Truthfinder
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2017
- Messages
- 1
After an 18 month wait I was diagnosed with ADHD in May 2012. I started talking Strattera first of all in about 2012 or 2013. I can't recall the precise date, but it didn't really help me or cause any bad side effects. I read it can cause an increased heart rate and high blood pressure, and I was horrified when in 2017 I obtained and printed off my resting heart rates and blood pressure readings of the last ten years, to learn that my heart rate, which was 79 on 21st February 2012 was 101, 106 and 110 in October, November and December 2012, and my blood pressure was 144/99. 149/97 but then a very acceptable 127/85. I wonder if it was some time before October 2012? That said I had high blood pressure at times before then. So it probably didn’t cause it.
I discontinued it and started taking Equasym XL for a few months in 2014. At this time I was a well, fit and fairly active person. However, my ADHD symptoms didn't really go or disappear so I stopped taking them.
If taking Strattera and Equasym were unwise what I did next out of desperation was sheer insanity.
Foolishly and out of desperation, I asked to try Concerta XL which is a stimulant on 11th November 2014. I now wish I had done my research more and homework on that medication. I certainly would have gone nowhere near it had I known what was to follow.
I, and myself alone, take the blame, for what has gone wrong in my life and how it is ruined and severely damaged my life and the quality of my life. I started taking 36mg on 12th November and had no side effects but again it didn't improve my ADHD hugely apart from a bit more silence inside my head. If I had stuck to that or quit on 16th November perhaps what was to follow would have been avoided. I probably wouldn’t be writing to you now.
On the afternoon of Monday 17th November 2014, at about 3pm, I took another 36mg. I felt nothing but then felt extremely dizzy. I have never felt anything like that in my life, before or since. It was sheer hell and awful. I remember writing notes down, convinced I was about to collapse and die. But I survived. The dizziness ended after eight hours. I carried on taking the medication at 36mg and nothing else occurred until 5th December. I was pretty much as I was before from 18th November to 4th December.
Then nothing else happened until 18th December. I felt fine in the following 11 days. Then that day I got a mixture of dizziness and pain in the back of my head. I got a headache on 20th December, and this lasted intermittently until the 23rd December. Then I was fine until the 28th December when I had another headache. Then one on 30th December and 31st December.
I was fine and well from 1st to 4th January 2015. Then at 8.30pm on the night of 5th January 2015 I had a severe headache and felt dizzy. I felt pain at the back of my head at 10.05pm. I felt lightheaded at 10.50pm but the headache wore off at 11.20pm.
Nothing was recorded until the night of 9th January 2015 when I felt dizzy. Nothing was recorded until 28th January 2015. I had a bad night’s sleep and had a headache. I presume I was fine in that time.
I had my blood pressure taken three times whilst on it. I was 148/98 on 30th December 2014, 133/93 on 19th January 2015 and 141/97 on 3rd February. I then made my next foolish mistake. I quit using it on 4th February without telling anybody or seeking advice about how to go about it. The headaches, dizziness and blood pressure were the reason why, along with the fact that I felt it wasn't working as well as I would have liked. I vowed that I would never take any medication for ADHD and would fight it via strategies. I haven’t touched anything since that day.
Here is a recording of my symptoms whilst on it:
29th January 2015. Fine until 2.40pm. Headache and dizziness from then on.
30th January 2015. Headache. Can’t sleep 2.40am. Didn’t sleep well.
2nd February 2015. Felt fine until 11.15pm. Headache and dizziness. Splitting headache on top of head. Carried on until 12.50am on 3rd February.
4th February 2015 stopped taking Concerta.
Naively I thought this would stop once I had stopped taking it, but obviously through my recklessness on 17th November 2014 I brought about permanent damage to my brain, or my hypothalamus or Adrenal Glands or perhaps all three. They didn't stop. In fact they got worse.
5th February 2015 – fine all day until 9.30pm. Dull headache on top and front of head 10pm. 10.20pm headache, dizzy, took paracetomal. 10.35pm pain at back of head right hand side. 10.55pm – felt dizzy. 11.10pm – pain at front of head. 11.35pm – headache dizzy.
6th February 2015 – Fine until 10.45pm. Dizziness afterwards.
Nothing on 7th and 8th February.
9th February 2015 – Felt ok until 2pm. Headache started and got worse. Felt dizzy. Headache at front of head. Felt like this all day.
10th February 2015 – Dizziness. Pain in eyes. Headache front of head. Severe pain forehead in evening. Dizzy.
11th February 2015 – Felt well all day apart from feeling dizzy after 10.35pm.
12th February 2015 – Woke up with a bit of a headache but fine until 9pm. No dizzy spells. Pain right hand side of rear temple at 10pm.
Nothing following three days.
16th February 2015 – Felt fine until 6pm then dizziness until bed.
Nothing following three days.
20th February 2015 – Felt well until 4pm. Started feeling dizzy. Headache on and off front and top of head rest of night.
21st February 2015 – Woke up coughing 3.40am. Felt well 10am to 6pm. Started feeling a bit dizzy. Mild headache this evening front of head.
22nd February 2015 – Felt fine until 8pm. Headache. Front of head. No dizziness.
23rd February 2015 – Fine until 6pm. Felt a bit dizzy. Headache at front of head. Wore off 10pm. Fine afterwards.
Nothing following two days.
26th February 2015 – Fine until 5.30pm then dizziness evening. Frontal headache 7.20pm.
27th February 2015 – Sharp headache 12.45am. Fine until 6pm. Headache on and off
28th February 2015 – Woke up at 1.30am with headache. It lasted until 2pm. Dizzy spells evening.
1st March 2015 – Headache and dizziness on and off all day.
2nd March 2015 – Headache 1pm
Nothing following day
4th March 2015 – Felt fine until 4pm. Then headache front of head and then temples.
5th March 2015 – Headache but faded after 10am. Fine then on. Started feeling dizzy a bit after. 9.40pm. Pain side of temples and head.
6th March 2015 – Headache on both sides of head – 12.10am
Dizziness – 12.50am
Fine until 6.30pm. Dizziness for an hour. Headache 9.20pm to 11pm then fine.
7th March 2015 – Felt fine all day but a dizzy spell in evening. Normal after that.
8th March 2015 – Fine until 9pm then headache. Dizziness 10.15pm – 11pm then fine.
Nothing 9th to 14th March.
15th March 2015 – Fine until 6.30pm then headache until 8.30pm. Fine after that.
Nothing following three days.
19th March 2015 – Slight headache and dizziness 11.30am. Headache until 4pm.
And so on this continued throughout the rest of the year. I was from memory, fine and had no symptoms from 16th October to the 24th November. I thought then that the symptoms had gone away. How wrong was I? What I found baffling and paradoxical was that the symptoms weren't present all the time. I wish they were in one sense so a cure could be found. I thought I was suffering from Sinusitis but an MRI scan on 20th October found nothing. On 26th May 2016 I was told I had vestibular migraines in Endicrinology. I hadn’t told anybody about the disastrous, impulsive and reckless decision I made on 17th November 2014.
Despite the symptoms I was quite fit and active and could exercise without any problems for the rest of 2015 and much of 2016. My blood pressure was 138/92 on 16th March, when feeling well, 136/86 on 8th June, when feeling well, 132/97 on 26th October when feeling well. I had no other symptoms apart from the headache and dizziness on and off.
My diary for 2016
Evidently I had no symptoms during the first 12 days of the year. Otherwise they would have been noted.
14th January 2016 Felt normal until 6pm. Started with pain around heart 6pm for rest of evening and dizziness on and off.
Nothing following four days.
19th January 2016 Dizzy spells on and off
21st January 2016 Headache frontal part of head. Then dizzy spells until 4pm. Headache front of head moves to front of head. Lasted until 10pm
22nd January 2016 Felt fine in the morning. Short dizzy spell PM. Fine until 7.30pm. Dizzy spells until 10.30pm then fine.
24th January 2016 Felt dizzy 10.20pm. Headaches started. Felt like head full of pressure. Stopped after an hour.
Nothing 25th to 30th January
31st January 2016 Headaches and dizziness on and off.
2nd February 2016 Felt ok until 8pm. Started feeling dizzy. Lasted much of night.
3rd February 2016 Felt dizzy evening. Pain in left arm and around heart area. I had never felt pain there before. That was a new experience.
4th February 2016 Felt fine much of day but dizzy late evening.
5th February 2016 Felt dizzy from 5pm. Chest pain 11.45pm until 12.15am
6th February 2016 Felt very dizzy just before 1am.
7th February 2016 pain center of chest. 12.10am
Felt normal and well 8th to 18th February
19th February 2016 Started with dizzy spells and headaches from 7.30pm
20th February 2016 Dizzy spells 2pm onwards
Felt normal and well following two days.
23rd February 2016 Felt normal until 7pm then dizzy spells rest of night.
Felt well following three days.
27th February 2016 Felt ok until 2pm then dizzy after that. No headaches
28th February 2016 Felt fine morning and up to 4.30pm. Felt dizzy. Lasted until 10pm then fine afterwards.
1st March 2016 Fine morning and most of day but felt dizzy from 6pm to 10pm
Nothing next three days
5th March 2016 Felt fine all day but chest pain in evening and heart area.
6th March 2016 pain around heart area.
8th March 2016 Main symptoms when it starts. Dizzy spells. Headache but not much recently. Blue rings under eyes when it starts. Recent chest pain.
11th March 2016 felt fine all day until 8.30pm then dizzy for half an hour. Felt cold even though it wasn’t that cold.
12th March 2016. Went to hospital as I wanted to find out what was causing this. I had an x-ray and blood test and nothing abnormal was found. My heart rate was 94 when I was admitted. It was 72 after 3 hours.
Blood pressure 130/85 and pulse 81 on 14th March. Best blood pressure reading for over two years. Pulse lowest since February 2012. I was well between 13th March and 10th April with no symptoms of anything apart from the following:
27th March 2016 headache front of head all day
28th March 2016 bad headache front and top of head all day. Pain behind eyes 6.10pm. Headache front of head. Started to subside 9.10pm
30th March 2016 Felt fine apart from headache 6.30pm to 7pm and dizzy spell 9.25pm for 20 minutes
1st April 2016 Felt fine until 6pm then dizzy spells 6pm to 10pm
11th April 2016 Felt fine until 4pm then headaches and dizzy spells. Stopped 10.30pm
14th April 2016 felt fine until 7.30pm then headaches until 9pm. Dizzy spells rest of night until 11pm
15th April 2016 felt fine until 8pm then dizzy spells rest of night
16th April 2016 Felt fine until 2.30pm then dizzy spells until 9pm
Felt well and normal 17th to 21st April.
22nd April 2016 Felt fine until 6pm then minor dizzy spells
23rd April 2016 Felt fine until noon then dizzy spells PM. Dizzy evening.
Then something strange happened. The symptoms completely stopped. I was well and normal until late September 2016. I had no problems at all in May, June, July, August and much of September. In August I had an ear infection but was ok for a few weeks after that. My blood pressure was 126/83 on 24th June and my pulse 68. My best blood pressure in fact since 2011 and best pulse since 2009. I now realise it was the calm before the storm.
That's another story....
I blame what has happened to me on the following:
1) Strattera.
2) Equasym for increasing my heart rate and blood pressure.
3) My stupidity and recklessness and desperation on 17th November. If I hadn’t done that this would never have happened.
4) Concerta. It has wreaked havoc on my body and system.
5) Also the fact that with the Concerta I should have been put on a lower rate and titrated it.
6) Myself for not stopping on 17th November.
7) Myself for not gradually weaning myself off it.
As a result of my foolish and reckless actions, I have a too active sympathetic nervous system. I ruined my life through what I did from about August 2012 and February 2015.
That said since about 2010 I had been sleeping and not feeling refreshed the morning after. And on Sunday's used to enjoy unwinding because it was a rest day. I think something had been building and the Concerta and other stuff brought it out.
What do you think? Do you think it is very possible I have sustained some form of brain or central nervous system damage.
I think everybody should be DNA tested in future to see what drugs agree or don't agree with them. If I had my time again I'd have not gone near any of those three.
I discontinued it and started taking Equasym XL for a few months in 2014. At this time I was a well, fit and fairly active person. However, my ADHD symptoms didn't really go or disappear so I stopped taking them.
If taking Strattera and Equasym were unwise what I did next out of desperation was sheer insanity.
Foolishly and out of desperation, I asked to try Concerta XL which is a stimulant on 11th November 2014. I now wish I had done my research more and homework on that medication. I certainly would have gone nowhere near it had I known what was to follow.
I, and myself alone, take the blame, for what has gone wrong in my life and how it is ruined and severely damaged my life and the quality of my life. I started taking 36mg on 12th November and had no side effects but again it didn't improve my ADHD hugely apart from a bit more silence inside my head. If I had stuck to that or quit on 16th November perhaps what was to follow would have been avoided. I probably wouldn’t be writing to you now.
On the afternoon of Monday 17th November 2014, at about 3pm, I took another 36mg. I felt nothing but then felt extremely dizzy. I have never felt anything like that in my life, before or since. It was sheer hell and awful. I remember writing notes down, convinced I was about to collapse and die. But I survived. The dizziness ended after eight hours. I carried on taking the medication at 36mg and nothing else occurred until 5th December. I was pretty much as I was before from 18th November to 4th December.
Then nothing else happened until 18th December. I felt fine in the following 11 days. Then that day I got a mixture of dizziness and pain in the back of my head. I got a headache on 20th December, and this lasted intermittently until the 23rd December. Then I was fine until the 28th December when I had another headache. Then one on 30th December and 31st December.
I was fine and well from 1st to 4th January 2015. Then at 8.30pm on the night of 5th January 2015 I had a severe headache and felt dizzy. I felt pain at the back of my head at 10.05pm. I felt lightheaded at 10.50pm but the headache wore off at 11.20pm.
Nothing was recorded until the night of 9th January 2015 when I felt dizzy. Nothing was recorded until 28th January 2015. I had a bad night’s sleep and had a headache. I presume I was fine in that time.
I had my blood pressure taken three times whilst on it. I was 148/98 on 30th December 2014, 133/93 on 19th January 2015 and 141/97 on 3rd February. I then made my next foolish mistake. I quit using it on 4th February without telling anybody or seeking advice about how to go about it. The headaches, dizziness and blood pressure were the reason why, along with the fact that I felt it wasn't working as well as I would have liked. I vowed that I would never take any medication for ADHD and would fight it via strategies. I haven’t touched anything since that day.
Here is a recording of my symptoms whilst on it:
29th January 2015. Fine until 2.40pm. Headache and dizziness from then on.
30th January 2015. Headache. Can’t sleep 2.40am. Didn’t sleep well.
2nd February 2015. Felt fine until 11.15pm. Headache and dizziness. Splitting headache on top of head. Carried on until 12.50am on 3rd February.
4th February 2015 stopped taking Concerta.
Naively I thought this would stop once I had stopped taking it, but obviously through my recklessness on 17th November 2014 I brought about permanent damage to my brain, or my hypothalamus or Adrenal Glands or perhaps all three. They didn't stop. In fact they got worse.
5th February 2015 – fine all day until 9.30pm. Dull headache on top and front of head 10pm. 10.20pm headache, dizzy, took paracetomal. 10.35pm pain at back of head right hand side. 10.55pm – felt dizzy. 11.10pm – pain at front of head. 11.35pm – headache dizzy.
6th February 2015 – Fine until 10.45pm. Dizziness afterwards.
Nothing on 7th and 8th February.
9th February 2015 – Felt ok until 2pm. Headache started and got worse. Felt dizzy. Headache at front of head. Felt like this all day.
10th February 2015 – Dizziness. Pain in eyes. Headache front of head. Severe pain forehead in evening. Dizzy.
11th February 2015 – Felt well all day apart from feeling dizzy after 10.35pm.
12th February 2015 – Woke up with a bit of a headache but fine until 9pm. No dizzy spells. Pain right hand side of rear temple at 10pm.
Nothing following three days.
16th February 2015 – Felt fine until 6pm then dizziness until bed.
Nothing following three days.
20th February 2015 – Felt well until 4pm. Started feeling dizzy. Headache on and off front and top of head rest of night.
21st February 2015 – Woke up coughing 3.40am. Felt well 10am to 6pm. Started feeling a bit dizzy. Mild headache this evening front of head.
22nd February 2015 – Felt fine until 8pm. Headache. Front of head. No dizziness.
23rd February 2015 – Fine until 6pm. Felt a bit dizzy. Headache at front of head. Wore off 10pm. Fine afterwards.
Nothing following two days.
26th February 2015 – Fine until 5.30pm then dizziness evening. Frontal headache 7.20pm.
27th February 2015 – Sharp headache 12.45am. Fine until 6pm. Headache on and off
28th February 2015 – Woke up at 1.30am with headache. It lasted until 2pm. Dizzy spells evening.
1st March 2015 – Headache and dizziness on and off all day.
2nd March 2015 – Headache 1pm
Nothing following day
4th March 2015 – Felt fine until 4pm. Then headache front of head and then temples.
5th March 2015 – Headache but faded after 10am. Fine then on. Started feeling dizzy a bit after. 9.40pm. Pain side of temples and head.
6th March 2015 – Headache on both sides of head – 12.10am
Dizziness – 12.50am
Fine until 6.30pm. Dizziness for an hour. Headache 9.20pm to 11pm then fine.
7th March 2015 – Felt fine all day but a dizzy spell in evening. Normal after that.
8th March 2015 – Fine until 9pm then headache. Dizziness 10.15pm – 11pm then fine.
Nothing 9th to 14th March.
15th March 2015 – Fine until 6.30pm then headache until 8.30pm. Fine after that.
Nothing following three days.
19th March 2015 – Slight headache and dizziness 11.30am. Headache until 4pm.
And so on this continued throughout the rest of the year. I was from memory, fine and had no symptoms from 16th October to the 24th November. I thought then that the symptoms had gone away. How wrong was I? What I found baffling and paradoxical was that the symptoms weren't present all the time. I wish they were in one sense so a cure could be found. I thought I was suffering from Sinusitis but an MRI scan on 20th October found nothing. On 26th May 2016 I was told I had vestibular migraines in Endicrinology. I hadn’t told anybody about the disastrous, impulsive and reckless decision I made on 17th November 2014.
Despite the symptoms I was quite fit and active and could exercise without any problems for the rest of 2015 and much of 2016. My blood pressure was 138/92 on 16th March, when feeling well, 136/86 on 8th June, when feeling well, 132/97 on 26th October when feeling well. I had no other symptoms apart from the headache and dizziness on and off.
My diary for 2016
Evidently I had no symptoms during the first 12 days of the year. Otherwise they would have been noted.
14th January 2016 Felt normal until 6pm. Started with pain around heart 6pm for rest of evening and dizziness on and off.
Nothing following four days.
19th January 2016 Dizzy spells on and off
21st January 2016 Headache frontal part of head. Then dizzy spells until 4pm. Headache front of head moves to front of head. Lasted until 10pm
22nd January 2016 Felt fine in the morning. Short dizzy spell PM. Fine until 7.30pm. Dizzy spells until 10.30pm then fine.
24th January 2016 Felt dizzy 10.20pm. Headaches started. Felt like head full of pressure. Stopped after an hour.
Nothing 25th to 30th January
31st January 2016 Headaches and dizziness on and off.
2nd February 2016 Felt ok until 8pm. Started feeling dizzy. Lasted much of night.
3rd February 2016 Felt dizzy evening. Pain in left arm and around heart area. I had never felt pain there before. That was a new experience.
4th February 2016 Felt fine much of day but dizzy late evening.
5th February 2016 Felt dizzy from 5pm. Chest pain 11.45pm until 12.15am
6th February 2016 Felt very dizzy just before 1am.
7th February 2016 pain center of chest. 12.10am
Felt normal and well 8th to 18th February
19th February 2016 Started with dizzy spells and headaches from 7.30pm
20th February 2016 Dizzy spells 2pm onwards
Felt normal and well following two days.
23rd February 2016 Felt normal until 7pm then dizzy spells rest of night.
Felt well following three days.
27th February 2016 Felt ok until 2pm then dizzy after that. No headaches
28th February 2016 Felt fine morning and up to 4.30pm. Felt dizzy. Lasted until 10pm then fine afterwards.
1st March 2016 Fine morning and most of day but felt dizzy from 6pm to 10pm
Nothing next three days
5th March 2016 Felt fine all day but chest pain in evening and heart area.
6th March 2016 pain around heart area.
8th March 2016 Main symptoms when it starts. Dizzy spells. Headache but not much recently. Blue rings under eyes when it starts. Recent chest pain.
11th March 2016 felt fine all day until 8.30pm then dizzy for half an hour. Felt cold even though it wasn’t that cold.
12th March 2016. Went to hospital as I wanted to find out what was causing this. I had an x-ray and blood test and nothing abnormal was found. My heart rate was 94 when I was admitted. It was 72 after 3 hours.
Blood pressure 130/85 and pulse 81 on 14th March. Best blood pressure reading for over two years. Pulse lowest since February 2012. I was well between 13th March and 10th April with no symptoms of anything apart from the following:
27th March 2016 headache front of head all day
28th March 2016 bad headache front and top of head all day. Pain behind eyes 6.10pm. Headache front of head. Started to subside 9.10pm
30th March 2016 Felt fine apart from headache 6.30pm to 7pm and dizzy spell 9.25pm for 20 minutes
1st April 2016 Felt fine until 6pm then dizzy spells 6pm to 10pm
11th April 2016 Felt fine until 4pm then headaches and dizzy spells. Stopped 10.30pm
14th April 2016 felt fine until 7.30pm then headaches until 9pm. Dizzy spells rest of night until 11pm
15th April 2016 felt fine until 8pm then dizzy spells rest of night
16th April 2016 Felt fine until 2.30pm then dizzy spells until 9pm
Felt well and normal 17th to 21st April.
22nd April 2016 Felt fine until 6pm then minor dizzy spells
23rd April 2016 Felt fine until noon then dizzy spells PM. Dizzy evening.
Then something strange happened. The symptoms completely stopped. I was well and normal until late September 2016. I had no problems at all in May, June, July, August and much of September. In August I had an ear infection but was ok for a few weeks after that. My blood pressure was 126/83 on 24th June and my pulse 68. My best blood pressure in fact since 2011 and best pulse since 2009. I now realise it was the calm before the storm.
That's another story....
I blame what has happened to me on the following:
1) Strattera.
2) Equasym for increasing my heart rate and blood pressure.
3) My stupidity and recklessness and desperation on 17th November. If I hadn’t done that this would never have happened.
4) Concerta. It has wreaked havoc on my body and system.
5) Also the fact that with the Concerta I should have been put on a lower rate and titrated it.
6) Myself for not stopping on 17th November.
7) Myself for not gradually weaning myself off it.
As a result of my foolish and reckless actions, I have a too active sympathetic nervous system. I ruined my life through what I did from about August 2012 and February 2015.
That said since about 2010 I had been sleeping and not feeling refreshed the morning after. And on Sunday's used to enjoy unwinding because it was a rest day. I think something had been building and the Concerta and other stuff brought it out.
What do you think? Do you think it is very possible I have sustained some form of brain or central nervous system damage.
I think everybody should be DNA tested in future to see what drugs agree or don't agree with them. If I had my time again I'd have not gone near any of those three.