Withdrawal From Vyvanse (Page 2) (Top voted first)

My son had a terrible experience on wyvance. He has phyciatic systems to include halluciations. The doctor took him off the drup cold turkey and Ihe seems to be having withdrawal systems? Is that normal?

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I have been taking Vyvanse 50m for 7 days in a row. I started having mini panic attacks in the afternoon the 3 days I was on the drug. I am on an anxiety med. that has worked great for 3 years, I figured it was the Vyvanse, and decided to keep taking it for a few more days. The panic got worse, so I tapered off to 1/2 dose for one day, then took none for 2 days. The 2nd day I had panic and anxiety all day. It was horrible. I called the DR. who said the Vyvanse was too strong and I should try starting at 15mg at day. I am just hoping the panic subsides soon, like tomorrow! Anyone know of any other info. on panic and Vyvanse?

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I'm convinced Vyvanse is a very dangerous drug for many people. Read the warnings on the paperwork carefully prior to taking it and if it is making you anxious or hostile or depressed get off of it. Now that my husband has been off of it for 2 weeks he is much better.

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I took Vyvanse for about a month. Before that I was on adderall instant release and then adderall extended release. These drugs contain amphetamine, so the worst critic would likely say this is legal speed.

I've stopped taking the Vyvanse, and after four months of using these drugs, I can definitely say that yes, there are withdrawal effects. I sort of figured this would be the case, because I became addicted to the medication. I longed for that high feeling it gave me each day, but with each day the feeling lasted shorter and shorter. Eventually, the vyvanse, like the adderall, was useless. It lasted about about two hours each day, and the rest of the time I was prone to panic attacks and severe anxiety issues. My intake of Xanax went up substantially, so now I was addicted to Vyvanse and Xanax. I could not imagine functioning at all without these meds, although they now hardly did anything, I was stuck, because when I tried not to take them at all, the anxiety was unbearable. I felt like a complete zombie, and I had to take the pill just to ease the pain.

The most surprising part of all this, I think, is that the doctor did not address the probability that the drugs will cease working this fast, and the difficulty of withdrawing from the meds when this is the case. Whenever I tried to discuss my worries about the drug working a shorter time and eventually likely not working at all, my comments were disregarded, and I was told to seek psychological help to address my anxiety issues and self-destructive thinking. Well, it seems that my self-destructive thinking was right, and let me tell you, IT IS NO FUN GETTING OFF THESE MEDS.

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I am grateful for this discussion. I have been taking Vyvanse for about 1 year for ADHD. I'm 39 and was finally diagnosed. At first, my eyes seemed to open up and I felt crisp, alert, awake, and alive. I think I was able to focus better, but I still couldn't keep myself from jumping around from project to project. I could, however, just keep going until I got all my work done. At 3 am. or 4, or 5, or just stay up all night and keep going. I also was rarely hungry for about 5 hours after taking the V in the morning when I woke. I dragged until it kicked in after 1-1.5 hours. Then I was going strong again. I lost only 10 pounds (am normal weight) since I tried to remember to force myself to eat. If I didn't eat by the time the V kicked in, I felt very strong nausea. And if I drank coffee at the same time, it make the effects too strong (shaky). I was on 40 mg to start, then dropped to 30 b/c I was shaking more and was irritable and grumpy more often as the year went on. Finally, I decided to stop taking it 3 weeks ago. I have been SO unbelievable TIRED (like when I was SUPER hypothyroid before getting thyroid replacement hormone). I also feel pretty depressed and a bit hopeless. I can't do my work at all. I am too tired, don't care, am negative about work. And it's been about 3 weeks! I feel like I could topple over I am so tired. But no other symptoms that make me think it's my thyroid. I am relieved to see others have had these withdrawal symptoms as well, but disheartened to realize I'm still feeling this so many days later than the others. I fall asleep at work all day long. I am getting about 7 hours of sleep a night, too, which is more than I usually get. I think I've covered it all! thanks for the board.

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I am also so relieved to read about the experiences of all of you...saddend at the same time though. The understanding I have about ADD meds is this: if you feel a High then it's not the med you need, if you get energy boosts, etc. that's not the purpose for your add and your brain needs an add med that serves a different partof the brain. If it helps you focus then it's the right one. I have sampled MANY add meds: focalin, Adderall XR, Adderall, Ritalin, Time release Ritalin, Straterra. I went on Vyvanse last year b/c I was expereincing headaches and teeth grinding at the end of the day with my Adderall. Vyvanse seemed to solve that problem. I ran out of V recently and had plenty of adderall so decided to go back to the adderall after the V while I am looking for a new DR. who is closer to where I live. I stopped V about3 weeks ago. I feel AWFUL! I thought I had teh flu, my general practitioner ran all sorts of bloodtests to find out what my fatigue is from. After reading all of this - I think I know! Hindsight is 20/20 for sure... over the last year I would pick at my face, like at small bumps that are not even noticable but my picking and touching would cause the bumps to enlarge or get infected and more pimples were prevalent. In the 3 weeks since quitting the V I don't pick, my skin is clear...a tick from the V probably. THe fatigue is killing me, but is gradually getting better. I ahven't been sad, hostile, etc. just sleepy! I am hopeful that this will pass soon. For those of you who talk about the perk and teh high - I'd say get away soon- go to something else w/the help of your dr. I was open w/ my DR. and shared things like I feel up and then I crash, I can go all night w/o s;leeping or work all day on 1-2 hours of sleep and he always said that I shouldn't feel that, I should only have a sensation of focus. I tried a lot of meds- for short periods od time - some 1 or 2 days b/c I knew immediately it wasn't what I needed.
I stayed focused on my Goal - focus and order - I didn't go to the doctor looking for an energy pill to become the energizer rabbit who keeps going and going, I wanted something to help me be successful and focused so wasn't having panic attacks about my life and the variables within my life not be under TOTAL CONTROL by me. OCD was my non-medicated method of managing my ADD. When things couldn't be totally controlled I freaked - thus began my journey of Adult ADD and add medication sampling. I would recommend talking to your Dr. about ANYTHING you feel. I am glad that so many of you have enlightened me with your honesty.

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Edward, please know that the withdrawal symptoms will decrease each day, and each day you will feel more like your old self. The whole withdrawal ordeal is tough, but it doesn't last long. And you WILL get through this, I promise.

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Wow...After reading this forum I have to say that what everybody is experiencing is so right on. I'm 34 and was recently diagnosed with ADD. I'm a single dad and my 7 year old son is on 15mg of Focalin XR. I never knew what ADHD was until his teacher in k-garten, doctor and me all got together to figure it out. Focalin has helped him and it wears off which helps his appetite come back around for dinner. My dad has ADD, I have it and my little man has it. After his diagnosis I was diagnosed after several years of taking medications that treated my symptoms of ADD and never treating the ADD I started Vyvanse. All I can say is what I experienced. In the beginning it was great. I had focus, energy and accomplished so much. I actually went on a hunt in Wyoming the first month on it and hiked 34 miles in 6 days carrying a 40 pound pack and rifle. I could accomplish anything. This was October 1-10, 2009. By mid November I became more and more aggitated and hostile. It was like everyday my glass got a little more full with lack of patience and aggitation. I went back to see my Doctor in December and we decided to stop cold turkey. I was taking 50mg. I weigh 200 and I'm 6'1. I am so happy I stopped. However, I must say that now it has been a month, I have no energy and all I want to do is sleep and lay around. No motivation and no drive. I am starting to feel, and let me highlight starting to feel like exercise to get some positive endorphins (spelling ?) flowing. My Doctor told me that out of all his patience on Vyvanse, only 20% does it work with. The other 80% experience that same side effects as me. For the 20% that it works for, great... but know the odds. I'd rather take something that wears off quick, verus Vyvanse that, to me lasted for 18 hours in my system. I dont know how long this tiredness will last; however, I have decided no meds and to clean my system out and exercise. My psychologist/life coach advised I take fish oil, and vitamins in the meantime. For me, I'm glad I have an answer about the condition I have and now its a focus on learning about it and I'm trying to take nothing to treat it. I made it 33 years without, and I found that if I keep my schedule full and I stay busy I get things done. For those of you who feel tired...I'm right there with you. How long will this last, I will say that although it will be out of your system in a week, I believe it has some physiological (spelling again???) changes that take longer to wear off. I'd be curious to those of you that stopped like me, how long did it take for you to feel 100% normal like you did before taking this medication. Also, for those of you that this works for, great... but I will never allow my son to take this medication. It does have a dependency/addiction aspect of it too. Not huge, but its there. Good luck to all of you that are stopping this and to you out there that are on it, at least be aware of this. There is an 80% chance you are not one where this works.

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I know for me, taking an omega 3 supplement like flaxseed or fish oil along with PS 100 and huperzine A helps with easing myself off my adhd meds as I have gone on and off for the last 8 years of my life and somehow after awhile after being off them and feeling like ME again I somehow convince myself I need the ADHD drugs to help me be a better me but in reality the only thing that happens if I become socially numb and I think people need to star embracing adhd as a positive and not a negative. I think adhd might hurt me in some aspects of my life but honestly I hate who I am on meds and I would rather take 2 hours to get something done and have my personality rather than take adderall or vyvanse or dexedrine and get the same task done in 30 minutes but then at the end of the day be an emotional zombie.

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Today will be a full month off the vyvanse and I have not felt this good in years. Every day that I put in between myself and vyvanse is another day closer to having my life stable again. To mika, it will take about 5-7 days for the withdrawl symptoms you are feeling to completely go away. The end of the third day is actually when you will start to feel better. That third day the vyvanse is pretty much out of your system and you are coping with life again without the help of a drug. It is a very strange and uncomfortable feeling for sure, but it will go away and you will feel normal again if you push through that day. Now that I am off of vyvanse, I can hardly believe that I allowed it to control my life for so long. Most of every day was spent trying to make up excuses in my head to justify my continuing to take the crap. It is now very hard for me to come up with any positive effects that vyvanse gave me, when the entire time I was on it, I could make a list. The bottom line is the stuff is no good. It clouds your mind and darkens your world, while making you believe this is how your supposed to feel. Keep praying and trusting in the Lord, for he will not let you down.

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Hey Mac.. You can rest assured that your son will be ok!! It just takes time to heal .. God is in the business of healing and helping people get there life back after addiction. Turn to him during this time for comfort and healing. I went through hell with vyvanse and God pulled me out if it, i am now clean for close to 3 years! Do not give up, there is hope! Read my past posts on here to get a idea of how bad I was, and today I am doing better than ever! I'll keep y'all in my prayers!

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Jane - I'm going to have to respectively disagree with your assumption that Vyvanse is nearly impossible to abuse. The entire 'prodrug' argument is baseless; unfortunately that's how the big pharma companies have marketed it in order to get it into the mass market as a 'non-addictive' substitute for Adderall. As someone who is diagnosed with ADHD and struggled with a Vyvanse addiction for over a year and just 3 months ago made the decision to seek help, quit cold turkey, endure the painful withdrawals, and ultimately recover, I can vouch that it is in fact one of the most deceivingly addictive drugs you can ingest. You build a tolerance almost immediately, get hooked on the 6+ hour 'high' you experience, and then take more in order to satiate that very high. And it also is completely plausible (and common) that someone abusing a stimulant - Vyvanse included - would direct the stimulation it provides towards something more engaging such as video games. And everything else you're describing - the weight loss, hollowed face, and sleeping for a full day after staying up all night, are the same exact symptoms I experienced when I was addicted.

Anyways - needless to say this is a very scary drug. My psychiatrist pitched it to me as this wonder drug that - as Jane is alluding to - is incapable of being abused. But unfortunately that theory has been dispelled - not just by me but by a whole litany of medical professionals. There's also a reason that there are almost 365 replies on one posting around Vyvanse withdrawal. This is real.

But there's an end in sight. I was taking up to 4 to 5x the prescribed maximum dose, while still holding an investment banking job in new york (my first year out of college, I'm just a few years older than your son) and the experience was torturous. It can have such a mental, physical and emotional impact. Yet getting off of it - while certainly difficult - is possible. And the withdrawal is not comparable to opiates, coke, etc. For me - someone abusing it at the highest level imaginable - after stopping cold turkey, I had 3 days of sleep and emotional fatigue (spontaneous crying, just deep depression) followed by a week of recovery where I laid in bed, took the medication my addiction psychiatrist had prescribed me (Neurontin, which helps ease the emotional distress), and took a short medical leave off work (I didn't have to tell them why, it's actually pretty simple) with the support of my addiction specialist/psychiatrist. After about a week and a half I was starting to feel more normal, and then after 3 weeks I really was probably 80%+ back. Finally after a month I was 100%. This was 4 weeks - only one of which was really hard - that I had to endure to save my life. And 3 months later, I'm in a new job which I absolutely love, am off all medications, and feel incredibly clear.I sympathize with you and realize that this is not easy and I'm sure you feel helpless. But the first thing I'd ask - does your son's semester end soon? Does he have a summer break at all? Will he have access this summer to his frat brothers - aka Vyvanse? If not, you should look on the bottle for his psychiatrist and reach out to him/her directly and explain the situation, have them call the pharmacies and mark his name so that no one fills a prescription for him. You should do this while simultaneously sitting down with him - bring other close family members - for a real intervention, and you can honestly relay my story word by word and let him know that after a week he's going to be a lot better and it's really not as scary to stop as he thinks it is (that is the biggest inhibitor of seeking help, the idea that you can't live without it and there's no way out of the hole you've dug). Let's talk more but I wanted to clarify some things and make sure that you better understand the dynamics of the drug and how to get off of it.

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You must have excellent reviews on bedside manner. How do you expect to get through to others if you speak to them like this? Having your patients believe in you can save their life. When you put yourself so above them and display malevolent rhetoric, they won't want to listen to your sound medical advice, even though youre brilliant. The best practicing physicians are both relateable and brilliant.

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I took 70 mg of vyvance every day since my sophomore year in high school and I'm 25 now. I moved to Baton Rouge with my girlfriend for 4 months in which I stopped taking it. I felt the withdrawals every single day and never returned to normal so I had to get back on it. I'm sure there is gonna be a time and place for me to stop taking for the period of time I need to feel normal again but it's not gonna be anytime soon. My advice is please think long and hard about taking this drug even after your doctor says it's what you need

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My son,age 5 has ADHD and was on adderall but his father and I didn't like how he was acting so his dr. changed it to vyvance, I've read your comment now I'm very worried about giving it to him...what should I exspect?

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im replying for the kid that was tooken off his meds,denise,i honestly think u need to contact the dr who prescribed the meds to ur son.as to your ?it is definitly normal to have withdrawls,im on adderol.and the dr i see told me this is a narcotic,i have adhd,and they cannot just take him off,i know this,becuz my doctor told me i will be dependent on this and cannot take me off,if u need anything,plz feel free to leave me a message ty nancy

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Hi Dancer - I am definitely more jumpy while on Vyvanse - tend to be startled easily and drop things, etc. The car accident could in part be related (depending on how the medas affect her) but hard to know for sure. My only advice if you're worried is to get a second opinion. My doc thought it was fine for me but after talking to two other docs, they didn't agree it was necessary or having a good affect. Hope that helps.

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My husband has a new psychiatrist now who says his brain is inflamed from the Vyvanse. He is still having bi-polar episodes, unfortunately. The doc says Vyvanse creates a high flow of dopamine creating the hostility. He is now on two calming drugs to try to counteract the overflow of dopamine.

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Vyvanse was great at first. Than like everyone else we noticed some tendencies. Explosive outbursts. Hostility, development of personality disorders, headaches, leg cramping and pain.
Withdrawal symptoms for me are still 4 weeks out. The rage is now controllable but still present, just not nearly as strong. The tiredness and lethargy are present. I am more irritable, but it is different from when I was on Vyvanse. Also my wife and I noticed that the explosive outbursts were as the vyvanse was wearing off.

But so everyone remembers, this is a class 2 controlled substance. It is also an amphetamine. Everything that has been spouted about it is secondary to those two facts.

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Hello! Vyvanse is Lisdexamfetamine. Lisdexamfetamine breaks down to amphetamines in the body. It's just a legal version of it. Yes, it's very addictive. Yes, you may have adverse side effects. It is after all a psycho-active drug, Yes, you WILL become dependent on it. Yes, you WILL experience withdrawal if you stop taking it. Why won't doctors tell you this? Because that's not what the drug company told them to tell you.

Wake up people. Read the articles:

Lisdexamfetamine Details / from Drugs.com

Amphetamine Dependence

Methamphetamine Details

Desoxyn Details

BTW I take 70mg of Vyvanse daily. I've been on it for over 2 years. Has it helped me? Yup, at first. However over time, it becomes less and less effective. This is because tolerance is built up over time. Three choices: 1. Continue to increase dosage over time just to feel normal. 2. Maintain dosage over time -- it will always help you a little but will never be as effective as it was in the first few months. 3. Decrease dosage (quickly or slowly) over time to get yourself off of it, but then you are by yourself to deal with your ADHD ... which is not really a disease, just a psychological make-up which doesn't quite fit into today's society.

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Hey guys, this is Kelsey the 19 yo college student from below. I just got an email that someone replied to my post, but I don't know how that works exactly. But it did remind me about this post, and so I want to give an update and put some disclaimers on some of what I said. Because I'm a little bit wiser now in my right mind (I'm back!) and also I am reading posts about people thinking about taking themselves or their children off this drug cold turkey, which I do not support.

First of all, all of that was true about my OWN personal experience with Vyvanse. I've been off Vyvanse for 2 months now and am now taking Effexor and Adderall. These fit my symptoms of depression, anxiety, OCD, and ADD. And I am finally doing well, and hope to stay that way. I am also changing my diet and exercise habits. But the change in drugs was what helped me get to this point, so I want to remind people who are feeling hopeless and broken that it's not your fault--these imbalances in neurotransmitters and the brain chemistry in general is a complex process and it will take time to find what works for you, but I have faith that you WILL find it. Because I was at the point of giving up, but I found that correct balance for my own body with the help of a doctor I trusted and I am getting better.

In other words, remember that feeling totally empty and as if life has no meaning is not a normal, healthy feeling and thus there is generally some pathology (or imbalance) going on here. And that can be dealt with. I used to feel like there was something intrinsically wrong or broken with ME, but now I am able to understand it better in a physiological sense. Remember this when you feel like nothing is going to work for you, and you just want to give up--this is NOT a permanent state and there is a solution. I hope to be a doctor soon so I can help people like those posting on this forum. I feel connected to you and I want you all to see an improvement in your quality of life.

Also, I do not believe in quitting cold turkey from a psychiatric drug and think this could be dangerous due to the rapid change in brain chemistry (it can cause serious symptoms, including increased suicidality). This goes especially for children. Doctors know how to taper off the drug in a safer way, and I highly recommend you address your concerns clearly about this drug to the prescribing doctor, be honest about your symptoms, and do the withdrawal with the support of a doctor. Of course, not all doctors are very helpful or patient, so I recommend you find one who really cares about your health and one you can trust as soon as possible. This can take some time, but they are out there!

One last thing: one danger about these types of sites where people post their own personal experiences with a particular drug is that it suggests those symptoms to others and plants a seed of fear or doubt where there may not have been one previously. I highly suggest not viewing these sites for medical insight during treatment, unless you have serious doubts or worries about a symptom and want to see if others are experiencing that as well. In that sense, this can be a powerful source. But your body is very specific and VERY different from someone else's, so take everything with a grain of salt. Talk to your doctor about your fears and expect them to listen to you and address those issues. If they continually brush your concerns off, then it's time to find another doctor. And believe that you can get better!

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