GOT VYVANSE? GOOD, GET RID OF IT!

[PillsnThrills87]

I am sincerely asking before I start a petition to get this medication off the market and out of people's systems, if ANYONE has had good results with this medication.  and when I say good results, I don't just mean in the first couple of days, I mean long lasting, sustainable results.  Also, if anyone has any Vyvanse horror stories they'd like to share, I would love to hear about them so I can sit at my computer screen and fratically nod my head in agreement, while listening to my new-found heart palpatations.

Thanks for reading,

-CG

[margypops]

Read the Threads we have here today, it seems like the Nays and the Yays, some want to give their kids Drugs so they wont get F's and there are some like you ,been through it I wonder why would you do that to your child because you cant sort out your own parenting skills, actually I have no Vyanse stories sorry , but I do have children in my heart and their Welfare and it shocks me at some of the things people will do to their children to get good grades and to have some"Peace"

[erin17]

It is not necessarily about good grades.  I could care less if my son got A's or C's, but when they see  F's that stands for FAILURE.  And eventually after seeing enough of them they are going to start to see themselves as failures too.  I think it's more that parents want their kids to feel good about themselves and learn the necessary academic skills to have a decent future.  I also don't think it's fair to blame parenting skills either.  I have two kids both with ADHD.  One medicated,and one not.  I am consistently told how kind, polite, and well behaved my kids are.  What's right for one is not right for all.  I would like to hear the negative things about Vyvanse as well, because meds are often switched and i wouldn't want to give my son anything with an awful reputation.  

[PillsnThrills87]

I for one, am not going to say anything bad about medication.  I've been on some form of it off and on since I was seven years old, and yes, I would have fallen apart without it.  That being said, it takes more than medication tho in terms of parenting.  It takes work, you need to be able to have a healthy relationship when you or your children are on and off the medication, or at least that's the lifelong goal we as kids and parents should want to strive for.  

I recently had to take myself off of Vyvanse for a few and rather alarming reasons.  For one, I was having chest pains and was finding it very hard to breathe during the day, or whenever I did anything that called for a any sort of physical capability. (walking, getting off the couch, no joke!)  I was having muscle spasms, blurry vision, was up ALL night, and had some mild hallucinations.  (ya, hallucinations)  Basically, If you go to the Vyvanse website, every "rare" side affect that it mentioned, I had, and so did a good majority of the people that I spoke with about their experiences on it, leading me to believe that maybe they're not so "rare".  I've seen posts about children on this medication, who are on 70mg, and all of these side affects were afforded to me on a mere 5omg.....scarey.  This is why I would like to hear of anyone else with who have had these same side affects, or anything worse.  Type away below.  


CG

[psycholove]

i am one person who totally disagrees with medicating a child with ADHD. Sorry if this offends anyone but look at parenting skills - i think this is where it starts...

[margypops]

Why not try the Food supplement way, in recent studies it was shown that Food supplement treatment of ADHD may be of equal effiacy to Ritalin All children and especially those with Learning difficlties , benefit from a multiple -mineral supplement with antixoxidants ,B Complex and Vitanmin C also Fish oil.2 years ago the FDA called for stronger warning labels for stimulant Drugs used to treat ADD and mainly on Adderal, Dexedrine, Concerta and Ritalin.and many experts say it is not strong enough stating that :misuse of amphetimines may cause cardiovascular adverse effects.Ritalin and amphetamines have become commonly abused Drugs concerns are to include seizures and vision problems, hostile and aggressive behavior.

[Hello01]

This medication helps my son by calming his hyperness but when the medication is waring off he gets violent. Can someone please with a medication that doesn't have horrible side effects.He is only nine years old.

[maryhope]

My son (6 year old) is currently crying hysterically as he is coming down off vyvanse of only 20 mg. Prior to this, he talked for five hours straight, talking talking and would not SHUT UP like a tweaker. And if we did not listen to him, he cried. The only good thing is he is not having violent tantrums (he's autistic not ADHD and very aggressive and impulsive). However, his eyes are dilated and he won't stop talking like he's spun out. He even stood in the bathroom and talked at the mirror. One night has been enough for us, this med was NOT the right one for him!

[margypops]

I am sorry you have this to go through ask your Doctor if there is anything else to try with less  impact, have you tried the supplement way, perhaps if you put it into your search engine and see if supplements help with Autism, we also have the Autism forum here on Med Help, could be others going through a similar problem.

[bekka4]

My son was put on Vyvanse it has been a nightmare ever since. First off my son was diagnosed a year ago with ADD. He is a very mellow child. I never had any complaints of his behavior or his attitude before Vyvanse. His main problem from the school was that he daydreamed to often and was unable to finish his school work. So with everything inside me tellng me no I went againt what I believed and took him to the Dr's. My son is a very small kid he is 10 yrs old and weighed 58lbs. he has a very small frame. After a month of being on 30mg Vyvanse he dropped to 51lbs. For him that seven pounds made a HUGE diffrence in his appearance. He was looking like a skeleton. So they lowered it to 20mgs. The teachers were not satisfied with the 20mgs because they said that he was starting to daydream again and the teachers wrote a letter to the Dr's. After 2 months they decided to go back to the 30mgs. TODAY I was at work and the school called me and said that my son's pulse was racing his heart rate was 147 and he was complaining of chest pains. I picked him up and took him to the ER. The doc there said that all this was from the Medicine and that it was horrible that they would prescribe a child of his size "diet pills" basically the same thing that is in these diet pills is in Vyvanse.  Thank God My son is ok. But I feel so guilty that I agreed to put him on this med. I have to take him back for a follow up and I plan on telling his peditrian that I am done. His health if more important than his grades. I am not going to go on the prescription highway! Other side effects that I have noticed with this med is depression and anger, he also has ticks from it. He will jerk his head to the side and clench his teeth. They say thats normal..YEAH RIGHT anyways would love to hear from anyone else with horror stories

[m6977]

I developed SVT after taking vyvanse for 1 month. 70mg daily 5 days a week.

[addmomme]

My son is 15 had been on meds since he is 6. Many different medications had side effects finally when he was 10 he started adderal whitch he did great on it.He was on Adderal for 5 years until puberty hit then the adderal stopped working. At the end of the summer beginning of Sept of this year he was put on vyvanse by the second week he wound up in the emergency room having panic attacks and describing a feeling of something bad was going to happen. He was on 70mg. After this his dose was lowered to 50mg at first it seemed to be ok then about a month after starting the 50mg he started becoming very nasty and irritable when coming off of it and stayed that way threw the next day when the next dose hit him again. I was told by the doctors that this is normal and to leave him alone for the first half hour after I thought the meds were wearing off to avoid any confrintations. Within a month or so after that things got worse he started becoming nasty and irritable while on the meds and then became very violant. I have taken him off completly now and trying to see if he can function off the meds. It's only been a week but so far he is doing great. I don not recommened vyvanse to anyone.

[skalliwag]

As an adult I was prescribed Vyvanse for attention issues I was having. I stopped taking it after a couple months, only to be left with some debilitating form of all day every day panic disorder, or at least that is what they told me it is. Now, I have had panic attacks like the ones described by other people, but THIS is something horrificly different. I am not sure I can even go with the panic disorder diagnosis in this case. First of all, there is no beginning and no end, it goes on all the time with varying levels of severity. I experience involuntary body movements; ie. my head and eyeballs are both forcibly turning to the left, while my right arm flaps up and down, or I suddenly squat down a little and my legs start running backwards. Needless to say this is ruining my life!!!! I am a single mother with many responsibilities including a full time school schedule. I am constantly "forced to" stand up, hold my breath, and stretch, or grab the back of my neck.
I guess what I need to know is if there is anyone out there suffering from this sort of disorder too? What is it???? Also, are there any lawsuits against Vyvanse for this sort of thing? Where do I sign up?

[dkpoto]

Medications help some adults, but I would never recommend Schedule II stimulants for children. Is the avoidance of F's worth the risk of your child ingesting stimulants more powerful than their street counterparts? Moreover, the doses recommended are done so by sheer conjecture. Is your child a stimulant experiment.

The irony is the people who peddle these dangerous drugs upon our children are the same hypocrites who believe Cannabis is evil.

Here is proof Cannabis is better for ADHD than chemical poisons:

http://www.adhd-information-exchange.com/Cannabis.html

Don K Potochny

[laur5441]

i was good with Vyvanse for the first couple weeks. i went from 30mg to 60mg then to 50mg and now on 60mg. i have to say this is the WORSE medication EVER! i got a really bad panic attack today and everything that it says to stop taking if you get these symptoms stop taking and call your doctor. well i got them and i can not tell you how bad i feel right now. i would not recommend Vyvanse to ANYONE. i would not want to see someone go through what i went through today.

[dollyn]

I don't know anyone who took this drug,but this should not be out there for anyone to take from what I am reading.

And like others have said they regret ever put there children on medicine.I to wish I had never let the teacher talk me into putting my son on any medicine even after she would call and write about the adderall (adderrall) not working and then the concerta not working.In my mind she shouldn't have been teaching if she couldn't handle a child when she was a special ED teacher and that was her job.
My sweet little boy changed so much and now since 2006 has had seizures.witch is a side effect of adderall (adderrall) and concerta.

I have already told my son doctor I will not give him any more medicines for adhd.
bad enough he has a lot to take with his seizures witch has not worked.

These doctors really need to look at everything they have going on in there life and make sure they are treating them right and not putting there life's in  more danger with giving them medicines,that could cause them there life's or others there life's.

[PamFP]

There will be a lot of you that don't agree with me, but I think Vyvanse is fan-tas-tic!  My son has been thrown out of two pre-schools, a summer camp, numerous sports teams, and I should have been on the payroll at his elementary school because I was there for meetings so much.  After 30 days he won the "student of the month" award.  No more complaints from school or camp or anything else.  He's been on it for about a year now.  He has lost a couple of pounds, but nothing drastic.  His pulse and blood pressure are normal.  He sleeps well.  He did so well on it that I recently tried Adderral for myself.  My Mom noticed that I'm much calmer, and I don't have any troublesome side effects either.  

[jmckay]

my daughter is currently on vyvanse 20 mg. although she oftens wonders around the house for hours in the middle of the night i have not noticed anything else diffrent good or bad.
she is 9 now we started this med because i have tried everything else, besides meds. we even held her back in 1st grade for she was having so many problems in school. in every other way in life she functions like other 9 tr old girls, but when it comes time to sit down and concentrate you lost her. she is a very sweet girl naturally. although i have experianced a alarming angry side to her i did not know exsisted when she missed 2 doses on a family trip.
possibly from withdraws?

[gstroop28]

I am going to jump in and say that Vyvanse for my 11 year old daughter (who has ADHD and a mild form or Aspergers) has been a MIRACLE!! She is only taking 20 mg a day, but it has helped her focus so much better in school, but it hasn't made her a zombie or hurt her in any other way. (She's been on it 4 months now)

I am nervous about her being on it long term, but while she has lost a few pounds, she has no trouble sleeping nor getting up in the morning.

Thank you all for sharing your stories, though - good or bad. It has really been helpful

[carelli]

My son took Vyvanse for two days and had severe side effects.  He threw severe tantrums, was completely hysterical, then at the same time so mellow he looked drugged out.  My son also could not sleep and experienced severe hallucinations.  This was a very scary experience for my entire family and my child.  I will NEVER give this to my child again.  I do know that my son's doctor reported these side effects to Vyvanse.  

[shea200]

I am going through a tough time. The doctor put my son on Vyvanse. Once he was put to 40 mg. I started noticing mild vocal tics. Well a few days later it went into full blown tourette syndrome, itchy rash, dizziness, And feeling really hot.This is really terrible and to see him like this is very sad. He never had this until he started this medicine.I had him at the hopital twice.He jerked every body part. Terrible facial tics. He couldn't talk.He had a hard time getting a word out.Also he was biting at the air.If I was near him he wanted to hit me.He also was highly irritable.He has been off the medicine for two days now. I see a little improvement. But the facial tics are stil there and some vocal tics.And slight jerking. I am so angry with this and with the suffering he been through.I will never have him medicated again. I was wandering if anyone has ever heard of this and can there be any law suit against this medicine. It was so obvious that people would stare at him.I forgot to mention his eyes would roll up to the side..He looked like he was just losing it. Thank You and please reply!!!

[Catmontty]

I love Vyvanse. It's the only ADHD medication that doesn't have a crash at the end of the day. My son took it from age 10-12 before I took him off. I took him off because he wanted to go a year without to see how he could control his ADHD without meds.  I started taking it a few months after he took it and stopped 2 months before I started trying to get pregnant. I was on it a total of about 2 years.

I love Vyvanse, not only did it help my son concentrate in class so that he wasn't doodling all day, but it helped me focus more at work, give me the motivation to go back to school, complete everything that I start, become a better parent, and become a more social person. The only side effect I had from it was decreased appetite.

Right now I'm pregnant and not taking any ADHD medication and my head is a freaking mess. I'm currently trying to find something that's safe during pregnancy.

[billybob125]

Myspace.com/thenextbobmarley

read my blog "100 day trip speeding to hell". i wrote it the night my heart stopped due to vyvanse. i was on the 70mg caps prescribed to me by my doctor. i was taking them daily for 100 days. the story is 100% true.

[bethurrabazo]

Kudos to you girlfriend!! You are so right on the money.

[Teachingmom123]

I have to say that I loved Vyvanse.  I took it for at least a year.  I did stop taking it because I was having some interactions with other meds.  I liked it because there was no withdrawal symptoms and no drugged feeling.  The one drawback was that I started grinding my teeth slightly and now that I am not on Vyvanse it is now more of a habit so it is hard to break.  But otherwise it was excellent and I would recommend it to anyone.  My doctor said that she did not want to put my son on it since it hadn't been on the market for enough years for her to feel comfortable with it.  

Someone had said something about not giving children medicine.  If a child has a chemical imbalance in her/his body and a medicine helps to correct that imbalance, why wouldn't someone give it to her/him?  As a Special Ed teacher, we are taught to teach a child on whatever educational level they are on.  Unfortunately a child's self-esteem can affect the improvement of that level.  I have seen many a child amazed/thrilled by their progress after they started taking ADD meds.  It improved their belief in their abilities and many times got them out of a self-contained class into a Resource setting.  Very rarely is medicine used (by a teacher) to control students due to bad behavior.  

I had a cousin whose child was ADHD and I could tell many years ago that he had ADHD and had spoken to her about it.  She and her husband were teachers and believed that they could address the issues without medicine.  Well in 8th grade they finally decided to visit the doctor when they noticed that their child's self-esteem was drastically going down.  The first day of medicine he came home from school over the moon!  He also promptly wrote out a list of things that needed to be done and put times next to it.  He has completely changed in a positive way.  It is a shame that they hadn't given the medicine to him at a younger age, his relief that he wasn't dumb was palitable!  
I am just thankful he is diagnosed now.  He takes Concerta, but all the ADD meds can stop working after a while (particularly when a child is growing and hormones change).  So keep trying.  All meds have side effects and affect each person differently.

And that is all I have to say about that! :)

[Vyvanse_experienced]

Vyvanse is an amphetamine and has all the characteristics of every other amphetamine, including methamphetamine (which is in fact prescribed sometimes as a drug called Desoxyn). ALL of the side effects that are described in every forum like this one are the same effects of methamphetamine and every other amphetamine. Do a simple search of "amphetamine" rather than "Vyvanse" and read about amphetamines, and notice that you are reading about your symptoms. In other words, stop rationalizing your drug taking and amphetamine habit by saying to yourself "b-b-b-but it's a chemical imbalance and its prescribed so it should be safe!!" This is a world where the institute for tobacco studies produces a research study saying tobacco use has no causal link to cancer (which is actually legal and legitimate because of the LANGUAGE used, and because anyone with a moderate knowledge of statistical inference knows that statistics and scientific results can be slightly manipulated in a legal way to be misleading to the public without being illegal). No matter what a psychiatrist says, they will always point either to a Physicians Desk Reference or a Vyvanse brochure. The Physician's Desk Reference is a good guide if you are dealing with a cancer patient, or someone with any physical illness that can be photographed. ADD/ADHD is not a measurable chemical imbalance -- even the studies that you supports of ADD/ADHD refer to are actually inconclusive (if you would actually read more than the headlines). Amphetamine pills are supplied to soldiers for the same reason they are prescribed to students and others. It is not a chemical imbalance -- Vyvanse is just a simple amphetamine that causes all the effects of amphetamine use including physical and mental arousal, increase in fight or flight response (elevated blood pressure, breathing, cortisol levels), etc. If your child has a problem on Vyvanse, and you do not understand what is happening, you need to do a search for the word "amphetamine" and notice that the literature (even the wikipedia page for amphetamine) explains perfectly all the issues. 50 years from now there is a good chance people will look back at us the same way we may look back at heavy smokers in the 1950s or earlier. For example, the FDA is JUST NOW beginning to take action because of stores such as 4 year old girls dying from medicine prescribed for bi-polar disorder and ADD/ADHD when the psychiatrist diagnosed her at TWO YEARS OLD. STOP HAVING COMPLETE FAITH IN THIS NONSENSE WHEN EVEN THE VYVANSE ADVERTISERS CANNOT SHOW THAT THEIR AMPHETAMINE PRODUCT TREATS AN ACTUAL ILLNESS. It is so nice for a company and for a psychiatrist to have a "condition" such as ADD/ADHD where the majority of the population can be "diagnosed" and "treated" with their product. If your child or loved one has problems while taking this, and you are completely ignorant as to WHY, then research "amphetamines" and NOT "vyvanse."
Amphetamines, like Vyvanse, if taken everyday for a long time (a period of months), will almost certainly make you impotent due to lack of circulation and blood pressure issues. It make also make you lose hair for several reasons -- lack of circulation to the scalp, hormone changes (similar compounds such as ephedra and androgen are used by bodybuilders along with amphetamine -- it causes their testicles to shrink and they can become prematurely bald). JUST LIKE a methamphetamine addict, people say WOW I FEEL SO GOOD ON VYVANSE after taking amphetamines for 7 days. Just like amphetamine addicts, they feel like hell if they take it everyday like they are prescribed for a prolonged period of time. Most of the positive responses are either from people who do not take amphetamine everyday or have only been on the drug for a short time.

[Rivera21112]

Im 22yrs & have been on vyvanse for about 5months now. I absolutly hate it but cant stop taking it. I was a big guy and with vyvanse my weight went from 235 to 165 in about 2 and a half months. Everytime i tried to get off the drug i felt like i had no energy and was dead through the whole day. Also started getting in deep depresions. I had all of the side affects happen to me but the weight loss kept me taking it. It made me feel better about myself even if i wasnt the same person i was. I was a very mellow guy, never mad and helped everyone get in a good mood. Now i cant keep myself in a good mood at all. The worst side affect i had was when my heart was beating out of control and would start blacking out. thats happen about 4 times and i still cant get off. I want to try again but i always seem to go back. I still havent told my doctor about my addiction to the drug but he can see what the tolls done to me. People please stay away from this. The 1st week was great. It made me fell normal. I was really lazy and a huge procrastinator and with vyvanse i just did it all without thinking twice. But after a couple of weeks it went away so i upped it. got up to 100mg but went back down to 70mg. Trying again to get off but to anyone who is considering this med, stay away.

[Sandman2]

You seriously need to communicate with your doctor.  The way the drug is affecting you is typical to the way that speed works.  If you had ADHD you would not be having these effects.  And it can be seriously addicting, as you are finding out.  It sounds like you were misdiagnosed, and you need to let your doctor know this.  By the way, if you are seeing a general GP, you might want to look for a specialist - like a psychiatrist  If you haven't already done so, you should also have a complete medical checkup, to eliminate some of those possible problems.

[trucco12]

Thank you for the reports on your experiences with ADD medications.  My son as gone through some highly negative behaviors since starting the medications and after reading some of the stories, I'm SO glad that we took him off of it after only 2 months.  We are still dealing with the after effects, however, I do see some improvement in mood swings and his mind and body racing out of control.  I have printed out some of your experiences to forward to teachers and doctors to let them know that it's because of the medication, that they nearly forced upon us, is the reason he took a turn for the worse.
Thanks again!  

[BBBM]

My son has been on Vyvanse for about 3 months now.  He has lost about 15 lbs. and for an 8 year old that was not over weight to begin with that is a huge deal to me!  He complains with his stomach hurting all the time to.  He has mood swings and has become "OUT OF CONTROL" in the mornings before the meds and in the evenings when the meds are wearing off.  I had better results without meds for his ADHD!  We are going back free of medicine.  I can handle his hyperactivity better than his temper.  He has become very disrespectful to everyone and he thinks being mean and cruel to people is Funny!  He wasn't like that before.  I am getting my son back!!