I should put this here and not facebook for long-term tracking reasons.
I’m a little over 3 weeks into the trial of lisdexamphetamine now.
I would say the main thing that is helping is that I am less willing to attempt multi-tasking to the point of frustration meaning I am blowing up less. I feel less anxious about all the things I “should” be doing at any given point. I have a long to-do list but I always have a long to-do list because I have a chronic need to believe that working is how I earn my right to breathe.
I think I can say with confidence that this is the best-for-me psychiatric medication I have ever tried. I can see how this would have helped me when I was younger and I have really intense feelings around the fact that no one was ever willing to look for a reason other than “trauma” to explain my behaviors as a child.
How different would my life have been if I had been diagnosed with ADHD and ASD as a child? The signs were there but I never stayed in a school long enough for them to see patterns. They just knew I acted inappropriately and assumed it was all because of the family issues.
Can’t change the past. I can can only move forward. I suspect this is going to be a medication I am on for as long as cannabis isn’t legal here. It is the closest to what cannabis gives me of anything I have ever experienced. I love being able to do one thing at a time without my brain constantly jumping between 6 different tracks. This is pretty rad.
I am going to sleep later than I was before starting this trial but I am getting the same number of hours of sleep so I think that’s not so bad?
Also: I have lost 10 lbs in 3 weeks after this weight not budging for the entire time I have been in Scotland. I am eating as much as I feel like I want to eat. (Interestingly I crave snacks more at night when I take amitriptyline earlier than usual…) I think the weight loss is because there are fewer cortisol spikes with the lower anxiety level. Ok… also probably because I am drinking less alcohol because I can’t “feel” it with this medication so it seems kind of silly to have it.
Good to hear that they have given you something that seems to be working out well. It’s a shame about the marijuana not being legal though, I would have thought the UK would be more ahead of the curve than that
Well the US war on drugs has kind of fucked the whole planet. There is hope of it being legalized here and I think it would happen faster with Scottish Independence so I’m crossing my fingers.
🙂