Newly diagnosed and treating ADHD

[SleepyMomof3]

I am 41 years old and have struggled my entire life with sleeping issues, fatigue, depression, anxiety, OCD and eating disorders. It's been one of those figuring out which came first the chicken or the egg sort of situations and I thought maybe the sleep issues were the problem so the last few years I've tried really hard to correct them. I do have sleep apnea so I started using a CPAP and we've made a lot of tweaks but it never helped my daytime sleepiness nor did I actually sleep better at night. About a year ago I started seeing a psychiatrist to start meds for anxiety and depression and while it helped I still could never say I felt "good." It got a little easier to manage some things and my overall anxiety was down but I was still tired all the time and still had a hard time with day to day activities. Regular followups with my sleep doctor led to an attempt at a narcolepsy meds but after only a few days it didn't seem to be helping me while also raising my blood pressure too high so I stopped.

One of my 3 children was diagnosed with ADHD and I suspect another has it as well. In going through the symptoms I was surprised by how many I also had, but I was NEVER hyper so I discounted it. Something last month made me google "Sleep issues and ADHD in adults" and WOW what I found was so descriptive of me. From there I read a lot about diagnosis in adults and how it can be missed in childhood with kids who had a high IQ as they are better able to compensate in school settings (I was a gifted student). The more I read the more it seemed to fit me to a t, so I followed up with my psychiatrist and he ran through the criteria and agreed that I may have ADHD (Inattentive type).

He prescribed a generic version of Ritalin (methyl-i'm never going to remember the name of this one something) 18mg extended release 1x at breakfast. Right away I was getting more accomplished, having less fatigue (still some) and my memory was improved. And aside from short term insomnia no side effects. After a couple weeks it wasn't as effective but still better. So we followed up and agreed to double the dosage and see how that goes. So far only 5 or 6 days in and I can't believe the improvement. I am accomplishing so much more and making it through the entire day with very little signs of fatigue. My sleep is taking a slight hit that I hope is temporary but I'm even waking in the morning feeling better before I've taken my dose for the day and still have energy in the evening long after it should have worn off. My mood is also vastly improved and I'm feeling more "connected" if that makes sense to my emotions.

I'm worried about the possibility of becoming immune to the effects over time and needing to keep increasing the dosage, but wondering what others have experienced once they found a medication that helped them. Is it normal to have to add more or switch meds? I know I have friends who had similar issues with meds like SSRIs over time. And once on it should I expect I'll need meds the rest of my life? I read about kids sort of outgrowing ADHD, but does that happen for those diagnosed as adults?

Thanks for reading.

[focusme]

Those are great Qs. And as a person who was just diagnosed this year, I don’t have the answers. I’ve also struggled with extreme fatigue and fogginess so it’s interesting to hear your process! Regardless of what the future will hold, congrats on finding something that helps NOW. That’s big!