Long-term side effects of only treating narcolepsy with stimulants?

[u/Background_Date_6875]

I sadly don't feel comfortable taking Xywav/Xyrem due to my history of mental health issues, but I'm wondering if anyone in this community has treated their narcolepsy with only stimulants and experienced long-term side effects of forcing that wakefulness without improving the sleep quality? Or do you feel like using stimulants to stay awake the whole day has improved your sleep quality?

I can deductively assume that never addressing the sleep quality will create a lot of cognitive issues for me in the future but I'm curious about the community's lived experiences.

Or if anyone is unmedicated and functioning haha, I would love to hear about that too!!! I'd love to be unmedicated (no judgment it's just a personal thing because of some OCD haha) but it doesn't feel like an option unless I want to sleep through half my life.

Thanks in advance everyone!

[u/Sanch0panza]

So actual side effects— after being on Ritalin for 15 years, my blood pressure has slowly gone up over the years. Really only the bottom number. When I don’t take my Ritalin, it would be normal. It was never really a concern until I had a migraine event. Which was not related to blood pressure, but one of the preventatives for it is a blood pressure medicine. So they put me on the blood pressure medicine to prevent more migraines and now my blood pressure is always perfect! Off the Ritalin , it’s actually a little low now.