I am recording my first experiences taking prescription amphetamine.

I was prescribed Dextroamphetamine Sulfate TABLET 5 MG

This medication is prescribed for ADHD and narcolepsy. I do not have ADHD. My indication is to help counteract excessive daytime sleepiness. So it was basically the psychiatrist giving me the dx of narcolepsy although I had not been properly tested for it and in March 2023 one sleep medicine doctor told me that he could not test me for it unless I went free of all psych meds for three weeks which is impossible. I am thinking of going to talk to my neurologist about all of this; narcolepsy is, after all, a neurological disorder. In me, it started immediately after I contracted COVID in August 2022. I wonder if this might be Long COVID but of course no one knows about about Long Covid to advise me.

So last night I went to bed at 10:30 PM. Before I went to bed, my blood pressure was high, a known side effect of amphetamine. It was 128/89. Earlier yesterday, it had been even higher, 132/88. My baseline is normal to low so for me these numbers are very high. I hoped last night that overnight the blood pressure would go back to baseline.

I felt asleep around midnight and slept for a stretch until 3:11 AM without waking up to pee. For me, it is a long stretch to sleep uninterrupted.

Then I woke up with severe hunger pangs. I got up, drank kefir and ate farmers' cheese with dried fruit. Luckily that quickly quelled the hunger pangs and I was able to go back to sleep.

I then woke up at 6:34 AM from a very vivid and insightful dream which was almost like being awake. I did not need to be up to early and I was astonished that I woke up and seemed well slept. I wanted to sleep more, though, and turned off my 7AM alarm and instead set an alarm for 8AM and put on Yoga Nidra on YouTube. I was able to fall asleep. When the alarm went off at 8AM, I did not feel rested, but I made myself get out of bed. It took me some time, though.

I measured my blood pressure. It was normal, 103/73. I was glad.

I then took another dose of amphetamine. It slowly started working. Initially, I felt like going back to sleep, but the need was not overwhelming and was able to pull through. But 30 minutes later, I no longer felt sleepy. I looked forward to going into the office. I applied clobetasol, sunscreen, and even brow and lash mascara which I do not do often.

At work, initially I felt that it was nothing short of a miracle, how alert and perky I felt and now not at all sleepy or tired. But in the late afternoon and evening I started feeling wired in the heart area and still do, even though the short-acting medication is by now out of my system. I do not like this feeling and I do not know how I will be able to put in hours of focused work while having this feeling.

My blood pressure now at 7PM is 132/82, pulse 78. I hope it goes back to normal overnight again.

I hope that I will be able to fall asleep tonight. I have a meeting at 9PM with a colleague who is in India and I plan to go to bed at 10PM sharp. I also hope that I won't wake up before 7AM.

My Oura ring showed for last night a total of 5 hours 50 minutes of net sleep and a low sleep score but I was able to have a productive day. Before amphetamine, there was no way I could be functioning without a least 7 hours of net sleep and usually more. But I do not know if this will last. Time will tell.

My friend who liked prescription amphetamine when he took it in the past but ultimately did not need it because Modafanil, a milder stimulant, worked just fine for him, hopes it will work for me but reminds me that often medications start working for me but then stop. True. Even Modafanil worked wonders for two days in October 2022 and then stopped. Now I can take Modafanil in the morning and go back to sleep right away. It does nothing at all to promote wakefulness. It is like a sugar pill.

The leaflet accompanying Dextroamphetamine warns of new or worse bipolar illness and mania. I will be watchful.

For now, I just hope to survive next week. I am organizing and event at work and will need to be in the office early in the morning. With this medication, this finally seems possible.

ETA: while amphetamine is working, one does not feel hunger and forgets to eat, but then hunger comes back with a vengeance.