Today was my first day on Vyvanse at 30 years old. I've been suffering with ADHD since my adolescent years, but always refused treatment. The last few years, I've felt the effects of ADHD even more so, and I've suffered with bad motivation, bad focus, and what I believe to be a dopamine deficit. I tried so many things to fix it naturally. I did ketogenic dieting for months, did the Huberman sunshine in the morning routine, full sobriety from recreational alcohol, exercise, even quit caffeine cold turkey for 3 months to see if my sleep was the root cause.. I felt like I put in an honest effort to address ADHD naturally, and it was time to try medication.
I woke up this morning, took a 40mg capsule at around 740AM. Laid around in bed until 8AM, opened my laptop and started working. I didn't notice much kick in until maybe 9AM, and then around 10AM, it was feeling strong. I caught up on so many tasks at work that I had been putting off. I was still feeling it pretty strongly until around noon, when I took a break to run an errand. After returning to work at around 1PM, I did sense it was less strong. I still was able to be productive for the afternoon, just with a less drive. By the time it was 430PM, I was feeling like it was gone.
I ate nothing for breakfast (been intermittent fasting until lunch). Had a small lunch. Ended up eating a nice steak dinner. I also made sure to exercise after work.
Overall, it was a good experience. I didn't feel any crazy physical side effects, besides a suppressed desire to eat lunch. I felt very focused with a strong motivation to work all morning, and moderately focused/motivated to work in the afternoon. I feel it benefitted me massively, as I caught up on work tasks that I was behind on for weeks. That initial motivation to do a task that is boring/undesirable is something I've suffered with, likely because of a dopamine deficit, and seeing the medication help with that was amazing.
The only thing I was a bit surprised by was the timeline of the effects. It felt like it took about 1.5 or 1.75 hours to start really kicking into gear. But it also seemed to noticeably diminish after only 4.5-5 hours. I was hoping for something that would be a little more even and power me through the afternoon. My understanding was that Vyvanse should last 10-12 hours.I can't complain too much, as I got a lot done today 😃. Maybe I need to eat in the morning to help it delay its release so it's more evenly distributed.
Overall, great experience, and I can see this medication massively helping me in my career.