Focalin and Depression: What Users Say

• MBa...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• February 6, 2021

For ADHD "10mg Focalin once a day. I feel shaky and cold after taking it. Very angry, moody, and depressed often after it stops working. It helps my focus but not the hyperactivity. Decreased appetite, so I try to eat before taking it. Anyone else experiencing these symptoms and found another med that has worked for them?"

• Bio...
• Taken for 10 years or more
• March 26, 2020

For ADHD "To start off, I would not recommend taking this drug Focalin unless absolutely necessary. It definitely helped me pay attention in school, and there was a noticeable difference between days I did take it and days I did not. However, for me at least, the side-effects outweighed the benefits. I'd been on it from the ages of 7-17, and throughout those years, I noticed a complete change in behavior. Muted emotions, loss of appetite, depression, insomnia. I paid more attention in school, sure, but all of those years I'd lost important emotional development time. It's only after being off of this drug for 5 years that I realize just how emotionally stunted it had made me over the years. I'm in college now, and admittedly it would help me get better grades. But I wouldn't take it again if someone paid me to do it."

• Ali...
• Taken for 1 to 2 years
• October 4, 2019

For ADHD "Please, please do not use Focalin if you have depression or anxiety, or are prone to addiction. I have severe ADD and I was prescribed Focalin 2 years ago. When I would come down off of it, it made me so unbearably sad and nearly suicidal, so I would take more just to not harm myself. This led to a severe addiction that nearly gave me brain damage. Please be safe. Good grades aren’t worth the pain this drug put me through."

• jan...
• August 27, 2019

For ADHD "For me, Focalin has had way more negative effects than positive. My doc started me off with 10 mg in the morning and then another 10 mg in the afternoon. Now I’m on 20 mg in the morning, 20 mg in the afternoon. It helps my concentration and ADHD issues for maybe the first 2 hours or less after each dose, but then from there, it causes terrible anxiety, depression. It makes things worse than actually helping when it starts wearing off (which is very quickly). Overall, I don't like Focalin at all. It not only comes with mental side effects like I mentioned but also physical side effects as well, such as: shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, constant feeling like I have to urinate but can’t, fatigue, etc. It’s been over 3 months, and it hasn’t helped my ADHD consistently or effectively anywhere close to stabilizing and treating it. Please consider other ADHD meds before going with Focalin for you/your child’s ADHD problems. It certainly hasn’t been the answer for me."

• gre...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• July 15, 2018

For ADHD "My dose of Focalin is 10 mg. A few hours after taking it, I start to feel very depressed and down, like I can't do anything at all. Makes me feel like I'm going to throw up, feel tired, and have to go poop a lot from it."

• gre...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• July 15, 2018

For ADHD "My dose of Focalin is 10 mg. A few hours after taking it, I start to feel very depressed and down, like I can't do anything at all. Makes me feel like I'm going to throw up, feel tired, and have to go poop a lot from it."

• Anonymous
• January 28, 2018

For ADHD "My 13-year-old daughter was switched to Focalin. After a few days, the feelings of sadness, anxiety, and sleeplessness caused her not to be able to deal with it, and she tried to commit suicide. If you read up on this medicine, the FDA is asking for that to become one of the side effect warnings for this medication. My daughter was placed in a behavioral center that could help her, and she has not taken any more ADHD medication since that day. She told me (her mom), 'I will never do that again, but that medicine made me feel so sad, and my thoughts weren't my own.' Never again will my daughter take this medication or anything for ADHD!"

• ind...
• May 4, 2010

For ADHD "38-year-old female - within three days of taking this medication (1/day at lowest dosage), I was suicidal. Depression, but NO previous history of suicidal tendencies. There were no other changes in my life other than this medication. I recovered quickly after stopping taking Focalin. I also had a strong negative reaction to Vyvanse. Doc said there was something unusual about how my body metabolizes this particular medication. Concerta has done well for me, considering Ritalin SR due to cost."

• Anonymous
• Taken for less than 1 month
• December 21, 2015

For ADHD "Experienced zombie-like state, very hostile, constant headache, felt a feeling of sadness come over me and wanted to cry randomly. I talk with my doc who told me to decrease my dosage, but I still had these effects. On to something else."

• Han...
• January 6, 2021

For ADHD "I took Focalin for 2 days, and it immediately put me into the deepest, darkest depression I’ve ever experienced. It barely helped with my focus, the little help it did offer wore off in a couple of hours. Definitely not worth the depression it caused."

• Anonymous
• August 13, 2016

For ADHD "I'm currently 15 years old, and this is the second ADHD medication I've been on. In high school, I feel that it's very important to succeed. Due to going untreated for my entire childhood, I dropped out. I'm back in school now, and it's been 2 years. If it gets to the point where you want to drop out, I suggest ADHD medication. But if you have a 3- to 10-year-old, I highly don't suggest it. When my brother was 4 to 7 or 8, he was on it. He would always try to kill me and my mother. He would hurt animals and kids at school. He was quiet and had no emotion or expression. He tried to kill himself many times. To this day, he is now 18 and 5'8 when he is supposed to be over 6 feet because of our genes. I highly do not recommend unless this is the last resort for a child."

• Tom...
• Taken for 5 to 10 years
• April 11, 2022

For ADHD "The way that ADHD medications are marketed to parents for children is morally unjustifiable to me. I was prescribed this drug when I was nine years old and immediately dreaded taking it. I remember going to my father and telling him that I didn't feel like myself very shortly after starting, but my getting good grades in school and doing what he wanted was more important to him than my mental well-being. Over a decade of use, I was unable to function socially, especially during high school years. I battled depression, constant fatigue, extreme anxiety, high heart rates, and the worst was how it impacted my sexual development, shooting my sex drive through the roof by the time I was only 13 and didn't even understand what was happening to me. I tried to stop taking it without my father or doctors knowing when I was 15 and wound up in crisis counseling due to withdrawal. Their solution? Put me back on the pills until I turned 18 and stopped use. That's 10 years I will never get back."

• LHJ...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• July 13, 2022

For ADHD "From my personal experience, Focalin is by far the worst stimulant medication I have tried so far. The side effects I got from it are excessive sweating, bad mood, easily irritated/easily angered, and it makes me feel sad even when I'm on it, which is the only stimulant that has done that so far. On top of this, it makes me feel like I'm tweaking out."

• Pro...
• Taken for 5 to 10 years
• September 1, 2021

For ADHD "Severe ADHD. When I was diagnosed with ADHD, I was about 4 years old, and my doctor prescribed me 10 mg Focalin XR, and it worked great in school. But when I started 6th grade, I had to get new medicine because the 30 mg XR dose wasn't working, but Vyvanse and Adderall didn't work. So I went back to the 30 mg XR dose when I woke up and 10 mg tablets that the school nurse gave me every day. It worked great for 9 years. However, when my dad died, I thought it would be a good idea to start snorting it (DON'T) because I had such bad depression, so it quit working after I almost OD'd on it. Now I have psychosis because of my problems with medication, but I am feeling better after not taking it for a month. Now I take Vyvanse, and I have bad Focalin withdrawal symptoms. TL,DR: Don't snort Focalin."

• Mel...
• Taken for 6 months to 1 year
• November 30, 2022

For ADHD "My stepdaughter was on this drug the 2nd half of last school year until Thanksgiving break. She went from 5 mg to 10 mg after a month and began pulling hairs from her arms and picking at things constantly. She went back to 5 mg for the start of this school year. She was also on Intuniv for 27 months. She took weekend breaks from the Focalin, but it seemed to bottom her blood pressure out. She felt cold all the time, nauseated, and unmotivated. In 80-degree weather, she'd complain of being cold, even wearing a hoodie, which I felt could lead to overheating. Over Thanksgiving break, she did not want to take it, so she came off. She complained she didn't feel herself, she had auditory hallucinations in the beginning and, towards the end, started asking about intrusive thoughts. She has a formal diagnosis of ADHD combined with anxiety and depression. She struggles with focus unmedicated, but she'd also not be herself medicated. Probably not a good fit as a combined medication or if diagnosed with anxiety."

• Kay...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• October 5, 2021

For ADHD "I do not recommend this medication at all. It made me irritable and unhappy all day, and didn’t help me focus my mind. I was on 10 mg. Unless you want to turn into a horrible person, it made my heart race so bad, and I was constantly nauseous. Don’t take Focalin."

• Fga...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• June 9, 2021

For ADHD "I’ve been on Focalin for a few months. I have ADHD and absolutely cannot concentrate at work, and I fall asleep most of the time. At first, it was okay, but I did notice that I would feel like a zombie after work. No appetite, no energy, and depressed! It kicks in, and sure, you're focused and alert for about 2 hours. But boy, when it wears off, it is awful. I have an appointment tomorrow because I cannot take this medicine anymore. I feel about as bad as I did when I first started treating myself for mental health. I used to be on generic Ritalin, and I do not remember the come down being this awful."

• vik...
• Taken for 2 to 5 years
• December 5, 2022

For ADHD "I was diagnosed with ADD (I just say ADHD now) in 1st grade and started medication in 2nd grade, stopped taking it halfway through 7th grade year. I am a senior in high school now. I first started on 5 mg of ER till about 5th grade. Then 10 mg of XR. I don't really remember the 5 mg days, as I was young, but from what I remember about the 10 mg days is that when I took it, I didn't really feel a difference. The only difference was I zoned out more and had no emotions. If I took it on a weekend or during a break, I felt like a zombie, almost like my body was on a schedule. I stopped taking it because I just didn't feel the need to."