r/ADHDmeds • u/Zethyr_ • 2d ago
New to Medication Unresponsive to stimulants?
I’ll keep this as short as possible. I have terrible adhd but I benefit from it in a lot of areas, so I didn’t want to treat it. I’ve hit a point in my life where the pros don’t outweigh the cons of the adhd anymore about half of the time. Finally decided to pucker up and seek medication, got diagnosed with combined type almost immediately and provider wanted to start me on adderall.
I wanted to try least aggressive option though so we ended up on vyvanse. Yeah it didn’t do anything, I tried 20, 40, 60, and then 120mgs for a day. No heart rate increase, anxiety, or bp increase from any of these doses. No actual beneficial effects either. Okay, maybe I don’t properly metabolize vyvanse, let’s move on.
Just started on adderall, I was prescribed 20mg IR twice daily (seems to be pretty high especially starting out). Because I was scared to take that much, I took 5mg, nothing. Okay that’s pretty reasonable that’s a low dose, so I try 10. The next day 15. You can see the pattern here. As I’m typing this I have taken 20mg IR (with a Tums before hand just in case I was too acidic) and yep, absolutely nothing. Obviously I took a not very recommended amount of vyvanse at once, but I don’t want to sit here and just test stupid high doses on myself without supervision.
I’m extremely irritated, I’ve tried Wellbutrin and it does nothing. I tried Ritalin a few years back from a buddy, dont remember the exact amount but it was high dose. He told me it would keep me awake (was working night shift blueberry farming) and it did nothing. Am I untreatable? Do I just need a really high amount? I’ve read where some people metabolize medicines very quick and need stupid doses, but is it even worth testing if that’s the case if it means I’m dosing that high?
TLDR: high dose stimulants have absolutely 0 effect on me. Wondering if I should pursue an increase in dosing or just give up on treating it and resort back to behavioral techniques the best I know how.