In this Episode 69, I share my unfiltered daily video diaries from the first 8 days starting ADHD medication (Tyvense 30mg, then 40mg).

After getting diagnosed in August 2024 and waiting months due to required cardiology tests, I finally began this journey during a particularly stressful time (seriously sick loved one).

I share:

• Day-by-day honest experiences, including the "cheating at life" feeling on day
• Practical challenges like figuring out breakfast and protein timing
• Wins: You know, the little things like leaving the house without forgetting anything, tackling months of bookkeeping without tears
• The grief and wonder of experiencing what a "normal" brain feels like
• Tips for breakfast solutions and managing expectations
• How it affected my yoga nidra and physical yoga practices and meditation and
• Why proper rest matters for the medication to work

This isn't medical advice. It's my lived experience, shared to help demystify the process for others considering ADHD medication. Everyone's journey is different, but I hope this helps you feel more informed and less alone.

Next week: How cats can help make everything better (it's International Cat Day!)

RESOURCES

• The Feel Better Every Day Podcast

• Sole to Soul Circle (bonus content & deeper dives)

• Book: 365 Ways to Feel Better: Self-care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing

Always consult your healthcare provider about medication decisions. This is purely my personal experience.

Some relevant posts: https://selfcarecoaching.net/2023/07/31/happy-lughnasadh/ https://selfcarecoaching.net/2019/08/01/happy-lughnasadh-what-are-you-harvesting/ https://selfcarecoaching.net/2025/01/07/2025-is-so-last-week-how-do-you-hope-to-be-living-and-feeling-this-time-next-year/ https://selfcarecoaching.net/2025/02/04/some-self-compassion-around-my-own-journey-with-mental-health-issues/

Feel Better Every Day!

Learn from the self and Self* care practices the professionals depend on.

With a mixture of solo and interview episodes, your host, Eve Menezes Cunningham (author of 365 Ways to Feel Better: Self-care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing) shares trauma-informed and VAST / ADHD-friendly self and Self* care ideas to help you:

• Feel… (regulate your nervous system and do the things that help you create a life you don’t need to retreat from)

• Love… (accept yourself completely with love, compassion and kindness – you don’t need to do a thing) and

• Heal… (turn what hurts your heart into action to support your family, organisations, communities and the world at large)

Thanks for watching or listening. New episodes come out every Tuesday morning (Ireland time) and if you subscribe (via your favourite podcasting app or by joining the Sole to Soul Circle), you’ll be notified about each new episode. Sole to Soul Circle members get deeper dives each Wednesday morning.

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• There’s the book – 365 Ways to Feel Better: Self-care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing – and all the book bonus videos.

• All the free resources (for trauma, ADHD, menopause, solopreneurs, anxiety, sleep, confidence, resilience, finding purpose, meaning and joy and more) across my platforms and the library of self-care ideas and practices at https://selfcarecoaching.net

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And if you’d like to leave a review and/or rate this and other episodes you’ve enjoyed, your feedback and support helps me help more people (of all genders) with trauma histories and/or ADHD take better care of their whole selves and create lives they don’t need to retreat from.

DISCLAIMER The content I share is not a replacement for one to one trauma therapy (etc). While you can do an enormous amount to support yourself, please always seek appropriate medical advice.

Thanks for watching. Please subscribe / follow and share with someone who you think will benefit from this episode.

Chapters and timestamps

(0:00 – 2:06) Intro – self-care, Sole to Soul Circle, book, and podcast overview

(2:07 – 2:50) ADHD and creativity – not feeling ashamed of doing many things

(2:52 – 6:29) Starting ADHD medication – nervousness and high hopes

(6:30 – 10:05) Day one reflections – “cheating at life” and immediate impact

(12:33 – 16:41) Accounting wins – numbers, memory and streamlining admin

(16:42 – 16:57) Breakfast – ADHD morning routine challenges

(19:06 – 25:00) Systems, euphoria and grief – realising how hard it’s been

(27:36 – 27:50) Catching up on months of financial admin

(27:51 – 28:07) Feeling the effects wear off

(28:08 – 28:38) Yoga, cats and less weirdness on day two

(28:39 – 29:06) Working on a Saturday and feeling fine

(29:07 – 29:26) Clarifying this is my personal experience

(29:27 – 30:18) Day three: an early start and protein first thing

(30:38 – 31:11) Chips, vegetables and concern about the drive home

(31:12 – 31:39) Medication and navigating very little sleep

(31:40 – 32:07) Reflecting on the impact and feeling grateful

(33:31 – 33:55) Realising how much time I’ve wasted

(33:56 – 34:18) Psychiatrist advice and overscheduling ADHD brains

(34:19 – 34:47) Looking forward to Monday and letting go of tasks

(34:48 – 36:02) Yoga nidra: appreciating stillness, not rushing

(36:03 – 36:42) Day four: I am not a squirrel!

(36:43 – 37:25) Oat milkshake breakfasts and fridge temperature issues

(37:26 – 38:22) Appetite, body image and cultural pressures

(40:27 – 41:04) A new stillness at the end of yoga nidra

(41:05 – 41:48) Day five: oat milkshake breakfast and smooth transitions

(43:06 – 43:33) Hunger, timing and realising it is working

(43:34 – 43:57) Committing to sleep and amplifying self-care

(43:58 – 44:37) Day six: late start, no clients and writing struggles

(44:38 – 45:09) Yoga nidra still helps, with or without medication

(45:10 – 45:34) Loved ones noticing improvement

(45:35 – 46:08) Day seven: sea swimming and breakfast adjustments

(46:09 – 46:30) Medication working better with proper food

(46:31 – 46:55) Day eight: higher dose and feeling the difference

(46:56 – 47:24) Prioritising proper rest and feeling grateful

(47:25 – 47:50) Breakfast rebellion and experimenting with protein

(47:51 – 48:24) Wrapping up: encouragement and medical caveats

(48:25 – 49:00) Bonus content for Sole to Soul Circle members

(49:01 – 54:04) Next week: how cats make everything better

FULL TRANSCRIPT

And again, I was thinking maybe it's not working, but I know the importance of breakfast now. So I had a protein bar with the tablet, first thing.

Hi, I'm Eve Menezes Cunningham, and you're listening to episode 69 of the Feel Better Every Day Podcast.

Every Tuesday, I share trauma-informed and ADHD-friendly self-care ideas to help you take better care of yourself and your Self, that uppercase S for that highest, wisest, truest, most brilliant, joyful, miraculous part of yourself.

The idea is to help you create a life you don't need to retreat from. And you can find out more at thefeelbettereverydaypodcast.com.

For deeper dives into each week's theme, you can join the Sole to Soul Circle for bonus interviews, practices and rituals, plus access to a rich archive, including the Love Your Whole Self Chakra Journey.

And you can also find out more in the book, 365 Ways to Feel Better: Self-care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing. And I have lots of other resources on the website, selfcarecoaching.net. In today's episode, it's a bit of a different episode to normal. I did a bit of a video diary a few weeks ago when I started my ADHD medication.

Today is Lughnasadh and it's a Celtic Wheel of the Year celebration of harvest. And harvest is my word for 2025. And it's been really interesting with the ADHD medication. The first day I felt like I was cheating at life because it felt so much easier. It's not that straightforward, obviously. And I'm including daily diaries of my first eight days on it.

Lugh was a multi-talented God. He was a poet, a warrior and a craftsperson. He did it all and he did it all excellently. With ADHD, we want to be able to harness our creativity and not feel ashamed of being able to do lots of things. I hope you find this episode helpful.

It's very much not telling you what you should or shouldn't be doing. It's purely sharing my own lived experience of my first nine days on the medication. And I'm recording this before I see the psychiatrist to review it again. I hope you find it helpful.

If you haven't already subscribed, please do so. It really helps. Let me know if you have any questions or any other comments.

So this is my ADHD medication saga continued, but actually about to start the medication. I picked up the prescription today and I start tomorrow morning. And life is very stressful right now. My dad, was taken to hospital in an ambulance six days ago.

I'm trying to think, like, there's no point saying Friday or whatever because I don't know if I'll share this or when. But yeah, anyway, my work is all about everyone knowing what's right for them. But apparently, the medication will help navigate everything.

So I have high hopes and we shall see. I will start on it in the morning.

DAY 1

So today is the day I've been waiting for since August 2024 when I got my diagnosis and the psychiatrist talked about how the ADHD medication could work and should work, in her opinion.

I can't quite believe it, but I get to try it this morning. And I'm saying I get to try it because I am scared. I'm not used to medication working for me.

The endometriosis pain relief never, ever, ever worked. And so like things like antihistamines or things like that, I'm like, “Oh, it's a miracle.” So I do have high hopes and I'm going to have breakfast and I am going to potentially transform my life by taking a pill rather than working so hard at self-care like I have for decades. To feel better.

Not to say I'll stop doing all the self-care, but it feels potentially transformative and miraculous. And as you can tell, Rainbow Magnificat is just as excited as I am.

It's 8.35pm on day one of my 30mg on the Tyvense ADHD medication. I recorded a few short videos this morning and I'm going to record at least one daily update for at least a week, I think, with the intention of sharing it as a podcast episode, because if you're anything like me, you might be a bit scared and I want to help demystify as much as I can.

So some learnings from day one. First of all, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness.

I had no idea even when the psychiatrist was telling me about the impact. I couldn't properly imagine it. And even when I was benefiting this morning, I was still telling myself maybe it's a placebo effect, even like, I think the placebo effect is wonderful.

But it was like, no, it can't be like, I feel like I'm cheating. I feel like I'm cheating at life. It was the most bizarre feeling and I could immediately feel like, not immediately, but like within an hour or so, I could feel, when I had a concussion in 2023, beginning of 2023, up until the August, if I ever did things, I felt my brain, I felt like I could feel my bruised brain.

And it was a lot of the time up until the April, this had happened in the January. But I never felt that before consciously, maybe when I was much younger, maybe when I was drinking. But today with the medication, I was really conscious of feeling my brain, but it wasn't unpleasant. It wasn't like the concussion. I'm really selling it here. It's not like a concussion, but I could feel it. It's the weirdest thing. I could especially feel it behind my eyes.

And yeah, I left the house in one go. I went for a swim before visiting my parents. My dad had been in hospital and he discharged himself against medical advice yesterday so it's been a really stressful time, but he is thankfully doing well. But I had a gorgeous swim. I was at things in the morning that normally take a lot longer. I am still behind on all my bookkeeping. I've been running my own business for over 20 years. I have my UK accounts as well as my Irish accounts. And it just takes me, I'm not great with numbers. I have that dyscalculia. I can feel like crying and regularly do feel like crying, just putting bank statements into date order or receipts into date order. And I have a crate now that I kind of put everything in.

And my intention is that I weekly kind of clear it, but it's built up again. Life has been really hectic. So it was like a month and a half's worth of updating Xero, the accounting software that I started using last year. In order to do that, my phone, I'd got an upgrade on my phone since last doing this. My Bank of Ireland authentication wasn't working. So I had to ring the Bank of Ireland business online.

The last time I had to do that, I could have wept. In fact, I did weep because it was so frustrating trying to get through to anyone. I went into the branch because I got this strange, strange letter. The person in the branch, I found I was on hold, but I did it like, I guess, body doubling around people. But I just thought this, all the call centres, I used to work in a call centre. I know how overworked they all are.

But it's so frustrating when you're just trying to talk to a human. And in the end, back then, however many months ago, I handed my phone to one of the humans who worked there, and he was struggling as well to get things rectified.

So this morning, all of this was going through my head. And I'm thinking, “Oh, my God, the whole day is going to be gone. And I need to swim. I need to see my parents. And I've got loads of sessions. So I thought all that but before I knew it, I'd just picked up the phone and rung. So that is very different. That is incredibly different.

The woman was really helpful. And I got the new authentication. I apologised a couple of times. I'm sorry, I'm not great with numbers. And in the past, I'd have been really shame spiralling, because I'm really conscious that all the numbers, and I kind of joke about, “Oh, my goodness, I don't know how hackers do it. I can't get into my own accounts.”

But she got it set up. I got onto my Xero. It authenticated. And I was able to do my Bank of Ireland accounts and my UK Smile accounts. For the Smile account, it doesn't automatically go into the software. I have to periodically, so I was doing like a month and a half's worth today, go in and copy and paste transactions into a spreadsheet.

Are you losing the will to live listening to this? It's a different spreadsheet to the template that Xero need. It's the kind of thing, and I remember, again, with the concussion, just looking from one side of the screen to the other, it was like, I deleted thousands and thousands of documents a few weeks ago when I was trying to optimise my laptop and life. And one of the documents was an almost 20-year-old document.

I'd had my whole business life, nearly 21 years, although it can't be that, because I lost my computer a few years into the business and started again.

But many, many years, like a long, long time. I had checklists, I had passwords, I had templates, I had all sorts of things, phone numbers, contacts, all sorts of things. And I just lost it. I was really hoping today that I would be able to remember having done the Xero thing a few times and not have to go in. What I should actually do is create a new template for that. I was able to do it. I did it in an amazingly short sense of time. And it didn't feel as upsetting as it normally does. Because with numbers, I normally, it's funny, I make my living with words. I'm a writer and all. But I really struggle with numbers.

And even remembering like four digits or six digits from a security code to then put into the other device, it really normally makes my head hurt. But using that this morning as a kind of a test, I guess, for the medication and it really did help.

And I can't remember, it's worn off now, don't know if you can tell, but I can't remember if I told you that I left the house in one go, but I left the house in one go!

Normally, I get to the car or I get to my bike. Sometimes on my bike, I'll cycle halfway down the lane, like it's a mile long before you get onto the main road. And it'll be like, “Oh, I forgot my helmet or forgot my high vis.”

Go home, get it before going onto the busy road. Or I'll get into the car and I'll be like, “Oh, I've forgotten…” whatever it is.

And today I got into the car and I drove to the pool and it was like, “Oh my god, I didn't have to go back for anything! I hope I've got my swimsuit.” And I did. I had everything I needed for the pool. I had everything I needed to see my parents. And I thought that's utterly incredible.

Oh my god, that's completely on its own worth the 80 euros a month for the prescription once I fill out the Drug Payment Scheme form to get it capped at that.

So that was amazing.

A thing I found challenging was having breakfast. I felt evil ignoring the cats who wanted my attention. I normally get out of bed and feed them straight away and do some yoga, like brush my teeth, not necessarily in that order.

I'd normally feed the cats, brush my teeth, do some yoga. When I feed the cats, I'd normally put on the kettle and make like a hot lemon, ginger and maple syrup hot drink and a rosemary tea for later.

I know I need a lot of time to get started in the morning. So I don't have appointments first, first thing, and make sure I have enough time before that. But this morning, it's...