Do y’all ever feel anxious about taking medication and just stop for prolonged periods of time?
I’ve stopped my meds for 6 months for reasons I’m struggling to discern… And I also have a tendency to skip doses and save my pills in a stash I never touch. I’m not even sure if most of them are useable because they’re so old… For some context, I’ve been using Adderall XR 20mg for 10 years now so I have a pretty good idea of how it affects me.
I finally took one of the newer pills today and I feel unbearably anxious about it, even before doing so. And it’s not like I’m anti-medication or anything, I’ve encouraged others to get tested and medicated because it substantially increases quality of life but there’s something about it that personally is causing distress.
Just looking for some insight with others that have felt the same.
The only thing that works for me is to take it every single morning together with my other daily pill. I take Ritalin LA in the morning and it keeps me mostly functional.
Every time I tried to “only take it on days I needed it”, I ended up not taking it ever. But once I’ve accepted that I’m ALWAYS taking one every single morning, that’s not been a problem. Or at least much rarer. If it gets too late in the day before I take my meds (past 14:00 or so), I skip the Ritalin because it could interfere with sleep. But other than that, I always take it.
If I have a day off that I know I really don’t need to do anything, I might take 20 mg instead of my normal 30. Luckily I get prescribed both for this purpose, my doctors are awesome.
For context, my other daily pill is an antidepressant, but the same could apply for anything: blood pressure, medicine to control chronic illness, or simple vitamins. Even if you don’t take anything else daily, you could start the habit with the adhd meds. The biggest hurdle for me was to accept that I have to take it every single day, and not try to “optimize” my usage of it.