Looking for advice and shared experiences - ADHD medications stressing my body out
Looking for advice and shared experiences - ADHD medications stressing my body out
Hi everyone! I was diagnosed a few years ago in my early 30s, and started taking Adderall along with some different drugs for anxiety as well.
With Adderall and then Wellbutrin, even in small dosages, I notice that my HRV Stress (recorded on a Garmin 945 Forerunner) is significantly elevated for the entire day. When I used to take a midday and evening dose of (instant release) Adderall, it severely impacted my sleep. I also tried extended release taken in the morning, and that caused sleeping issues as well. So did an extended release of Wellbutrin.
Basically, any benefits those medications provide (and it didn't really feel like it was helping) were offset by the bodily impact.
Has anyone had a similar experience with either of these medications? Any notable co-morbidities or changed metabolism or something that you identified as causing these symptoms? Did Ritalin or Strattera work for you when Adderall did not? I've been cycling through other non-stim medications with my provider, but haven't found anything that provides benefits for ADHD (I'm currently on guanfacine and zoloft, which mitigates my anxiety at least).
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I took a spin on the pharma-go-round about 20 years ago. Went through just about every stimulant on the market over the course of two years. The only one to have a noticeable effect was Adderall... but the effect was panic attacks for routine issues at work. I was done at that point. I rawdogged reality for 25 years, how bad could it get?
Narrator: yes.
I went through some shit this past winter that basically required me to seek intensive mental health treatment. After one psychiatrist (who declared after 20 minutes of talking to me post-trauma that I didn't have ADHD) and one useless APN that worked for the program I was in, I found a psychiatrist that listened... but he wanted to slow-walk the ADHD treatment due to severe depression and anxiety while the SSRI did its thing. After a few months of relative stability he wanted to try Lamictal... which promptly gave me hives. I said fuggit and asked for the DNA analysis. I'm not fond of getting put into yet another big database but shots in the dark take too long.
Sounds about where I'm at as well.
Did you get the results of the DNA test back, and get any valuable information from it?
No results yet, it just arrived yesterday lol. Fingers crossed it has some good info. Feels like I've been in a holding pattern for months.
Wait there is DNA analysis for ADHD?
I think it's more to do with what drugs/classes will be effective/ineffective/dangerous based on known genetic markers. It's not necessarily hard info, but it can inform the direction of treatment. I'm all for skipping as much of the pharma-go-round as possible.
Yeah, I've seen it talked about a fair amount.
Here is one of them, per Google: https://genesight.com/product/