What do you do before your meds "kick in"?

[nellie]

Ok this probably sounds really dumb but my issue is wasting time before the meds kick in. In my case a good hour and a half it seems. I take mine in the morning when I get up and am very sluggish. I used to remedy this with coffee but quit caffeine altogether last week. I’ve tried de-caff to trick my brain but it doesn’t work. I can just barely drag myself out of bed in the morning and end up wasting the time. Anybody have any suggestions – getting up early aside – I’m just not a morning person. I’ve wasted an hour on this site – not that it’s not interesting mind you but it definitely isn’t productive! I have absolutely no motivation beforehand!

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[JimC.]

If I don’t take my Adderall 1st thing, I can p!$$ away the entire day. I’m also supposed to be on decaf, but like you that doesn’t work for me. Gimme rocket fuel!

I am a morning person so I get tired around 4 pm, not sure if it’s Adderall wearing off or what, but by then I’ve managed to have a productive day, most of the time. If not, well… too bad, it’s behind me and I can’t do squat about the past. There’s always tomorrow, so I make a list of stuff I have to do for the next day. Might not get it all done, but beats he// out of a full day of procrastination. Lastly I absolutely hate the guilt I feel for wasting a day. Even though I guess I can’t really help it sometimes. Use the meds, put one on your bedside table and take it first thing in the a.m., lie there and wait for it to get you up. Just my .02, Jim

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[Anonymous]

I’ve been putting the vyvanse on my nightstand to take first thing…and STILL manage to roll around in bed with no motivation to get out before I take it…… seriously ridiculous. and well.. here I am online with you before it kicks in.. LOL. so agreed JimC about the frustrating of wasting days doing nothing!

I did have an idea to set my alarm clock to take it, then just go back to sleep if I’m feeling lazy. I’ve done this and tend to get out of bed when it kicks in.. seems a little pathetically lazy??? i don’t know. although, I may just roll over too lazy to take the pill on my night stand lol.

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[nellie]

Hmm, maybe I’ll try that tomorrow. Set my alarm for an hour and a half before I want to get up, take the meds and go back to sleep. The trick will be not to hit the snooze button ‘Cuz a morning person I’m definitely not!

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[Anonymous]

however, shouldn’t wake yourself up less than 7 hours because don’t want to fragment sleep! I know i should take it when I actually wake up but grumble then roll over again. thus, already awake.. i put a cup of water right next to my bed too. too lazy to sit up so I won’t choke? specialness… i absolutely know now that it must must sit on my nightstand with water to take first thing. made me kind of feel like an addict or something to not be able to wake up without it? like I’m not taking it for the right reason. but then again, trying to go to work early, i’ve risked my life with some extremely sleepy head bobbing morning driving. is that unable to arouse self even though awake an ADHD thing? I’m sure that having a really really hard time settling down to go to bed is an ADHD thing. had this problem since a small child. so many fights and spanks related to this!!! probably a little H there. I get so wound up at night.

I’m glad you posted this Nellie because this is a pretty significant problem I have too. so frustrating when it is like 1pm and I’ve done nothing.

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[nellie]

I never forget to take it so far but it’s that wasted time in the morning before it kicks in that drives me crazy – it’s usually 10 or 11 lately before I get going on anything major during the week. And like you say fragmented sleep is bad too. I usually wake up throughout the night. Mostly it’s like I’m drifting in and out of sleep all night and never feel deep sleep until the early morning hours. when I drank coffee I could be functional within a half hour but this waiting is terrible because the more time you waste the more time you waste, if that makes sense.

My caffeine withdrawal effect seems to have subsided because yesterday and today I felt pretty good once the medication took effect. But I don’t find it’s lasting all that long anymore either so can’t make up the wasted hours later in the day.

I was reading the FlyLady email earlier and got an idea based on her morning routine. THink I’m going to write a few morning routine items on a cue card and keep it in my agenda. I’ve been trying to do that anyway but maybe this way it’ll be more structured seeming.

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[Anonymous]

I know I need to stop going to bed at 3am lol. Like you, I don’t sleep well. I am trying to take it first thing in the morning. I took it at 11am this morning so it died around 10pm. oh crap..i forgot to do something.. thank you med death. I work 12 hour days (3 days a week). so I take it at about 6:30am.. since work is so busy, i swear it dies around 4-4:30pm. My doctor gave me a dexedrine booster to take at around 3:30-4pm so I don’t mull around at work until 9pm like I have been doing. I’m still not sure how it will work because I forgot to take it twice..and thought I didn’t need it monday (should have taken it lol). If the Vyvanse is not lasting 10-11 hours, then you are probably not on a high enough dose. my doc offered me a dose increase, but it is just too much when I am not working. feels too medicated.

another bedtime fail.lol. tomorrow is a new day lol.

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[nellie]

Ok so I may live to regret my new by the beside before I get out of bed routine! I put the bottle in the drawer of my nightstand . Then woke up around 6 to take my pill but I was so tired I couldn’t get my eyes open or motivated (ie. awake) to take it. Then I started dreaming I had taken it. Woke up again around 7:30 and really didn’t know if I’d taken it or dreamt it LOL. So opened the bottle and looked at the dispensed on date and counted pills. If my math is right then I just dreamt it . I took one at 7:30 but am feeling a little too alert 20 minutes later. I guess I’ll either be flying off the ceiling fan in another hour or I’m worried for nothing. I just keep thinking of Carrie’s post when she doubled her dose and hope I counted right for once!

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[nellie]

oh forgot to add Sugar, did you actually try a higher dose? When I first increased the dose from 20 to 30 I felt anxious and so forth and was about to go back to the 20mg. But it took about a week and I feel normal again. The only thing not sure if it might have also been caffeine withdrawal doing that.

And it’s now about 90 minutes after my 7:30 dose and I have no desire to swing off the ceiling fan so I assume I did count correctly and not double dose .

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[Anonymous]

oh!!! ok.. from now on.. i will just leave a single pill at my bedside because that would totally happen to me!!

my doc started me on 50mg which I guess is kind of weird.. I’ll have to ask her about it next time I see her because now I’m super curious. I know that higher doses of vyvanse last longer and I was asking to get through a 12 hour day. I’m glad I didn’t have some type of horrible reaction as I had only been taking methyn ER 3 days a week for a month before that. I’m a really anxious person so that could have been bad. so I’ve continued to be on 50mg. the dexedrine boost is 5-10mg in the afternoon as needed. I remembered the booster today and it did help! I still left late-ish and dragged a bit..but i was able to get to the point and pack it up.

maybe you are not used to the feeling of alert in the early AM? lol feels weird to me.

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[nellie]

Wow 50, I have enough with the 30 I think. When I had 40mg of Adderal I felt totally wired. But then everyone’s chemistry is different. I’m always tempted to try a higher dose of anything just to see the difference but starting to feel like an addict when I ask the doctor. Think I’ll just stick to this – don’t fix what ain’t broke as they say

As for feeling alert in the morning – funny you mention it. I was just realizing this morning the difference between feeling alert and at the same time tired. It’s like now I’m suddenly aware of everything around me despite being tired because I got up at 6:30 without enough sleep Must say an odd feeling!

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[Anonymous]

that was me this morning at..6:30 as well! 1am= way too late to go to bed.

con: i hate mornings..so being more coherent makes me irritable because I am fully aware of not wanting to be awake

con: earlier to take med, early to med die! lol

pro: didn’t risk my life driving to work this AM. tired, but not head bobbing and prying my eye open with my fingers. (seriously, it is so hard for me to wake up in the morning that early commutes are actually dangerous. even sometimes when i have had enough sleep. i have no clue if this has anything to do with ADD). i know it is not narcolepsy

pro: functioning begins when i walk into the office versus 1.5hr later

yeah still surprised i didn’t have a horrible reaction on 50mg as an anxious person with ADD which is relatively mild and who physically petite. body chemisty is so odd. i’m the same person who will shake on one cup of coffee and will have a panic attack on a double espresso. i think the law of stimulants really is whatever feels right. now i’m just going off on brain tangents.. just questions i can’t answer, but i’m super curious.

wow already 11pm..there goes the bed before midnight theory.. hmm i should stop eating this chocolate and go to bed…although chocolate is hard to say no to. especially the dark stuff.

i think i forgot my point. lol.

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[phoenixmagicgirl]

I’ve  been up since 5:00a, I haven’t taken my Dex. yet and it’s really hard to do what I have to before o take them…I’m this case do my morning training for martial arts and take a test online for school…once I do take it, it takes about an hour to kick in..I’m ready to go for the day…it lasts 12 hours, which is great…but then if I take it too late in,the morning, insomnia rears its head and it’s a vicious cycle…hope my rambling made sense…

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[Patte Rosebank]

@phoenixmagic, I find that I need a cup of coffee to jump-start me in the morning.

I make my coffee very weak (1.5 teaspoons of ground coffee, per cup), so it’s just a tiny hit of caffeine.  But it’s enough, until the Concerta starts to kick in.

At night, I need to take a tiny dose (25mg or 50mg) of Seroquel, about an hour before bedtime, in order to fall asleep.

Seroquel is prescribed to control manic symptoms (including racing thoughts), whether due to Bipolar I or II, or ADHD.  It also makes me a bit drowsy, but I still need to follow a “wind-down” routine, to relax and get ready for bed.

If you keep having issues with insomnia, you might want to ask your doctor about trying a tiny dose of Seroquel.

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[thisguy]

I   know some one who wakes up and takes them then goes back to sleep for an hour.

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[Author]

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