u/No_Bluebird_5080

I have completed my first week of being on 40mg Name Brand Vyvanse after having been on 40mg of the Generic. With Brand Name I swear it feels like my meds have been switched out for a sleeping med. No matter how much sleep I get the night prior I am ready to sleep 3-4 hours after taking it when it should be at its peak. With the generic I would take it 1 hour before I wanted to get up and then magically spring out of bed ready to start the day. Now I wonder if I am better off not taking my Vyvanse at all with how exhausted and scatterbrained I feel. With the generic I started to only need my Adderall booster occasionally but now I need to take it twice just to maybe be functional for like 2 hours.

The only thing that has changed since I started feeling this way was my Vyvanse brand. For me I have found the Amneal Generic to work best so hopefully I will be able to switch back soon because this is not sustainable at all.

Has anyone else experienced something similar??

How did you guys know that your dose was too low?

I started taking 40mg Vyvanse after having taken 40mg Lisdexamphetamine previously. One week down and Vyvanse has been consistently putting me to sleep. I used to take it 1 hour before I wanted to wake up but now if I do that I could end up sleeping for 3+ hours after taking it. The onset is smooth but it just doesn’t seem to be doing what it’s supposed to.

No matter how much I sleep the previous night, I am barely able to keep my eyes open 3-4 hours after taking it which is when it should be at its peak. And when I do feel it working, instead of being focused my thoughts are completely scattered jumping from one thing to the next. As a result I end up struggling to do things like reading as I have no attention span and at times even my sentences stop making sense because I am exhausted. I also end up having to take my 10mg Adderall IR booster twice just to get through the day and even that isn’t enough to keep me awake at times.

Does this sound like my dose is too low or too high?? I feel like I could sleep forever :(

I feel like I am definitely in the minority when I say this but I have recently started Vyvanse Name Brand and it doesn’t work for me like the generic does. People tend to say that the name brand has a much smoother onset and results in fewer crashes. I agree with all of this however that is the problem for me. The more noticeable and abrupt onset of Vyvanse Generic is what gets me leaping out of bed in the morning. With the subtlety of the name brand I am honestly ready to go back to sleep a couple hours after taking it. I just don’t get that same motivation to start my day at all and I remain fatigued. I think I just need that slap in the face that the generic gives me every morning to get my day started.

If you also prefer the Generic to Name Brand, what is the major difference for you?

About 2 weeks ago I spoke with my MCAT tutor because I am extremely behind in the prep course due to health issues. My original test date was 8/21 but he told me it was not possible for me to score well with the amount of time that I have left. He told me to change my date to end of September but the latest test date is 9/12. Even if I think I am going to do poorly he told me to take it in September no matter what and that I will likely not reach my target score or even do well but that I need to take it regardless if I want to apply next cycle. My AAMC FL1 score was 492 a couple weeks ago and I have not studied since.

Starting in a couple weeks I will be able to study 100% full time but I have absolutely zero faith that I will perform even okay in September given where I am at now. I am scared that if I take it I am knowingly putting myself at a disadvantage if there is a very good chance I will have to retake. I am scared to go against the tutor’s advice because this is his expertise but he also does not know me like I do. In the prep course I have completed 26/379 modules and according to him I am looking at studying 12+ hours everyday until my test date if I want to improve.

Should I go against his advice and study part time during the semester with the intention of testing in January? I am very overwhelmed with this current timeline and worry I am setting myself up for failure.

I was previously on 40mg Vyvanse for about a month but then went down to 30mg when I thought the 40mg had suddenly become too much for me. The 30mg did very little for me and did not help with any of my actual ADHD symptoms. Turns out the anxiety I was suddenly feeling from the 40mg was actually coming from my GI issues and not the med itself so I went back up to 40mg. I am on day 2 of the 40mg and I am EXHAUSTED. When I was previously on 40mg this was rarely an issue so I don’t know what is going on. Is it possible that the Vyvanse is amplifying my underlying exhaustion even though the past couple of nights I have gotten adequate sleep? What else do you think could be contributing to this sudden fatigue?

*Help: I am extremely upset and looking for some sort of resolution or anything that can be done about my situation.

I am taking the MCAT in September and in order to be considered for accommodations I need an Evaluation Letter from the provider that diagnosed me with ADHD and Autism. I was diagnosed in 2024 so I reached out to my diagnosing psychologist mid April and provided her with all the guidelines specified by the Association of American Medical Colleges, my neuropsych evaluation results, and a personal statement detailing reasons why I believe I need the requested accommodations. She responded a week later and the recommended deadline was approaching so she said she would get me the Evaluation Letter the following week.

I received a draft of the letter and it followed absolutely none of the guidelines that I provided her. It quite literally rephrased the personal statement I gave her and included zero clinical reasoning. I followed up and gave her quite detailed feedback about where the discrepancies were between what was requested and what I received and I reattached the guidelines for her.

A week later, no response so I send a follow up. A week after that I send another follow up. A week after that I still had not received a response and it was May 18th so I contacted the practice’s patient advocate service. They were very responsive and personally contacted the psychologist leading to her response 2 days later. Her response was one sentence… “ I think all the information they ask for is in the evaluation report from 2024, would you be able to submit that along with the letter I wrote?”. Her suggestion did not follow the guidelines whatsoever and given how difficult it is to get MCAT accommodations I knew it would be rejected. I replied the following day expressing this and explaining how her suggestion would still not meet the guidelines I gave her however it was one step closer to what I was looking for. The same day, the patient advocate told me they spoke to the psychologist and that she was working on my request.

3 weeks later, still no Evaluation Letter. June 11th I follow up with the patient advocate and they apologized, telling me that they had forwarded everything previously. They asked if I would like them to inform the psychologist’s director and the administration to which I said yes.

1 week later I follow up on the Evaluation Letter and the patient advocate responded another week later telling me that they would email me the letter.

Today I receive an email from the patient advocate with my attached letter and guess what. It was the EXACT SAME letter sent to me on April 24th. They didn’t even try to change the date.

I am beyond frustrated and have no idea how to proceed. I responded expressing that what I received was unacceptable and asked if there was any time I could come in person to sort the issue because I am past my limit. The psychologist herself has not communicated with me since May 20th.

TLDR:
Psychologist that diagnosed me with ADHD and Autism has been promising me an evaluation letter for the MCAT since April. She has ghosted me several times after writing a shitty draft that met none of the requirements I sent her. I even gave her very detailed feedback that would have made writing it easy. Contacted the practice’s Patient Advocates which got her to respond May 20th where she just asked me if I could submit the initial shitty draft she sent and my 2024 Neuropsych evaluation instead. I told her no, detailed a response why it wouldn’t work and she has not responded since despite the Patient Advocate contacting her again. After several follow ups I received the new Evaluation Letter only to find that it was the exact letter sent to me April 24th.

QUESTION:
- How should I proceed with this organization along with the psychologist?
- Is this unprofessional behavior considered unethical or something I could report to the Committee of Psychology?

EDIT:
I realized people are misunderstanding the situation because this is a therapy sub and not a psychologist sub and they have different roles. Granted it was quite long but I don’t think people were actually reading the post because some of the comments are not applicable at all. Thank you for those who were objective and kind. Quite a few were hating on me for being annoyed when I clearly had every right to be or just completely misunderstood the point.

I think I inserted my ring on June 17th and I intend to take it continuously to skip my period. If this is the case then I am a bit confused on what my change day would be.

I typically find that I get depressed the week before my period which according to my last period(first week of June before ring insertion) would be this week. Because of when I inserted my ring and the fact that my period would typically be next week, am I experiencing the same hormone fluctuations that I would during this time or would I technically experience them the week before I change my ring?

I am asking because I am trying to figure out whether my mood changes are due to it being the week before when my period was supposed to be prior to ring insertion, or from changes in my ADHD medication. Typically my ADHD stimulants do not work the week before my period so I am trying to figure out which week that would be?

Today is just one of those days where I’m so disappointed in myself and my ability to study for the MCAT. I am trying to test mid September and I am just so behind it’s become overwhelming. I feel so useless and like an idiot for getting so discouraged when I’ve hardly even begun studying. How can someone like me even be cut out for medicine if I broke down when faced with studying today?

I know some people have their low moments so what do you do when you feel like a failure and how do you know if you are too far gone to pursue medicine?

I was previously on 40mg of Amneal Generic Vyvanse and it worked well for me but because of my GI issues I was confusing trapped gas for extreme anxiety so I requested a lower dose of 30mg. My psychiatrist requested the Sun Pharma Generic but I was given Rhodes. I am on day 2 and I am just feeling really overwhelmed and sad. When I took it yesterday I immediately took a 4 hour nap and was only able to get out of bed once I took my 10mg Adderall IR booster. Today I took it and was hardly able to get out of bed. I wanted to start my day but I was just filled with complete dread thinking about how much I had to do to the point where I was on the verge of tears.

I feel like I don’t have the motivation to tackle my big tasks so instead I’ve been avoidant. I finally sat down to do it and sat on my phone for an hour because I was overcome by sadness anxiety. Even on days where I run out of vyvanse and take my Adderall Booster twice instead, I never feel like this. I feel like such a lazy failure and I’m scared to go and face my parents after having completed nothing. The only time I ever feel remotely close to this is at the very end of the day when my 40mg Amneal Vyvanse wears off.

Is it even possible for a generic switch to have this much of an impact on my mood and functionality or am I going crazy!??

I know low iron can cause extreme fatigue but at what point is that purely an excuse for being lazy? I am not anemic, I am just iron deficient and have been receiving iron infusions the past 3 weeks with my most recent one being Tuesday because I had a ferritin of 4. Is it normal to still experience fatigue at this point? I feel like I am making excuses and using it as a reason for me to not do the work that I know I need to do. I look at all the tasks ahead of me and I just get so overwhelmed I freeze and break down. I don’t know if I am actually tired or if I’m only “tired” because I don’t want to do the work and am avoiding it. I feel so guilty and like my “inability” to do things is actually just laziness. You can fix an iron deficiency but laziness is a whole other mental beast.

Am I tired from my iron infusions, low iron, or do I just not want to do the work?? How do you guys tell the difference and what do you do with this guilt??

I am currently in the process of adjusting my ADHD meds and right now I am on 30mg of Vyvanse(Rhodes Generic👎) and so far have found that 40mg(Amneal) has worked best for me. What I am struggling to figure out is whether what I am feeling is a symptom of ADHD or just laziness. On my current dose I still find it hard to get out of bed and I procrastinate because I am overwhelmed. I even find myself taking my med and then sleeping the rest of the day or justifying avoiding work with the fact that I am “tired” even while taking my med. On 40mg I am able to get out of bed and the overwhelmed feeling is replaced with motivation to do one task at a time. Right now it’s like I just don’t FEEL like doing anything yet I am sitting here paralyzed, anxious, and on the verge of tears thinking about everything that I need to do.

How do I know if I am actually tired and dealing with ADHD symptoms or if I am purely just being lazy?? I feel so guilty but a part of me worries that this isn’t something that can be helped by medication despite seeing proof otherwise on 40mgs. This might be OCD related but how do you know the difference?? I feel like I am just not trying hard enough.

Background:

I have been on 40mg for about 2 months and had initially increased from my starting dose of 20mg because I felt like Vyvanse was no longer working for me. Even at 40mg I would crash like clockwork after 5 hours and would then take a 10mg Adderall IR booster. As it turns out I am actually severely iron deficiency with a ferritin level of 4 which my stimulants were likely trying to compensate for.

Recently I have had 2 iron infusions and am scheduled to receive 3 more over the next 3 weeks. Days after my second infusion my energy levels spiked and since then have continued to increase.

Experience Since Iron Infusion:

- I have been calling friends/family daily when previously I would call about 2 or 3 times a month. It’s like I feel the constant need for human interaction.

-I have posted/commented on Reddit more within the past 2 weeks than I have since creating my account over 2 years ago as a daily user.

- I reach out to people I wouldn’t normally and make a ridiculous amount of plans.

-Headaches every evening

- Sleeping less(not by choice) —> last night I slept 2 hours and am still wide awake riddled with anxious energy

- Feeling strong impulses to smoke weed when normally I only do it socially and not out of “need”

-racing thoughts + poor focus

-GI issues

- Spending way more time than the average person should on Google

- Feeling unable to sit still

The kicker is that I haven’t been taking my afternoon Adderall booster and I cannot drink coffee without feeling worse

Questions:

1. How did you know if your Vyvanse dose was too high?

2. Have any of you ever had to go down of Vyvanse after getting other health aspects in order (like iron in my case)?

For some reason I’ve found that if I have some sort of appointment or obligation in the mornings I snooze my alarm until the last minute. However if I reschedule my appointment/obligation to allow for more time to sleep, all of a sudden I am not tired anymore or I just can’t go back to sleep. This has me feeling like I am crazy. One minute I am exhausted and as soon as I reschedule I can’t go back to sleep and in fact sometimes I get ready quick enough to have made my original appointment time.

If this is something you have dealt with, what are some tricks to combat this?

I was on NuvaRing but it fell out without me noticing and I continued to have sex over the course of a few days but I used condoms every time. I realized it fell out a few days after I got my period and had sex after that while still using condoms. Went to my OB and she wanted to write me a script for Plan B and said I can’t put in my next ring until we know for sure I am not pregnant from the 2 instances I had sex after my period. My impression was that if condoms were used correctly then Plan B is unnecessary?? The way she is framing things is that there is a way higher chance than I thought that I could be pregnant and now I am scared. Going into it I thought I was fine because I used condoms but it doesn’t seem like that is the case, is there something I am missing here??

I was on my first month of the birth control ring and use it continuously to skip my period. I still experienced bleeding the 4th week and ended up changing it a couple days late last Wednesday. The bleeding stopped for a few days and began again which i thought was just spotting since I am new to the bc but turns out it was my actual period. I was suspicious and went to check on my ring now that the bleeding has subsided and it is nowhere to be found. Is it possible that the ring is so far up there I can’t reach it this time around or is it safe to say that it fell out soon after insertion without me noticing? OBGYN is closed on weekends so I’m not sure what I should do or how concerned I should be? If it fell out I may have had unprotected penetration when drunk last Friday night but I can’t quite remember. If I experienced my regular bleeding with clots after it fell out is it safe to say I am probably not pregnant?

To preface this I am not seeking a BP diagnosis here, I just want to know if this is something worth seeking professional input for and if any of you relate to my experience.

I have no formal BP diagnosis, the psychologist and my psychiatrist were only able to provide a rule out diagnosis because they really can’t tell. I have MDD, ADHD, Autism, BPD, OCD and PTSD. No clue if it’s even possible to have Bipolar with all of this going on but typically the uncertainty in my actual diagnosis has come from meeting fully meeting hypomania criteria.

I realized that I have not been taking my meds(Zoloft, Abilify, Lamictal) consistently. This is not completely new but I have started stimulants(Vyvanse and Adderall) more recently for my ADHD and do take them consistently. Since starting these and at my current dosage I have not been this inconsistent with my other meds. My psychiatrist had mentioned that if it turns out I am Bipolar stimulants can induce mania, but the lamictal and abilify would prevent this.

My worry is that by missing my mood stabilizer, antipsychotics, and SSRI, all while taking stimulants, I have caused myself to go into a hypomanic episode but I don’t know if I am just being dramatic.

Is it worth messaging my psychiatrist over something I likely caused and could probably fix in time by taking my meds?

Issues:
- I have been texting friends + my boyfriend and reaching out to many people to make plans I can’t keep which is only something that happens after having taken stimulant breaks

- trouble sleeping because of racing thoughts and anxiety despite being tired.

-overly talkative during the day especially towards people I don’t usually talk to and posting/commenting more on Reddit during these past 2 weeks than I ever have

-scattered thoughts and going down google rabbit holes for hours at a time(this marks hour 5)

-feeling the need to talk, text, call and be around people even if I am exhausted. It’s like I can’t control my need for attention and human interaction

- Eating less, spending excessively on food, impulsively smoking weed when typically on stimulants I can do without it

- Being much more irritable as my stimulants wear off and feeling a wide range of intense emotions with no direction

-Having to shorten this post because I basically wrote a 5 page essay on every related thought that has come to mind in the past 30 minutes

Had my first GI appointment after almost a year of symptoms that started after antibiotic use and then worsened when I tried the same antibiotic months later. He told me if I was fine prior to this then the cause of my symptoms must be from the antibiotics and recommended I take probiotics, prebiotics, and I little fiber(not Metamucil). I am overwhelmed by the options, what are a few solid recommendations?