Thankfully I am in recovery for the past almost 4 years now. However, finally at the age of 44 at with a diagnosis I realize that all I was doing was self-medicating on a very literal sense my entire life. I just want to fit in I just want to be awake when people are awake I want to be productive and a member society. I struggled with methamphetamine addiction for 20 plus years. I do remember taking Adderall one time and honestly I was taking it to get high and I didn't get high. So I complained and I was told that's because you have ADHD. Come to find out I also do have ADHD and insomnia and sleep paralysis and also go figure narcolepsy without cataplexy. Living now without any substances and now that I have finally found the two medication combination that work well for me I forgive myself because I was just trying to feel normal. Don't beat yourself up.

Now I find this question makes absolutely no sense for anyone to entertain the idea that illegal substances would give you better results than pharmaceuticals. First when you think illegal drugs what quality control does that dealer insist be carried out? None because that makes it harder to boost profits so when you buy say crystal meth what are you getting? Fentanyl? Rat poison? Laundry soap? Baking soda? Second you are really just exhibiting drug seeking behavior when asking this as the answers will give no real answer only an individual that has tried and the experience with the batch of whatever they used which will not be a consistent experience. And really why? Why would this question be relevant to those who are actually working to manage this condition responsibly? No one that is seriously trying to manage narcolepsy is going to go down the illegal drug path unless they aren't seeing a doctor regularly and have decided that they will have more success on their own. This question is ridiculous and offensive to those of us that have been trying to manage our lives responsibly.

Life with Narcolepsy is hard. Life addicted to to an illegal drug would be devastating. I don’t know which prescription med you take(?), but I would recommend talking to your doctor about perhaps adding a prescription for an immediate release form of it if possible. Certain combos of drug forms may help. Full disclosure, I keep nicotine gum on hand and in my car in case of emergency and find it incredibly helpful. But I would talk to your doctor about it.

I didn’t like the way armadofinil and sunosi made me feel…… and they were prescribed. I wouldn’t choose to take them on my own and told my doctor that I’d take xywav but was not going back on sunosi. I am retired but don’t like being wired and have ADHD. I’d prefer not to take anything!

Before being diagnosed I turned to illegal drugs just to stay awake and function, unfortunately.