Vyvanse helping anxiety-anyone else?

[tlhengel]

I've recently been diagnosed ADD w/o hyperactivity and GAD. My doc started me on 30mg Vyvanse which I started a few days ago.

What I've noticed so far is that it hasn't helped my ADD at all. I'm as scatterbrained as ever and still find myself daydreaming during conversations and other activities such as watching television or reading. But, what it HAS helped with is my anxiety. It has been WONDERFUL!!!! I never even realized I had such severe anxiety until this medication. The only way I can describe it is that I felt so wound up inside, like if you take a dishrag and wind it up to squeeze the water out. I felt this way all the time. I was so tense and rigid internally (or I guess emotionally might be a better description) I would constantly grit and grind my teeth when I was upset and my jaw would always hurt because of it.

Now, I'm totally relaxed and mellow. I feel so peaceful and content inside instead of the inner turmoil I've always felt. I'm now able to let the stupid little things go without getting myself worked up into a tizzy. I've always been an emotionally charged person and very quick to react, but with Vyvanse I am able to analyze things first before I react. My responses are much more appropriate to the situations.

From what my doc told me (and because of the fact that this is an amphetamine) I expected to get a bit wired, but that's SO not the case. In fact, I get a little tired from it sometimes. I yawn all the time too.

The only really bad things about it are the headaches I get because the med NEVER lasts the full 12 hours. I'm lucky if I get 8. Typically it wears off after 7 and that's when the headache sets in. I'm very frustrated with this as it takes away from my postive experiences. I'm also frustrated that it hasn't done squat for my ADD (the REAL purpose of starting this med)

I try to exercise occasionally but probably not as often as I should. My appetite is so-so on this med. I always eat breakfast before I take it because I find it helps with a smoother uptake. I make sure to snack throughout the day to help keep by blood sugar more even, otherwise my Vyvanse is totally up and down. I drink TONS of water and Lipton's diet green tea with the occasional diet root beer (since it's caffeine free). I eat a hearty dinner every night (no problem with my appetite there!) and I try to stick to a high protein diet to help with the Vyvanse. My sleep is totally fine. No insomnia whatsoever, thankfully.

Phew! Sorry for the long winded story!

Now...my question is, has anyone else noticed Vyvanse helping their anxiety this way? If so, was your anxiety the same as mine (feeling so wound up inside). Also, does anyone think the wound up feeling could be part of the ADD? I'm so new to all of this and I just want to live a NORMAL life (whatever that is!!!) I'm so sick and tired of everything being so hard all the time. ANY words of wisdom on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE TIME TO READ THIS!!!

[ilostmybeer]

Thats odd, i thought the Vyvanse had increased my anxiety a little. Then again, i rarely every get anxiety, so maybe thats why I noticed it. Give it a few more days and see if it levels out, it did for me. I am on the 50mg, but I think 70mg may be better, I got to the dr. today so I will post an update on my blog later

[tlhengel]

I'm hoping my doc will up the dosage to see if it will finally help the ADD symptoms. I also thought the anxiety thing was strange. I didn't expect it one bit!

One other odd side effect I forgot to note...I get really cold. Especially my fingers. They get like little icecicles. I put my hands under cold water yesterday and it actually hurt because my fingers were so cold already. I don't smoke anymore but it reminds me vividly of what I used to experience when I'd go outside in the winter time for a cigarette.

Anyone have any theories on that?

[E4rolls]

Originally Posted by tlhengel

I'm hoping my doc will up the dosage to see if it will finally help the ADD symptoms. I also thought the anxiety thing was strange. I didn't expect it one bit!

One other odd side effect I forgot to note...I get really cold. Especially my fingers. They get like little icecicles. I put my hands under cold water yesterday and it actually hurt because my fingers were so cold already. I don't smoke anymore but it reminds me vividly of what I used to experience when I'd go outside in the winter time for a cigarette.

Anyone have any theories on that?

Amphetamine is a known vasoconstrictor so it impedes regular blood-flow to the extremeties (not everyone experiences this side-effect but it is common).
Congrats on the added bonus of relief from your Akathisia (inner restlessness) which is something I experienced when on the right dose of d-amphetamine. Increasing the dosage to the next level should help with your ADD symptoms but may have the negative effect of increasing anxiety.
I hope you find the proper dose very soon as many ADDers seem to be undermedicated and continue to suffer from lack of motivation and lack of focus/concentration.

Sham-wow!

[Stumptownhero]

I just switched from Adderal to Vyvanse and personally I can tell you my anxiety has gone from a 10 to a 2. As we can all see, everyone is affected in various ways. But sounds like we have the same results. Congrats.

[KDLMaj]

Well, let's slow down a bit.

One- AWESOME. Congrats! I'm going to be switching to Vyvanse in a few weeks and am hoping the longer formulation helps even out my anxiety as well.

Two- the drug IS helping your ADHD- by your own story! It's letting you stop and think about what you say first. You may still be a bit scatterbrained, but it's obviously helping with several other ADHD symptoms. Beware- we're not always so great and noticing how motivated and focused we're feeling/acting.

Three- The drug just doesn't wear off at 7 hours. Or 8. And it doesn't go up and down through the day. The drug levels peak at about 3.5 hours and stay pretty consistent for at least 10 hours in your system- when it begins to decline. So the headache isn't rebound headache, and it's not a sign that the medication has worn off.

This is a common problem when you're new to stimulant medications, one which you've obviously already started to figure out. We don't eat all day because of the stimulants (keep forgetting because we're not hungry), and eventually our bodies crash. Mood swings occur, headaches from dehydration (and hunger) occur, our energy levels start subsiding, and we begin to lose focus because of the lack of glucose in our brains. All of this eats into the therapeutic effect of Vyvanse. The solution: do what you're doing. Snack through the day, make sure you keep plenty of liquids in your system. When I first started adderall XR, I became a smoothie addict. I had several each day because they were easy to down while my appetite was low, gave quick boosts in energy, and kept me from being dehydrated. Become good friends with your local smoothie vender!

Even your diet and sleep out a bit- it'll help. And remember- Vyvanse shows therapeutic effects from 11-13 hours after ingestion. But your body may adjust to the slow increase of medication in your system after just 6-7 hours. It doesn't mean the medication has stopped working- it just means the side-effects are getting better. Though certainly, 30mg leaves much room for dosage increasing!

[demo3210]

Just wanted to say that I went from Concerta to Adderall XR and now that I have started Vyvanse (today actually), that this is the only med that hasn't given me anxiety or like a depressed/'off' feeling. I don't feel weird or anything like that on Vyvanse and it's great. Finally a smooth dependable symptom treating med that works with little side effects.

Side Effects I had:
Concerta - unbearable urgency to urinate (even after i relieved myself), zombie effect, not long lasting, mild anxiety, unquenchble thirst, spent too much time quandering over minut details, not hungry, and if i didn't drink enough water during the day and drank water at night it would keep me up (i guess due to the osmotic pressure release mechanism)

Adderall XR - moderate to moderately high anxiety, irritable at times, adrenaline, high heart rate (100-130bpm avg), insomnia

Vyvanse - none. we'll see how sleeping works out tonight.

[amandave]

I went from 100mg Straterra/10mg(2x)Methylin to Taking Vyvanse.

I started on 30mg. I had no focus but that was no surprise considering I just switched meds. The next month my doctor bumped me up to 40mg because 30mg was only lasting 3.5 hours. This last week I went to the doctor and he gave me another script for 40mg though I did inform him that I am only getting 5.5 hours of coverage. I guess he thinks 5.5 hours is good enough.

Side effects of Vyvanse: Increased anxiety, depression, chronic procrastination, paranoia. Of course these only happen after the 5.5 hours. I had less anxiety with Straterra but also bad sexual side effects.

Having ADD sucks or maybe it only sucks when one's doctor is afraid to prescribe stimulates.

[MGDAD]

Originally Posted by amandave

I went from 100mg Straterra/10mg(2x)Methylin to Taking Vyvanse.

I started on 30mg. I had no focus but that was no surprise considering I just switched meds. The next month my doctor bumped me up to 40mg because 30mg was only lasting 3.5 hours. This last week I went to the doctor and he gave me another script for 40mg though I did inform him that I am only getting 5.5 hours of coverage. I guess he thinks 5.5 hours is good enough.

Taking a larger dose of Vyvanse will not make it last longer. There is nothing you can do to make it last longer. You will just need to take another pill when it wears off. If you dont want to go another 5.5 hours, you can just take a short acting form of the med to get another 3 hours.

[KDLMaj]

Originally Posted by amandave

I went from 100mg Straterra/10mg(2x)Methylin to Taking Vyvanse.

I started on 30mg. I had no focus but that was no surprise considering I just switched meds. The next month my doctor bumped me up to 40mg because 30mg was only lasting 3.5 hours. This last week I went to the doctor and he gave me another script for 40mg though I did inform him that I am only getting 5.5 hours of coverage. I guess he thinks 5.5 hours is good enough.

Side effects of Vyvanse: Increased anxiety, depression, chronic procrastination, paranoia. Of course these only happen after the 5.5 hours. I had less anxiety with Straterra but also bad sexual side effects.

Having ADD sucks or maybe it only sucks when one's doctor is afraid to prescribe stimulates.

Gah! I PROMISE you, Vyvanse was not wearing off at 3.5 hours. That's the Tmax of the drug-it's the time it takes, on average, for the maximum amount of d-amphetamine to hit your system. Barring a defective pill, it's literally impossible for it to wear off at 3.5 hours.

What's likely going on is that since the level of medication in your system stops rising rapidly at about 3.5 hours, the side-effects are vanishing. And since we usually associate the side-effects with the medication working, it's easy to decide it's not doing anything when they vanish. Though, to be totally fair, it also seems likely that the 30mg isn't putting enough d-amphetamine into your system to be therapeutic.

But just be careful about upping this drug. The side-effect profile is very low, and if you're implicitly equating those side-effects with the primary CNS stimulation (where the therapeutic value comes from) you're going to end up overdosing and causing more problems!

[kiksike]

This is my 4th week of taking Vyvanse and I just just got bumped to 50mg from 30 two days ago. I also feel like the Vyv has helped decrease my anxiety. It's like, before the Vyvanse, I had so much anxiety built up inside... but from the outside, no one had a clue.

Being diagnosed as inattentive with GAD all of the worries and negative thoughts have started to go away. I feel that the Vyvanse is like a "filter" that lets my brain process the important things only. After trying almost every antidepressant, I wish that I were diagnosed sooner.

I'm just glad that I came across these forums as they've offered me so much help and support.

[Tominal]

Vyvanse helped reduce my anxiety symptoms quite a bit.

[tlhengel]

Originally Posted by kiksike

I feel that the Vyvanse is like a "filter" that lets my brain process the important things only.

great analogy! fits what I feel on Vyvanse perfectly!