A day in the life on ADHD medication

When you take a couple of paracetamol, you know if the drug has worked. Your headache is gone or it's not gone. Pretty simple. But when it comes to ADHD medication, it's really not as cut and dry.

Many people I've spoken to have told me the medication is life-changing. I've heard the phrase quite a few times during my journey this year to get my hands on medication. In some ways that set the bar high as to what that would mean. Let's be real, I've been banging on through this website about the journey to get medication, so I really would like this to have some impact.

Until I had a white bottle of pills in my hand, I hadn't really thought about what that would feel like to me. I know the difference in how I feel about having a headache or not. So I know how to benchmark if paracetamol works. But I've always had ADHD. Albeit, I didn't know this until I was in my late 40s, but all the same... I don't know what it's like for my brain to be any different than its ever been.

In theory medication is meant to help with attention. So I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started taking the pink and white Elvanse 30mg capsules that I'd just paid the princely sum of £75.71 for.

Stimulant variety ADHD medications like Elvanse (or Vyvanse as it's known in the US) are simply brand names for the drug Lisdexamfetamine. That's a hard word to say at the best of times, let alone when you are experiencing one of the side effects of the drug (which I currently am) – dry mouth.

As part my journey, I'd hoped to document everything. And so over the coming months I'll attempt to put in writing my titration journey and what taking medication is like (titration is simply a fancy way of saying you're working with a doctor to settle on the right dose of medication).

So here's my experiences and inner monologue on day one of taking medication.

8:02am First weigh in and blood pressure check. I've already done this every day for a week beforehand, so it's now just a regular thing. All of this is to keep tabs on two of the potential side effects - weight loss (from decreased appetite) and high blood pressure.

8.19am Make a slice of toast. I normally have a liquid breakfast - a double espresso. Coffee is now off the table for me and it's weird that I don't remember the last coffee I had yesterday. I wish I'd savoured it more.

8.26am I pop a pink pill in and wash it down. I'm wearing pink shoes. I did not match the shoes and meds on purpose, I promise. I'm not that into shoes. Hell, who am I kidding? I am that into shoes.

8.27am My dog is recovering from an injury, so I take him for a short walk. Wonder how long it'll be until my life is irrevocably changed. It's been 60 seconds now. Why is nothing happening? Isn't this meant to be life-changing?

9.05am A mild headache starts to surface. Is this the body rebelling because a double espresso hasn't been consumed yet or is this medication related? I definitely should have started to come off coffee a week or two before starting Elvanse.

9.30am In town with my eldest daughter. I begin my quest to replace espresso. Starting with an apple and ginger shot in the Juice Jar followed by a great oat milk hot chocolate in Daisies. I could get used to hot chocolate.

10.40am Leave Daisies and realise the parking app did not text or alert me that my parking ran out about 20 minutes ago. F@%k sake... isn't this stuff meant to give me improved concentration? I should have remembered that my time was up.

10.42am The parking police haven't been past my car in the minutes since my time ran out. No ticket. That's a win... a ticket costs as much as a month's worth of medication.

10.59am Head is still pounding.

11.28am I realise I've been standing staring at a salmon en croute so long in Sainsbury's that if there was such a thing as the food perv police I'd be getting a citation right now.

11.39am I'm in my own head now. Am I cheerier than usual? Maybe I always sing when I'm doing a food shop. I freak out, thinking I'm singing an Ed Sheeran song. Nothing against the man himself but I just really dislike Ed Sheeran's music. What the hell is wrong with this medication? I am about to pull my phone out and use Google's 'hum to search function' to confirm the medication needs binned when I realise I'm singing the last song my daughter had on in the car – Taylor Swift's New Romantics. Phew. I don't mind that tune. Back to ogling salmon.

12:38pm My brain feels like its expanding inside my head and my mouth is drier than dehydrated cardboard. I might give the manufacturers a call and ask for a refund. This is life-changing in a terrible way.

3.30pm-4.30pm I pull out my Hyper Mega Tech, a Gameboy looking device with some of my favourite games from the '80s and '90s like Street Fighter 2 and 1942. Very quickly I get much further in a game called Ghouls 'n Ghosts than I ever got playing it as a kid, or as an adult. If nothing else the pills have increased my game.

6.20pm Eating again. I had feared that one of the side effects of weight loss could be a problem. Clearly not. I think I've eaten slightly more than I normally do by this point on a Saturday.

8.13pm I reflect on the past 12 hours, wondering why my life doesn't feel like it's changed that much. I really don't know if I feel that different. All I know is stimulant medication is meant to kick in pretty quickly. Outside of now being a video game expert, I'm not sure I feel that much different.

9.44pm Watched the movie Wolfs on Apple TV. It's the first movie in memory that I haven't pondered the question "is this f*cking over yet?", whilst watching it, even if I'm enjoying it. Normally I'm trying to do something else at the same time, or even two other things at the same time. And normally I'm bored, whatever the movie. Maybe my concentration levels are heightened a little.

11.02pm Headache is still there. It seems to have been coming in waves all day.

11.27pm Fall asleep quickly, like I do most nights and sleep through without any issues. At least there's no sleeping issues on day one.

Maybe I'll know better when I'm in a work environment whether I have better concentration. I do know that after one day on medication I've not experienced the Aha moment that many other people have. Then again, titration is a journey, so maybe I've just not found the right dose yet.