ADHD meds and fasting

Salam!

I’m 18 and just got diagnosed with ADHD in January. I got put on vyvanse and have been taking it daily ever since. I’m still being adjusted to find my optimal dosage, which has been difficult and expensive (especially bc my family has no idea I’m medicated or even diagnosed)

I was very excited for Ramadan, but I didn’t anticipate the struggle I would have with fasting and also taking my meds. Usually on Ramadan I eat minimally during suhoor and just drink a lot of water: that gets me through the day, especially because I’m a student and don’t really do anything athletic other than going to the gym occasionally.

Now it’s different. For my meds to work, I need to be consuming a lot of protein, as I found it doesn’t really help with my ADHD unless my diet is good. So that’s what I do. At the start of Ramadan, I would drink a protein shake and eat as much as possible. I would also drink at least 1.5 litres of water in order for the side effects of the medication not to worsen (one of the side effects is dry mouth). The first few days of Ramadan, I tried my best to stay on track. I prayed 5 times a day, woke up at 4am to make sure I ate and drank everything properly, prayed Tahajjud: everything. But as the days went on, I could already see the negative effect it was having on both my body and mental health. During the day while I would be fasting, I would gag at the smallest things (nausea is also a huge side effect of the meds, but it wasn’t really something I was struggling with until Ramadan). Not only that, but the dry mouth drives me crazy and it doesn’t stop no matter how much water I drink during suhoor. To top it all off, my meds don’t even seem to work properly during the day.

I’m someone that needs at least 9 hours of sleep to function properly. During Ramadan, I figured I’d just take naps throughout the day.

The first few days of Ramadan, I would eat all the food, drink all the water, and take my medication before fajr adhan. Then I would take a nap after fajr to catch up on some sleep before my classes (I’m in university for medical sciences). But the second I began doing that, it all went down hill. I would get sleep paralysis during my nap after fajr and my sleep would end up leaving me worse off than if I hadn’t slept to begin with, but if I don’t sleep, I can’t focus on my studying and the medication doesn’t even seem to be working properly anyway (not only because of not getting enough sleep, but because I need to be eating regularly throughout the day for my medication to work at all as per my doctor’s orders).

Now I don’t know what to do. I need to take my meds to make sure I find the right dosage for me and to see if I need to be switched off stimulant medication at all. The worst part is that it’s midterm season at my university and because of my medication, I can’t even get myself to sit down and open the work at all.

Due to all of this (sleep paralysis, meds not working, extreme nausea, fatigue, midterm season), I haven’t been fasting for the past few days. I know it’s terrible, and I feel even worse. I wanted this Ramadan to be one that I was locked in and would dua perfectly, but now I literally have to choose between my mental health and my faith and I genuinely don’t know what to do