medication for more energy?

I was just wondering if there are any medications that exist that give more energy, I have been exhausted for years and now it's just getting ridiculous. When I check the mail I have to sit down for 5 minutes as soon as I get back inside. I can't move on with things and get out more if I can barely stand up sometimes. I need something to help me, obviously not to solve my problems but to aid in giving me enough energy to begin to do things.
If I got to my doctor is there anything available they can give me? I don't want to go there only to find out there isn't anything.

Have you had a physical or your blood tested recently? You might want to look into getting that done, especially checking your iron levels. If your iron is low, it can make you feel exhausted. Then they'll give you an iron supplement and you should start to feel better.

I don't have any other suggestions, but you should probably talk to your doctor all the same and see what he/she says.

Hope you feel better soon!
Ro

Yes, go to the doctor, you might have a hormone problem and need thyroid or vitamins/minerals, etc. There's all sorts of chemical things that can cause low energy like you describe.

There are prescriptions that are available to help with feeling lethargic. Talk to your pdoctor about it. If the doctor feels that depression or whatever is causing it he may prescribe something to help. I just started taking Provigil for that reason. I have only been on it for a couple weeks. It has been somewhat helpful. I'm certainly not bursting with energy that's for sure.

I have that problem too... I get tired soo quick, which is also do to physical illness. But anyways, my doctor prescribed Wellbutrin, specifically, Wellbutrin XL. It is a bit stimulating, not like Adderall or Ritalin, or anything like that, but it is another SSRI. It has been seen to affect Dopamine receptors as well, making it more potent, and powerful for depression.

It has taken about 80% of my depression away. I don't think of suicide anymore, not all the time like I used to. I solemnly think of suicide now, and hurting myself.. It has helped me for a little over a year I'd say.

I also take wellbutrin, and it has helped me with motivation, I think - it doesn't all feel like such an effort as it did before. Also, I had blood tests done at the beginning of the year, and have been taking vitamin D supplements which I think have also helped - so getting yourself checked out physically first is a good idea, definitely.

Evening, I agree with others--to get your physical condition checked out first. It is not normal to feel so exhausted all the time. It could be a lot of things, such as thyroid, anemia, narrowing of an artery, disrupted sleep due to sleep apnea or another medical problem, etc. My father felt always exhausted when he did simple tasks (such as going to the mailbox), and then had an angioplasty to widen one of his arteries, and then he felt sooooo much better. I used to be anemic and also felt exhausted by everyday tasks.

I take Wellbutrin (which is not an SSRI) and also Vyvanse, which is a stimulant. These have both helped with my energy. However, I think they are masking an underlying medical problem, and I am finally proceeding on dealing with that. I suspect I have sleep apnea (it runs in my family), which is keeping me from getting enough sleep, even though I appear to sleep for enough time. (It is a condition one may not realize one has until a sleep study is done.) The symptoms of sleep apnea aren't so much exhaustion after simple tasks, as you described, but extreme daytime sleepiness.

Good luck. Hope you and your doc can figure this out. This is a very important reason to go see your doctor.

I take Edronax (Reboxetine, which is a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (NRI)) and it has helped me quite a bit with regards to energy. It also has much less side-effects, and definitely allowed my libido to exist again.

I have had complete blood tests done, so it's not thyroid, or vitamin B deficiency

I had a blood test a few years ago, people were giving me crap saying I was tired because I am a vegetarian and need to eat meat, blah blah blah. I decided to get a blood test to debunk their theories, and I was right, I had absolutely nothing wrong, no low iron (in fact I vaguely remember my iron was a little higher than normal but I may be remembering wrong). I am terrified of needles so I ended up being dragged into the clinic by my grandmother, I had an anesthetic patch put on my arm, and had 4 people hold me down. hahaha! I'm such a coward.
My energy levels have gradually gone down over about 10 years or so, when I was a little tacker I was so much different, it's almost depressing to think about. I was the fastest person in the school, I always came first, I would do stuff every day. I think as I got older and things got worse for me and I came to more realisation of the things that were happening, I started to get exhausted. I never ate (because my mum spent more money on alcohol and weed than on food), I was being abused and neglected, I got miserable.
Now it's all taken it's toll. I have to build it all back up again, you know?

That's great you are now feeling motivated to get your health back on track. It's important you go see your doctor for your exhaustion to rule out medical conditions. Let us know how that goes. Are you underweight? (When that happens, our bodies start "eating" parts of themselves for energy that they normally don't. It can really take its toll.) Good luck!

No I'm not underweight, I'm a lot bigger than I used to be. Although it does make me think, when I was still at home I was really thin because I never ate, my mother spent more on alcohol and weed than on food so I'd go entire days with no food. When I was in school I didn't eat breakfast, recess, lunch, from the time I ate the night before until I got home from school the next day, so at least 16 hours every day not eating. I think it all just added up and I got exhausted from what I was living.

Yes, when I first started talking to my doctor about, that I was so tired all the time. The first thing he did was check my iron levels, and to my surprise, my iron levels were off quite a bit. So he prescribed me iron supplements, prescription. It didn't really help me with energy problems that much, but I did see a difference...

Yeah I used to take iron tablets too but they did nothing for me at all, I've also tried those energy tablets from the shop but nothing again.

Iron is the least of your problems if you're vegetarian, it's B-12 that comes from meat products but that's easy enough to get these days if you do dairy/eggs/well-enriched cereals. But I'd look at when it started, the 10 years ago and see what changed back then? That might give some clues. Look at everything from diet, to sleep, to age and activity level; the less we do, the less we want/can do, etc. I use to ride my 10-speed nine miles and up hills. . . back in the 1970's. I'd probably only be able to ride it 10 feet now, LOL. Muscles get weaker if they're not constantly used. One needs to do some strength and endurance training throughout one's life, not just when a child.

I was having these problems of no energy and literally falling asleep everywhere at anytime.I would get up at 6 take my husband to work,come back the drive the kids to school(no ay around that,I share them and there is not a bus from my house) I would be pulling over and napping after I dropped them off b/c the 20 min back home was too long of a drive while I was falling asleep at the wheel...I would come home after like an hour of napping on the side of the road(or in a parking lot) and about 11-1130 I would be putting the baby down for a nap and we would both sleep for a couple of hours. Then at 230 I would be picking the kids up and then I would stop at a playground and nap while the kids played (they are older) I would then sleep for 1/2 hour then drive 20 min to pick up my husband from work then go home and be in bed by 730 just to turn around and do the same thing all over again! This has been going on for about 2 years(always kind of had this problem but not this bad) I have been researching meds and anyway to get some energy so I can be human again. For about 6 months I have been talking to my doctor about adderall and finally after she researched it herself and talked w/ other docs in her office she finally let me try it...It has been 5 days and I haven't napped once! I'm cleaningand cookig again my husband is soooo happy w/ the changes!

I'm not a vegan so I still eat eggs (free range), cheese (rennet free) and although I only buy soy milk for home it does have B12 in it, and I do occasionally have regular milk. That's just one aspect anyway, there are other things to take note of when being a vego, but I won't sit here all day and tell you about everything I eat (but mushrooms do deserve a mention , how I love them so).

I have thought about where it all began, I started getting like this as I gradually got older and became more aware of things happening, I was naive as a child and never noticed things like my mothers addiction or the fact I barely ate, etc., and of course when her abusive boyfriend came along, etc.

Wow I'm so jealous, I wish I could get up and start cleaning my house some more but it's unlikely to happen...

it would be a good idea to get your thyroid checked out by a doctor who knows what he's doing. there are a number of thyroid tests but some are kinda lame so go to a good endocrinologist who does this. it could also be you are depressed or have chronic fatigue syndrome which is a cluster of different disorders that run down the body. going to a good doctor is definitely in order. there are many things that one's diet can't fix.

Isn't provigil given sometimes for fatigue? Or am I thinking of something else?

Yes. My doc wrote a script for that. It does help. You definately won't be bursting with energy. At least I'm not. It just gave me a little bit of a boost so I'd want to do stuff. I guess you could say it kinda helps with motivation. It does poop out on you fairly early in the day. We kept having to adjust the dosage because it would wear off by noon. Last week my doc gave me a script for Nuvigil. It seems to work a little better at a lower dose.

It's very expensive though. A month of the Nuvigil was over $300. I'm one of the lucky few that doesn't have to battle it out with my insurance company to cover the cost. Most don't want to pay for if it's prescribed for an off-label use.

$300? O_O that's like, 3 or 4 weeks worth of food money for me! haha

My husband is currently taking Nuvigil because he has a sleep disorder (hyponarcolepsy) and I think it makes a difference. Yeah, he is not bursting with energy, but when he takes it (he forgets a lot) he is more likely to get through the day without having to take a nap or without falling asleep at the wheel etc. So I think it is helping if only marginally so. When he gets back from Iraq they are going to try and treat his actual condition, but for now he is just using it to treat his symptoms until he gets back and they can figure out how to help him.

Oh and our insurance pays for it as well and it is nowhere near that expensive for us. I am sure it depends on what insurance you have though.

I don't have insurance, unless MediCare is the same sort of thing. I dunno...

When I get a prescription filled I pay for it out of pocket and then submit the receipt to the insurance company for reimbursment. So when I have a script that costs as much as Nuvigil does I have no choice but to put it on the credit card. So that sucks. Not only that but I'm only allowed so much per year in prescription costs. And at 300 for one script a month it won't take long to use up my benefits.