‘Life-Changing’ ADHD Stimulants: I’ll Never Touch Them Again

Just a lil note to say I’m not a doctor or medical professional; this is purely just my experience with ADHD medication. 

August 2025 I was assessed and diagnosed with mixed ADHD, with a very high score (I’ve always been an overachiever). It wasn’t a big, huge rush of emotions as I was on the waiting list with the NHS for two years, so by the point of my diagnosis, I’d already self assessed a million times prior, but it was great to have the gratification that I was correct.

 However, during the assessment, it did shock me at how mood and emotionally centred the questions were, over fidgeting and focus. The assessment does go through multiple situations and spectrum of ADHD symptoms, but it never sank in how my constant mood changes and dependency on adrenaline wasn’t much to do with just hormones. It also explained my struggles with maintaining jobs and how emotions took over and debilitated my decision making in life. I just thought this was part of being a modern woman. 

I think many women get neurodivergent late diagnosis. I’m one of the lucky ones with a diagnosis in my early 20s, it has answered so many questions about our moods and the way the world makes us feel. Sensitive, emotional, hyper, uncontrollable, frustrated, exhausted and lost. Like many, I really could’ve done with the diagnoses whilst in school but I’m fully aware it wouldn’t have suddenly made me a mathematics buff, but it absolutely would’ve benefited my emotional regulation, whilst grasping teenhood. 

Once I ticked every box of mixed ADHD diagnoses, we discussed medication and treatment, my clinician was very helpful and honest about the greats and woes of medication and how it really did depend on the individual. I’d heard MANY accounts of life changing experiences when starting ADHD stimulants, so I was very quick to say yes please! 

I started on Elvanse and titrated up to the highest dose. From the first tablet I was like a super woman and really enjoyed the emotional high every morning after taking it, anything and everything was possible in these 24 hours… inspired by Molly Mae. I was hyper focused on cleaning, tasking and doing my online university course. I felt like the female Mr Worldwide. 

Then came 3pm, the crash began, an avalanche of fatigue and emotions, I no longer felt superwoman, dive was down. But as I went up doses these crashes got later and later, but they still had the same symptoms, now with added lack of sleep as my brain was a workaholic and struggled to ever switch off. 

I decided to come off Elvanse when I was monitoring my emotions and overstimulation, funnily enough it really upsets both. I recall being on 70mg, walking around Meadowhall, and within the first 5 minutes I was in pure rage and anxiety of the most mundane noises. I couldn’t cope any longer. I could’ve ripped a door off its hinges at how angry and on edge the mediation made me, I was not fun to be around. 

I had a short stint on Amfexa which didn’t even touch the sides, but I was no longer seething at the mouth due to overstimulation. Thank god. 

Since 2026 I’ve been on Concerta XL, titrating up to 74mg, which wasn’t as stimulating as Elvanse but felt less fragile regarding overstimulation. 

Then came late spring, and my emotions and mood nose dived. Badly.

I started to feel like my brain was shut off to any feelings of pure happiness and peace, I was a shell of myself, and having never struggled with depression before I was confused. Why now? 

I didn’t feel that anything in my life warranted the way I was feeling. Yes, it's normal to have sad days but this was becoming a 24/7 feeling that I couldn’t shake. Usually I’m quite bubbly, outgoing and happy on a day-to-day level. 

I closed my circle, shut off my social life and became a shell of myself. I was crying unconsolably nearly everyday. Bed rotting became my pastime. Work – bed rot – cry – oversleep – repeat. Exhausted with feeling so low and worried at the direction I was heading to. 

I made a timeline of medications and life changes over the past year and circled the beginning of Concerta XL. I then did some research and found that stimulants can actually make you depressed, as the medication causes a shift in core brain neurotransmitters that can flatten emotions and lower moods. I spoke to my ADHD clinician and we both agreed to stop the medication immediately and give my body a break before I think about trying non-stimulants and I should be able to tell if my mood shifts. As the medication only stays within your system for 6-hours, once I’ve stopped the possible culprit, I should be able to feel a difference swiftly, if the medication is the problem or whether it is that or an underlying issue. 

Writing this article on the 3^rd of August, I’m only four days free of my ADHD medication, and I can GLADLY confirm, the ADHD medication was the culprit.

It is early days of course, but the switch from Thursday 30^th of August to the 31^st was strikingly different. Even so that family and friends have picked up on it, noticing I seem brighter, and more myself. You know what, I feel it too. After months of worrying about clouds, I feel like the sun has broken through. 

So far, my productivity hasn’t changed much either, but even so, I prefer feeling happy over getting a dozen tasks done in 20 minutes. 

As I’ve stated in the warning, I’ve read many accounts of truly brilliant experiences with ADHD stimulants, but I’ve taken the uncommon option to wave the white flag, after a year of trialling and failing, that stimulant medication does not work for me. 

Am I happy I tried it? To an extent, yes, I won’t be left wondering ‘what if’, especially as there’s so many recorded experiences of users who have found it life changing. I can happily say, I tried it and accepted that it’s not for me. However, I’m gutted at how much time and months I feel I’ve wasted this year being so unhappy. I can’t get that time or those opportunities back. But equally I vow not to waste anymore time rattling at the frustration of it, and focus on rebuilding who I am, and who I was prior to ADHD medication. 

I felt completed to detail my failed experience in them, as when I was in the bleak chapter of the past year, I struggled to find many accounts of people who withdrew from ADHD stimulants for similar reasons, the few I found were incredibly helpful and calming – the depression wasn’t me, it’s not my life, it’s the damn medication. 

I can imagine many people on stimulants prefer to turn a blind eye to any side effects due to how it can unlock parts of your brain you never knew existed, but I encourage everyone on any medication, please look closer at the medication leaflet and ensure to track how you’re truly feeling and I promise it's better to admit defeat before you waste more of your time and tears. 

There's always a light.  

For now, I’m more than happy to be free wheeling my life and my ADHD. 

Stay informed and stay YOU! 

Till next time chicks, Jessie x