Reply To: Vyvanse and Anxiety

[procrastina]

Hi there! I have been diagnosed with both ADHD and anxiety and I was on Vyvanse for a few months about a year ago. I was very anxious to start medication because I didn’t know if it would just make me feel “happy” without really fixing anything and I had also read about how stimulants can affect your health and your heart. I spoke with my Uncle who is a pharmacist and he explained that it’s really weighing out the pros and cons. He told me from the first pill, it would be a night and day difference for me and that since I’m fairly young and pretty healthy (I started medicine at 28), that the risk of something bad happening is very low. He said if the pills give me that clarity and that night and day difference, then it’s a choice to keep living the way I have been without medicine, or to choose medicine if the benefits outweigh the risks in my mind. For me, my Uncle was right and from the first dose, the benefits did outweigh the risks, but that’s not to say that I wasn’t still anxious about taking them. One thing that helped me was talking to my GP about my concerns and she did a full physical on me, including an EKG to get a baseline of how my heart was functioning before starting the medication. That helped to put my mind at ease a little. I was also prescribed Xanax along with the Vyvanse because stimulants do have the ability to elevate your heart rate and make symptoms of anxiety worse so I had Xanax to take “as needed” for times when I felt super anxious on the medicine. Luckily, I barely ever had to take the Xanax, but it was calming to know if was there if I felt that I needed it.

If the Vyvanse is working for you, then I hope you stick with it. I had to stop taking it for a different reason, but I wish that I was still on it because life without it is super hard, especially since I already had a taste of functioning at the capacity of as I like to call it, “a normal human”. Maybe having your GP do a baseline EKG like mine did could help put your mind at rest a little. I would also talk to whomever prescribed the Vyvanse to you about the worry your anxiety is causing you in regard to taking the medicine. Maybe they can prescribe Xanax too or offer a different method to help.

Best of luck to you!

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