Medication holiday: Has anybody taken a hiatus from medication?

[jonghee]

If so, how did it go? What were your reason for taking a break (by break I mean not just a couple days for tolerance, but as in a full fledged medication holiday lasting weeks, months or even years)? Did you suddenly stop going to the doctor? And how did the doctor react to you stopping/going back on medication? I'm curious, not just to the mindset of the adhd'er, but also the reaction of the doctor in the sense of ethics vs business (ie wanting to keep the patient on meds for the $ from the monthly visit vs being happy for the patient that they feel they can manage without needing an Rx).

[Shnookie]

Once because I was in a bad financial position, I went off all of my psychotropic and ADHD

meds. I was violently ill. Fortunately, my mom was alive then and able to get me to my shrink - who specialized in tweaking meds to balance out the body. I still needed to go on

temporary disabililty from work for a few weeks. When I say I was ill, without being too

TMI, it totally screwed up my digestive tract for about 2 months. Even when I returned to work, my shrink still needed to tweak my meds and at that time I worked a 40 hour week

with at least an hour drive each way to my job. Within the last few months one of the

pharmacists at my drugstore, refused to refill one of my meds on time and I had to wait a few days for this important anti-anxiety meds. Fortunately I had a good friend near me who could bring me food and because there was no way that I could drive, drove me to the

drugstore. It still took my body a few days to readjust. This is a very serious matter,

It is not wise to go off psychotropic and ADHD drugs cold turkey. Please consult your doctor first if you need to lower your dosage. I do not mean to sound overbearing but

going cold turkey has damaging physical and psychological effects

[jonghee in reply to Shnookie]

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear that you had to go through that. I lost insurance a couple of years ago and my out of pocket went from $150/month to $500+ per month. I ended up having to settle for lesser meds instead of the brand name that worked. Better than nothing but not anywhere near what it should be. I feel your pain with the withdrawals. I hear all the hysteria about benzo and opioid withdrawal (which is fair), but hardly anybody talks about withdrawing from ssri's and antipsychotics. Zyprexa withdrawal and Seroquel withdrawal are the most pain and agony I have ever experienced in my life. Nothing comes close. I'm not looking to go off meds, but was genuinely curious of other people's experiences. If I were to go off anything, it would be tapered, although some doctors are not so compassionate in this regard. I've finally developed to courage to stand up for myself and respectfully tell doctors that I'm not putting up with anything that I don't want to.

Take care and stay safe!!

[nooshie444]

Hey! I went on a break from taking Ritalin twice a day for about 5 months and I've started taking it again about 3 weeks ago. I felt pretty okay while I was on a break although I did seem to be more impulsive and risky. Now that I am back on Ritalin I'm having terrible nausea and bad mood swings. In which I never had before but I guess since I took a break starting again has been worse than when I first got put on Ritalin.

[Shnookie in reply to nooshie444]

Perhaps because U went totally off the med, your doctor might want to tweak the amount of Ritalin U R taking. This is a shock to your body. Trust me, when I went off cold turkey from my meds due to financial circumstances I became physically ill. I couldn't eat and probably lost about 12 pounds. But I'm 5'3 and being 106 at that time wasn't great. Also without too much TMI, my digestive track went to hell and I eventually needed to take colace and enemas to get back into a better place. I suggest first trying to regulate the Ritalin and if that doesn't work, have your psychiatrist, try to introduce another ADHD

med but remember small dosages. good luck and for your nausea coke, ginger ale, ginger,

coke syrup and ice chips. If someone mentions Tigan to you I would advise against it.

I was once with my brother and started to vomit and couldn't stop. He pulled and my

primary doctor, who was my family's doctor prescribed Tigan. I took when I arrived home and the nausea went away and I fell asleep. However, when I woke up I had a

MIGRAINE headache.

[Wildbrain]

I expect the experience could be very different for different people but since I'm on hiatus right now I thought I should share.

I just started Vyvance in January and have been off it for about a month. It started because my prescription ran out and I didn't see the doctor immediately. Then the doctor was slow to refill the prescription and most recently I haven't had time to pick it up.

The doctor was not happy that I didn't tell him right away that I ran out. I told him I thought a little experiment would help me understand things better. He scolded me a little for that, saying that it's important to be consistent and I shouldn't be experimenting like this. I never know how much he is motivated by keeping a customer vs actually wanting to help me.

I have been feeling OK but I do generally feel more overwhelmed at work again. That was a problem for me before going on Vyvance and I felt and improvement after taking it. My actual motivation for getting medication was because I was driving my wife nuts and she was threatening with divorce. Our relationship has been up and down still after taking medication. I would say my attitude improved at home. She says she can not tell any difference. And most recently, while on hiatus, our relationship has been really good again. I make ADD mistakes but she is learning to forgive them more easily.

I want to go back on my medication because I think the net effect is positive. Side effects for me are dry mouth, seemingly high blood pressure (face feels flush) and heart pounding. But feeling like I have things under control at work is huge for me. And a better attitude in my marriage doesn't hurt either.

[wtfadhd]

I dont take anything besides adderall and i take anywhere from a 2-3 month break prob every year. The result is that i do poorly in my marriage, my career, in my relationships, and get traffic tickets, n cause car accidents. Why do i do it? Because i dont like being slowed down by meds. Without my meds i am a 100% hot mess and because i lived undiagnosed until 40yrs- i am comfortable being a hot mess sometimes- its familiar. I take meds to appease the neurotype people which dominate the United States. You kinda need to be non adhd in most careers. What does my doctor say? She is perfectly ok with my choice because its my life and my body. I am in the field of mental health and so she knows that i know exactly what im doing and the reasons behind my choices. She doesnt lecture me or try to make me change the way i want to do my life. I am lucky like that. I also pay out of pocket. Also, unlike SSRI’s, antipsychotics, etc- you can take adderall as needed. If you feel like you can stay in your lane n eek thru the day without it, then skipping it is acceptable according to my doctor.

From 30-40yrs, no doctor could figure out what was “ wrong” with me. The result was dx me with bipolar, anxiety, PTSD, and a shit ton of meds. Fast forward past 8 years of hell and i got off benzos and geodon( antipsychotic) and the withdrawal was exactly as u guys already described. Ugh!!!

I have had countless doctors- finding a good one is pivotal. Its a game changer.

[jonghee in reply to wtfadhd]

Wow!! Kudos to you. To use a boxing analogy, you've got an iron chin; to have come off them I know must have been brutal.

You made an interesting point you said that you pay out of pocket. Can you elaborate on that? By that I mean how does it affect things overall? I am going that self pay route and crossing fingers. Thanks for your response!

[wtfadhd]

Hello, what i mean by “ pay out of pocket” ok- i have health insurance. However, The only psychiatrist/ psychiatric nurse practitioners that take my particular health insurance tend to lack an understanding of ADHD. And we all know how frustrating that is. I have a low frustration tolerance To begin with and to be frustrated by my dr who is supposed to be helping me just isnt a good set up! So wherever i have lived ( military moves) i just google a doctor who does private practice, doesnt accept insurance of any kind, and so far they have all been great. Its very expensive, its very unfair, but the alternative is to work with a doctor who is under the umbrella of a large HMO and gets 15 min per client n doesnt know crap about ADHD. Im just not going to put myself thru that. Ive done it and it put me in a tail spin.

Hey, what type of meds are u thinking about taking a break from? Why are u making the decision to self pay/ pay out of pocket?

[jonghee in reply to wtfadhd]

To be honest, I was just curious about the medication holiday in the sense of the doctor's reaction. I have taken medication holidays before, but not by choice; money was the issue. After these breaks, doctors have overhauled the regimen instead of going right back to what I was on before the break, so I was looking to see other people's experiences compared to mine, as I feel in my case, doctors have made things worse. For example, after a couple of months with one doctor, when I came back, he would only rx adhd meds, no depression/anxiety mess. With another, before the holiday, he had me on 2mg of klonopin. After coming back, 1mg of klonopin, and that took months. And it's because of these types of decisions that have convinced me to go out of pocket. With insurance doctors, I have noticed that they tend to gravitate towards certain meds. They have their "go to's" that I'm tired of dealing with. I had a free consult with a cash doctor just the other day, to see if he could work with me based on my current regimen. THAT is ethics and that is why I've decided to go the cash route. The individualized treatment and, in my opinion, the cash model being more honest. Being upfront with prices and charging an extra $100 to review medical records or to prepare a disability report, get a prior authorization approved for you, makes things much less stressful compared to insurance doctors with office staff that can't even keep up with the scheduling let alone get something done for you is something I would choose any day of the week. I feel like in the long run, going cash only ends up cheaper, as you get better quality and results, and faster, as opposed to constant mistakes and lower quality care that you pay for in the long run.