For myself, the Elvanse (Vyvanse) is fantastic. It stimulates (I do not have the typical ADHD thing where stims calm down), makes it easy to get started on things, gives me focus, makes me motivated and euphoric.
Since I usually don’t see the 6 hours at school after my son took his meds, I decided to give him some on the weekend (doc said it’s entirely up to us when there is no school). 15 mg slow-release Methylphenidate (Medikinet). We kept it to that one dose in the morning, without the optional instant-release afternoon hit.
The effect was quite shocking:
- He appears to be strongly sedated. It’s like when I take a pretty hard benzo dose. The hyperactivity stops completely, and he just wants to sit on my lap and lean on me / cuddle. Not sure it’s tiredness, though; he still wants to go outside and play and follows through with it.
- Inside, he also does his usual projects. But instead of storming into my office for a quick hug as usual, he waddles in and sits in my lap for a long cuddle. He was very focused on an ambitious Lego project, but that has happened before.
- He does not find it easier to get on an unpleasant task all. Had to clean his room and was as unhappy as always, although I offered to do only a quick unit of work.
- At the playground, it was the first time in weeks that he wanted to get picked up earlier. It coincided with the first day in weeks where all friends were gone early, too, so might not say much. He just sat in the sand and looked sad when I arrived; usually it’s all laughter and dashing around. Maybe just no friends, but then again, he usually finds a quick instant-friend.
So, I’m not happy with that result. Sure makes it easier for the teachers when he is sedated, but the idea was that he could follow his passions like chess and math even better, get tougher challenges at school. Instead, they just gave him As and let him sit sadly in the corner, is how I picture it now.
What do you think, childhood medicated ADHD folks and others?
Additional notes:
- Of course, I’ll keep communicating my and the teachers’ observations with the doc. But medical care is limited; we are so glad that he has someone who writes the prescription.
- The dose was increased from 10 mg to 15 mg for two reasons: 1. 6 hours later, I and the occupational therapist saw 0 effect. 2. The teachers reported a strong decline in effect, after being very happy with 10mg initially. It’s also possible that he didn’t take it properly with enough food and water, or that the generic medicine he got as a replacement is at fault.
It probably is the wrong type of medication for his ADHD case. Sedation like that doesn’t sound right fundamentally.
That was my thought as well. I have a 9 year old on meds. He is able to focus, learn, and talk like a neurotypical while on meds. The main side effect we really notice is he has a wider range of emotions when on meds, gets sad or upset more easily, things like that. I mainly suspect this is due to him being more in tune with the world around him.
Full sedation like the OP is describing sounds like a med or dosage issue. It sucks that there’s not an exact science to this due to differences in physiology.
A wider range of emotions… Seems like what I’ve just experienced on a new Concerta trial of mine (RSDed myself into deleting my reddit account. Hi! This is my first comment here). I was far more emotionally stable on my previous Vyvanse and Ritalin IR doses.
Sorry for the tangent away from the topic. Mods, feel free to remove if this isn’t conducive to the current discussion.
So hard to get useful feedback from a child. I can just observe what I see and ask the teachers. The teachers were happy with 5mg but said that 15mg had no effect. Doesn’t even make sense, so it was probably another factor playing in, such as a topic at school that he liked or not enough water / food during intake. The teachers even warned us to increase the dose unnecessarily, but with all information considered, the doc did it anyway, which made sense at the time.
I’ll try a lower dose myself again so I can give more feedback to the doc, and we’ll see if he needs something else. Pure sedation to make the teachers happy is not the goal here.
I’m an adult, late-diagnosed. If it helps any, my ADHD symptoms seem to come back in full force when I go over my optimal dose. Too much could sometimes be worse than too little (but usually still better than without).
Hydration and vitamins like mg often play a factor as well, but each body is different. Our goal was always to make the childs experience positive on his life. Mainly he needed to be able to stay on a task to effectively learn and grow with minimal drawbacks.
Your situation is rough. Good luck to you, l hope you find the balance they need.
Don’t worry about Mg, all he ever eats is fries 😂
I was put on methylphenidate at that age and I can never really know what the consequences are, but if I could go back and protect myself, I would throw that shit out. I’ve tried a prescription as an adult, but all I ever think about is my next dose. I can’t even manage coffee. I think being placed on stimulants for a bunch of my childhood fucked me up pretty good.
Research shows overall better outcome with medication, if indicated. Fewer mental problems in adulthood etc.
That doesn’t invalidate your experience - certainly it makes things worse for some, better for (more) others. It just says that the average is an improvement.
Does research say anything about the effect on one’s relationship with medication?
I was prescribed Ritalin at age 14 (20mg slow release plus 10mg fast release later in the day) and it had a similar effect in me where I withdrew into my own thoughts. I was definitely stimulated but it was all on the inside. I was able to focus for longer and it felt like my train of thought was a bit clearer and there was minor euphoria in the first 30mins of onset. In the end it affected me too much and I would get headaches from not eating enough so I started only using it to study for exams. But as a young child they won’t be able to make those decisions for themselves.
It’s really interesting to see the different effects that these ADHD drugs have on different people.
I’m a recently diagnosed 49-year-old and I went through test rounds of increasing dosages of both methylphenidate and lisdexamfetamine. I maxed out both dosages and it the effects were so minimal that I couldn’t even tell I had taken anything. I’m not taking anything now., I just manage the best I can with non-medicinal methods.
I don’t really notice any effect of my medication, until I don’t take it one day, then the difference is staggering. On it I still feel like my rather unmotivated, easily tired and overstimulated, hard-to-focus self. Off it, I’m worse on all of that, and so much more.
But I still don’t feel medicated on my medicine the next day when I take it… Unless I skip my usual vitamin c-heavy breakfast, then I feel kinda strung out and even a bit twitchy.
I hope they find something better for you! Lisdexamfetamine fixes my motivation, to get started on a task, and my focus completely, but I’m super confused as always. And since I do 10x as many things with my fixed motivation, I make 10x as many mistakes. Joe Biden on speed, basically.
While I do hope for something that fixes the other things, my quality of life has improved tenfold. But for my child, it seems to just make life for the teachers easier by sedating him, and that’s not worth it. What are they getting paid for?
Vyvanse is the really the best (for me). It is absolutely amazing, literal magic in a little pink pill in fact. My very first dose was a life changing moment for me. If I could stay on Vyvanse 30mg, I would’ve. It had never really lost its magic all this time after all. Problem is, my heart rate is a bit high on it, and my psychiatrist would rather I try out Ritalin LA, Medikinet, and Concerta first before she would attempt any heart rate lowering medications.
I went from barely clocking 2 hours (sometimes less than 1) to regularly clocking over 6 hours of focused work a day.
Same life-changing effect with Vyvanse for me. Did you stop all caffeine, even black tea? In combination, that can really get your heart racing.
What does you child say about? Do they prefer the days with medication or without? A smaller dose might be a good middleway, but I would try to observe and ask about the childs experiences on multiple occasions, with and without meds. One day, with several factors that can contribute to their mood, doesn’t really tell anything.
Good question, and my mistake might have been that I asked straightforward: Do you feel better with meds? Do you like school better? Is it easier to get on a task such as cleaning your room?
He always says: No difference.
Maybe I should ask like: “How interesting was school today?” and then see how it correlates with meds.
I had a similar experience when I was much older. I had ONE good math teacher in 14 years, had him 5-6 and then again 11-12. Strange is that it took me a while to realise how good he is. I just wondered: Why is math so boring all through the grades 7-10, although it is so awesome otherwise?
So, maybe he does feel and grow better, but doesn’t realise it. But there is no proof. Only proof is that he is sedated, which makes the teachers happy, but that was not the goal.
I too suspect that the doc will have him try a lower dose again. Odd with lower doses was that even just 6 hours later, therapist and I saw 0 effect, and that is unlikely with slow-release; should be at least some left. Due to that, the doc decided to give the teacher’s observation (who said low is fine) less weight and increase anyway.
The problem really is that this is not an exact science when applied to individuals. Day A, teacher says he’s doing great, well maybe it’s because it was a classmate’s birthday and he brought cupcakes, and in German they were just reading an interesting story. I say 15 mg sedates him like an elephant tranquilizer gun, but maybe he was just very tired that day.
My fear is that this might drag on for months and years, and on the way, we’ll give up what would have been the solution just because it was applied on a few bad days.
And really infuriating is that in all this that they couldn’t even give him consistently the same exact meds! EUR / USD 1100 / month insurance premium and he can’t have his 20 cents pill!
That is interesting! I’d expect that it is possible that neither helps with ADHD, but should still feel like a strong coffee at least.
Do you feel coffee when you had a coffee break of several weeks?
Yes! I’m useless without coffee :) I feel its effects within 30 minutes or drinking a cup. Neither prescribed drug had the effect that coffee has on me. Maybe old-school caffeine pills are what I should be taking :)
