It is late, and I need to sleep, but I needed to report that my med holiday seems to have helped some. I took my amphetamine today for the first time since the morning of December 30. While I did not feel a significant improvement in its effectiveness, I do think that I was more alert than I had been before the holiday. I probably needed a complete week away, but it is good to know that even four and a half days can help. My motivation for establishing a monthly break from my meds has definitely increased. I would love to find a way to have at least two and a half days off at least once every four weeks.
My concern remains how much those two and a half days would cost me in terms of lost time for school work, house work, family time, and personal time. Yet, I firmly believe that the other twenty-five and a half days of each four week stretch would be slightly more coherent for me. Much of it will come down to planning and prioritizing the time. I am proud of myself because I did manage to schedule a few appointments within the last twenty-four hours – appointments that I have put off scheduling for the past four months. I have yet to correct a single paper that I received right before my Christmas break, but I do think I am moving in the right direction.
Hi,
I was wondering if it was your doctor that told you to take med holidays or where you got this idea from. I have never taken a med holiday in the 17 years I have been on stimulants and have never been told to take one. Of course, I have heard other people talk about this and it is true that my stimulants have drastically decreased in effectiveness over time, but I’ve never tried taking a holiday because I didn’t think that it would help much and I just wouldn’t be able to function well without my meds.
Andromeda
nisfornarcolepsy.com (my blog)
Andromeda,
I actually asked my doctor about “medication holidays.” I had read about other PWNs who had taken them, so I asked about them. Apparently, doctors used to recommend them, but in our current litigious environment, most doctors would never “recommend” that a PWN not take stimulants. If one did, the PWN could consider suing if he or she got into an accident while driving without the stimulant. Of course, one might argue that any PWN who decided to drive after stopping his or her stimulants might deserve said accident, but I am sure you get the idea.
I do know PWNs who have not found much success with “medication holidays,” but the few I have taken have definitely helped me – at least for a time. If you do try one, you need to plan to be incapacitated for days. For me, the first day goes okay because I still have some stimulant in my system from the day before. Then, the next three days tend to be a blur. I randomly fall asleep throughout each day – naps ranging from 20 minutes to 3 hours. Plus, I have no ability to focus on anything. Finally, during the fifth day, I start to feel slightly coherent. I am hoping to try shorter med holidays once per month this year. I will definitely keep folks posted. I hope this helps. Thanks for reading!