ADHD thread

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I'm on Vyvanse 70mg and I find it wears off mid-afternoon. If I'm working or driving, I then take 15mg of short acting dexamphetamine. I heard that in the US, 90mg is available. I'd take that if I could but 70mg is as high as it gets in Australia.

I can sleep a few hours after I've taken it if I'm tired already (like if I got up early).

I've been on medication since 2004 when I was diagnosed after having two minor car accidents which were both due to me not paying attention. I was scared to drive after that and went to the doctor for help. He asked me a few questions related to ADHD and I almost accused him of following me because he was describing me exactly!

I take atomoxitine. I am better with it. It doesn’t keep me awake. I took all kinds of stimulants they gave me all kinds of weird side effects. My words started coming out in the wrong order when I spoke on one. I was so zombie-like on one I was sitting at work staring at the screen slapping myself in the face. I still self medicate with caffeine (black tea). Right now I can only focus in the morning with one hot tea and two snapples. I buy snapple by the case. I also need more tea dosed every 3 hours to get through the day. No caffeine after 3 pm or it affects my sleep. If I don’t sleep well I need more caffeine to focus and this makes my sleep worse, and so on. Sometimes I take two Tylenol AND two advil to sleep but if I do I know I have to cut way back on my caffeine. I ONLY take black tea (and chocolate) as caffeine sources because trace elements really matter. I am scripted for rimeron for sleep but I take it rarely because it leaves me dopey for the next 24 hours.
I need some anxiety to function but too much anxiety and I shut down or cannot function because of escapism. Caffeine and stims increase anxiety. Both hyperactive focus and hyperfocus are problems.
(Over sharing)

What's Snapple?

A brand of iced tea popular in the USA. Specifically Diet Snapple Peach Iced Tea. No sugar because I get sugar crashes and weight gain. Peach because the regular has “lemon” which is really just citric acid which hit my stomach and can trigger anxiety (and might effect the intake of my meds). Plus the artificial sweetener is nutrasweet which has an odd bitterness when it ages and starts to break down and the peach masks it perfectly because peaches are both sweet and bitter in odd and different ways. If it is not sweet I don’t finish it and don’t get the dose I want. Further when I am having focus problems opening a bottle of iced tea and chugging it is fewer steps to mess up and get lost in (like putting water in the kettle and leaving it on the unlighted stove for hours - done that - putting the kettle on the stove light and leaving it until all the water has boiled away and the house fills with smoke - done that - putting water on the light stove and absent mindedly taking it off when it whistles and forgetting about it until the water is cold again - done that many times - putting water on the stove to boil standing vigilantly waiting for it to boil - a watched pot will actually boil eventually - poring the water and forgetting to put the tea bag in, or putting it in but forgetting it while it steeps - done it all.

Oh man I can relate to your struggles. Yesterday I forgot my Dexedrine and I didn't eat anything all day because I couldn't figure out how. Then I fell asleep from being tired from not being on ADHD meds, but I hadn't even taken my sedative so I only slept an hour or two. Then I didn't want today's ADHD meds because I hadn't slept, and was hoping I could go back to bed but I'm still starved not having eaten since Sunday night, so I can't sleep. Nor can I function to make food. I guess I just take my meds and get on with it, meaning I'll be awake the next 20 hours.

Non-medical things that work:
Exercise
Acceptance
Change what I can, and what I should.

Externalization

Example:

Missed my daily status meeting at work two days in a row - set 6 daily alarms so i will not miss it again.

Given that I need an additional 5 minutes for setup earphones and testing, I want my final alarm to be at 11:25 instead of 11:30. Schedule:

1. 11:24 (1 minute before 11:25)
2. 11:22 (2 minutes before 11:24)
3. 11:18 (4 minutes before 11:22)
4. 11:10 (8 minutes before 11:18)
5. 10:54 (16 minutes before 11:10)
6. 10:22 (32 minutes before 10:54)

Alarms

1. 10:22
2. 10:54
3. 11:10
4. 11:18
5. 11:22
6. 11:24

It worked. I made my meeting early and had time to troubleshoot my earphones and Microsoft Teams.

Sometimes I manage my ADHD and sometimes it manages me.

And the beat goes on.

It looks like I can't take either of the prescribed ADHD medication because of bad side effects.
They work great for my brain but give my body too much pain to ignore.
What do I do now?

^ look for studies about exercise and ADHD?

when joe insurance stopped covering my ADHD drug, exercise helped me a bit, sometimes more than a bit, but it had to be exhausting exercise for me. exercise that wore me out and made me a sweaty oily stinky mess. anything less had no effect for me.

I have come to accept my ADHD diagnosis in the past couple months. After long doubting it.

I think it's because I am very much blind to my ADHD behaviors? I don't know that I'm not paying attention until people either point it out to me, or I see direct evidence.... like the other day when I bought a sandwich, set it on the counter, got distracted.... came back to the kitchen hours later..... hey, neat, I have a sandwich! Right... I was going to eat that hours ago. Huh.

Yanno.... I've given up on stimulant medication. None of my PHP wants to touch those.... I am on Strattera... or. Supposed to be. Haven't been taking it.

Strattera (atomoxetine) is what I take. It isn’t a stimulant.

That's... what I'm saying. I'm on Strattera because they will not prescribe stimulants.

Right now it can be very hard to get stimulants, even if they will prescribe them. This last time that I got my ritalin refill, I was finally able to get the 5mg tablets that I was supposed to get. The previous one was 20mg tablets to be cut in fourths.

I tried Methylphenidate but it was like drinking water. No effects at all even at the max dosage.
Now, I'm on Lisdexamfetamine 70mg. I feel more active, but my mind is still a crazy monkey jumping through dozens of thought threads every second. I tried to raise to 90mg but nothing changed. And no side effects.
I didn't want to try non-stimulants but I am not sure that this is the effect that I should have.
I know people that find effective mushrooms micro doses but I am not sure if I would try. it's not a conventional path. Has anyone tried?