Focalin and Nausea: What Users Say

• A...
• May 21, 2020

For ADHD "I’m scrolling through reviews, and a lot of what I’ve been feeling recently is starting to make sense. This medicine helps me focus, but I feel weak and awful while on it. It makes me shake, and my anxiety spikes. I’ve also been having some depression issues, my moods stoop to a terrible level, and I’ve been in such a dark place at some points. This medicine makes me feel like a zombie, it makes me shake and feel sick to my stomach. I feel bad for any other kids taking this. It helps me focus, but makes me feel awful. I absolutely DREAD having to take them. I have experienced depersonalization, depression, major mood swings, anxiety, derealization, and suicidal tendencies after getting on this medication. I am not self-diagnosing for anxiety and depression. I strongly advise watching your kids before and after having them take these pills. Make sure your child is safe and happy. I’m sorry for my terrible grammar and typing skills."

• Gan...
• Taken for 6 months to 1 year
• November 16, 2020

For ADHD "Focalin does what it is supposed to, but this medication makes my heart beat fast and also makes me super nervous and agitated all the time. I hate this medication. It makes me feel like a zombie, and it makes me feel cold all over. The worst part is that I can barely eat without feeling sick and that it makes me constantly shake. This medication also makes my mood stoop to a terrible and very low level. After it wears off, I feel weak, tired, cold, and nauseous."

• Gra...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• October 25, 2020

For ADHD "Today is my first day on Focalin 5 MG. I am 19 years old and have had ADHD and anxiety my whole life. I was on 50 mg of Adderall and switched to Concerta from second to eighth grade. Adderall was one of the worst experiences of my life. I remember not being able to eat and having no friends, so I would eat in the Special Ed study hall and would basically be a walking zombie. I always told my mom my stomach hurt and would have diarrhea constantly. I was skinny and had good grades, though. So, 10 years later, I am back on ADHD medication as I am back in college and am having a hard time focusing. I only started the 5 MG of Focalin but already notice that I am calmer, my mind isn't racing, I can process thoughts, and more. I haven't felt calm like this in years... I really hope the medication stays well because I am so sick of being on meds that make me lose weight, then gain weight. It all stinks!"

• 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."

• Liz...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• March 1, 2023

For ADHD "I was on 20 mg of Focalin for a while, and it seemed to not work or help my ADHD, so I told my provider and we upped my dose to 30 mg. When I say it made me have a full-blown anxiety attack all day long, talking 12 hours long. The nausea and lump in your throat, like you can’t breathe or swallow while hot and shaky. Threw the whole bottle away that same day."

• Ste...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• July 1, 2018

For ADHD "I am a 62-year-old female. I so wanted Focalin to work for me. Prozac and Focalin are both not good. So tired, can't focus, nauseated, dizzy, reclusive, crying. Now on the second day of Wellbutrin and already feeling 100% better. I thought Focalin would give me a boost. I’m giving Focalin the boot!"

• ama...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• October 10, 2020

For ADHD "Pros: Helps my focus and relieves other ADHD symptoms. Did not decrease my appetite, create hyperfocus, or put me to sleep like Adderall did. Cons: Nausea, jaw tension, can't eat much at once. Feels pretty bad when it wears off (shaky, cold, weak, heart pounding, shortness of breath). Probably going to discontinue this med. The cons aren't worth it, unfortunately."

• mol...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• July 18, 2019

For ADHD "Worked my way up from 2.5 mg twice daily to 10 mg twice daily. No symptom relief on 2.5 mg, mild symptom relief and moderate nausea on 5 mg, mild symptom relief and severe nausea on 10 mg. The crash made me puke for the first time in sixteen years. Never again."

• Fre...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• April 6, 2021

For ADHD "I was prescribed 25 mg daily, and it's horrible. It works for 2 hours great, but then immediately after that 2 hours, I start to feel like I'm starving. But every time I think about eating, I get really nauseous, so it's like I've got mixed signals going on. This stomach pain also makes it impossible to concentrate, even worse than before I take it, and that lasts the rest of the day. Then, when I get ready to sleep, I feel super physically and mentally tired, like I could just close my eyes and fall asleep right away, but the pain in my stomach keeps me up the entire night because it feels like it's eating itself. I also have to rock back and forth in my bed, tucked into my blanket, because Focalin also makes me very cold. But even though I am freezing cold, I start sweating like even more than when I'm in football practice and completely soak my bed throughout the night."

• Stu...
• Taken for 2 to 5 years
• July 17, 2020

For ADHD "I’ve been taking Focalin ever since my junior year of high school. I’m now a junior in college. When I started taking it, I was on 15 mg extended release and 10 mg regular. No side effects other than some sweating and just the medicine helping me focus and doing what it was supposed to. It seems that the longer I’ve taken it, the worse the symptoms got. I now still sweat when taking it along with nausea (used to be occasional but it’s getting very frequent now), vomiting, and extreme frequent urge to go to the bathroom."

• ayd...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• September 1, 2022

For ADHD "I just began treatment with Focalin 10 mg IR and 20 mg XR tomorrow. I like it much better than Ritalin. It doesn’t make me feel nauseated all the time, my eating is normal, and I’m excited to start the XR tomorrow because I know it’ll make me focus much more than Ritalin. I was on Ritalin 60 mg for 7 years, the only two reasons I took it were I used it as a dopamine agonist because I’ve had two TBIs, as well as for treatment-resistant depression, which I have really bad. But Focalin does the same things as Ritalin without the nausea, plus I’ll be able to focus like when I was on Adderall."

• 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."

• Anonymous
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• March 1, 2020

For ADHD "This medicine made my son so sick. He became anorexic and very nauseous. It made him very aggressive, and we had to take him off it."