My Opinion On Lisdexamfetamine

I was diagnosed with ADHD over a year ago as an adult in my 20s. I was on 54mg of Methylphenidate, and now I'm on 50mg of Lisdexamfetamine, so here is my two-cents on these medications.

Methylphenidate was a god-send. Like many undiagnosed adults with ADHD, I absolutely abused caffeine in order to function before I even considered that I could have ADHD. It was so bad that I would have 4-5 coffees during a workday, and on weekends I'd take extra big doses of pre-workout regardless of whether I was going to the gym or not. As you can imagine, this put a lot of stress on my cardiovascular system and everything from coffee to energy drinks eventually made my chest start to hurt on a regular basis.

The thing I loved about these larger doses of Methylphenidate is that it would give me the coffee "rush" without actually having to drink coffee. With the added bonus of making me focused, it made me a lot more productive than before. No more scatter-brained meal-cooking, or zoning out mid-sentence as my wife spoke to me. I literally doubled the speed at which I was making food.

But it's no miracle drug. Re-uptake inhibitors make everything more interesting, granted, but being on medication alone won't make you a superhuman. You still have to put in the hard work to plan things - your ADHD doesn't just go away when you take a pill - and there's still some things you have to push through with will power to start, then go through with and finish.

It varies from person to person, but I found out pretty early on that I have a strong resistance to stimulants. In spite of being diagnosed with combined-type ADHD, I was (more often than not) inattentive, and although Methylphenidate did do well to remedy that, I built up a tolerance really quickly.

I had to begin taking breaks from my daily dose on weekends in order to feel something on Mondays. The effectiveness of the drug would wear off slowly over the week, and by Friday... nothing. This decline continued until one day I just fell into a slump and everything went down hill. It just straight up stopped working.

I spoke to my psychiatrist and ended up trying Lisdexamphetamine. I'm still on my first month, which is coming to an end, and I don't know how to feel about this one. It doesn't make me as energetic or euphoric like its counterpart did, but this could be because of the dose. The thing is, I still get things done. It almost feels placebo.

I'm nowhere near as happy, nowhere near as focused on Lisdexamfetamine, but it's truly better than being unmedicated. I work as a builder, and I still have a need to do things when I'm home regardless of how tired I am; chores, hobbies, skin care etc. and I do my best to keep this up even on my bad days.

I've started drinking coffee again, and I allow myself 1 energy drink per week because I still feel I need that boost that I needed pre-diagnosis. It is true that Elvanse feels a lot more linear and less "drug-like" than Methylphenidate, but I don't want to switch back before I feel as though I've made the most out of Elvanse.

I had zero appetite on Methylphenidate. I went from 75kg to 65kg as a male at 175cm height, so I look quite skinny now. This month of switching meds has allowed me to slowly start making this weight back and I'm starting to feel more confident in my appearance as the meat gets back on my bones and I'm working out more often.

Overall, there's no miracles here. Both of these drugs works slightly differently and therefore affects me in different ways. If anyone is on the fence about medication but is struggling with ADHD-induced depression, overthinking, impulsivity or a lack of concentration, these definitely help and you should 100% give them a try.

I still think Methylphenidate was much better, but I wish it was more consistent for me and I wish it *always* worked.