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I was diagnosed at 24. Was shocked honestly bc I thought it was about hyperactivity. I have been on adderall ever since except when I was pregnant. It made me upset to realize how much better I could have performed academically if I had been diagnosed when I was younger.
/ did you have to give up drinking?
Diagnosed at 20. One of the things with young girls is that hyperactivity can be in the brain and not how we stereotypically think of it as a society. Plus when you do well enough in school no one seems to think there could be an issue. The past 18 months have been really hard for a lot of people with adhd diagnosed or undiagnosed. We need structures and routines to help cope with the symptoms but aren’t really capable of creating them ourselves a lot of times because of executive dysfunction. ADHD brains are dopamine deficient and meds help regulate that.
I did. I had a TBI that resulted in lots of ADHD symptoms at 25. Started taking a stimulant when I was about 27 and have been on one for about ten years. Can't imagine not having them.
Yes there can be negative side effects to medicine, but in my experience it meant it was the wrong medicine or too high of a dose. Vyvanse at too high of a dose made me forget to eat, and would even make me gag when trying to eat. Even at a lower dose, I thought it was doing well and it was making me anxious that made me start nervous habits like playing with my hair/picking at my nails.
I tried Adderral extended release but I would feel like I crashed at the end of the day. I tried concerta and it made me feel WEIRD like floating on the ceiling weird.
After working with a great psychiatrist I pretty much have my medicine worked out now: even lower dose of Vyvanse and a small dosage of adderall in the afternoon.
It’s good to talk to people about their experience with medicines but also remember that everyone has different needs. Somehow concerta works for people but I have never felt weirder than when I was on that pill 🤷🏻♀️
I got on meds at middle-age. I had quit my BigLaw job several years earlier because trying to work 2000+ billable hours was destroying me. I had previously been thriving at 1600-1700 billable hours, getting great reviews and raises, and loving life. After several years of officially lower billable hour requirements at other firms thereafter, I realized that the lower official billable hours requirements didn’t mean lower worked hours, just lower pay, and I was getting suicidal. I knew I had to get back on the BigLaw mouse wheel financially, but also knew I needed something to help me be successful at 2000+ billable hours. After some research, I decided that Adderall was what I needed. Through my research, I also discovered that maybe I had undiagnosed ADHD. The symptoms matched my struggles, but my high performance in academia and career prevented any serious consideration that I might have a problem. Until I came across the BigLaw requirements to work 2000+ billable hours. My coping mechanisms I had developed on my own throughout my life had gotten me through until then.
My doctor prescribed Adderall extended release plus an afternoon booster Adderall pill to keep me going after I would crash from the morning pill wearing off. The first time I took my meds, I was amazed! I suddenly felt like I always thought I should feel, how it looked like other people feel, how I wanted to feel. Happy, enthusiastic, positive, focused, etc. No longer suicidal. I secured a new high pressure long hours job in a large law firm and was getting praise for my performance and billing at a pace of 2200+ hours. There is no way I could have worked those frequent 40+ hour “days” without sleep without the Adderall. I ended up leaving the job though, which I never thought I would when I went back. Adderall or not, it’s still a very toxic environment.
I had to experiment with getting a set of meds dialed in before I felt like I wasn’t risking my health on Adderall. Adderall raised my BP and drastically increased my migraines. I hit over a dozen migraines per month after starting Adderall. My neurologist put me on propranolol to help prevent my migraines. It did the trick, as my migraine frequency dropped to levels even lower than before Adderall (0-4 per month) and my BP returned to normal, even when on Adderall. There was a scare as I experienced an ocular migraine for the first time in my life while ramping up my propranolol dosage. After numerous brain CT and MRI scans, neurologist and other specialist visits, it was finally determined that I didn’t have a stroke as the first neurologist and radiologist I saw had diagnosed, but just an ocular migraine caused by my most recent increase in propranolol dosage. It is ironic that I was increasing the propranolol dosage to prevent migraines. Which it does do very effectively for me, but the change in dosage had the side effect of an ocular migraine. In order to sleep at night while being alert in the daytime, I need to not take my booster Adderall pill too late in the afternoon, and I need to take my propranolol with melatonin at night. I had previously quit drinking because it contributed to my migraines.
I can’t imagine life without my ADHD meds now. I once had to go 4-5 days without them over a holiday weekend because of a perfect storm of state laws limiting access, my doctor’s holiday vacation, my medical practice group’s prohibition against anyone but the original prescribing doctor prescribing a refill, and my pharmacy’s policy against filling a legally valid prescription on the last day it can be legally filled. I was worried about what being without my meds that long would do to me, especially while I was dealing with the emotions of losing a loved one that had just passed away, but I made it through. I suggest getting refills as early as possible and trying to build up a stockpile to carry you through unexpected periods when the various rules and policies converge to prevent you from getting access to the meds you need.
@OP, it took about a year before I settled on a mix of meds and dosages that worked and understood what happened with the ocular migraine. Even then, the meds aren’t perfect, so I’ve still done some tweaking on the Adderall dosages and trying to skip the afternoon booster when I don’t need it. Plus my insurance initially refusing to cover Adderall, then only covering the name brand and not the generic, then only covering the generic and not the name brand, kept me moving from generic to name brand and back to generic. I discovered that my body responds slightly differently for some reason, so I ended up increasing my generic dosage about 20% compared to name brand dosage to compensate. During that year of working on the dosages, I monitored my blood pressure about 4 times a day after my doctor discovered how high Adderall had made it rise. The nurse was really worried, but there were extenuating circumstances with that reading, and it was lower at the end of my appointment. I wonder if my doctor would have taken me off the meds if it hadn’t gone down by the end of our appointment. She was considering changing my meds, but gave me some time to monitor my BP daily before taking that action. In the meantime, my neurologist put me on propranolol and that helped a lot (except for the ocular migraine incident). I had thought of maybe trying Vyvanse instead, but I’m just not sure I want to go through another period of dosage experimentation.
I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 19. I think it definitely presents differently in women and the typical hyperactivity that is often seen in young kids isn’t always apparent in females. Definitely worth talking to a doc about.
I was diagnosed at 26 and i perform 1000% better now that I’ve acknowledged it and am on adderal.
Love this. Any bad side effects? Did it take a while to get the dosage right?
Diagnosed in my late 30s (after I made partner). This job is a hell of a lot easier when properly medicated.
Started meds as a 28F (undiagnosed until then). Also worked with an adhd coach to manage symptoms. Life changing. Also highly encourage therapy to deal with some resentment and self esteem issues that came from having untreated adhd my whole life but still being functional enough to land in big law at 28. The stimulants I'm on (concerta) don't seem to have many negative side effects for me and have helped me better manage my anxiety.
Also looking for info on the ADHD coach!
Diagnosed at 31. So far, it's working well.