I recently had to stop taking my vyvanse due to some bad side effects and holy shit I forgot how bad this was. I can’t do anything. I have so much shit I need to do but I sit down to do it and it genuinely fills me with dread. I am just staring at my computer. Even getting to the webpage I needed took hours of convincing. This is horrible, even caffeine isn’t helping. What do y’all do? How do you manage?
You must log in or register to comment.
Honestly? Forty years of practice, anxiety spikes, external motivations positive and negative, fugue states… and I’m still barely getting by. I just paid $600 of late fees because I forgot to file my state income tax ten years ago. I’m sure I did them when I did my federal, I just… never sent it in? I guess???
heart exploding levels of caffeine, just keep adding more it works eventually
(do not do this I had to survive college somehow and was desperate)
caffeine tolerance increases very quickly, so one has to constantly increase the dose for it to be effective. I am currently trying to get a diagnosis after procrastinating for too long on that (why the hell does getting help to overcome my problems require me to overcome my problems). Not sure how caffeine exactly works in adhd brains but for me as how i understand it works in neurotypical also it should be possible to reverse the tolerance for caffeine by spending 2-5 days without any. Having gone through that i can say you need to be prepared to just lay in bed for that time.
Brother I am a physics student. I already am doing this. Just didn’t have enough coffee today I guess
THC, caffeine, and more caffeine
Drink an abhorrent amount of caffeine.
Poorly. I’m unmedicated and trying to get on meds.
Are you in the US? What difficulties are you running into?
My current psychiatrist doesn’t want to prescribe me any stimulants because of the potential for abuse. For the record, I have no, uh, record of drug use. I don’t even fucking drink. I get the caution, but it’s deeply frustrating.
I found my current awesome psychiatrist at growtherapy.com. It took me a couple tries; I honestly don’t know how the first one still has a license to practice. No problems getting Adderall after that (other than the ridiculous hurdles the pharmaceutical industry has put in place). The behavior you are describing from your current psychiatrist is exactly the shit I was trying to avoid, and I spelled that out clearly in my first appointment with my current psychiatrist.
I wish you the best of luck, it took me years to get the right diagnosis and then about 7 months to get the appointment with a doc to prescribe me some meds.
Hopefully your journey is smoother than mine was.
Thank you. It’s… a bumpy ride, lol.
Caffeine and THC. Go away with your prescription drugs!
THC unfortunately does not help with studying for my physics exam 🥲
CBD+caffeine
Worth a shot, cbd has helped in the past
Pair that, coffee, and regular physical activity ftw
Also, lots of water.
THC nicotine caffeine
Set reasonable goals they are easier to accomplish
Amen to that (same)
Badly
I recently had to stop taking my vyvanse due to some bad side effects and holy shit I forgot how bad this was
FYI you are probably also dealing with withdrawal in addition to being unmedicated. Getting off of meds after having been on them is a very different experience from never having been medicated.
My wife is desperately trying to find out what medication will work for her…
Before I was diagnosed?
Poorly, very poorly lol
It literally felt like I was try to fill a bucket with sand and the only shovel I had was a sieve.
I’d literally have to wake up 5-6 hours before I had to be anywhere just to make sure I could finish my breakfast and coffee before leaving. And then I’d still more often than not finish eating or drinking my coffee in the car on the way.
I feel you on the “Having to stop a med because of the side effects,” before I was diagnosed with ADHD I was diagnosed with anxiety and I tried about a dozen different meds for it ovwr the years before calling that off and just going unmedicated. Funnily enough after my ADHD diagnosis and getting on the meds I am now (Straterra) I’ve only had 1 panic attack in the last year vs one a week or so. And I’m able to start and finish tasks. It’s fucking witchcraft.
It literally felt like I was try to fill a bucket with sand and the only shovel I had was a sieve.
Couldn’t have said it better tbh
I suppose I cope by having almost 40 years of coping mechanisms that I use to keep me mostly okay. I let my mind fugue in the morning when I wake up. I have a routine that I try to stick to. I have a job that allows me to hyper focus on problems and get the dopamine hit from solving those problems. I don’t have to interact with others for the most part to do my job. I spend a lot of time at home, use ear plugs, or headphones etc. if I can’t make my mind focus I try to do something else. I take breaks. I set alarms for just about everything. And reminders. So many reminders. I also have a very supportive partner. I’m sure there’s other stuff I had to learn to do to mask that I’m forgetting. But for the most part things just work because I put a lot of work into making them work and even then I am not always successful.
Before i even knew i had it, caffeine. One cup of coffee and maybe a soda per day. No more or otherwise it’d make me tired. Its no replacement for meds but other things helped too like keeping notes, getting enough sleep, excerising, and one of the things i still do today, taking the frustration out of daily tasks.
If something bugs you a lot or stops you from being productive, find a way to make it easier or at least less annoying. Problem solve. Its one of my biggest drivers for dopamine hits and making your life easier by just getting rid of little annoyances makes it easier to function overall.
All that said, like others mentioned, I didn’t function well before meds. Honestly i feel like i got off easy but its not really helpful to compare your situation to others.
I hope anything from this post helps you out man.
I have been raw dogging life without meds almost my entire life. There was a 2 year period in high school I did speed, and then when I went to community college my wife shared her meds with me. The other 40ish years have taught me how to deal.
I have alarms for everything throughout my day. I have a routine. I have specific places to put certain things. When I deviate I am screwed.
Same. Lots of systems and a place for everything. EG if I leave the room and want to remember what I was doing when I got back, it’ll be the one thing that’s out of place and somewhere obvious. Unfortunately, it’s easily thrown off by others who forget to put stuff back.
What’s your relationship with travel? I struggle to pack up and mobilize so many systems. It’s been getting better as I develop travel-specific solutions (like having a dedicated toiletries bag that remains packed).
If I travel alone I am okay. I list what I need to take with me. If I travel with my family, I am horrible and yell and scream at every little thing that goes wrong as we are leaving. Once traveling I am fine, it is the leaving that is the issue.
I was on vyvanse for years. And I slept about probably 4 hours a night on average. I had to go to adderall. It doesn’t work as well, but it does work, and usually I can sleep.
I should never be off meds.
I had insomnia before taking vyvanse… it has not got better I must say
