symptom control
 

first time poster.
been reading this forum for quite some time.
can identify with many previous forum posts regarding emotions/behaviors/thoughts. adhd behavior/emotion- yes i can relate:D am an adult, over 40, and trying stims for symptom control.

basically can answer yes to the following in order of severity 1)sensory overload 2)anxiety 3)ocd 4)adhd behavior 5)motivation/meltdown threshold issues 6)some depression. None are every minute nor every day but when one or more surfaces it is horrible. can experience one at a time but usually it is two or more. then they all just decide to flow together. oh so pleasantly. like many of you here, only one ssri has ever been somewhat beneficial. mine is lexapro. helped my anxiety/ocd when taken at minimal dose. none of the others did squat. benzo helped, again at minimal dosage. tried adderrall couple years ago. initially it worked. after that-was awful. took myself off in one month.

currently- vyvanse. taken now for 2 months. one month ago, upped it from 30 to 40 ml. liked it well enough- yet hubby and i agreed it seemed to be a bit spotty/unpredictable. yet smoother than add ir. been on the 40 for almost one month- and yes, i have to say for 3-4 hours it really helps. somewhat calming. and yet- the rest of the duration produces weird anxiety; flushed faced. basically the same feeling as adrenaline. this started a couple weeks into the 40ml.

when its working as it should, a few hours or so into, anxiety is NON existent. the med seems to be just fine. responding to it with few side effects. then - as i said, the rest of the day is full of side effects. the clear focus does remain nicely, yet anxiety SPIKES; increased heart rate, super overfocus of unimportant things. this stim lasts about 10 or so hours for me; 1/3 of that it does its job very, very well indeed; 2/3 it is kinda doing its job but welcomes in the anxiety while i am still benefiting from the focus- yet before it has even warn off. :scratch:
not a fan of ssri's, however, lexapro DID help anxiety/knocked out ocd completely. leaning towards starting on it again. about stims- change to another one. a non-stim med/ adhd.

(give an example- asked an everyday question, my mind is overloaded with self imposed pressure to give some ideal, exact, literal and most accurate response that it can muster up. that imagined pressure then makes it almost impossible to form an articulate answer of any kind and end up sounding like a 2 year child who hasn't yet learned to use full sentences). this is what happens off stims. and this is also the exact generalized side effect felt after around 4-5 hours on stims , after stims have given me proven complete symptom control. how confusing is that!

anyone tried vyvanse at the minimal dose of 20 mlg, and seen Better results than the higher dose? either way, seems i cannot take a stim without something to balance it out ; keep serotonin evened out. ssri or some benzo, low dose. been trying to figure this out for over 10 years. is frustrating.

i see this turned out not to be a short comment. over-focused yet again. symptoms of classic adhd, or over-attention as it really seems to be. whatever the label- is about symptom control . am sure everyone here can relate to merry go round. any advice on balancing meds is appreciated. ideally minimal meds, minimal dosage. require daily exercise works wonders for me- although vyvanse seems to keep my attention away from my treadmill lately. :scratch:- UGH.


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sensory overload, anxiety, ocd, suspected adhd.
Vyvanse, 40 mlg, 1x daily
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Re: symptom control
 

eta: well, i guess i'm not a first time poster.

my profile shows i replied to 4 threads a couple yrs. back.

well, whatta know :lol:

Re: symptom control
 

Just wanted to say that I do this exact same thing. The pressure to frame my answer perfectly is always there, no matter what. Then the second part kicks in if I'm being rushed or there's something riding on my answer or if I'm feeling anxious in some way like if I'm talking to a boss or something.

I always chalked it up to a long history of feeling misunderstood, making me extra careful about trying to be clear. Plus perfectionism, which I guess (in my case anyway) is really anxiety expressed as a fear of failure... So yeah... fear of being misunderstood + fear of failure = verbal spazz. Or verbal paralysis. :doh:

I think that's why I prefer writing... can go back and edit, refine, and perfect in ways oral speech doesn't allow for.

Re: symptom control
 

Sometimes the mechanism of action in vyvanse makes things uncomfortable for people. Have you considered dexedrine?

Re: symptom control
 

Yes, some people do better on a small dose than a bigger one.

If you have any of the lower dose left, give them a trial for a couple days.

Or open the 40 mg capsule and sprinkle half into water or onto food, save the other half for the next day's dose.

I would give that a trial before giving up on Vyvanse since it worked before at the lower dose.

If that doesn't help, try a different med, or have the doctor reevaluate for bipolar.

Stimulant meds sometimes have the kind of reaction you mention in patients with bipolar.

Re: symptom control
 

thanks for your replies.

went back to 30 mlg. seems okay. yet dose doesnt feel consistent .
i am getting more used to the med and my body is accepting it better now.

on V i am easily able to take a nap, but i dont. it has a calming affect for me.

no bad side effects any longer.

40 mlg. did not seem to make much a difference as mentioned but gave me side effects. now that side effects gone would like to up dose to more accurate adult dosage. would like to get to 50 but know i will need to go through the 40 again first.

did anyone try going from 30 to 50 without the 40 inbetween? better results?

i have also noticed when pms hits my body takes over and stops the med in its tracks. feels like i am not even taking the V for those 5 days or so. now this is not every month. it is periodic. enough though i am considering adding lexapro back in, as lexapro at a low dose was wonderful. has anyone here taken V with an ssri and seen any positive or negative affect? one affecting the other or too much serotonin? do you take one at night and one in the morning?

during pms week , those bad ones, i feel no use in taking the V, as it doesnt work. so i tried that . quit it for 5 days. not sure if it was just hormones or the lack of V in my body, but it was horrible. am thinking i need to continue on V everyday even when pms hits.

any one relate. anything that helps? this is why am considering the lex. it evened out the rough spots.

chime in if you have any related experience combining lex and V. or thoughts on adhd and pms. like i said though, some months are a breeze with just the V. then there are a few that could benefit from the lex. :eyebrow:

addtional info:
suspected HF autistic traits/spectrum and/or adhd with ocd
above ave. IQ
questionable EQ
dyslexia, age 7

V- 30 mlg x 1 daily
exercise, runner

Re: symptom control
 

eta: to prev. poster comment- forgot to respond, no , not bipolar. no up nor downs. it is all sensory related and stimuli. my thinking is constant without mood changes. it is the outside stimulus that causes majority of my reactions and confusion. though processing and verbal speech. along with hf dyslexia. not psychiatric prob., but all is neuro related in individual brain design and function to stimulus and interpreting and figuring out communication. all high functioning but the V lets it all come to a steady level of functioning so things are more clear and thinking is more accurate in meaning and response. that, the V does help greatly with. and i am happy with the V . just working on adjusting dose to correct. :yes:

Re: symptom control
 

Please do not assume that more is necessarily better. There is no such thing as upping one's dose to a "more accurate adult dosage". There are little kids on 70 mg/day or more and there are big 300 lb. grown men on 20 mg/day or even less. It is completely dependent on your own individual chemistry, and age and weight have nothing to do with it.

I would not recommend leaping from 30 to 50 mg. That sounds like a great way to induce all those fun side effects again, and possibly start creating tolerance. Not good.

The idea with these meds is to find your optimal dose, not to push your tolerance as high as it will go.

It's common for PMS to decrease the efficacy of AD/HD meds. Some women up their dose temporarily to compensate, but that's something I would run by your doctor. If you do want to see if 40 mg will be more tolerable for you this time around, perhaps that would be a good time to initialize testing.

Other variations/unpredictability in the way one reacts to any AD/HD med can be caused by a very wide variety of things, including sleep, diet, caffeine, other meds, supplements, exercise, genetics, stress level, hormones and so forth. If I were you I would look at those areas to discover potential monkey wrenches before upping your regular dose.

Additionally, we all have to accept that even after all other factors have been accounted for and we believe we are being properly medicated and we ought to have a great day, sometimes we're still just gonna have a bad ADD day anyway. That's just life. C'est la vie.