Reply To: My first week on Vyvanse…….an update

[lsdcat]

My experience is that any medication for anything is a trade off.  There are always unwanted effects from any drug especially with long term use.  One has to decide if the desired effects of the drug are greater than the unwanted effects.  Sometimes the  condition being treated is preferable to the unwanted effects of the psychiatric drugs, in my humble opinion.  Sometimes the unwanted effects cause permanent damage which complicates and compromises aging.  What was bad when one was young gets worse when one is old.

An example is that I was given Effexor with a Buspar back, and yes, they worked for what they were given to me for, but then my occasional migraines escalated to daily, crippling migraines that actually resulted in losing my job.  Not the desired result. The doctor responded by adding a prescription migraine medication which didn’t help the migraines but resulted in Seratonin Toxicity.  Yikes!

Right now I’m off all of my medications except my thyroid meds and 10 mg X 2 daily of Propranolol for migraine prevention and anxiety because I had an extreme allergic reaction to a new blood pressure medication, Diltiazem. I take BP meds for hypertension due to the stimulant ADHD medication.  I also developed Raynaud’s Syndrome while on the stimulant medication. Studies showed Diltiazem to be effective in treating Raynaud’s.

No one will ever know for sure that it was the Diltiazem or what caused the reaction, so I’ve been taken down to as close to a baseline as possible.  Suddenly, my apartment looks like an unsupervised, very messy 10 year old lives here. I’m saying and doing impulsive and embarrassing things again.  I’ve become physically awkward, probably because of the sharp, sudden moves.  Is this worse than a stroke or heart attack?  I don’t know yet.

I’m trying to pay attention to these things, because I realized that, overall, none of the medications I’ve had in my life really made a positive significant difference in my life or the direction it has taken.  And I’m having to deal with the negative significant differences they have made.

To me, it sounds like Vyvanse is not working for you. I look back now and realize that when I had to keep having a dose upped, or boosters added, that was a clear message that the drug was not working for me.  But, back then I thought doctors were gods and drugs were magic bullets so I went along with them.  I also didn’t know that I could object.

I’m learning to listen to my body, and to use behavioral tools.  I heard the novel idea of using my ADHD traits instead of trying to suppress and rid myself of them.

I’ve not been lucky enough to stumble onto an A+ doctor or counselor.  It seems that most of them are ignorant of ADHD even those who advertise it as their specialty.

I’m considering staying off of any ADHD medication.  The positives of the medication were not all that significant and the negatives have been nasty.  Of course, I am retired and past having to get a degree, or start a family, so a younger person might not take that route.  I would encourage anyone taking the medications to remember the drugs are not a panacea and must be accompanied by vigilence and effort.  And that is a full time job especially for us ADHDers.  I have found that my pragmatism is a positive for me.  Is it working is the key question.

I will shut up in a minute here. Just wanted to say that I have found listening to Binaural Beats to be an effective aid for me.

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