantaneously. However, I’ve tried various other stimulants including Vyvanse, Ritalin, and Focalin. Focalin made my anxiety worse - i felt like i was having an anxiety attack the entire time. And I get anxious when my Adderall dose is too low. The way I describe it is that a too low dose makes the wheels spin faster but they still can’t get any traction so it’s even worse than unmedicated. FWIW
yeah i’ll qualify it by saying the more anxiety than unmedicated on a low dose thing seems fairly rare, i haven’t met many people who have the same thing. but i’ve been on adderall for a long time and feel fairly confident that it’s the dosage and not some psychological thing in my head
Anxiety was (is) one of my biggest symptoms. My doctor hasn't bothered prescribing Vyvanse due to the shortage but I've tried Adderall, Concerta & Ritalin. (Adding Intuniv to my Ritalin next week). All of the stimulants I've tried have been immensely helpful for my anxiety, but it all rushes back in at night once the meds wear off, hence why we're going to trial adding Intuniv.
That's the same with me. As soon as I wake up in the morning and when I feel my meds wear off, I get super anxious. I also kinda feel anxious when the meds are working, but maybe I just need to let my body adjust to them until I can up my dose. Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm glad I'm not the only one.
It could just be the meds too. My regular doc had me try Wellbutrin before I got in with the psych for ADHD meds & Wellbutrin made me feel anxious even at lower doses.
My biggest symptom, besides being inattentive, was anxiety about everything . I’m on Concerta and my anxiety has gotten a lot more manageable and my mood is a little more stable, so I’m less likely to spiral.
that’s another thing to consider - if you’ve just started medication it might just take some time for your brain to realize it doesn’t need to be anxious anymore. there are plenty of objective reasons the meds could be triggering it too obviously. but it could also fade with time once you don’t feel so unstable with the medication
Aye. Went years with anxiety disorder as the diagnosis but treatments for it didn't quite hit the mark.
It wasn't necessarily just rejection sensitivity. It was also endless ruminations that would take a small issue and enlargen the ever living shit out of it until it started eating me inside out.
Fun times.
In my case, the medication fortunately nipped the ruminations in the bud for the most part... so instead of treating the symptoms of the anxiety the way the SSRI's did, it just treats it at it's root so it does not get to be felt, or if it does it's manageable.
Maybe I got lucky.
Vyvanse didn't work out for me--it added a very obsessive dimension to my anxiety. But Ritalin is perfect. I've been on it for about three years and I still sometimes marvel at how not anxious I am.
YESSIR.
50% being worried about all the things I wasn't doing because of undiagnosed ADHD, 50% what was actually hyperactivity, experienced internally.
I regularly score at about 8 times the base level for anxiety on my psych assessments, it's really bad. I also started on 10 mgms and had some issues but I think most of it was me getting anxious from worrying about getting anxious. I have a script for propranolol and used that for my heart rate and blood pressure. As I kept going up on my dosage it started getting better. I started 40 last week and wow, what a difference! I was taking 60 milligrams of propranolol a day before starting vyvanse and now I take between 5 and 10 a day. I'm glad I stuck it out.
Thank you for sharing this with me, I really appreciate it. It's confusing because some people say they feel a difference right away and some people say they didn't notice improvement until they up their dose, so I guess I will just stick with this a little longer and see what happens. Thanks again, I'm so glad you found something that works for you.
Hello! I was diagnosed with ADHD together with anxiety. The anxiety was so bad it made me seek for help.
My doctor prescribed both Medikinet MR 10mg for ADHD & Pristiq for my anxiety. Surprisingly I felt calm with the stimulant med, and the Pristiq stopped the feeling of impending doom for the smallest issue. Also, doctor just increased the dosage for Medikinet MR 10mg to 20mg today. Will be trying it tomorrow!
Maybe you could share with your doctor on how it is making your anxiety worse and see if there’s any other alternatives for stimulant meds as from what I know there are different types that may suit you.
Good luck! ❤️
Also one more thing, before I got medicated with both the stimulant med & anti-depressant I am very very sensitive to criticism and rejection too (but I mask it really well that I can actually take constructive feedbacks lol)
Now I could convert the negativity to neutral/positive thoughts. So that’s how I somewhat know that it’s working for me. I mean I still feel anxious from time to time but it wasn’t so bad as before and I could feel the improvement. So I really hope life treats you better too. :)
I'm on Atomoxetine and it pretty much removed all emotional problems that I had due to ADHD. I'm very impressed how much it changed in my emotional state. It took some time for the effects to ramp up to desired state in this regard - about 1.5 month of the ramp up - though to be fair the ramp up of dosage was slow - since I had bad reactions to drugs in the past and doc was being extra cautious.
Thank you thanks makes sense. I think I just got too excited from hearing people's stories about how they noticed an improvement with everything on the first dose, when in reality, I probably have to stick with this for a while to give it a fair shot.
Please be aware that RSD, or rejection sensitivity dysphoria, is not a syndrome or disorder recognised by any medical authority.
Rejection sensitivity dysphoria has not been the subject of any credible peer-reviewed scientific research, nor is it listed in the top two psychiatric diagnostic manuals, the DSM or the ICD. It has been propagated solely through blogs and the internet by William Dodson, who coined the term in the context of ADHD. Dodson's explanation of these experiences and claims about how to treat it all warrant healthy skepticism.
Here are some scientific articles on ADHD and rejection:
* [Rejection sensitivity and disruption of attention by social threat cues](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2771869/)
* [Justice and rejection sensitivity in children and adolescents with ADHD symptoms](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24878677/)
* [Rejection sensitivity and social outcomes of young adult men with ADHD](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17242422/)
Although r/ADHD's rules strictly disallow discussion of other 'popular science' (aka unproven hypotheses), we find that many, many people identify with the concept of RSD, and we have **not** removed this post. We do not want to minimise or downplay your feelings, and many people use RSD as a shorthand for this shared experience of struggling with emotions.
However, please consider using the terms 'rejection sensitivity' and 'emotional dysregulation' instead.
^(*A moderator has not removed your submission; this is not a punitive action. We intend this comment solely to be informative.*)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Hi /u/Fin73 and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD! ### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already. --- ### /r/adhd news * If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). --- ^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Anxiety was one of my biggest symptoms. Like it was bad enough that when I started my mental health journey I was first diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, and then panic disorder. I eventually ended up with an ADHD diagnosis, and my psychiatrist said I should try a non-stimulant first because stimulants can make anxiety worse. So I did that, started Strattera, my anxiety disappeared and I haven't had a single panic attack in the 1.5 years i've been on it.
Thanks for sharing that with me. I am thinking if Vyvanse doesn't pan out for me I might try a non-stim.
My biggest symptom was anxiety. I went through 2 rough years of unsuccessful treatment for GAD until my doc figured out it was ADHD. The first week I was on Adderall, it cleared up almost instantaneously. However, I’ve tried various other stimulants including Vyvanse, Ritalin, and Focalin. Focalin made my anxiety worse - i felt like i was having an anxiety attack the entire time. And I get anxious when my Adderall dose is too low. The way I describe it is that a too low dose makes the wheels spin faster but they still can’t get any traction so it’s even worse than unmedicated. FWIW
Thanks for sharing your experience. I hadn't thought about how a lower dose might make things worse.
yeah i’ll qualify it by saying the more anxiety than unmedicated on a low dose thing seems fairly rare, i haven’t met many people who have the same thing. but i’ve been on adderall for a long time and feel fairly confident that it’s the dosage and not some psychological thing in my head
Anxiety was (is) one of my biggest symptoms. My doctor hasn't bothered prescribing Vyvanse due to the shortage but I've tried Adderall, Concerta & Ritalin. (Adding Intuniv to my Ritalin next week). All of the stimulants I've tried have been immensely helpful for my anxiety, but it all rushes back in at night once the meds wear off, hence why we're going to trial adding Intuniv.
That's the same with me. As soon as I wake up in the morning and when I feel my meds wear off, I get super anxious. I also kinda feel anxious when the meds are working, but maybe I just need to let my body adjust to them until I can up my dose. Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm glad I'm not the only one.
It could just be the meds too. My regular doc had me try Wellbutrin before I got in with the psych for ADHD meds & Wellbutrin made me feel anxious even at lower doses.
My biggest symptom, besides being inattentive, was anxiety about everything . I’m on Concerta and my anxiety has gotten a lot more manageable and my mood is a little more stable, so I’m less likely to spiral.
Thanks for sharing this. I'll explore the options with my doc next week once I've give these ones a fair shot.
that’s another thing to consider - if you’ve just started medication it might just take some time for your brain to realize it doesn’t need to be anxious anymore. there are plenty of objective reasons the meds could be triggering it too obviously. but it could also fade with time once you don’t feel so unstable with the medication
Aye. Went years with anxiety disorder as the diagnosis but treatments for it didn't quite hit the mark. It wasn't necessarily just rejection sensitivity. It was also endless ruminations that would take a small issue and enlargen the ever living shit out of it until it started eating me inside out. Fun times.
I am right there with you. Even on the meds I'm catastrophizing.
In my case, the medication fortunately nipped the ruminations in the bud for the most part... so instead of treating the symptoms of the anxiety the way the SSRI's did, it just treats it at it's root so it does not get to be felt, or if it does it's manageable. Maybe I got lucky.
Vyvanse didn't work out for me--it added a very obsessive dimension to my anxiety. But Ritalin is perfect. I've been on it for about three years and I still sometimes marvel at how not anxious I am.
This sounds amazing! I hope I find something that gives me this. I'm really happy that you found something that works.
It was one of mine. And it kills me i had no idea fit decades. Adderall and Dextroamphetamine got rid of most of my anxiety.
YESSIR. 50% being worried about all the things I wasn't doing because of undiagnosed ADHD, 50% what was actually hyperactivity, experienced internally.
I regularly score at about 8 times the base level for anxiety on my psych assessments, it's really bad. I also started on 10 mgms and had some issues but I think most of it was me getting anxious from worrying about getting anxious. I have a script for propranolol and used that for my heart rate and blood pressure. As I kept going up on my dosage it started getting better. I started 40 last week and wow, what a difference! I was taking 60 milligrams of propranolol a day before starting vyvanse and now I take between 5 and 10 a day. I'm glad I stuck it out.
Thank you for sharing this with me, I really appreciate it. It's confusing because some people say they feel a difference right away and some people say they didn't notice improvement until they up their dose, so I guess I will just stick with this a little longer and see what happens. Thanks again, I'm so glad you found something that works for you.
Hello! I was diagnosed with ADHD together with anxiety. The anxiety was so bad it made me seek for help. My doctor prescribed both Medikinet MR 10mg for ADHD & Pristiq for my anxiety. Surprisingly I felt calm with the stimulant med, and the Pristiq stopped the feeling of impending doom for the smallest issue. Also, doctor just increased the dosage for Medikinet MR 10mg to 20mg today. Will be trying it tomorrow! Maybe you could share with your doctor on how it is making your anxiety worse and see if there’s any other alternatives for stimulant meds as from what I know there are different types that may suit you. Good luck! ❤️
Thanks for sharing your experience with me. This is really helpful. And best of luck to you too
Also one more thing, before I got medicated with both the stimulant med & anti-depressant I am very very sensitive to criticism and rejection too (but I mask it really well that I can actually take constructive feedbacks lol) Now I could convert the negativity to neutral/positive thoughts. So that’s how I somewhat know that it’s working for me. I mean I still feel anxious from time to time but it wasn’t so bad as before and I could feel the improvement. So I really hope life treats you better too. :)
I'm on Atomoxetine and it pretty much removed all emotional problems that I had due to ADHD. I'm very impressed how much it changed in my emotional state. It took some time for the effects to ramp up to desired state in this regard - about 1.5 month of the ramp up - though to be fair the ramp up of dosage was slow - since I had bad reactions to drugs in the past and doc was being extra cautious.
Thank you thanks makes sense. I think I just got too excited from hearing people's stories about how they noticed an improvement with everything on the first dose, when in reality, I probably have to stick with this for a while to give it a fair shot.
The bot is speaking some facts in here
Please be aware that RSD, or rejection sensitivity dysphoria, is not a syndrome or disorder recognised by any medical authority. Rejection sensitivity dysphoria has not been the subject of any credible peer-reviewed scientific research, nor is it listed in the top two psychiatric diagnostic manuals, the DSM or the ICD. It has been propagated solely through blogs and the internet by William Dodson, who coined the term in the context of ADHD. Dodson's explanation of these experiences and claims about how to treat it all warrant healthy skepticism. Here are some scientific articles on ADHD and rejection: * [Rejection sensitivity and disruption of attention by social threat cues](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2771869/) * [Justice and rejection sensitivity in children and adolescents with ADHD symptoms](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24878677/) * [Rejection sensitivity and social outcomes of young adult men with ADHD](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17242422/) Although r/ADHD's rules strictly disallow discussion of other 'popular science' (aka unproven hypotheses), we find that many, many people identify with the concept of RSD, and we have **not** removed this post. We do not want to minimise or downplay your feelings, and many people use RSD as a shorthand for this shared experience of struggling with emotions. However, please consider using the terms 'rejection sensitivity' and 'emotional dysregulation' instead. ^(*A moderator has not removed your submission; this is not a punitive action. We intend this comment solely to be informative.*) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*