Hey guys, I’m a 16 year old boy living in New York. I have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety issues, and ADHD. I take 150 mg of Trazodone every night for insomnia and depression, 100 mg of Zoloft each morning for the depression and anxiety, as well as 40 mg of Adderall each morning for the ADHD. Basically, the issue is that I’m experiencing a lack of appetite as a side effect of the Adderall, and it’s really frustrating. I’m 5’9″ and before taking these meds I was already pretty skinny at 125 pounds. Now, the lack of appetite has me skipping meals daily, to the point where I basically only eat 1 small meal every day. I have basically lost all enjoyment out of eating anything because it is a hassle for me to force myself to eat when I am not hungry at all. Now, I am 107 pounds and at the same height and it is really worrying me. I have been on the other meds for about 3-4 months and Adderall for only 2.5 months. I am a varsity cross country, winter track, and spring track athlete and this problem is really affecting my performance as well as worrying my parents a lot. I now have lost so much muscle (I didn’t have much fat before) and I become extremely fatigued and worn out whenever I run more than 2 miles. I feel so ashamed and I quit spring track this year. At the moment, I just stay after school in the library doing schoolwork instead of running track and I lie to my parents about running at all. I don’t know what to do. Maybe I can switch my Adderall to the patch form? I’m not sure if the mode of delivery will make a difference, but I know that the patch form has a more temporary effect. Please give me any advice you can. Don’t be afraid to use complex terminology, as I am above average intelligence and Biology is my niche. Thanks for your time.
Well crap; I’m sorry that you find yourself in this sort of fix. I suspect it doesn’t help with the depression either.
One obvious thing to try would be to stop taking the Adderal. I have ADD and have had to stop taking it several times, and it’s never been a bummer as far as side-effects of quitting are concerned. Maybe you will find yourself getting a bit more spacey, but as I suspect I don’t have to tell you, a person can also get spacey from not eating enough.
Another thing to worry about is eating disorders. Not to say that you have the psychological make-up that causes a person to be vulnerable to such things, but I do a lot of work with people who have EDs, and simply being of low-weight is often enough to get people thinking kind of crazy. A person’s brain volume can decrease too, if their BMI gets below a certain volume, so it’s something to be concerned about. I was 130 at 6’1″ for a bunch of years, and that’s just how I was, but 107 is pretty low, particularly if you were heavier to begin with.
If it were me, I would simply quit the Aderall and see if you are able to eat more. Sometimes a person has to be mindful, and do the sort of mindful shopping it takes to have things on hand to eat throughout the day, but it would be worth giving a try, I think.
Not sure if you are talking to a counselor at school, but if not….well, I suspect you understand that being alone with these thoughts is no good either. Look into that too, if you have not already ?
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