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?
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.