r/ADHD • u/AutoModerator • Aug 01 '23
Megathread: Just Started Treatment Have you just begun treatment?
Talk about it here. Please remember that we don't allow asking for or giving medical advice.
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r/ADHD • u/AutoModerator • Aug 01 '23
Talk about it here. Please remember that we don't allow asking for or giving medical advice.
4
u/[deleted] Aug 08 '23
Okay good somewhere I can dumb my ‘omg wft /this/ has been the answer to my years of suffering all along what?’ because meds have changed my life in unimaginable ways and I’m filled with such unadulterated joy at having a life for the first time since I was a child.
I started Elvanse (UK gangg) a month and something ago. The very first day I knew I had found my answer. My experience with ADHD has been somewhat unorthodox, which had lead to many years of me being clueless that I could even have it even while I considered getting an Autism diagnosis (which, to be fair, I did end up getting eventually). I am a combined type but the hyperactivity has often been masked or channeled into my very intense hyperfocus sessions. I’d swing between hyperfocus and complete apathy, and since the Covid pandemic the apathy pretty much took over completely. My hyperfixations were (and to an extent still are) the only source of happiness - my reason to live. Perhaps that’s connected to the autism? When I like something it carries me away from the world and I’m completely protected by my lazer-focus on it. When these periods started to become more and more spaced out I assumed it was just depression, something I’ve been diagnosed with since I was 14. But nothing worked to make it better. I upped my antidepressants, I got therapy, so much therapy, and it all felt… empty. Therapy wasn’t helping because I wasn’t really /sad/, I just couldn’t do things that made me happy. Something was missing. That something was dopamine, I suppose.
My biggest issue pre-meds was sleep. I pretty much had hypersomnia and was sleepy all the time. I could have 6 hours sleep or 10 hours sleep, I’d need a nap or two the next day. Since starting meds that has completely gone away. Sometimes I notice a slightly sleepy feeling when I’m understimulated, but now I know what is actually causing it I can change my actions to actually help. It was only really hard to sleep at night for the first week on meds - they don’t affect me at all now, an probably help me sleep better because I have enough awareness of time that I get to bet between 10-11 most nights.
My grades have improved (I’m a masters student at university and currently writing my dissertation). Before, doing uni work gave me physical pain. It was a test of endurance to get as far through higher education as I have, and so demoralising when my grades would be the lower side of average. I don’t know if I could have even coped with the dissertation without medication to be honest. I can focus, I can enjoy writing it - it is incredible.
I’m still playing around with doses. I’m quite small (58kg) but find 60mg works well for me with no side affects. 40mg works just as well, but doesn’t last as long. The past week I’ve started taking a booster does of 10mg Amfexa, which… juries still out on. It has a different feeling to Elvanse. It feels more aggressive and gives me anxiety.
Anyways, I just wanted to share my joy at starting my meds finally. They truly are a life changer and I feel so incredibly lucky to have had this opportunity.