WebMD asks for a brief description, but the reviews are rampant with simplicity. So, I'll specify. I was diagnosed at 26 and started at 18mg XR. I went to 27mg, 36mg, then 52mg. It's the only medication I'm on. 36mg has been wonderful for my life. 54mg was god awful. Know what dosage is right for you. Do NOT go above it once you're aware of it. Know your limits.
Before I get into it, a side note:
Be careful of other reviews. It's ill-advised to read reviews by caregivers and people who are underage. Caregivers do not speak from personal experience, just from what they see. Minors generally lack the maturity to form nuanced opinions. This is not to be holier-than-thou, simply a statement on getting an in-depth, well informed opinion. Yes, opinion. This medication generally treats people differently while providing similar effects. What you read can be wildly different than what you expect. The internet seems to only work in extremes. Take what I say and what others have to say as what it is; their personal experience.
Back to the review. I have been diagnosed with ADHD, inattentive type. During the pre-screening, questionnaires, etc., I have gotten a 11/12 on likelihood and 5/6 on severity by a Nurse Practitioner. Concerta Extended Release is quite nice. While getting the medication into my system, I noticed it made me irritable. Furthermore, it had me fixating on one specific thing. I lost of time easily, and days had become weeks. I got a spark of hope, my hobbies were so much more fun. I was alive, animated. I felt for the first time I had passion. My memorization was becoming superb in comparison to how it was. I was able to remember numbers, dates and times, came home with so many less "magically appearing" bruises from work from not bumping into things after looking for the thing I forgot I placed somewhere.
At 36mg, it feels like it's a little behind perfect. I would consider it good enough. I've had little to no negative side effects, but the ones I had were slightly minor. I was very easily distracted, I had difficulty socializing and had no interest in talking to people. My creativity was at an all-time high, yet I didn't care to express it to others. It was a great fit for my expectations on how I want to live my life. Productive, yet reclusive. I was then told I could try 54mg, and knowing that this is largely experimentation/trial and error to a minor extent, I opted in.
54mg was horrid. Absolutely awful. I was on it for roughly a week, and every single one of those days I was worried I would die. Sitting was exhausting. Living was a Herculean task. Breathing was painful; a deep breath would feel like I had sewing needles flowing through my blood, under my skin. I was partly zombified, unable to keep up as the feeling of having heart failure ran its risk each day. There was also this odd sensation of feeling like there was an impressive amount of pressure inside my skull, and especially behind my eyes. My vision was constantly fuzzy,
Concerta XR is great. No, honestly, it is. You just need to know when too much is exactly that; too much. My NP has put forward Vyvanse XR, which I agreed to try instead due to Concerta XR being the way that it was: 36mg was just noticeably not enough, 54mg was going to kill me. If it doesn't work out, I'll gladly go back to being prescribed to 36mg of Concerta XR. Perfection is the enemy of good, yes, but finding what works best for you takes time. It's a tedious path to walk, but one you have to walk nonetheless.Read More Read Less