Hi All,

First post here. I've spent weeks immersing myself in the knowledge on this forum. Thank you. I know everyone posts similar questions, but I'd greatly appreciate those with experience on the topic taking time to share. I'll try to be as brief as possible.

Early 30's, recently diagnosed, suspected as a child, professionally successful but never proud of it, all the other symptoms, etc....

Therapist sent me to Psych MD (highly respected specialist). Tried Vyvanse (from 30-90mg) and Focalin XR (from 5-20mg).

Didn't feel the magic with either.

Explained this to Psych. He says we have to have a baseline of what you will feel like with meds, so here is Adderall IR, up to 2X30 3 times a day. Having medicated high blood pressure, general anxiety (not clinical), and situational anxiety from work, i was hesitant to try the megadose.

Started at 15mg 3 times a day. Felt 20-30% of what I thought the "magic" would feel like. Next day reluctantly tried 30mg. That was just a bit to much to handle. The problem with that opinion is that it could have been caused entirely by placebo anxiety having factually known I just took a large dose of a stimulant, and a very experienced MD had prescribed up to twice the amount.

So I went back down to 15mg, and STILL had the "wound up" feeling the next day. This seems to support a placebo anxiety.

I've knocked it down to 7.5mg now and don't seem to feel much.

now we come to the question. How much of an experiment destroying variable can external stress be? My job is probably as stressful as it gets. In addition, though my life, wife, family are great, there is some stress outside of work as well that causes variability in how I am feeling anyway.

I'm concerned I missed the window on the Vyvanse and Focalin because I had so much else going on. I'm also concerned I've either missed, or not even made it into the window on the adderall IR (though even if it is placebo, my heart rate was 115, and I'm not really interested in that).

Has anyone had similar experience when it comes to being frustrated in the early stages of diagnosis? After reading the "diagnostic criteria for ADD in adults," I feel like there is a magical catharsis to be had if I can just get "dialed in." Anyone else had a problem getting dialed in and if so what advice do you have?

My thought is to minimize as much of the external volatility effects as possible by going with 7.5mg 3x a day for a month, and then assess the month as a whole. Then repeat with 15mg, so on and so forth monitoring BP and heart rate, etc...

I also feel like, for someone with so much external stimuli going on, that I'm not going to get a clear picture of what the drugs are doing for me just analyzing intraday differences. So maybe I should go back and try the same thing with the Vyvanse and Focalin as well.

Finally, it seems that some people really only respond well to one of the drugs in particular and this might play a role in my cloudy results.

At any rate, whatever wisdom you can share would be much appreciated. If this would be better received in a different forum, please let me know and I will post it there. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer, or any "right directions" to which you can point!

If you haven't noticed anything it must be the meds. Why don't you try other med types? Maybe methylphedinate based (not focalin, ritalin and concerta). Not every med works the same for everyone.

Thanks for your response. To clarify, I have felt "something," but it was not the therapeutic benefit I had been hoping for. I'm concerned what I did feel did not get an accurate assessment because of the extremity of other stimuli.

have you tried 20mgs? for me, 15mg was almost, but not quite what i needed. doc told me to take 30mgs....waaaaaaaaaaay too much. i tried taking a 15mg and half of another 15mg twice a day, and that was pretty much perfect. doc upped the scrip to 20mgsX2 per day, and it's just right for me.

my doc told me to expect a bit of give and take in the beginning...for example, i can't take it 3 times a day at any dose, because then i can't sleep, etc. i had to find the right timing to take it twice a day, and i finally managed to figure that out, around meals, working out, the job, etc. took me about 2 1/2 months of finagling to get the magic "click".

oh, and this was starting in November, just in time for all the family/holiday stress, as well as end of year crunch for work.

i'm a 27 y/o female, and i have anxiety like yours (not clinical) and a fairly stressful job.


sidenote: when i refilled the new prescription for 20mgs of Adderall IR, they were different pills than the 15's. the 15's were made by Barr. the 20's are brighter, and made by Core. i've found they are much smoother, and give me as much effect as 15+7.5mg's of the Barr. so, yeah. dunno.

This was really useful. Thank You!

I think this may be similar to my situation. Same age, same anxiety description (not clinical but hard job). 15 felt good, but 30 felt way too much.

I've been trying 7.5 3x a day and this had been pretty good, but definitely feels "not enough"

You're not in a finance related industry by chance? The stress goes from not being busy enough to now being too busy (no complaints, but still stressful).

anyway, thanks for the input, again it was helpful.