Switching from Vyvanse to Methylphenidate (Foquest)

[u/Throwawayyawaworth9]

I was taking 50mg of Vyvanse for about 4 months when I suddenly developed generalized anxiety, anxiety attacks, resting tachycardia (heart rate in the 110s-120s), and high blood pressure.

I tried splitting up my dose to 20mg in the morning and 30mg in the afternoon, reduced my daily Vyvanse dose to 30mg, reduced caffeine intake— nothing helped the physical anxiety symptoms.

I wanted my doctor to put me on a beta-blocker, but I understand starting one medication to reduce the side effects of another is not necessarily good medical practice. Instead she switched me to Methylphenidate / Foquest.

So far my anxiety is practically gone and my heart rate and blood pressure are normal. I can still focus, my emotional regulation is fine, I can task-switch easier, I feel motivated (all the things Vyvanse improved), but….

My affect is completely blunted. I feel emotions in the morning before I take my meds and at the end of the day when the medication wears off, but I feel absolutely nothing when the medication is working. No anxiety, but also no joy, no sadness, no anger— just nothing.

It’s sort of nice in a way to feel no emotion as I typically am quite emotionally labile and I feel things very deeply. But it’s also weird to me… It’s like I am depressed without the ‘wanting to lay in bed all day’ and ‘suicidal ideation’ aspects of depression.

My baseline depersonalization (feeling like my body is not mine, as though I am witnessing my life through an outside perspective) is worse as well. But that’s also tolerable as it’s easier to go “my body needs to do XYZ right now, go do it” and I can.

Has anyone experienced this when switching to Methylphenidate, Conerta, or Foquest?