I (25f) am recently diagnosed (April 2023) and still figuring out meds. My primary started me on qelbree which was a total mess and the worst month of my life. After being referred over to a psychiatrist because my doc was uncomfortable prescribing anything other than non-stimulants, my psych started me on adderall. It was a godsend from day one. I noticed an immediate decrease of stress and uptick in being able to actually get things done which helped with a whole slew of related mental health struggles. We have gone through a few different dosages, and I am currently at 15 XR in the morning and 5mg IR in the evening. I am thinking, sleeping, and working better than I have for as long as I can remember, though not without some issues when the drug leaves my system.
Now to the point- About two weeks ago, I went on vacation and the week after was trash as far as the meds working. I felt terrible, and all of the issues that adderall was helping with came back with a bang. The issue has since mostly resolved itself, but I am trying to figure out what caused the problem so that I can keep myself from spiraling in the future. I will include some details below and would appreciate any ideas or thoughts from your experience.
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the vacation lasted 6 days, all of which I took my meds.
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all 6 days, I averaged less than 5-5.5 hours of sleep
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I consumed alcohol the last 2 days out of the 6 with the last evening possibly exceeding what I should have. I do not drink more than once a month usually
-food consumption was normal and I did not eat anything out of the ordinary.
-the last day of the trip, I noticed that I was not feeling as focused with my evening dose. The morning that I left, I was back to feeling like trash mentally as I had prior to starting these meds back in May.
-because I have heard hormones could impact things, I ended my period half way through the trip. I do not remember having any issues following other periods.
Please let me know what you guys think.
Realistically I get 7-7.5 a night since starting the meds. I have only been on this dosage for about a month now. At that time it had only been about 2 weeks. This has let me to think that it was something other than tolerance when paired with the fact that that I am doing better now.
I has a meeting with my psych a few days ago and he was kind of stumped about how I was down for like 6 days after the trip buy am not functioning well again. He said to just go another month and see what happens. I guess I will try tracking.
I wouldn’t expect tolerance to be a major issue after a few weeks, and I would be very hesitant to mess with a dosing regimen that was producing positive results. These are powerful drugs and a minimum effective dose is what you want.
I wouldn’t think an hour less would would make a huge difference either… but perhaps cumulatively.
It certainly sucks to pay for vacation with an equally long period of feeling shitty.
(I’m assuming you meant now functioning well again)
But give it all some time. It makes sense to want to get out in front of the problem, but focusing on the wrong metrics is easy if you’re still defining the problem.
You’ve got a brand new brain, consider the first few months a shakedown run. Have fun with it, but try to creep up on the limits of your performance gradually. Don’t get to discouraged by setbacks, it’s not uncommon to spend months fine tuning the meds… I spent a year trying different medications, usually spending a month or more at the initial dose. And I’ve had the dose adjusted both up and down in the years since.
Definitely bring it up with your doctor if it happens again. Don’t be afraid to point out that it’s happened before or that you’re concern hasn’t been adequately addressed… most doctors are happy to explain their reasoning, they just don’t always expect people to care.