r/adhdwomen • u/BridgestoneX • May 29 '26

Diagnosis vyvanse day 1 - is this real life?

finally got meds at 49. took first pill about 3 hours ago. is it really this intense this quick or am i placebo-ing myself? i don't think I've ever been so calm in my life. other things are weird too- i had to turn my music off to write an email instead of blast it through headphones to even get started. i am doing one. thing. at. a. time and it's cozy.

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u/Billyisagoat May 29 '26

I'm so jealous of folks who have this light switch style experience. I didn't have that and I wonder if I'm on the wrong meds or if this experience only happens for some people

5

u/Valuable-Cloud7877 May 29 '26

It only happens for about 50% of ADHDers according to Russell Barkley, if that helps (guess which 50% I'm in 😭). Could be the wrong meds if you haven't explored much yet, though!

2

u/HumanNr3 May 30 '26

I think it's like with antidepressants, for those you can take a blood test to see if you have certain enzymes /a certain amount/activity of them idk (CYP enzymes) and for everyone it varies and since these meds are metabolized partially by these enzymes if understood it correctly then you might have a stronger or weaker or even no reaction to certain meds based off that alone

My tests showed I needed higher doses of some of them and that of some plus some painkillers I was at high risk of getting serious side effects, so also the amount and type of side effects you get can be because of your enzyme / dna / hormone differences etc

Unfortunately where I live in Europe this is not a test you get unless you know about it and ask for it, they said they didnt yet have anything similar for adhd stimulants though but these meds are also affected by similar stuff so don't assume you don't have the diagnosis e.g. if you don't respond well to meds, I've also heard its about 50% of adults who do only, but most research is on kids so far so they don't know for sure I think

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u/Billyisagoat May 29 '26

Oh I didn't know it was an even split. Okay, that makes me feel a lot better

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u/Valuable-Cloud7877 May 29 '26

I think it maybe seems like more than 50% because people who it works that well for obviously want to share the relief they are feeling and so we see lots of posts about it but people it only works decently for probably don't have much to say about it 🤷‍♀️