5 ms·

Are you coming across any habituation issues? I've been taking ritalin for a while (and it has made a huge difference in my life) but it does concern me that m

Are you coming across any habituation issues? I've been taking ritalin for a while (and it has made a huge difference in my life) but it does concern me that my dosage has been slowly increasing.

LoganDark 3y ago
I take dexedrine (which is basically just what vyvanse turns into once you take it), and I have some tolerance after just 3 months. Which is incredibly unfortunate, because my prescription started at 30mg/day because my body is just resistant to stimulants for some reason. Going any higher causes a hypertensive crisis, but tolerance is evil. Why does homeostasis want me to have ADHD again? Wish someone could find the genetic crap that controls this and fix it.
- Baeocystin 3y ago
  Bummer. Thanks for letting me know, though.
  - LoganDark 3y ago
    I've started taking it only once every few days. The 15-hour sleep I get after it wears off is always pretty nice.
    - galangalalgol 3y ago
      My doc told me that the stimulant amd appetite suppressant properties would attenuate quickly, and they did, but that the effect on dopamine and epinephrine reuptake don't show the same down regulation over time. It seems like ahe was righ, a year and a half later I can't tell I'm on the atuff except I can start tasks I find boring. And remember meetings.
      - LoganDark 3y ago
        Well, the problem is that once tolerance builds, I become unable to stay up for the entire day. "The entire day" being from around 4 AM to 8 PM. So my sleep schedule starts to get stupid again. My current routine seems to work around this by re-fixing my sleep schedule every 3 days or so. Before tolerance, I could wake up at 4AM without an alarm, stay up until 8PM or so, then sleep until 4AM the next day, and repeat that for a month or two. Good times. Internal clock actually worked and everything was running smoothly. Makes me wish I didn't require such a dangerously high dose.
brigadier132 3y ago
I have not increased dosage beyond the 30mg they gave me at the start. Every month I try to take 3 days off. I make sure to always take it at the same time every day and I try to sleep as best I can and eat at the same time every day.
elcritch 3y ago
Many ADHDer communities discuss meditation "vacations". Often say on weekends, or perhaps during a vacation, etc.
- heyoni 3y ago
  Drug holidays! One day a week or every 2 weeks for me. Make sure to get lots of vitamins and food during that time.
  - Baeocystin 3y ago
    Do you feel that they make a difference, in terms of tolerance resets? I've tried going no/low-dose on the weekends in the past, but I found it made me feel kind of resentful that I was saving my 'good' time for work.
    - bratbag 3y ago
      That sounds like you have an unbalanced view of leisure time. Do what no-med you wants to do?
      - LoganDark 3y ago
        > Do what no-med you wants to do? One of the big problems with ADHD is usually that you can't complete personal goals and tasks because it's too much effort to switch to it. For example, hobby projects and such. ADHD sort of... disagrees with you over what it finds worth doing versus what you want to do. It can make you feel like you're not in control of your own body, and that can lead to dysphoria and depression, or at the very least intrusive thoughts that you're not doing something that you should be. For example, I've been working on an image upscaler for the past three weeks or so. Would I have been able to do that without my meds? Probably not. I will probably even end up finishing it soon. While I'm writing this comment (and indeed, while I hung out on HN all day today) I've been thinking of the work I'm not doing and then just... being okay with it, because I'm on my meds and I know I'll be able to get to it. I've even been making little steps throughout the day whenever I felt like a moment, but I'm not afraid to take breaks or do what I enjoy at the moment, because I know I have a choice. If I weren't on my meds... it'd be a different story. I'd be at the mercy of whatever my ADHD felt was worth doing, and it'd feel a lot less reassuring. Being medicated during leisure time is important, too.

Are you coming across any habituation issues? I've been taking ritalin for a while (and it has made a huge difference in my life) but it does concern me that my dosage has been slowly increasing.

LoganDark 3y ago

I take dexedrine (which is basically just what vyvanse turns into once you take it), and I have some tolerance after just 3 months. Which is incredibly unfortunate, because my prescription started at 30mg/day because my body is just resistant to stimulants for some reason. Going any higher causes a hypertensive crisis, but tolerance is evil. Why does homeostasis want me to have ADHD again? Wish someone could find the genetic crap that controls this and fix it.

Baeocystin 3y ago
Bummer. Thanks for letting me know, though.
- LoganDark 3y ago
  I've started taking it only once every few days. The 15-hour sleep I get after it wears off is always pretty nice.
  - galangalalgol 3y ago
    My doc told me that the stimulant amd appetite suppressant properties would attenuate quickly, and they did, but that the effect on dopamine and epinephrine reuptake don't show the same down regulation over time. It seems like ahe was righ, a year and a half later I can't tell I'm on the atuff except I can start tasks I find boring. And remember meetings.
    - LoganDark 3y ago
      Well, the problem is that once tolerance builds, I become unable to stay up for the entire day. "The entire day" being from around 4 AM to 8 PM. So my sleep schedule starts to get stupid again. My current routine seems to work around this by re-fixing my sleep schedule every 3 days or so. Before tolerance, I could wake up at 4AM without an alarm, stay up until 8PM or so, then sleep until 4AM the next day, and repeat that for a month or two. Good times. Internal clock actually worked and everything was running smoothly. Makes me wish I didn't require such a dangerously high dose.

brigadier132 3y ago

I have not increased dosage beyond the 30mg they gave me at the start. Every month I try to take 3 days off. I make sure to always take it at the same time every day and I try to sleep as best I can and eat at the same time every day.

elcritch 3y ago

Many ADHDer communities discuss meditation "vacations". Often say on weekends, or perhaps during a vacation, etc.

heyoni 3y ago
Drug holidays! One day a week or every 2 weeks for me. Make sure to get lots of vitamins and food during that time.
- Baeocystin 3y ago
  Do you feel that they make a difference, in terms of tolerance resets? I've tried going no/low-dose on the weekends in the past, but I found it made me feel kind of resentful that I was saving my 'good' time for work.
  - bratbag 3y ago
    That sounds like you have an unbalanced view of leisure time. Do what no-med you wants to do?
    - LoganDark 3y ago
      > Do what no-med you wants to do? One of the big problems with ADHD is usually that you can't complete personal goals and tasks because it's too much effort to switch to it. For example, hobby projects and such. ADHD sort of... disagrees with you over what it finds worth doing versus what you want to do. It can make you feel like you're not in control of your own body, and that can lead to dysphoria and depression, or at the very least intrusive thoughts that you're not doing something that you should be. For example, I've been working on an image upscaler for the past three weeks or so. Would I have been able to do that without my meds? Probably not. I will probably even end up finishing it soon. While I'm writing this comment (and indeed, while I hung out on HN all day today) I've been thinking of the work I'm not doing and then just... being okay with it, because I'm on my meds and I know I'll be able to get to it. I've even been making little steps throughout the day whenever I felt like a moment, but I'm not afraid to take breaks or do what I enjoy at the moment, because I know I have a choice. If I weren't on my meds... it'd be a different story. I'd be at the mercy of whatever my ADHD felt was worth doing, and it'd feel a lot less reassuring. Being medicated during leisure time is important, too.