Hi, has anyone been prescribed guanfacine and metylphenidate for adult adhd? Did it work better than stimulants for you? I also have autoimmune and long covid related fatigue. Prior to AI and long covid diagnosis stimulants used to help my fatigue, now i feel like Elvanse exhausts me . My prescriber wants go try the above combo. Just wondering if people have tried it and how they found it?
Thanks :)
So I seem to have had this pattern for 15 + years, including before using ADHD medication. Currently I'm being pretty strict on sleep hygiene, gentle exercise, healthy diet, relaxing exercises, everything I can think of.
What happens is I wake up at 6.30 (I'm trying to keep early starts while I'm off work) I'm fine to get up, do my teeth etc, have breakfast, do some gentle exercise / stretching. I feel fine. Then mid-morning I suddenly get very sleepy. This is with or without medication, caffeine doesn't seem to touch it, or sugar. I can literally get back into bed, although I can't sleep. Today it got so bad I actually dozed while on my medication, which I can't normally do.
Just confused by this pattern. I don't think it's carbs, I'll only have a small amount of oats or brown bread at breakfast. I've tried different breakfasts and it still seems to happen anyway. Also not sugar or caffeine as the strongest I'll drink is a green tea and I don't have anything sweet.
I don't know if it's stress related, like subconsciously my mind is starting to worry about the day, or if it's my mind saying "No" once I'm about to start getting on with boring stuff. When I was working I didn't notice it, but then I'd have been so stressed trying to focus that doesn't surprise me.
Once I've rested for about 1/2 an hour or an hour I can get up and carry on.
Does anyone else experience this?
I was recently diagnosed with ME/CFS (currently mild). I'm trying to learn what I can and make changes, but I could really use some practical tips on getting started with pacing while also having ADHD.
I feel like "I need a magical planner and 500 timers and and and"... But I know that's the ADHD talking. What has worked for you to create sustainable pacing habits? What absolutely didn't work?
Life has so many demands, and I can barely remember to do the dishes, not to mention to take a break halfway through it whatever it is. How does one even do that??
Am i the only one? I feel like caffeine is a lot subtler than adhd stimulant meds which maybe is why its easier on my body. But it could be just that im more used to it, and its more enjoyable to have a caffeine drink than a pill. Idk, thoughts?
Hi, maybe a bit of a strange title but will try to explain. I'm diagnosed with ADHD PI and mild CFS. I don't want to disrespect others' struggles with CFS, so will say mine is at the very mild end of the spectrum, but it is there, or something like it is there. So - if I live my life on "easy mode", living with my Mum (I'm age 46) working part-time or not at all, doing some but not all the admin, allowing myself to buy small treats if I'm tired or depressed, like getting food out or buying a book or something, then I can have a somewhat active life. I can do gentle hiking or some gym activity. If I try to have what I think of as a more normal level of activity, so full management of bills, finances, full-time work, some travel, some socialising and late nights, regular fitness classes - it doesn't work and I'll crash.
I take a medium dose of methylphenidate, eat what I think is a healthy vegetarian diet, I'm sober, am pretty strict on sleep hygiene, try to exercise within a window of what's sensible, try to socialise in ways that work - for example going to a sketching group rather than the pub. I do as much ADHD coping strategies as I can but still find admin extremely hard.
Anyway I'm always wondering what can and should I be doing in life? Do I say I'm somewhat disabled and for me I'm doing more than enough? Should I always be pushing to optimise and do more? Should I fight the issues hard even if that means often going too far and crashing? Also how do I support myself going forward? It feels like so many grey areas and so much lack of understanding, and that it's so easy to think that it's just laziness and I could achieve more with greater effort or willpower or something. So - just wondering how other people make sense of this. What do you tell friends or family, what do you have in place so you can support yourself?
Hyperfocus for me is that my brain just keeps returning to the subject, over and over. I try and do other things, I try Journaling, I try meditations. Everything I can think of. But I just keep returning to it.
It's honestly starting to drive me insane. Not even my anxiety meds help at all, all they did was remove the anxiety, I kept thinking about it.
It was a call last week that was very upsetting, in many ways. But I mean that's almost part of the deal, to be misunderstood and mistreated by healthcare every now and then.
Somehow I have been through many a bad healthcare experience before but have never been so stuck on it like I am now.
My mind also just keeps spitting action plans and ideas on me, but I don't want to take any action. I know I don't have the energy for it. At it's height I wanna write a message saying "hey I don't want to be contacted by this person again".
So I was diagnosed with CFS about two months ago. She wanted to start me on a stimulant and just based on our interactions she insisted I get tested for ADHD as well, which I have now also been diagnosed with. I started on 18mg of methylphenidate, and it was increased to 36.. I smoked marijuana right before this diagnoses I guess to self medicate, and I stopped because when I start a new medication I like to not have anything that could potentially cause side effects or interfere with function.. does anyone have any experience with that? Or also I have been crashing really bad around 3/4 in the afternoon, but I’m also just starting on 36mg 48 hours before my period is supposed to start..
Hey gang, I wanted to share a quick update on the medicine-sensitivity Discord I’ve been building.
We’re now at 105 members and beginning to see some interesting early convergence in the reports. A recurring pattern is that many patients with severe medication sensitivity also appear to have marked sensory sensitivity, with screen intolerance showing up very frequently.
A lot of the anecdotal data is aligning closely with my own experience, which makes me think we may be looking at a recognizable clinical subgroup rather than a collection of isolated adverse reactions. No major breakthroughs yet, but the server is becoming a useful place to collate patient reports, compare reaction patterns, and track how highly sensitive ME/CFS patients respond to common interventions such as LDN, Abilify, benzodiazepines, and other frequently recommended treatments.
One important point is that this subgroup may be underrepresented in online discussion, precisely because many of the most affected patients have severe screen, sensory, and cognitive intolerance. So if anyone is interested in helping build momentum, starting discussions, contributing research, sharing observations, or simply helping connect patterns, please feel free to jump in.
I wanted to drop the invite here for anyone interested. Feel free to join, share with friends, or pass it along to anyone who may benefit.
Thanks guys.
Join here: https://discord.gg/S8VVyVKw6M