clevermanka | Hi, I'm awake again

Rigut there with you, bb. <3 I should NOT be awake at this time of the morning when I need to be up at 10. But there it is. I blame coming off the Strattera, but seriously, it was costing me $50 a month for the stuff and the difference? Not really worth that much. :/

Ugh. So sorry to hear you're having sleeping problems, too. It's awful.

Me at work right now:

I'm not an SPN fan but the gifs are hilarious. And make me think of you:

*saves to reaction gif folder*

Strattera totally fucked with my sleep. I was narcoleptic for almost a month, and when that stopped I got the thing where I woke up two hours after going to bed and then couldn't get back to sleep. Oh, and I had really vivid nightmares and zero libido.

They'll take my adderall out of my cold dead hands, I swear to god.

While I was on it I was okay. It's hard to tell if it did anything for my energy levels as it seems I'm quite a low-energy person all the time anyway, but yeah. I didn't feel particularly motivated to get stuff done. Unfortunately none of the stimulant medications work for me - Vyvanse was downright scary :/

I think the only medication I haven't tried now is Concerta/ritalin. I'm going back and forth on whether I want to try it. Nothing's really worked.

Vyvanse (which is a derivative of Adderall) was weird for me--at a dose high enough to do anything, I had zero appetite all day.

Strattera helped me switch tasks, but didn't give me as much motivation and focus as I would have liked. I wish it had worked out for me, since it works all the time instead of wearing off between doses. With stimulant meds you're always timing doses around when you need to sleep and/or eat, y'know?

I know this is a personal question, but what have you tried? Something to keep in mind is that with stimulant meds, 1. every formulation feels different, so Concerta feels a bit different from Ritalin which feels different from Metadate despite being the same active ingredient, and 2. different doses feel very very different. At 5mg of Adderall I hardly feel anything. 10mg is damn near perfect. 15mg and I can't eat and I can't stop talking and my focus is actually worse but I feel slightly euphoric. 20mgs and I'm a jittery mess. (All generic immediate release, with the XR version I take 20's and I'm fine.)

Something else to keep in mind, is that people with ADHD are notoriously bad at being self-aware. Do you have a significant other or coworkers to whom you are close, to the point where you can talk about your ADHD and medications? Ask them if they notice a difference. Sometimes I've noticed I don't feel any different, but other people will tell me they can tell when I'm on medication vs. when I'm not--I interrupt less, I stay on topic better, that kind of thing.

Vyvanse seriously sped my heart up so bad, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. It was frightening.

I've tried:

Adderall (generic)
Adderall XR
Vyvanse
Strattera

Strattera wasn't *bad* but it's just not worth paying $50 a month for 'a vaguely noticeable difference'. It's something I've been dealing with for several years now, so my SO is well aware of any behavioural changes as a result.

How long did you take any of the stimulants? They all tend to make your heart race for a bit at first. (But there's a difference between "whoa that's faster than usual" and "oh god I'm going to have a heart attack and die.") When I first got on Adderall I hardly slept for a couple of weeks, for instance. It was a few more weeks before the dry mouth stopped bothering me. Even after eight years of taking it, I had a nurse who didn't know me that well get slightly alarmed at my pulse rate when my Adderall had just kicked in, and I felt totally fine. "This is normal?" "Yup!"

My sincere apologies if I'm telling you things you've heard before, BTW. It's just that, for me, it took a few years to find the medication and dose that worked, and the experience was almost exactly like getting glasses for the first time--realizing what I'd been missing, that this is what the world is like for everyone else. So I have a bit of an emotional investment in helping other people with ADHD find something that works for them, y'know? I don't want them to miss out if they don't have to.

Let's say it was a severe enough reaction that I was told to stop immediately by my nurse practitioner.

I took the others for a considerable amount of time (at least six months in the case of Strattera). I've been on various antidepressants over the years, so I'm fully versed in how some medications take a while to really reach their potential.

Oh man, that sucks, I'm sorry. :(

I dunno if you're a member yet, but if you're looking for some support: http://adults-add.livejournal.com/ It's pretty low-traffic these days.

I think I was a member a while ago and had a very poor experience, so decided, 'fuck it'.

I hate insomnia. Sorry it is causing additional problems for you.

It's insult to injury that it's happening when I'm on the AIP--something that's supposed to be improving my various health issues.

Been thinking of you a lot lately, and hoping something changes or shifts for the better. This sounds like utter misery.

Hi! Hi Hi! Nope, nothing changing yet apparently!

Past a certain level of fatigue I feel hungry constantly too, like my body is trying to find energy anywhere it can get it, and sugar would work fine, yes?

Oh yes, EXACTLY. I suspect this is the reason for my slight food cravings for things like pizza and doughnuts recently, too.