A different way to take stimulants that helped me avoid side effects

[Karen]

In case you have tried Vyvanse and had challenges with side effects, you might find my experience helpful.

I was diagnosed with ADD recently and, as is often the case,
was prescribed Vyvanse as the first choice of medication treatment options. I
started at the 10mg dose with instructions to titrate up gradually in order to
achieve effects that lasted about 10hours.

I stayed on 10 mg for
a week. At first, I didn’t think it had done anything for me, but as I looked
back on the week, I realized that I had been incredibly productive. I decided
to stay on the 10 mg for another week and pay closer attention to what happened.
Here’s what I found: In addition to being more productive and feeling smarter, I was more patient, more kind, I liked my
husband and kids more, I didn’t “lose it” as often, and I was able
to deal with things without getting stuck in emotional ruts – but only until
about 2 or 3 pm!

I know that the thing to do, when the medication isn’t
working for a long enough period of time, is to increase the dose. That’s what
my doctor had told me to do, so I did. Unfortunately, 20mg of Vyvanse gave me
some side effects that drove me nuts – my fingers, nose and toes were freezing
cold all day long. I couldn’t stand to do it for more than 2 days. Because I
was not seeing my doctor for another week, and because I have the benefit of a
medical background, I decided to try something innovative. I divided the 20mg
dose into 2, 10mg doses and took one at breakfast and the other at 2 pm. (I had
the benefit of having the 10mg capsules for the medication trial.) The effect
was wonderful. I did not have any challenges with sleeping (I slept like a baby
from 11 pm to 6 am), and I was able to get wonderful help for my executive
functioning and emotional control the whole day through.

When I went to see my doctor, he thought it was a little unusual
to use the 10mg of Vyvanse like that, but since there was no danger of overdose
or any other reason to contraindicate this method, he said I could continue. He
did prescribe methamphetamine for me to try instead. I did. It was not much
good for me – Over 2 weeks, I titrated up carefully to the best dose for me (which
was 50mg) and it did help through most of the day, but I only got a bit of help
with my emotions and patience. I did find that it helped me with my mental
capacity, but it was not nearly as effective as the Vyvanse had been.

I went back to my 10mg of Vyvanse
2x a day and am doing very well. I am posting this just in case there are other
ADDers that have had trouble with side effects when using the optimum dose of
Vyvanse for them, and maybe this experience can be helpful to someone.

Cheers!

[Author]

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