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).
Fellow Garmin user with ADHD.
The HRV status feature on your Garmin is meant to track physiological stress. Not necessarily mental stress (although that can affect physiological things.) Unfortunately yes, when I’m on my ADHD meds (currently unable to source my Adderall XR) my HRV status is lower.
But functionally, I’m better when I’m on my ADHD meds. Yes my body has a heightened stress response (i.e. higher HR during the day when I’m on my meds) from the meds, but in my opinion that’s a necessary side effect of the ADHD meds. I’d rather be functional and capable and have a worse HRV than spend hours laying on the floor feeling like I can’t function because of my ADHD.
Your HRV status covers a rolling 4-week average. Given enough time on the meds, it will learn your new HRV trends and stop reporting you as “unbalanced.” It looks worse than it is right now because the initial period of getting on meds is making it look like your system is out of whack. Which honestly it kind of is, as it’s adjusting. Once you figure out the med combo for you, not only will your HRV settle down from getting used to the meds, but the score on your Garmin will also settle down as you spend more time in your “new normal” range.
Basically what I’m saying is: HRV on your Garmin is more intended to track the impact of training and exercise on your body, and not necessarily intended to track how medication changes affect the score. Personally I would take the Garmin readings with that grain of salt: the changes to your score are due to meds rather than exercise, so it’s sort of outside the intended use of the feature. Keep up with the meds and keep up with your normal training, but your Daily Suggested Workouts will probably be a bit easier while it recovers from thinking your status is Unbalanced.
Thanks for your response! What you’ve told me is accurate, and I have always taken all my Garmin measurements with a grain of salt. But the measurements of stress also coincide with actually feelings of immense stress, restlessness, anxiety, and extreme debilitating mental and physical fatigue.
I took Adderall for 2 years, starting with small doses and slowly titrating up after a few months of consistency. Over that time, the symptoms I describe began to start and become more severe. I did in fact have a nice stretch at the start where the Adderall was working well. I definitely didn’t jump ship at the first sign of physiological changes…only at the point where continuing with the Adderall was going to continue negatively impacting my life and work.
In my futile attempt to stop my post from running on and on with these bits of context, I omitted it and posted it…to a forum full of people that thrive on excessive amounts of context.
Okay yeah sounds like maybe Adderall isn’t the right med for you. When I have a period without Adderall and then resume taking it, I’ll have a few days/week where I’m headachey and barely hungry. But if I power through, those side effects will go away.
My psych has said that some people just don’t do well with Adderall and other ADHD meds are better for them. My best friend also has ADHD and she recently started Adzenys, which is a very recent med (no generics yet.) What I’m trying to say is there’s other types of meds out there and maybe something else will work better for you (side effects and maybe less impact on your HRV score.)
honestly, that sounds like overdose and mineral / vitamin deficency, some people will even lose hair because they just dont eat right.
I never understood how this feature on my Garmin, thank you for explaining it!
I like being a data nerd 🤓 Garmin’s help articles are pretty informative, this is the one about HRV if you’re curious for more: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/garmin-technology/health-science/hrv-status/