I'm 25 years old (f) I've just recently been diagnosed with ADHD. I started Elvanse (30mg) on Monday. First of all I can't sleep at all, I was having two hours sleep and doing all dayers from Monday to Wednesday.
My heart is beating fast and I feel SO anxious about my heart I've experienced quite a few panic attacks this week because of this. When my brain is about to sleep my heart wakes me up with palpations.
I ended up burning myself out on Thursday night I had really high BP and a racing heart I ended up falling asleep at 7am this morning and sleeping all day until 6pm which means I missed today's dose and even still my chest is hurting now! And now I have to do yet another another all nighter to take the medication at 6.30am to stay awake all day to do an a all dayer
I have spoke to my phsyciatrist company and they just say I need to stick to the titration period. So have to take 30mg everyday this week and then go up to 40mg a day next week!! I said to them I think 40mg is going to make me a lot worse but they said to just keep pushing through it!
I'm scared constantly. My questions are:
- does the heart palpitations stop at any time at all?
- does the anxiety get better?
- has anyone else been through this and continued taking this drug?
- does the feelings of stress and irritation go away?
I'm in a really bad place at the moment any help or assistance would be really appreciated.
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jessie-ann96
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Hiya jessie-ann,what i do know is that summat has to change.You can't keep going like this.Can you possibly speak to someone at the NHS website,they'll be able to give you info and suggestions about a way forward.Maybe,you've gotta ease back on your working hours just a touch to take some stress off your anxiety.Maybe if you have some holidays due,you can chuck some in to spread your working week.but please change summat specially right now.Gd luck.
I had none of those side effects. seems maybe you need a different medication. can you find a second opinion, through an online ADHD clinic or another dr? I had better luck working with a neurologist instead of a psych.
Hi I don’t know anything about Elvanse specifically but Im pretty sure that’s a sign you need to change something. I think it’s worth being kind of pushy about it and just putting your foot down and insisting that they change something. Don’t let them push you to a higher dose I’m not really sure that’s going to help. My guess is that you have anxiety along with ADHD and the medication is making it worse somehow which can happen with several other types of ADHD medications.
Hi. I’ve been on meds for 18 months Ritalin, then Dex, then Vyvance. All with different sleep experiences. Switch meds if they’re not helping make life somewhat better over all.
You do not have to increase the dose. You can tell your prescriber that you don't feel comfortable with it, or that you want to stay at the current dose until your body settles down and then you can consider increasing it. Talk with your pharmacist about side effects. They have been a great resource that I've used frequently will navigating meds and side effects.
On stimulants my heart rate resting was about 103 and if I was anxious 140. It's not ideal. My blood pressure was not effected. As long as your blood pressure is staying below 160/x, you're probably okay, but if you go above 160 BP, and that's new to this med, definitely talk with your psychiatrist. Good luck.
Hi, This is a bit random but, do you also take any allergy meds? I was taking Claritin (Loratadine) and it reacts with some ADHD meds and causes sleeplessness and I had something similar when I started my meds, then I switched my allergy meds and it was fine. The Dr didn't even think to ask about over the counter allergy pills and I forgot to mention it during the first consult.
If it raises your heartbeat, it's not for you and you should change brands. DO NOT persist with this one. If your psychiatrist doesn't agree, find another another one.
I had anxiety with Ritalin at first and stopped taking it. I got on anti-anxiety meds first and then started Ritalin again. It really helped me. I have anxiety around taking new meds, so I would have anxiety attacks from anxious thoughts about taking the meds themselves.
first time I tried elvanase I thought I was dying but the focus was wonderful, but the physical dying feeling was enough to come off! I’m on it again and the big change Iv made which has eliminated all that heart beating out of your chest anxiety - and I know you are probably sorted now but just for anyone else! Is no caffine, I was having one instant coffee a day, I had no idea that would be enough to make me feel that awful!
Any doctor who starts you on Elvanse and the dosage is way too high then wants to increase the dose and titrate you higher is either hustling you to be dependent on it so you have to go back to them for more or just incompetent. The starting dosages recommended by the companies that make the drugs are too high. Even then, the therapist should know enough to titrate down not up. I see too many people post when they first start the meds that they are full of energy and away all week on 2 hours sleep each day etc. That is a recreational dose, not a therapeutic one and it not only damages the brain, it also teaches people that a therapeutic dosage is the euphoric one. So people keep chasing that euphoric feeling thinking that is how to tell that it is working.
I am not a professional and obviously my opinion in that context needs to be taken with a grain of salt. And I know it is too late since the original post. But if anyone else is in this situation, tell the doctors to go F-themselves and find another therapist. That dose is far far too high for you and what that really means is they are waiting for the active ingredient which is amphetamine to downregulate and damage the brain enough so that the dosage is then effective. And the worst thing is therapist don't even know that is the mechanism that does it. Then tell people they just need to give their body time to "adjust" to it.
That is the wrong way to do it. The right way is to reduce the dosage to be the right therapeutic dose when too high. Next time you see the therapist ask them what the drug does to the brain in order to make the drug not overly effective and become therapeutic. If they don't give an exact non vagues detailed answer then tell them it's downregulating and internalizing dopamine and norepinephrine receptors, causing ROS to be generated both in and out of the cells leading to cell damage and in some cases apoptosis (automated cell death). Amphetamine also over excites the NMDA receptor of the glutamatergic pathways causing an influx of calcium ions which is ROS and damages the cells and causes more apoptosis as well as an excessive release of glutamate in to the brain. And excessive glutamate triggers extrasynaptic cell receptors of certain types of nerves which is a signaling in the brain for Apoptosis. ..more cell death. The NMDA/glutamate connection is believed by many researchers to be the primary cause of building tolerance. And considering when I took Adderall with Strattera at the same time, Strattera repotentiated Adderall to be affective at a lower dose even after stopping Strattera. Strattera is a week NMDA receptor antagonist, meaning it is a weak blocker of the receptor. And in my best guess, blocking the excitotoxicity of the glutamatergic system from Adderall allowing it to have enough of a break to upregulate downregulated receptors and through neuroplasticity, replace killed off or damaged cells.
As a last resort (check on reddit.com to be sure and see if enough people agree) I think Elvanse (in the USA it's Vyvanse) can be opened and you can mix a smaller portion with applesauce or something like that and swallow it. But do not chew the beads, it would ruin the time release and cause more to be converted all at once. There is a technique to opening capsules without making a mess but I can show people but not explain it well so practice and hope that they aren't too hard to seperate. I'd cut the dosage to about 1/3 and see how that does for you. At that rate you purchase 1 month and get 3 months out of it. Saving money and not ruining your brain so fast. But again, as a last resort.
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