u/Early-Piano2647

Just a quick backstory on my two year adventure with ADHD medication. I was put on Vyvanse 60 mg slow release tablets pretty much two years ago this month. It changed my life. I was constantly energised at work, I was no longer binge eating, I was finding myself able to do things without stressing about them and I woke up every morning eager to get out of bed. Within a healthy amount of time, that being over a year, I lost 15 kg which needed to be lost. My GP said I was the healthiest I’ve ever been, and I eagerly praised Vyvanse. I felt great, I looked great, and my insides were great. All you need in life. So it was working for me. However, I did have a little bit of trouble falling asleep at night, so I went from clonidine to a few other sedative medications and so forth.

Then in November 2025 I got a new psychiatrist, and when he saw that I was on 60 mg slow release every day, he said he was very surprised that I was on such a high dose and that normally they would only prescribe the high dose to people who were extreme cases. He suggested I go down to 30 mg and that would most certainly help with my sleep problems. So I agreed and was prescribed 30 mg of slow release a day. He also prescribed me just dexamphetamine tablets 5 mg that I would take (two daily) in the afternoon only if I needed them. So basically if I felt like Vyvanse 30mg wasn’t doing enough that day.

Since then, I have gained 10kg, I feel lethargic and uninspired, I sleep way too much, I can’t be bothered anymore, and I just don’t feel as locked in on day-to-day life. Even if I take the backup 5mg tablets in the afternoon, they don’t help. I know they’re not placebos, but it honestly feels like it. I might as well not take any of these medications daily at this point because they are simply not doing anything.

My question is — should I request going up to 40mg daily Vyvanse slow release? 50? I am extremely unhappy and want my old life back. And I’m sick to death of my bloated stomach and daily acid reflux.

One of my greatest memories of book 5 was sitting on the train (to King’s Cross no less), heading to uni and reading some more from it. Can’t remember the details but it was right after Harry’s first kiss with Cho. Ron and Hermione asked him how it was and he answered: “Wet.” I could not stop from grinning like a simpleton. The people around me must have thought I was bonkers. Come to think of it, that whole scene was brilliantly written.

Same happened a few years before with Trelawney. Can’t remember the details, something during her possession scene.

Anyone else had this happen reading the HP series in public?

This might be for a particularly… ahem… elderly demographic here. I read the first 4 books before the movies came out, but also in that small window of time between the announcement of the lead three actors. Ergo, I’ve always had Radcliffe, Grint and Watson as the main three. Everybody else, though, I had to cast for myself. Some of them were oddly perfect, but most (I think, now) were hilariously bad. I’m going to embarrass myself here and list them now. And after that, I encourage you to list your imaginary cast too! (Forgive me in advance — I was young. Any characters I left out is because I can’t remember who I imagined back then)

Vernon: Danny DeVito (why? I have no idea)

Petunia: CC from The Nanny (she’s blonde?)

Hagrid: Dr. Worley from Return to Oz (actually worked pretty well at the time tbh)

Dumbledore: Mr. Duncan from Home Alone 2 (I just ignored the fact Dumbledore has a long beard)

McGonagall: Daisy from Keeping Up Appearances (no idea why)

Snape: Tim Curry (FABULOUS casting, teen me)

Lockhart: Julian McMahon (he was on Charmed at the time)

Trelawney: Goldie Hawn (as bad as this casting is, in my mind she really tickled me as Trelawney and to this day I still picture a sort of mid-90s Hawn during re-reads. Sense be damned.)

Wormtail: Jason Alexander (at this point, I’ll stop explaining)

Lupin: Dustin Hoffman (naturally)

Sirius: Tim Robbins

Moody: Christopher Lloyd (specifically, how he looked in Dennis the Menace — which is pretty accurate)

Umbridge: Dawn French (I was PISSED when they used her in the 3rd movie, taking over the role at that! She would’ve been perfect as Umbridge!)

Bellatrix: Judi Dench (I’m convinced that during my first reads I was so excited to be reading new HP that I stopped paying attention in parts, aka: when they describe a character as distinctly not being an 80 year old short white haired woman with a kindly demeanor)

Tonks: Keira Knightly (imagine her marrying Dustin Hoffman. Eeeewww.)

Luna Lovegood: Tania Raymonde (she was on Malcolm in the Middle and was hilariously dorky, she actually really worked for me at the time as Luna)

Ludo Bagman: Literally Wayne Knight’s head with the body of a bee.

Fleur: Marcia from The Brady Bunch movie.

Rita Skeeter: Judging Amy

Slughorn: Richard Griffiths (I couldn’t help it — and yes it made things very confusing by that point)

So there you go. My terrible casting before the movies came out. Let’s hear yours if you are old enough to remember!

I guess in 2001 they were probably using CGI utilised by LOTR, etc. so his likeness in a sense to Gollum was simply cost-effective/all they knew. But he looks ironically so much like Elijah Wood! He looks like if a Siamese Cat had a baby with a forty-year-old chav lad. Before seeing the second movie I had a much more pleasant-looking thing in my mind. Sort of like Ickis from Argh Real Monsters but… Dobby. I can’t describe it any other way.

Nothing in the books seems to describe elves as looking like a lump of phlegm with giant eyeballs. I feel physically repulsed every time he comes on screen! Same goes for the voice — they make him sound kind of… pervy! Like that old man from Family Guy who’s in love with Chris. And I don’t think the books ever described his voice as if a grown man is trying to put on a Punch and Judy play. It’s only mentioned as high-pitched and excitable. Honestly, they should have given it to a female voice actress.

I see in the full-cast audio that they’ve done the same thing — Dobby’s voice sounds identical to the movies. That’s a shame if you ask me. I’ll be interested to see if they feel obliged to stick to the movie version of him when the second season of the new HBO season comes out.

Love Dobby so much from the books — but because of these I personally had a hard time sympathising with his character throughout the movies! It was just so bizarre to me!

I didn’t start this book series until high school (I’d just turned 15). But it’s a wonderful period from that time, reading the first 4 books in 2001. Then book 5 in 2093. 2005, 2007, etc.

Each time I re-read the series (every ten years or so), I feel like some of the magic is vanishing.

I’m at a point now where I’m mid-forties and re-reading them is kind of… a chore. I don’t think it’s because I’ve read them before. I think the magic to it is lost on my because I’m getting old, and I’m tired, and life has worn me down.

Which sucks to think, but wondering if “hope” is something that mostly only young people have, and see in this series, that older people cannot?

Whether you want to ignore the shitfest storyline from season 7 or not. I often wonder what happened to him in the end.

The actor in real life is gay, so I wonder if ASP had anything to do with his character, if he’d have ended up like Michele.

Or maybe he met a really nice girl after Rory and got married before he was thirty and has barely thought about Rory since. (I hope)

I’m listening to the audiobook of the first one and wow he really seems adamant to keep this boy who he treats like absolute shit out of Hogwarts. It’s almost like he wants him to stay living with them or something? I don’t get it. He hates the boy, resents having him live with them, and yet when literally the solutions to all his problems offers itself, he rejects it like his life depends on it? Why is he so adamant that Harry NOT go to Hogwarts, to stay with them, and go to that lousy public school. If he doesn’t care about him, why would this not be the answer to his dreams???