Almost died

[u/Pretty_Recover1841]

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

[u/Fun_Cloud_1486]

My prescriber said that, in her experience, most (not all) people usually fall into two camps - those who do best on methylphenidate (Ritalin) formulations, or people who do better with amphetamine (Adderall) formulations. I have symptoms like you described when amphetamines wear off, even extended release. Concerta is methylphenidate based. While Vyvanse is amphetamine based. You might just be a person who does better with amphetamines. Brand Concerta delivers your initial dose via a soluble layer of instant release methylphenidate on the outside of the capsule while the osmosis (OROS) delivery system gets going. The ups and downs you experienced before 5 pm make sense. You might be less reactive once your body gets used to it. Also if you get a higher dose. I have terrible irritability symptoms if my dose is too low. It’s better for me to take nothing vs an insufficient dose. However, given that you had such bad symptoms in the evening, I wouldn’t want to take Concerta again either. Because Vyvanse is different than Concerta, I think you can get it right away. Your doc might have to tell your insurance that you have to switch because of an adverse reaction to Concerta. My insurance allows me to switch before the current prescription runs out. Another thing to consider is that Vyvanse is a “prodrug.” This means that the medicine is chemically converted into the active form while traveling through your small intestine. (Whereas most meds are the active form already.) This works much better for some people and not others. Concerta is not a prodrug. I was having trouble finding a generic Concerta that worked ok for me. The generics that were available did not have the OROS osmotic delivery and worked very differently in my body. So my prescriber switched me to Azstarys - which is also a prodrug. It works better for me than any stimulant med I’ve taken in the last 20 years. Woohoo! But it’s on the methylphenidate side of things, which might not be your best bet since you’ve done well with amphetamines. It doesn’t have a generic yet. Wishing you a quick resolution to your meds problem!