Anyone else? | ADHD Information

Alex is 23 and has gone off all his meds by choice. I will ask his mother what options they were given.

 

I am 28 years old and was diagnosed with ADD about a 1 1/2 years ago.  I have had trouble the whole time getting the same medication to work for an extended period of time.  What I mean is Adderal XR or Vyvanse work great at first, then after a few weeks they lose effectiveness and the dosage has to be increased to maintain the effectiveness.  Also compounding the problem is that I metabolize medication quicker than most.  I have been on Vyvanse 70mg 1x a day, 2x a day and 3x a day.  Then I my doctor switched me back to Adderal XR and the same the thing, effective for a while then the effects diminish.  Currently I am on Vyvanse 70 mg in the morning then I take 30mg at 11 am then 30mg between 2 and 3 in the afternoon.  My sleep is not interupted, I usually get about 7-8 hours a night.  This morning I had to have some caffeine to get going because the 70 mg did not cut it.  I would like to stay on Vyvanse because when it works, it works much better for me. 

My Doctor is very good and has many years of experience working with adults and children with ADD.  He works with me and listens to what I tell him.  I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this and if so what worked for you?

You may need to go to an Endocrinologist to have your adrenal gland checked out. My friend's son kept having to raise his meds levels to dangerous levels. After some testing, the doctor found he had an overactive adrenal gland that just burns his meds up rapidly.

Ask your doctor about it.

P.S. Welcome to the forum, this a great place to ask questions. No question is silly or dumb.

Thanks for the advise.  I had never heard of that.  I have always had to take more medication than is normally prescribed to people.  I had just always assumed that it was because I am 6' 5" and weigh 240 pounds.  Did the person you are talking about have to start by taking a high dosage or did they just a tolerance very quickly?

Thanks for the welcome.  I have been reading the forum for about a year.  It has been very helpful.
Alex is close to your height but skinny and has always been that way. It is the same way you describe. They would keep bumping him up until he was almost at the toxic levels. I wonder if there are any other symptoms of adrenal gland problems. My
dd who is 10 was off the charts height and weight before beginning
stims 4 years ago. We have had a problem with her building tolerance to
the stims as well. She is on a high dose of adderall and we don't want to
increase her any more but it doesn't work like it used to so now we tend
to switch among the stims when one stops working. After being on some
type of ritalin drug for a while the adderall seems to work again when
she returns but only for a while. And the adderall gives her the best
results so when we do switch to another drug, she doesn't seem to get
the full benefits. We have struggled with this for a while. I will look into
adrenal gland being overactive. Was there anything they did for the
person who had overactive adrenal gland to treat it?

Thanks! JoI talked to Alex's mom this week. They discovered his adrenal problem through  routine bloodwork. He doesn't talk about it very much. His mother thinks he doctor told him that it could shorten his life span.