16 year old DD starts vyvanse Tomorrow

[Anonymous]

DS 21 started vyvanse a year ago. Previously took ritalin or focalin, tried adderall and concerta long ago with too many side effects. He loves vyvanse - few to no side effects, can focus well, and doesn't feel as though it mutes his personality, which was his complaint about ritalin. He takes 10 mg on days he has classes/lots of homework, a bit more when he's got exams, and none on the weekend/vacations. He was abroad in the fall and didn't take it at all, after two semesters of using it. So for him, not addictive, not like meth, not leading to bad side effects.

I think, as with all stimulants, the efficacy and side effects vary with the individual. Start low, go slow, and hope for the best!

[Anonymous]

Okay thanks, good thing is that she doesn't drive to school. I just texted her and she said she feels focus she taking 36Mg

Anonymous wrote:

OP - From all shared your daughter needs to be starting on a very small dose and under the direct care of a psychiatrist rather than a PCP or a Nurse Practitioner, and you need someone willing to hear from you regarding any side effects. No driving until you are sure she is stable with using the drug. At age 16 she also needs to understand any and all side effects so she can accurately report them to you.

[Anonymous]

36mg? That is strange dose...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's fantastic for me. I tried a plethora of ADD drugs beforehand.

Keep in mind that unless she is GENUINELY add DO NOT have her take it.

Vyvanse is a powerful drug and I find that once I took it for a while I could just not function the same without it. I know they say it's non addictive and all that but- from my personal experience and those of my friends- I feel like a brainless zombie now when I dont take it.

So if I didnt have severe ADHD and really needed it just to function, I never would have started.

Like I said, it's a powerful drugs. It makes your heart race. It's akin to drinking ten energy drinks at once but without as much of the jitters.

I have a friend who did meth and he said vyvanse feels the exact, EXACT same. And it is an amphetamine.

So like I said, while I am happy with my vyvanse because I need it, I would never take it if I didnt truly depend on it.

I have tried to go off it several times over concerns about it making my heart racing and other things and it's really hard for me to quit now because of how dependent I am.

So if your child is ADD, GENUINELY, I say go for it. If she's doing it just for a performance boost, then I would say there's no way in hell it's worth the side effects.

This person does not have ADHD. Either they've been mistakenly prescribed the medication or they're one of those anti-medication anti-vaccination nits.

Vyvance didn't work for my child but Concerta does and Adderral works for me. Her initial does will be small enough that any side effects will be minimal.

If by "this person" you meant me, the PP, then I most certainly DO have it. I actually got prescribed at 11, so unless all my doctors have been wrong for the past 20 years, I HAVE IT.

Anyway, I would think that would be obvious by how scattered the thoughts were in my original post, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:36mg? That is strange dose...

Soory 30Mg

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's fantastic for me. I tried a plethora of ADD drugs beforehand.

Keep in mind that unless she is GENUINELY add DO NOT have her take it.

Vyvanse is a powerful drug and I find that once I took it for a while I could just not function the same without it. I know they say it's non addictive and all that but- from my personal experience and those of my friends- I feel like a brainless zombie now when I dont take it.

So if I didnt have severe ADHD and really needed it just to function, I never would have started.

Like I said, it's a powerful drugs. It makes your heart race. It's akin to drinking ten energy drinks at once but without as much of the jitters.

I have a friend who did meth and he said vyvanse feels the exact, EXACT same. And it is an amphetamine.

So like I said, while I am happy with my vyvanse because I need it, I would never take it if I didnt truly depend on it.

I have tried to go off it several times over concerns about it making my heart racing and other things and it's really hard for me to quit now because of how dependent I am.

So if your child is ADD, GENUINELY, I say go for it. If she's doing it just for a performance boost, then I would say there's no way in hell it's worth the side effects.

Agree with PP and PP's advice -- Vyvanse is totally addictive; seemingly in a way that Ritalin and Adderall aren't.

I too have a close adult friend and two adult relatives who are totally dependent on these pills. Started taking them later in life, because of course Vyvanse didn't exist 20-30 years ago when they were kids.

They candidly will tell you they can't function anymore when they don't take their pills. This is the disturbing part, if you think about it: prior to getting that first script for Vyvanse, all three WERE able to function, get out of bed, go to college, have kids, go to a job, perform their job. Maybe not optimally, and not as well as a person without ADHD, but they DID function.

Now, all three are a complete zombie, dragging mess if they run out of their Vyvanse script or forget to take the pill in the morning.

That kind of dependence on a performance pill gives me great pause. I'd look for a different pharmaceutical

That's exactly how I feel. When I say a zombie, i mean literally cannot get out of bed sometimes, as you described.

For example, I used to work in an office job, and the lack of sleep from vyvanse (another side effect) became too much, so I tried to go off it.

My bosses started asking around the office to my friends, asking if I were on drugs (!) at work, because I was dragging so much.

I think they thought I was taking some kind of downer, like a benzo, or maybe just weed? But they seemed to think it was pretty serious, and brought it up to me.

So... that's the difference. That never happened when I was on concerta for years, or adderal. Although concerta had other bad effects, like I would feel very inhibited and antisocial when on it. So, it's a trade off really.

But if I could do it again, i dont think i would go on it, because my ability to function without it has gone down so much.

Then again, I have resigned myself that I will probably use it for life now and have finally reconciled with that. I am severely ADHD, like off the charts, so while it's a bummer, i just kind of reason that that's the price I pay for having this particular affliction.

But like I said, if it wasnt necessary for me at this point, if my ADHD weren't quite severe, then I wouldn't be on it.

[Anonymous]

Well I'm glad I never asked about vyvanse before we started it or it would have scared me to read these responses.

OP my daughter is on it and it has been a godsend. She's been on it for years. Sometimes meds don't work for everyone but this one has a much higher than average success rate.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Well she told me that it worked for 1st block but she lose focus after 2nd block. I told her to wait a couple weeks to see what's going on

Anonymous wrote:Well I'm glad I never asked about vyvanse before we started it or it would have scared me to read these responses.

OP my daughter is on it and it has been a godsend. She's been on it for years. Sometimes meds don't work for everyone but this one has a much higher than average success rate.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well I'm glad I never asked about vyvanse before we started it or it would have scared me to read these responses.

OP my daughter is on it and it has been a godsend. She's been on it for years. Sometimes meds don't work for everyone but this one has a much higher than average success rate.

Good luck!

how long did it take her? MY DD said she was focus for the 1st block and half of the second block. She was not hungry at all she didn't even want to eat at McDonald's

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well I'm glad I never asked about vyvanse before we started it or it would have scared me to read these responses.

OP my daughter is on it and it has been a godsend. She's been on it for years. Sometimes meds don't work for everyone but this one has a much higher than average success rate.

Good luck!

Agree. DS13 on for several years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Beware of the Hypersexuality. This caused so much heartache in our family. My daughter was 15 when she started. We didn't realize it was the problem for a couple years. Or part of the problem, anyway.

Can you go into more detail. I feel like this is the same for my child but psychiatrist doesn’t agree

[Anonymous]

works very well on my younger DD - wishing you some great results.

[Anonymous]

My DS is on Vyvanse. He has no side effects other than mild appetite suppressant. It doesn’t make him feel jittery or impact his sleep. It helps him feel calm. I think medications impact people differently. He tried Adderall first and it was a bad match for him.

[Anonymous]

I have two now adult kids who have taken it for years with no issues and it worked very well for both. One of them is now in a job that is more suited to his presentation of ADHD, so he no longer takes it. Not to disparage anyone else’s experience, but he had no issues stopping it.

[Anonymous]

I have been on Vyvanse for years and it has been incredibly helpful with little to no side effects.