I recently had to stop taking my vyvanse due to some bad side effects and holy shit I forgot how bad this was. I can’t do anything. I have so much shit I need to do but I sit down to do it and it genuinely fills me with dread. I am just staring at my computer. Even getting to the webpage I needed took hours of convincing. This is horrible, even caffeine isn’t helping. What do y’all do? How do you manage?
Honestly? Forty years of practice, anxiety spikes, external motivations positive and negative, fugue states… and I’m still barely getting by. I just paid $600 of late fees because I forgot to file my state income tax ten years ago. I’m sure I did them when I did my federal, I just… never sent it in? I guess???
I have been raw dogging life without meds almost my entire life. There was a 2 year period in high school I did speed, and then when I went to community college my wife shared her meds with me. The other 40ish years have taught me how to deal.
I have alarms for everything throughout my day. I have a routine. I have specific places to put certain things. When I deviate I am screwed.
Same. Lots of systems and a place for everything. EG if I leave the room and want to remember what I was doing when I got back, it’ll be the one thing that’s out of place and somewhere obvious. Unfortunately, it’s easily thrown off by others who forget to put stuff back.
What’s your relationship with travel? I struggle to pack up and mobilize so many systems. It’s been getting better as I develop travel-specific solutions (like having a dedicated toiletries bag that remains packed).
Poorly. I’m unmedicated and trying to get on meds.
I wish you the best of luck, it took me years to get the right diagnosis and then about 7 months to get the appointment with a doc to prescribe me some meds.
Hopefully your journey is smoother than mine was.
My current psychiatrist doesn’t want to prescribe me any stimulants because of the potential for abuse. For the record, I have no, uh, record of drug use. I don’t even fucking drink. I get the caution, but it’s deeply frustrating.
I found my current awesome psychiatrist at growtherapy.com. It took me a couple tries; I honestly don’t know how the first one still has a license to practice. No problems getting Adderall after that (other than the ridiculous hurdles the pharmaceutical industry has put in place). The behavior you are describing from your current psychiatrist is exactly the shit I was trying to avoid, and I spelled that out clearly in my first appointment with my current psychiatrist.
Before I was diagnosed?
Poorly, very poorly lol
It literally felt like I was try to fill a bucket with sand and the only shovel I had was a sieve.
I’d literally have to wake up 5-6 hours before I had to be anywhere just to make sure I could finish my breakfast and coffee before leaving. And then I’d still more often than not finish eating or drinking my coffee in the car on the way.
I feel you on the “Having to stop a med because of the side effects,” before I was diagnosed with ADHD I was diagnosed with anxiety and I tried about a dozen different meds for it ovwr the years before calling that off and just going unmedicated. Funnily enough after my ADHD diagnosis and getting on the meds I am now (Straterra) I’ve only had 1 panic attack in the last year vs one a week or so. And I’m able to start and finish tasks. It’s fucking witchcraft.
It literally felt like I was try to fill a bucket with sand and the only shovel I had was a sieve.
Couldn’t have said it better tbh
Routine, write down EVERYTHING (because anything verbal doesn’t register for me), and struggle through it. I’ve been trying for years to find the right medication, I don’t even know the name of the one I just had to stop due to severe insomnia and dizzy spells. Which has been the theme for every single one where the dizzy spells are so bad, it’s no better than my scatterbrained ADHD brain. Yes, even Vyvanse made me very dizzy; I was so hopeful for that one…
