Quote:
Originally Posted by LastQuestion
There's a point at which taking stimulants just causes harmful side effects. I think you are at that point, perhaps even past it. I believe it would be a good idea to begin tapering your dose of Vyvanse by ~10mg every two weeks. You can do this by dissolving it in water. Just take a ruler and mark off even segments in mm with permanent marker. As part of preparing to withdrawal from Vyvanse I asked a pharmacist for a uniformly cilendrical bottle for it and got it and one which has marks measuring in ml. Don't do it with the Adderall though; it will only work with vyvanse. I would suggest stopping the adderall altogether.
Recovering from dependance on a drug can be hard, but I honestly believe you may be closer to addiction, or perhaps it is better to describe it as an 'unhealthy psychological reliance'. Your reliance on amphetamines has brought you to a point where on them you are far from functional and off them you are non-functional due to symptoms of withdrawl. Gradually tapering off will make withdrawal less difficult but it will take several weeks after completly discontinuing them before the one can reasonably expect to have recovered from the prolonged stress caused by using so many stimulants.
|
I think you're correct about a lot of these things- I wouldn't describe it as an addiction but I could easily say there's an issue with dependence. The only thing that confuses me about it is that I don't think I necessarily have withdrawal symptoms because the way I feel without it is the exact same as I felt before I started taking it. Moody, irritable, low functioning status. Do they count as side effects of withdrawal if I had them before I even started the medication?
I have been interested in slowly lowering my dose, I guess I'm just scared and hesitant to. I haven't taken any stimulants for the last two weeks in an attempt to "reset" my tolerance, and today has been my first day back on them, and I didn't take a full dose. Taking tolerance breaks in the past have been a little helpful, but my tolerance is usually back within 2-3 days. I'm on the right track with lowering it, though. I think I'll start lowering this way; I only took about half of a Vyvanse 70 today, about 4 hours ago, and I noticed my energy and concentration were immediately effected, much more than they would've been two weeks ago. If I can keep doing this, taking a half dose, or quarter, etc., and it seems to work pretty well, I should be able to sustain through this month without ending up on 70 mg/day. Of course, medication is always an adventure so there's no telling what will happen in the next few days/weeks.
Thanks for your input, sorry for writing a novel back to you!