i feel like the formula has changed honestly

#11 – clonidine another non-stimulant used as an alternative /add on med

It would have been useful to include those in this article. Makes it out of date.

Vyvanse is “slow-on, slow-off,” with about a 2-hour ramp-up/ramp-down time. That means that you don’t get nearly the medication rebound that happens with other stimulants. Having experienced the rebound of short-acting stimulants myself, I am amazed that doctors still prescribe them. (It may be due to expense/insurance, but that needs to change.) Talk about “do no harm.” It is a horrible experience; you feel like dirt. (See below for a detailed description of my experience.) And it is happening to young kids who can’t describe their experience.

I feel so sad for all the young kiddoes suffering daily rebounds, often at homework time, and the parents who are trying to manage the meltdowns.

Vyvanse is the only medication that has been effective for my two daughters w/o significant side effects. I started taking it 3 years ago, and now both of my daughters as well as my sister do. She thanked me profusely for telling her about it – she had been taking Ritalin and didn’t like it so she had given up. She did have to go through a big rigmarole with her insurance, but they did approve it.

I wish it had existed in 2014 when my younger daughter was diagnosed with ADHD at the end of 1st grade. Due to ineffectiveness and/or intolerable side effects of the medications we tried (several stimulants of each type, as well as each of the non-stimulant ADHD medications), we gave up on medication and she has gone untreated for nearly 4 years, poor thing (until just recently, when we tried Daytrana — ineffective, and now Vyvanse). However, she managed well (good grades, good behavior — but would fall apart after school) until this year – 5th grade was just more than she could handle untreated, and she was diagnosed with anxiety and depression.

When we learned last year that my middle school daughter had stealth ADHD, I couldn’t believe that our then-psychiatrist gave her Ritalin with the instruction to go to the nurse’s office during her (very short) lunch. Needless to say, she didn’t go, and he wouldn’t prescribe Vyvanse. I figured it wasn’t used in kids.

When we recently switched to a pediatric psychiatrist with a top-notch reputation, she prescribed Vyvanse for both girls without blinking an eye.

I would say that Vyvanse has changed our lives. (I have no affiliation with any pharmaceutical company or anything else remotely related.)

I hope my recounting of our experience helps someone else. Our lives would have been so much better had Vyvanse been available in 2012.

———

Here’s an email I wrote to a parenting coach / child therapist who specializes in challenging children:

“I now know how HORRIBLE [my daughter] felt during 1st grade, and thousands of other kids feel when they take short-, mid-acting stimulants and they wear off (right at homework time). It’s really rough and unlike any physical illness you might be familiar with. I felt sick, but not like a flu. Metaphorically, kind of like bad nausea if applied to the whole body and brain/mind. A state that a child’s brain really shouldn’t have to be in (but of course I recognize the need and advantage of stimulants) and that a child shouldn’t have to experience.

“I wish I had a way to tell all the parents, so they could really sympathize with their children. I know that we found the horrible rebound behavior [my daughter] had, to be stressful for US, but didn’t REALLY get how horrible she must have felt.

And her response:

“Thanks for the info on the rebound.  I have witnessed and heard countless stories of the crash that occurs when kids’ meds wear off but didn’t know the chemical reason and so it is helpful to hear from an articulate adult on it so that I can share it with parens whose kids cannot explain it.”