Basically the title.
Brief background information
After having tried all sorts of Elvanse (lisdexamfetamine) dosages (30, 50 and 70 mg) and noticing nothing at all, I’ve got prescribed with Medikinet 20 mg (Methylphenidate).
The thing
I don’t think I can properly articulate the experience in English, but I’m going to try anyway.
I noticed that, shortly after taking them, I start to feel as if I was on the verge of having a panic attack (maybe that’s a bit dramatic, IDK if I experienced one of those ever anyway). I become incredibly stressed, but for not apparent reason. Not only that, but I could not rationalize the source of my stress/discomfort.
It is an excruciating feeling. Thankfully, it does not last more than a couple of hours. Also, while going through it, I feel tired, exhausted even.
It is weird, very weird.
Trying to relax is futile, the same goes for breathing exercises, distractions etc…
Does anything here make any sense to you?
P.D: Thanks for reading this incomprehensible wall of text, I am currently in this shity state.
I had this exact problem. Its why I stopped using Methylphenidate. What I did find helping was not drinking any coffee or caffeine. I also made sure I ate something shortly after taking it in the morning. This was with XR caps, not sure if it’s different with instant. I didn’t have these same issues with other meds though.
Simulants help with ADHD but make anxiety worse. I had to get off them.
There are non simulant ADHD meds. Strattera and Wellbutrin are options.
Hey fellow ADHD friend! I also had a similar experience. It’s really awful and scary, so I’m sorry you experienced it.
My solution was simple: break each tab into quarters. After I got used to 5mg, 10mg ended up being the dose for me. It takes the edge off of ADHD but without making me feel like my soul had been scooped out with a melon baller.
Of course, this assumes you aren’t on an SR/XL/XR formulation, just straight medikinet.
Go talk to your doctor, that shit is not normal
Already did, got told to half the dossage (from 2 pill to 1, 40mg -> 20mg).
I guess it feels less bad?
For my friend 20 mg was too much. They found out that 15 mg is the best at the moment.
And from the other side of that spectrum, I take the maximum prescribable in my country, 72mg, daily, and it’s been good for me. Though I’ve found that I seem to have a weirdly good tolerance or luck in regards to side effects of medications. I’ve only ever tried a few, out of so many, that caused anything undesirable at all.
Not sure if there are differences between methylphenidates though? Mine’s branded concerta.
72mg, daily,
luck
Lots of money, friend :P But of course I’m happy it works for you!
I’m actually ass broke, really. The luck part is right, though. Happened to be born in a socialist democracy with good care and support for all.
I start to feel as if I was on the verge of having a panic attack
Methylphenedate felt weird and unpleasant the first few times for me too. But once my body got used to it, it essentially just had the ADHD quelling effects of a strong coffee, but better and broader. (When I took a bit too much I also felt like ODing on caffeine). IMO I’d give it a few more tries, although obv I don’t know how bad the first try felt for you.
Damn. :( for me methylphenidate caused massive dissociation and anger, so couldn’t take it. Elvanse is much better and reduces my general anxiety a lot as well as mood swings, but evenings are getting harder and harder because of the crash and also as I’m increasing the dose I sleep worse (I fall asleep fine but wake up several times middle of night).
I realized that a big problem for myself is that I subconsciously focus intensely on anxious thoughts. I feel like Howl in Howl’s moving castle where he summons the darkness upon himself. It was really eye opening to read that difficulties with attention can show up like that.
In the beginning with Elvanse I experienced sudden thoughts/feelings about an oncoming panic attack (!ALERT! 10 SECONDS TO PANIC - 10 - 9 - 8…) but for me realizing that conscious re-directing of attention to something else helped. Then the thoughts seemed to go away at some point.
Also the starting dose (30mg) was too big for me and I’ve slowly been going from 15mg to 50mg. I mix it with water and take it over a course of about one hour so it doesn’t strike so hard and crash is not so sudden. It really wasn’t pleasant in the beginning to try to cope with the intense physical feeling it causes, especially with the attention on IS THIS NORMAL, SHOULD I BE FEELING THIS WAY, THIS CAN’T BE RIGHT -thoughts.
Some people take beta-blockers with Elvanse to reduce the physical uneasiness. For me it helps to a certain degree.
But people are different and not all meds work with everyone.
Figuring out the right meds will likely involve some that don’t work or have side effects. Do you have the same excruciating feeling from both of those meds?
I tried some other ones first, and there was a range of one that made me feel comlletely apathetic about literally everything. Like I just didn’t care about anything at all. Not deprrssion, just detatchment. Another made me angry at everything.
In my case, the methylphenidate was the one that made me feel in control of myself. Thoughts were still coming in on a whim, but I could focus long enough to do something with it. Massive improvement to my life, but I kinda tweeked a bit for the first hour and it seemed to wear off lpetty darn fast. Tried out several dosages and settled ln 20. Tried the sustained release (SR) and Extended Release (ER) versions and out of all of the stuff the 20 ER methylphenidate was the one that I can take which lasts for like 8 or so hours with no jittery feeling and I can focus on what I want to during that time. SR is ok, but doesn’t last as long for me.
If you are taking the standard dosage, I recommend seeing if you can try out the SR or ER versions. They use different methods of slowing down how fast the medicine is dispersed and one may work better than the other. It could also be the dosage or even the wrong medicine for you. But the slower release meds gave me no jittery feeling compared to the regular kind.
Also, if you are ingesting other stimulants including coffee, tea, or energy drinks they can affect how you feel on the meds. For me coffee + non ER dosages were not a great feeling. I do drink coffee with the ER version and don’t have any side effects.
Mediknet felt like that for me, but I had good responses to Ritalin LP and Xaggatin (an off-brand Concerta, which was good despite Concerta not working well for me…)
I looked into it and Mediknet has a much shorter duration than other extended release methylphenidates. My experience was it started too strong, making me feel too racy, and then finished early leaving me exhausted. What made things better was eating breakfast first, and splitting the dose (take half after breakfast, and other half 3-4 hours later).
