medications for drowisness.

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Im wondering what is a good medication to take that gets rid of drowisness. So far the best that works for me is dexedrine, however i get immune to it after a few days of taking it. The doctor recently prescribed me provigil and i have to pay 17.50 a pill. I pawned something today to pay for one and took it. Its not working as well as i had hoped. I have traits of narclopsy, such as excessive daytime sleepiness, falling asleep at inapproperate times, and on my sleep study test I went into rem sleep within 5 minutes every time i fell asleep. however i dont have cataplexy and i fall asleep at a normal time within going to bed, and i have periodic limb movement disorder of sleep, so i do not have typical narcolepsy which may be why the antinarcoleptics arent working as well as i was hoping. Has anyone had a similar expierance and found something that works? Ritilin and antidepressants both give me horrible sideeffects and do not help with drowisness for me either. I know sleep disorders are common in autism but they usually involve more insomnia symptoms which is the opposite for me and i think the excessive sleepiness is my most disabling symptom and i very much want to find approperiate treatment for it. If anyone else has had a similar experience i would like to know if anything has ever worked for you and if so, what worked.

yea, those kind of work for a while, but the crash makes me sleep. I just drank a redbull a minute ago.

You may have mixed symptoms such as myself. Do you have difficulty waking? Do you tend to get better (maybe staying awake a little too long) when you are doing something you find interesting or something new. Do emotional situations make you worse?

I predominantly get narcoleptic symptoms when under emotions stress (though I may not realize I'm under emotional stress). I found nothing but removing the emotional stress to work, nicely.
Apart from that I'm typical ADHD, I've found (though it's a lot more expensive that 17.50 a pill) cocaine to give me the best nights sleep and feel refreshed in the morning. amehetimies (in very low doses) to have best over all, both stopping anxiety and many narcoleptic symptoms as well as getting a good nights sleep and feeling very refreshed and alleviating concentration problems.

There are other drugs that increase neuadreniline levels and not dopamine levels, maybe when one stops working try switching, stopping after a week doesn't seem like it's working at all other that a more ;'recreational' type effect.

cataplexy, some narcoleptics only have it once in a life time.
I sometimes get it, very very rarly, it could be as little as 'blurred' vision. sometimes I drop things. I don't believe I have narcolepsy as I only get these problems when under emotional stress. narcolepsy, from what I've read, is a more permanent condition.

Things have gotten worse as I've got older, though that could have been because of the anti-psychotics which shattered my dopamine levels and really screwed me up big time.
I also get sleep paralysis, and hypnotic hallucinations a lot, sometimes all night long. I had sleep paralysis for over 3 hours yesterday, not very nice, especially as when I try to wake myself I get severer 'pain; throughout my body.
I not sure if this is infact an instant onset of REM or something different, I call is more super-lucid dreaming, a kind of conscious dreaming where I'm not really asleep but not really awake.

Some people find Modafinil works for them; personally it makes me sleepier and makes my urine smell absolutely evil.

Forget about those HIGH energy drinks LOADED with caffeine and sugar...you don't need the crash that happens afterwards. But, why don't you get used to drinking regular coffee or tea, other than herbal, which had less caffeine than those high energy drinks? After all, that is what most of the working population drinks to decrease their daytime drowsiness throughout the day.

Caffeine is a drug and you do not need a medical prescription to obtain it. If you can't afford a Starbucks coffee (they should have called it "Four bucks" instead of Starbucks), then go to Dunkin' Donuts. Their coffee is considered better than Starbucks anyways.

The provigil ended up working after all. It just took a while to kick in (about 2-3 hours). I got so much done yesterday. Now to figure out how to get it without paying almost 600$ a bottle which I cannot afford. My drowsiness seems more permanant without medication or energy drinks and not brought on by stress. Its just always there and has been as long as i can remember. From what other people have commented it looks like narcoleptic features are common in autism. As far as I know I dont have cataplexy, but there have been times occasionally where I get really dizzy and light headed and have to sit down. It seems to be completely random and the drowsiness causes me a lot of problems including wrecking my car last month from dosing off while driving. Doctors havent been any help either. Any advise on getting this stuff for free?

First- have you had your thyroid checked? That is something you need to do ASAP if not.

Otherwise you could try 5 hour energy drink. It has no sugar or ginseng and doesn't cause a crash later. I cannot take regular energy drinks because of the ginseng they contain that actually makes me sleepy. 5HE is only 5 calories too- those Monster things and many others that have sugar are loaded with calories.

I have fibromyalgia, which causes chronic fatigue, so I can relate. I have not found anything that works yet, but I have some medicine comeing in the mail form the VA that may help. I will post if it does.

EDIT: Call the pharmaceutical company that makes the pills. They usually have a program to help pay for your medicine. Also ask the doctor. They are supposed to have forms and everything you need to apply for help. They have to sign the form too. You may even be able to download the forms from the web site for the pharmaceutical company.

Even better, make your own espresso. I have my own machine I use. It tastes just as good as Starbucks. There is no Starbucks around where I live. You can buy a home machine and everything you need- the initial cost is about the same as if you had 1 Starbucks coffee every day for a couple of weeks. Cans of espresso roast are really cheap -I like Bustello.

Have you been examined to see if you are suffering from sleep apnea?

Make sure you get thyroid checked, and a sleep study - sleep apnea.
I have sleep apnea, and I do feel better using the machine, but still am extremely tired.
provigil works decent for me, but I still have to drink caffeine.
I usually drink diet mt. dew - good kick, but no sugar.
I really do not get much crash effect from it - whereas I do from other drinks like monster, 5 hr energy, etc.

Ask your pharmacist about whether they make a generic version. I don't know if you're taking the generic version now, but if you aren't, check to see if it exists.

If worst comes to worst, ask your doctor if there is something that is cheaper, with similar effects. Maybe a very similar substance, or something that works on the same aspect of biochemistry that this stuff does.

If you're very lucky, the increased productivity may be enough to allow you to earn the extra money you spend on the medication, or possibly find a job with a health plan that'll pay for it.

Suggestion: Drink coffee in the morning before the stuff kicks in. Works for lots of ADHDers before their meds start working.

I'd love to find such a pill that would do that.

paying almost 600$ a bottle.

Have a look online (talk to many many many people before actually parting with and cash etc...), a there are a large number of sites, many of which after quite a bit of investigator appear to be perfectly 'reputable' (as in won't screw with what their supposed to be selling you), they claim to offer pretty inc-readable savings.

e.g.
100mg 90 pills $123.30
100mg 120 pills $162.00
100mg 240 pills $319.20

do give them a thorough checking out first though.

"get really dizzy and light headed and have to sit down", doesn't sound like what cataplexy is thought to be (you body just randomly falling asleep), mainly because you say you feel light headed.
That seems more like a problem with low blood pressure or circulation. Do you get it if you stand up too quickly? (not that typical for those sort of problems)
(I had it on and off for years and years, apart from falling down the stairs once when the couch was right at the top of the stairs it's never been anything more that somewhat amusing, though a little painful when the cramp or loss of circulation kicks in too. The worst I had it was around the age of 16 and I was running 400 meters in sub 50 and had a very healthy diet etc... went away over time, comes back a little.)
May be worth mentioning it to the doctor, may point to something else.

Because I hit every narcolepsy button except for mine is periodic and triggered I have quite a good look into it. Don't be surprised to not have had cataplexy but still be diagnosed or treated for narcolepsy. It could be that you've had it but didn't notice it can be so mild and many people only get it once in their lifes, maybe not at all, and it seems to be a rare occurrence other than that in narcoleptics. It is meant to be a distinguishing feature though, some people say it should lead to a definitive diagnosis, that doesn't explain me though. I think the whole body collapsing or leg suddenly falling asleep isn't too common a thing.

Falling asleep at the wheel, quick into REM, life long condition without any real breaks, and mainly excessive daytime sleeplessness (which is what narcoleptic is defined as) together I've not found any other condition other than narcolepsy with. (I'm not a doctor or medically trained by the national institutes in brainwashing or whatever, don't believe me (or them) have a good poke around the Internet)

I just had a look at the wikipedia article on Provigil and It looks like it used off label for pretty much most of my 'problems', now all I have to do is to stop them giving me anti-psychotics for schizoid and manic depressive disorders.

I have been checked for sleep apena as well as my thyroid levels. Thyroid levels were normal and no signs of sleep apena. They ended up diagnosing Atypical Narcolepsy vs. Hypersomnia with REM Dysregulation. I have called Provigil and they wont help me with because I have medicaid. Yesterday Medicaid denied my prescription and I have been paying 17.50 a pill for these things. I am going to reappeal their denial and my neurologist is going to write them a letter why I need it. I want to stop taking adderall/dexedrine and start the provigil. It helps with my adhd symptoms as well. When I first posted this I didnt think they were working because they take a few hours to kick in but they actually work great.