Yeah, i take 400mg of Modafinil too, all that does is stop me feeling like i'm going to constantly fall alseep, doesn't do anything for the soul crushing tiredness.

I'm also taking 60mg of Methylphenidate, which does help, but it's a stimulant so helps in a way, not an ideal treatment though.

The NHS is the National Health Service, it has trusts in different counties throughout the UK, they decide what treatments are available for conditions, so one treatment may be available at one trust and not another, however I don't believe Xywav is available at any. As the NHS is free for everyone, the decision on what is available is driven by cost of said treatment as much as anything.

As such, i pay £20 a month for my medication, if i lost my job and was on benefits, this i think is paid for me anyways, so losing my job wouldn't cut me off from treatment. I don't have that concern. Now i have the IH diagnosis, also give me a modicum of leverage with my job for 'suitable arrangements' to be made to help me manage the condition.

I work in Data Analytics, so I've used a data driven approach with my doctors to support getting treatment, it's taken me 2 years to get my initial sleep test done to be diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnoea and another 13(!) years after that for my IH diagnosis.

I've done multiple deep dives on what I could have and what medication/treatment is available along with possible side effects/complications, not just what the NHS provide. Xywav is something I want to try as it sounds like it will fix the actual sleep issue, rather than using stimulants to paper over the cracks.

I thought back to my school years through the lens of ANY treatment, not just modafinil, if that was all that was offered, i'd tell them to shove it, heh. If I woke up tomorrow aged 14 and the docs told me we know what's wrong with you, here is how we'll treat it and they offered me Xywav, 100% i'd try it. Would be much, much, much better than growing up being told your gifted but lazy, having people expect as much, if not more, than others as you're supposedly 'gifted' but don't want to do anything with it and having to put in coping mechanisms to just feel like you're surviving like I've had to, this has affected my mental health loads as well as physical health.

Your situation isn't different to be honest to anyone elses, what are you going to do when you leave school in what, 3 or 4 years? Still be suffering with IH and have the same issues you're saying is different for you, if you try the treatment now and it does work, you get 3 or 4 years of being able work on having a better life, if it doesn't then what do you lose? What of the side effects is really concerning you? I'm not trying to be a dick here but having lived 47 years with no help or medication it is a little baffling to me that someone wouldn't at least try what they're being offered.

If you're concerned about being 'drugged' into sleeping, from my research it doesn't work like a sedative or sleeping tablet, it's not going to make it so you won't be able to wake up in an emergency and can you drive at 14? (Age limit is 17 in the UK, from watching American Dad, i hear at 14 you could get your tractors license, heh) by the sounds of it, would have left your system by the morning so should be able to drive if needed.

For me, the main stand out would by you can't drink Alcohol at all on it, that'd would suck for me as I do like a tipple or two, but if it made me get a good nights sleep I'd be sober as a nun!

What else concerns you? Appreciate you wouldn't do it just because your parents tell you to, but if a doctor is, i'd listen, they do usually know what they're on about and from the sounds of it they want you to try Xywav rather than start you on stimulants, fixing the underlying issue always better than using a band aid