ADHD Medication

[AutisticLegoLover]

Posting for traffic as the ND board is so quiet.
I’ll be starting Elvanse for ADHD this week and I’m posting in the hope of hearing other people’s experiences of it. I’m starting off on 30mg and wondering how I’ll feel, hoping for no worrying side effects, and hoping it will improve my quality of life. I have autism too so I’m not expecting great things but a head that’s less like a landmine would be great.

My prescription is via shared care with a Right To Choose company who did my assessments. I waited many years to be assessed after decades of struggling and failing at life and really hope that my executive functioning will improve. Any improvement will be good, I’m not expecting miracles.

Today I’m just feeling very tired. My head feels a little quieter as though there aren’t as many tabs running at the same time. Only one song and one conversation and one stream of thought at a time. I’m struggling to switch off at bedtime and settle down to sleep. My brain is just wanting more stimulation at 10pm 🙄 I think I was asleep by midnight last night though.
My next titration appointment isn’t until May which seems a long time away.

Because I was told to only take it on the days I want to be focused and productive. For me, the drugs career real problems sleeping and after 4 nights of just getting 3-5 hours I start to go a bit loopy. Plus the drugs are very short acting and don’t have an accumulative effect. If you taste them every single day then you will get to a point where you need to increase your dose. I’m on 30mg and it works great for me. I only need to take it 3 days a week, so why would I take it more? Just ‘cos? Plus when I did titrate up to 50mg I WAS taking it every day and within 2-3 weeks I was an emotional wreck. Hysterical, catastrophising, hearing voices etc. the psychiatrist said it wasn’t worth risking it worsening or developing into serotonin syndrome. So 3 days a week works for me. My dd is 17 and she only takes hers on college days. My eldest dd is 27 and she only takes hers 4 days a week. In fact the only person I know who takes it every day is my son age 25 and that’s only because his autism means he likes routine and stability.

I’m 7 years diagnosed and settled on 30mg. I don’t take it every day, 50mg made me lose my appetite completely and feel a bit jittery, 30 mg is perfect to quieten my brain and let me be myself and get on with things.

It’s exactly that, fewer tabs open. More orderly.
take it early morning then you should sleep ok.
Also not every day, only days you need to be more organised

For me elvanse had to be taken very early in the morning or I won’t sleep at all that night. So I take it about 6am with a light breakfast of yoghurt/fruit/nuts. It wears off for me very gradually but I’m typically hungry about 6pm and can often fall asleep about 10-11. Then up again at 6am for the next dose.

Ritalin kicked in quicker for me and I would take that at 7.30am but then I’d get a weird feeling about 3-3.30 ish. Like flies buzzing in my head. A weird static/electric feeling that I really didn’t like and it was so distracting I couldn’t drive etc. I can totally see why my dd takes hers at 8.45 am so she can have a nap at 4.15 when she gets home from college. If she is awake through the come down she comes across like a mean girl temper tantrumming.

Thank you that’s interesting. I said to my psych that I don’t need to take elvanse 20mg everyday -I’m retired- but she implied that it wasn’t a good idea and I should take it regularly or it wouldn’t work efficiently, would lose effect though she seemed a bit vague.

Im at the titration stage so taking it daily. It now I find the right dose I might choose to take it on certain days but I think I’ll need it daily to function well.

There is no long term accumulative effect of relevance, like there is for say Prozac which accumulates in your system slowly to reach a therapeutic level. Elvanse is metabolised very quickly into another drug which is fully out of our body in between 1-3 days depending on your metabolism and If you were testing urine/blood etc. you can google “elvsnse halflife” for a more technical/accurate description. But for me the effects are over within 16-18 hours of taking it.

I moved up to 50mg 10 days ago and am
not sure how much better it is than the 30mg. At first I was eating pretty normally and now I’m struggling to eat much at all. I’ve been living on banana as a milk, crunchie bars and baguette with cheese for the past week. My stomach hates me and I’m really bloated. I’ve had a stupid virus since before Easter that went away for a few days then came back and is making me feel tired and a bit rubbish. I took the Elvanse 2.5hours ago today and feel no motivation at all and have a day off with lots of household jobs to do. I’m trying to muster the energy to strip the beds and make the list of the sunny, windy weather. I’m averaging nearly 10 miles a days of walking. My weight is stable at 54kg because I’m getting enough calories from banana milk and crunchiest 😩 I did force down a babybel this morning for breakfast but it’s almost as though I don’t like the feel of the food in my mouth. I’m not hungry before I take my medication so trying to eat before makes no difference. I hope it’s the stupid virus as I don’t even want my usual much-loved cup of tea. It tastes weird. Probably all the mucous. I do get snacky in the evening and try to eat then. I’ll have some soup for dinner today. I also find eating at lunch time gives me palpitations and I hate the sensation so much. I didn’t eat lunch yesterday and avoided the anxious feeling with palpitations that I get around 1-2pm when I can feel the medication wear off.
I have a review on Sunday and I might ask for the option of an afternoon booster.
It’s going to take time to find the right dose I know but patience is not my forte.

I'm pretty sure you can get 20mg elvanse if 30mg feels a lot.