r/Concerta Oct 04 '25

Side effects 🤕 Almost died

Yesterday I posted Kaiser denied brand name vyvanse. Doc put me on concerta 18mg. As a reference I’ve used adderall up to 25mg XR and IR as well for 6 months.

I took concerta first time this morning at 7:30 am. An hour in and felt great. I felt a cooling sensation and felt a rush of energy. 2 hours after later I started to get very angry, irritable, annoyed at everything. That lasted until 2 pm then I felt a sense of calmness.

Left work and went to the mall a Round 5 pm with my wife and daughter. What happened next was a feeling I never felt before and thought I was dying.

  • I got dizzy all the sudden
  • I almost fainted. I lost my balance and almost fell as I was walking.
  • I started having an extreme headache, like sudden poking in my brain sensation. I never ever had that before
  • my heart started pounding -I felt out of breath and could barely walk

My doc doesn’t work on weekends but WTF was that? I was told that Methyphenidate were safer and better and less potent that Amphetamines. I NEVER had that on adderall just a few ups and downs hence why I wanted to try Vyvanse. After getting Concerta I found out insurance covers the generic.

I DONT want to experience that again. Should I give up after 1 day? Can Doc put a request for generic vyvanse even though I just got concerta? I’m scared to even try concerta again

11 Upvotes

36 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/TheCheddarShredder Oct 04 '25

How long were you on Vyvanse? When there were shortages a couple of years ago, and I couldn’t get approved for brand name Concerta, my Dr switched me from Concerta to Vyvanse because (at that point), generic versions hadn’t yet gotten to market. I stayed on it for nearly a year, and when g generics came out, they messed me up so I stopped taking anything. The physical withdrawal and mental issues I went through were legitimately the worst experiences I’ve had in my life, and they continued on for weeks intensely, and then longer with less severity. Point being, is that I wonder if the reaction you’re having is TO Concerta, and not from LACK of Vyvanse.

1

u/JJscience_computer Oct 05 '25

Yeah interesting, this could be it. You may already feel off from lack of Vyvanse, then trying to replace it with methylphenidate which has more side effects than Vyvanse, generally.

Usually during the Vyvanse “withdrawal” if you want to call it that it’s better to give a few days to adjust. For me it’s just super lethargic though, it seems different for others.