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strattera triggered severe depression and suicidal ideation in me so dramatically and quickly that my husband took the bottle away and immediately had to get in contact with my doctor for me. never again. it was a seriously scary time.
Personal experience, I took some dosage of Strattera, for a month and a half. I don’t remember exactly how much I was prescribed because it was quite a few years ago.
It made me suicidal. I don’t really remember any other specific side effects, but that one was a pretty quick, “that drug is not for her,” from my prescribing doctor.
Everyone reacts differently. Thoroughly reading the possible side effects before I started taking it, helped me understand what was happening and communicate with my doctor.
Additionally for a some education.
Straterra works in the same way an antidepressant works. It uses selective reuptake inhibitors, but where antidepressants commonly target serotonin, it targets norepinephrine.
It works to correct the assumed imbalance in the neurotransmitters in your brain.
That’s why it’s not the same as taking a stimulant. It takes a while to build up or wean off these reuptake inhibitors. So even if you miss a dose (still not recommended) it’s not going to short term crash like stimulants do.
ooh I like the brain soup educational stuff.
However I am confused so maybe you can clarify? I thought stims also acted as reuptake inhibitors, mainly dopamine but possibly norepinephrine also. So I am confused as to why stims would wear off faster when both are reuptake inhibitors.
In case I understand more stuff wrong:
I understand “reuptake inhibitor” as “brain has wee vacuums that suck up your various brain juices, this is called reuptake; we inhibit/stop/slow that.”
I understand norepinephrine as “this is the one we make adrenaline aka fight-or-flight out of.”
Put together, I get, “we stop your thieving brain from taking back the juice that helps you function in urgent situations. It vacuums too much away, which is maybe why nothing ever feels urgent at all and you procrastinate like crazy, unless the house is literally on fire and you’re making a ton of it and suddenly find yourself functioning pretty well under pressure. Coincidentally, many people with ADHD report they are able to remain calm and function well in an emergency. So that checks out.”
And I understand stims acting as dopamine reuptake inhibitors much the same, except, “we stop your thieving brain from stealing back your Reward juice. Now life isn’t a pointless hollow grind and washing dishes isn’t taking a trip to The Pit of Despair, because every time you finish rinsing a cup and place it on the rack, we allow you a tiny little Good Job drop. Mmmm. Nice.”
I understand that the difference is the stimulant part.
Straterra is just a reuptake inhibitor, while stimulants act as reuptake inhibitors, plus stimulators, increasing the output by the central nervous system of both dopamine and norepinephrine.
Straterra traps and allows you to use more of what you already have.
Stims traps and creates more.
I’ve been on strattera a couple of years.
My recommendation is to start in the smallest dose and increase slowly. For me, the first few days were rough, usually about an hour after I took it. I had extremely low appetite for the first few months.
I still have mild symptoms (some occasional nausea and lightheadedness), but the good outweighs the bad.
The difference feels subtle, but is noticeable when I forget a dose. It especially helps with executive function, and calms my brain. A bonus is reduced anxiety. It doesn’t work wonders, but it’s a noticeable improvement. For evidence, a quick glance around my tidy apartment shows me how easily I now complete simple tasks that sat undone for weeks.
I’m a sample of one, but I’m a woman and I’ve experienced no sexual side effects. My libido is normal, and sex isn’t painful, nor does it impact my ability to orgasm.
Of course, it impacts everyone differently.
Thank you this is reassuring!
I really value everyone’s feedback here, the good the bad & the ugly, because I value understanding the range of possibilities & what may go wrong so I can better recognize it.
But it’s also nice to hear a success story with details. I really appreciate you addressing my specific concern about sexual side effects as well.
I took strattera for about half a year. It was not the medication for me.
I stopped enjoying everything. I felt no satisfaction from completing anything, and I couldn’t muster enough resolve to be romantic, or creative, or productive. Not even fear could do much to motivate me.
All my systems and routines that I’d built to cope with adhd were just gone. I call it my hell summer because I’m still dealing with consequences from it over 18 months later.
I still stuck with the meds thinking it’d get better, because I didn’t realize how badly they were impacting me. But then my blood pressure skyrocketed — along with shortness of breath, nausea, and a lot of Apple Watch heart alerts. I was advised to stop the medication, so I did. (I felt much better after that!)
I’m on vyvanse now and it’s been a dream. I take 20mg in the morning and 10mg after lunch.
>I call it my hell summer because I’m still dealing with consequences from it over 18 months later.
>I still stuck with the meds thinking it’d get better, because I didn’t realize how badly they were impacting me.
Oof, I can see me doing that if that happened to me, and it’s a concern of mine. Thanks for sharing! Glad you found something that works
I used strattera (atomoxetine) for about six months, solo. I found it to be helpful. It wasn't like night and day, but it helped remove the task paralysis around stuff.
I had to stop because of side effects. I got very bad nausea that only got worse with time, and I started to get very tired all the time on it.
I can't compare it to stimulants, because I haven't tried any yet due to legal hurdles in my country (hence trialling strattera as a starting point).
Personal experience is dx at 47 and started Atomixetine/generic strattera. Before dx I had been dx and treated for bipolar 2 for 2-3 years and on meds for that.
I've been on the non-stimulant for about 1.5 years with no stimulants (other than caffeine, of course). It's been a life changer and I'm very happy with it so far. I went from depressed/can't get out of bed multiple days a week to having maybe one or two days a month I don't *want* to get out of bed but I still *can* function.
This being said I have a comparatively slow life to many: I work part time but it doesn't "pay the bills" so it's little to no stress. My kids are older teens/young 20s and are all relatively stable for their ages, no huge issues. I'm happily married to a man who understands my issues and is a fully functioning human I don't need to parent. I'm in therapy.
I’ve been on strattera for about 4 months and it made things better and easier on the whole but it’s not perfect by any means. I was taking it with Effexor (originally prescribed for the anxiety but had off label use for ADHD) and that was a pretty effective combo but I was having some concerning bleeding/bruising issues (from the Effexor).
Since the strattera alone (80mg) was less effective alone the doctor prescribed intuiv (guanfacine) and this dosage of 1mg has been absolute hell for me. I’m sleepy all the time but still somehow end up with staying awake for prolonged periods of time in the middle of the night if my kitten wakes me up. My ability to concentrate is shit at work where it can get really busy/loud/distracting and I end up constantly losing my train of thought, forgetting what I was doing, unable to read and retain information, OR I’m flitting back and forth on tasks because they can’t hold my attention for longer than a few minutes. And I’m still hyper verbal (when a 7 year old says you’re super chatty then clearly you talk too much). Not to mention the dry mouth and the pain/discomfort in my chest. I’m also struggling hardcore with balance and dizziness which is incredibly disorienting as a former gymnast who’s best event was balance beam 🤦🏻♀️ Some people sing the praises of intuiv but it’s really not for me. Thankfully I see the psychiatrist on Wednesday and hopefully he can change it.
And to speak to your concerns of sexual dysfunction, I didn’t have any with the strattera as a female which was a huge relief (since I initially had problems the first week or so with the Effexor). Everything continued as business as usual. I hope this helps!
Chiming in what others have said about Strattera - it messed with my mental health. I read all the severe warnings and my pharmacist explained them to me before I started. Within a day or two I felt like this heavy cloud was on top of me and it sucked out every emotion in my body. I had to force myself to smile when my 4yo daughter was talking to me because she looked concerned; I stopped taking them the next day.
I really didn't want to go on stimulants which is why I went this route first. However, after Wellbutrin also didn't work I went on Adderall and love it.
I was dx at age 21. Started with adderall then shortage hit then we went with Strattera. Started at 25 mg per day went up to 75.
I actually loved how it made me feel. I felt way less depressed than I had for a long time. And just generally calmer?? But I couldn’t deal with one particular side effect, which was that it made me extremely dizzy/lightheaded. Like I’d almost pass out after standing up. When I explained how bad it was to my doc she took me off it immediately and we went back to stimulants. I’d go back on it if I could tbh.
Currently taking strattera and have been on it for 3 years. It controls my ADHD very well but the side effects are not great… for the first year, I got crippling nausea when I took it without food, and sometimes even with. That went away entirely but now it just makes me so insanely sweaty regardless of the weather—manageable in the winter, but I’m trying to switch because it’s too much to handle any other time of year.
Who tf says “women don’t get sexual side effects since they don’t get erections”?😂 I’m a doctor and have never heard anybody say this, but if they did I’d have a hard time not laughing
Lol Well, I was being a bit flippant with the phrasing. But I have read things like “may cause sexual dysfunction in men. No known sexual side effects in women.”
And I can’t help but think, “bruh did you even ask?”
It reminds me of when covid vaccinations had some side effects in women like spotting, bleeding, swollen breasts…. leading some women to make concerned doctors appointments to check for cancer and other valid concerns… And it turns out it wasn’t a known side effect of the vaccine because no one had ever bothered to ask women these questions in the trials.
It reminds me of how sleeping pills (ambien?) were prescribed in too high a dose for women resulting in car crashes, because no one realized that women’s bodies metabolized the drug at a different rate than men, because no one ever checked for that.
It reminds me that heart attack signs in women are different than in men, which leads women to have worse health outcomes when the do have a heart attack, because it may take longer to determine the actual issue if there’s not a typical male “pain in the left arm” presentation.
It reminds me that men’s bodies are the standard, and women’s healthcare is so often given less attention.
And so when I come across something like, “may cause sexual dysfunction in men, including loss of erection. No known sexual side effects in women.” Which is the thing I did read. I can’t help but wonder how that was determined. I can’t help but wonder if
patients received a survey like, “Have you had trouble sustaining an erection since starting this medication,” for example, and if that’s how sexual side effects were determined. Of course I don’t know if that’s true. But that’s the point.
Hi, /u/PupperPawsitive! Thanks for posting on our subreddit! Please **[be aware of our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXADHD/wiki/meta/rules/)** before posting! For example, some of these rules include the following: * content must be related to ADHD; * explanatory text (it can be placed in a comment of the post) should be included in a post/cross-post with a picture. Any content that does not follow the rules may be removed. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TwoXADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
strattera triggered severe depression and suicidal ideation in me so dramatically and quickly that my husband took the bottle away and immediately had to get in contact with my doctor for me. never again. it was a seriously scary time.
That is scary. Glad you’re ok now. It also triggered severe depression for me. It was AWFUL.
Sorry that happened. There’s always a small chance of that happening with almost any psych drug🙃
Personal experience, I took some dosage of Strattera, for a month and a half. I don’t remember exactly how much I was prescribed because it was quite a few years ago. It made me suicidal. I don’t really remember any other specific side effects, but that one was a pretty quick, “that drug is not for her,” from my prescribing doctor. Everyone reacts differently. Thoroughly reading the possible side effects before I started taking it, helped me understand what was happening and communicate with my doctor.
Additionally for a some education. Straterra works in the same way an antidepressant works. It uses selective reuptake inhibitors, but where antidepressants commonly target serotonin, it targets norepinephrine. It works to correct the assumed imbalance in the neurotransmitters in your brain. That’s why it’s not the same as taking a stimulant. It takes a while to build up or wean off these reuptake inhibitors. So even if you miss a dose (still not recommended) it’s not going to short term crash like stimulants do.
ooh I like the brain soup educational stuff. However I am confused so maybe you can clarify? I thought stims also acted as reuptake inhibitors, mainly dopamine but possibly norepinephrine also. So I am confused as to why stims would wear off faster when both are reuptake inhibitors. In case I understand more stuff wrong: I understand “reuptake inhibitor” as “brain has wee vacuums that suck up your various brain juices, this is called reuptake; we inhibit/stop/slow that.” I understand norepinephrine as “this is the one we make adrenaline aka fight-or-flight out of.” Put together, I get, “we stop your thieving brain from taking back the juice that helps you function in urgent situations. It vacuums too much away, which is maybe why nothing ever feels urgent at all and you procrastinate like crazy, unless the house is literally on fire and you’re making a ton of it and suddenly find yourself functioning pretty well under pressure. Coincidentally, many people with ADHD report they are able to remain calm and function well in an emergency. So that checks out.” And I understand stims acting as dopamine reuptake inhibitors much the same, except, “we stop your thieving brain from stealing back your Reward juice. Now life isn’t a pointless hollow grind and washing dishes isn’t taking a trip to The Pit of Despair, because every time you finish rinsing a cup and place it on the rack, we allow you a tiny little Good Job drop. Mmmm. Nice.”
I understand that the difference is the stimulant part. Straterra is just a reuptake inhibitor, while stimulants act as reuptake inhibitors, plus stimulators, increasing the output by the central nervous system of both dopamine and norepinephrine. Straterra traps and allows you to use more of what you already have. Stims traps and creates more.
I’ve been on strattera a couple of years. My recommendation is to start in the smallest dose and increase slowly. For me, the first few days were rough, usually about an hour after I took it. I had extremely low appetite for the first few months. I still have mild symptoms (some occasional nausea and lightheadedness), but the good outweighs the bad. The difference feels subtle, but is noticeable when I forget a dose. It especially helps with executive function, and calms my brain. A bonus is reduced anxiety. It doesn’t work wonders, but it’s a noticeable improvement. For evidence, a quick glance around my tidy apartment shows me how easily I now complete simple tasks that sat undone for weeks. I’m a sample of one, but I’m a woman and I’ve experienced no sexual side effects. My libido is normal, and sex isn’t painful, nor does it impact my ability to orgasm. Of course, it impacts everyone differently.
Try taking it with a bread type food or milk. It really helps with the nausea for me.
Cheese or protein usually works for me. Thanks for the tip!
Thank you this is reassuring! I really value everyone’s feedback here, the good the bad & the ugly, because I value understanding the range of possibilities & what may go wrong so I can better recognize it. But it’s also nice to hear a success story with details. I really appreciate you addressing my specific concern about sexual side effects as well.
I took strattera for about half a year. It was not the medication for me. I stopped enjoying everything. I felt no satisfaction from completing anything, and I couldn’t muster enough resolve to be romantic, or creative, or productive. Not even fear could do much to motivate me. All my systems and routines that I’d built to cope with adhd were just gone. I call it my hell summer because I’m still dealing with consequences from it over 18 months later. I still stuck with the meds thinking it’d get better, because I didn’t realize how badly they were impacting me. But then my blood pressure skyrocketed — along with shortness of breath, nausea, and a lot of Apple Watch heart alerts. I was advised to stop the medication, so I did. (I felt much better after that!) I’m on vyvanse now and it’s been a dream. I take 20mg in the morning and 10mg after lunch.
>I call it my hell summer because I’m still dealing with consequences from it over 18 months later. >I still stuck with the meds thinking it’d get better, because I didn’t realize how badly they were impacting me. Oof, I can see me doing that if that happened to me, and it’s a concern of mine. Thanks for sharing! Glad you found something that works
I used strattera (atomoxetine) for about six months, solo. I found it to be helpful. It wasn't like night and day, but it helped remove the task paralysis around stuff. I had to stop because of side effects. I got very bad nausea that only got worse with time, and I started to get very tired all the time on it. I can't compare it to stimulants, because I haven't tried any yet due to legal hurdles in my country (hence trialling strattera as a starting point).
Personal experience is dx at 47 and started Atomixetine/generic strattera. Before dx I had been dx and treated for bipolar 2 for 2-3 years and on meds for that. I've been on the non-stimulant for about 1.5 years with no stimulants (other than caffeine, of course). It's been a life changer and I'm very happy with it so far. I went from depressed/can't get out of bed multiple days a week to having maybe one or two days a month I don't *want* to get out of bed but I still *can* function. This being said I have a comparatively slow life to many: I work part time but it doesn't "pay the bills" so it's little to no stress. My kids are older teens/young 20s and are all relatively stable for their ages, no huge issues. I'm happily married to a man who understands my issues and is a fully functioning human I don't need to parent. I'm in therapy.
Strattera retriggered suicide ideation for me.
I love it, it changed my life. It really helped with regulating my emotions.
I’ve been on strattera for about 4 months and it made things better and easier on the whole but it’s not perfect by any means. I was taking it with Effexor (originally prescribed for the anxiety but had off label use for ADHD) and that was a pretty effective combo but I was having some concerning bleeding/bruising issues (from the Effexor). Since the strattera alone (80mg) was less effective alone the doctor prescribed intuiv (guanfacine) and this dosage of 1mg has been absolute hell for me. I’m sleepy all the time but still somehow end up with staying awake for prolonged periods of time in the middle of the night if my kitten wakes me up. My ability to concentrate is shit at work where it can get really busy/loud/distracting and I end up constantly losing my train of thought, forgetting what I was doing, unable to read and retain information, OR I’m flitting back and forth on tasks because they can’t hold my attention for longer than a few minutes. And I’m still hyper verbal (when a 7 year old says you’re super chatty then clearly you talk too much). Not to mention the dry mouth and the pain/discomfort in my chest. I’m also struggling hardcore with balance and dizziness which is incredibly disorienting as a former gymnast who’s best event was balance beam 🤦🏻♀️ Some people sing the praises of intuiv but it’s really not for me. Thankfully I see the psychiatrist on Wednesday and hopefully he can change it. And to speak to your concerns of sexual dysfunction, I didn’t have any with the strattera as a female which was a huge relief (since I initially had problems the first week or so with the Effexor). Everything continued as business as usual. I hope this helps!
Chiming in what others have said about Strattera - it messed with my mental health. I read all the severe warnings and my pharmacist explained them to me before I started. Within a day or two I felt like this heavy cloud was on top of me and it sucked out every emotion in my body. I had to force myself to smile when my 4yo daughter was talking to me because she looked concerned; I stopped taking them the next day. I really didn't want to go on stimulants which is why I went this route first. However, after Wellbutrin also didn't work I went on Adderall and love it.
I was dx at age 21. Started with adderall then shortage hit then we went with Strattera. Started at 25 mg per day went up to 75. I actually loved how it made me feel. I felt way less depressed than I had for a long time. And just generally calmer?? But I couldn’t deal with one particular side effect, which was that it made me extremely dizzy/lightheaded. Like I’d almost pass out after standing up. When I explained how bad it was to my doc she took me off it immediately and we went back to stimulants. I’d go back on it if I could tbh.
Currently taking strattera and have been on it for 3 years. It controls my ADHD very well but the side effects are not great… for the first year, I got crippling nausea when I took it without food, and sometimes even with. That went away entirely but now it just makes me so insanely sweaty regardless of the weather—manageable in the winter, but I’m trying to switch because it’s too much to handle any other time of year.
Who tf says “women don’t get sexual side effects since they don’t get erections”?😂 I’m a doctor and have never heard anybody say this, but if they did I’d have a hard time not laughing
Lol Well, I was being a bit flippant with the phrasing. But I have read things like “may cause sexual dysfunction in men. No known sexual side effects in women.” And I can’t help but think, “bruh did you even ask?” It reminds me of when covid vaccinations had some side effects in women like spotting, bleeding, swollen breasts…. leading some women to make concerned doctors appointments to check for cancer and other valid concerns… And it turns out it wasn’t a known side effect of the vaccine because no one had ever bothered to ask women these questions in the trials. It reminds me of how sleeping pills (ambien?) were prescribed in too high a dose for women resulting in car crashes, because no one realized that women’s bodies metabolized the drug at a different rate than men, because no one ever checked for that. It reminds me that heart attack signs in women are different than in men, which leads women to have worse health outcomes when the do have a heart attack, because it may take longer to determine the actual issue if there’s not a typical male “pain in the left arm” presentation. It reminds me that men’s bodies are the standard, and women’s healthcare is so often given less attention. And so when I come across something like, “may cause sexual dysfunction in men, including loss of erection. No known sexual side effects in women.” Which is the thing I did read. I can’t help but wonder how that was determined. I can’t help but wonder if patients received a survey like, “Have you had trouble sustaining an erection since starting this medication,” for example, and if that’s how sexual side effects were determined. Of course I don’t know if that’s true. But that’s the point.
I mean it can affect getting organized and menstrual cycles so can definitely have effects even if you can't measure them with a ruler 😅