Posted by ponger on August 23, 2008 at 18:26:24:In Reply to: Provigil is making me miserable posted by NapGirl31 on August 22, 2008 at 07:40:07:
Ask your doctor to try ritalin instead. Looks like right now the negative aspects of Provigil is more evident than the positive. There's no sense being able to stay awake through something that makes you feel lousy.
Ritalin was the most common medication for narcolepsy before Provigil came onto the market [Maybe it still is. I don't no the statistics]. I found it worked relatively well--the key word being relatively. Don't expect your medication to be the cure for the daytime sleepiness. Instead, it's more a control to help you have a more functional life.
The dosage you'd be taking for ritalin would probably be small enough that you shouldn't worry about long-term effects of ritalin. Ritalin dosage would be possibly 40mg per day. Compare that with the 400mg for Provigil!! Anyway, Doctors will monitor your blood quite regularly to check for anything alarming.
This is my totally unprofessional, yet kinda experienced advice. Until you see your doctor next, don't cut out your medications altogether. Instead, cut down. Try 200mg a day instead (once a day or 100mg twice/day, its up to you). If you still feel crappy, try just 100mg per day. Heck, even try 50mg per day. With these provigil tablets, they'll still work correctly if you break them in half.
I'm advising that so you can find out what you can tolerate without your body feeling crappy. If, say, 100mg doesn't make you feel all that crappy and it does help noticeably you (it doesn't have to be perfect), then you can better judge how well/poor provigil works for you. You'll also have some information you can give your doctor for next visit.