So I’m in titration and I’m currently on Vyvanse 50mg. I’ve already tried methylphenidate up to around 60mg I think, but they just made me jittery. The Vyvanse doesn’t seem to be a whole lot better. I guess I feel ever so slightly better but it’s somewhat of an out-of-body experience and I feel the crash before the end of the work day. What I really wanted help with was my memory and context switching, and to be able to speak more clearly. I think that might have fixed all the other disorganisation issues, etc.
I’m considering asking to try the non-stimulant ones but I can’t really find anecdotal evidence of their effectiveness. Anyone tried them?
Look comrade, my instant instinct is to dunk on the take mercilessly but I am going to choose to be kind because I really want to share my experience with that approach and that (at least where I live) this is specifically not recommended by psychiatrists and other mental health professionals.
I’m glad this works for you. I have (unconsciously) been doing this for 40+ years and it works until it doesn’t. Maybe it’s the autism’s fault (in that I am unable to interpret bodily cues) but I spent the last 8 years trying to discipline my way out of objectively hopeless situations and recently my body just gave out completely.
To be more specific, instead of just accepting that there are systemic problems in my environment which make it challenging all people, neurodivergent or not, I thought if I just worked harder or longer than everyone else I could Fix It.
Every single professional I am working with to recover is telling me the key to a healthy life is building a life where I am not constantly trying to overcome my disabilities. The cruel cosmic joke is that maybe I can outwork my disability to some extent, but it’s going to literally kill me.
I’m sorry for being immodest but I’m really, really good at my niche job and well known for it throughout the geographic area in which it is relevant. Publications, awards, speaking invitations etc. When I told people I was going on leave the common response is confusion. They see the performance, not the fact that I work absurd hours because I need to check things over and over again and can’t work if people are interrupting me all day (which they do because it’s my job to help them do theirs too). So now my job is to figure out workplace accommodations, which feels more like boundaries for myself and how I work with others.
I suppose that’s exercising discipline too, but not in the sense that I’m masking my disabilities by just trying harder. I hate it lol. But I’m doing it for my family and to be a role model to other neurodivergent people in my field (we are over represented).
(I understand this is a super privileged position and not everyone can afford to say no to masking in this way in our current capitalist hellscape.)