Hi all,
I’ve been on 30mg Vyvanse for approx. 3 years now. I’d say it’s been a resounding improvement, though there have been some minor downsides.
Unfortunately I have some trauma in my past, and when I’m particularly in the peak of the drug it can kick in my fight or flight a bit under certain circumstances, becoming hyper vigilant and all that good stuff. It is a stimulant, it’s only fair. Oddly enough though this seems to only happen after long periods of taking the drug. I’ve tried 20mg for a period, and it wasn’t really effective, so going down a dose isn’t a practical option.
I am wondering if maybe I should be taking small drug holidays when the paranoia etc starts to kick in. I feel like it steadily gets stronger the more days I take Vyvanse in a row. I’ve done some searching that says it shouldn’t get stronger, which is why I’m wondering if anyone else has had the same experience, and if anything worked for you?
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It sounds like you should talk to your therapist about the dreaded. Anxiety. It sounds like the stimulants are bleeding you over into anxious territory.
That’s pretty much it yeah, the anxiety and the mechanics behind it for me are pretty well understood at least. Right now it’s more just exploring the weird response the medication is causing, seeing if this is something anyone has encountered themselves.
Good luck friend 💜
Thanks dude, have a good day
I stopped taking it due to adverse side effects after a few years. Try taking a break for a few weeks. 30 mg isn’t a significant dose.
Sorry to hear that, I know they can be rough.
I spent a few months on 20mg when the shortage happened last year. It did indeed stop the anxiety but I was completely useless for most of that time unfortunately. I’m thinking maybe a day off a week or something might be enough to see some improvement.
I would take the weekend off.
This is what my prescriber recommends with stimulants. They are very helpful for adhd, but hopefully not required for all functionality. From what I understand, if that seems to be the case, a stimulant will be paired with and anti-anxiety or anti-depressant for daily use to, hopefully, decrease the need for stimulants.
For myself, taking a day or two off seems to help the efficacy of the stimulants. I’m not able to take vyvanse, as it ended up giving me terrible anxiety, but that will happen for some. I’m doing well on concerta instead, but the same principle applies.
Vyvanse was awesome for me for like 2 weeks, after that it very much reminds me of taking Ritalin when I was a kid. Even keel to an absurd level, like all my emotions are muted and blunted. So I have the opposite problem as you, I couldn’t take it so it was back to adderall for me.
That’s kind of crazy, I wish we understood all the mechanisms behind this stuff a bit better so we could avoid that kind of reaction.
Me too, I tried Wellbutrin at another point along with it to try and counter act it. That made me suicidal lol
I think it’s not that crazy: It also increases dopamine and noradrenaline in other parts of the brain, too, so in higher doses, it would be a “great” recreational drug, similar to speed. The brain quickly adjusts to the relatively small dose, so it doesn’t feel like a recreational drug any more (unless a lot more is taken), and only the prefrontal cortex still “benefits” from the increased levels of dopamine and noradrenaline, as intended.
So, the initial high is not the intended effect, just a pleasant side effect, and always fades. Otherwise, we could all happily live on recreational drugs all day.
The numbing effect on the emotions, on the other hand, could be the INTENDED effect, just way too strong. Need to take much less, for some people even as low as 5 mg.
So you might have gotten the intended effect and the side effect mixed up: You don’t want the initial 2 week high, you do want the numbing, but much less of it.
That is my VERY limited layman understanding, certainly at least partially wrong. Maybe it’s also hilariously wrong, who knows.
I feel that, when I was first on the stuff I did mistake the high for the functionality. When I did spend time on a lower dose, roughly 3-4 months, I kind of reverted back to being unable to get up and do things, my activation energy was completely shot. I think I was only surviving before medication because I was drinking a ridiculous amount of coffee.
As it is currently, it’s not really a high at all, just the standard stimulant response etc.
It’s compatible with benzos, so for rare occurrences, like a few times per year, that’s an option.
In my particular case, a magnesium deficit had been missed for a very long time.
I was actually wondering about magnesium, I might give supplementing a try. Thanks!