Help, Tips, Advice, and Stories | Quitting Adderall

In the famous tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Doctor Jekyll invents a potion that he thinks will give him super-human powers. After ingesting the potion, Dr. Jekyll discovers to his horror that the potion transforms him into a murderous monster named Hyde. Each night, the potion’s effects kick in, and the terrible Hyde […]

1. Waiting for the buzz to kick-in before starting to work. On Adderall, your work routine looks like this: Have work to do. Don’t really feel like doing it. Take an Adderall. Dick around for 20 minutes. Pill kicks in, feel energized and focused. Feel like doing work. Work. In your new, post-Adderall life, the […]

Mike note: Fellow ex-Adderallic Heather sent me the following tips via comment, and I think they’re all spot-on. So have a look! If you are thinking about quitting I can say- the withdrawl wasnt that bad for me- it REALLY isnt that bad! I stopped taking adderall because one day I would like to be […]

Some people hang report cards on their fridge. Kalli chooses to hang harsh truths. Thanks again, Kalli, for sending me your awesomely-accurate drawing!

Sean (forum username: quit-once) sent me this great poem he wrote about quitting Adderall. Enjoy! More than four in a day and they get in your way Take three – with weed – and they will impeed More than two in a dose and you’re cuttin’ it close More than ten in a run and […]

Do you know/remember your four-letter Myers-Briggs Personality Type? Vote below for your type. If you don’t know your type or don’t remember, check out this short MBTI test and see if you can make an educated guess. I have  a suspicion that most of us are going to be idealists (NF type). Let’s find out!

Here’s a story from the comments (and forums) that covers the entire Adderall and quitting Adderall experience from beginning to end. Thanks to Emily (forum user emmmmm)  for sharing it! I feel randomly inspired to share my story for the second time ever (first was to my boyfriend of two years now). Here goes nothing! I […]

The below lists were collected from a pair of great forum posts by QuittingAdderall.com forum members Mka and LILTEX41, with their permissions. Let me know if you have anything to add and I’ll keep making this list bigger! Benefits of Quitting After 35 Days Free by Mka The ability to truly and completely relax. Before, I always […]

If you have a friend or a loved one who is quitting Adderall, there are several things you can do to make the process easier on them. This article is aimed to help non-users understand the process of quitting Adderall, and how they can have a helpful role in it. Note to Adderallics: This is the article to show your boyfriend/girlfriend.

Here’s a little humor for you. This video gives a good depiction of what it’s like to go into work after you first quit Adderall. Enjoy! Note: You have to click the screenshot to get the video to play at YouTube. It doesn’t allow embedding.

1. An important part of yourself feels neglected. I posted a poll a while ago, asking people why they wanted to quit Adderall. The top answer (by a wide margin) was “To get back a piece of myself that feels lost.” It’s easy to pat yourself on the back for the work that you do on Adderall. […]

A few people have messaged me on the forums asking me about a response I posted to a reader with dental problems, where I mentioned that I had gone down to Mexico to get my Adderall-ruined teeth fixed for way less money than I was  about to pay in the states. So at the risk […]

Adderall users are remarkably kindred spirits. Here are 6 qualities I’ve found common to most of the Adderallics I’ve met (and in myself) over the last few years.

Working on a big post. In the mean time, enjoy a little humor! Where this is from: reddit.com, my favorite slack site, has a subsection (or sub-reddit) dedicated to Advice Animals, which include things like OCD Otter, Foul Bachelor Frog, Foul Bachelorette Frog, Socially Awkward Penguin,  College Condor (who is closely related to Adderall Ardvark), […]

1. Garden State There’s a quiet that comes over you when you quit Adderall. You can stand alone and feel completely calm. No racing thoughts. No crazy ideas. Just stillness. And mild detachment. Garden State captures this tone well. And it should, since it centers on a main character who has just come off a […]

A Quick Story of a Real-Life Absent-Minded Professor A psychology teacher of mine told a story of a friend he had in graduate school who was studying cockroach behavior (in order to gleam insights into human instinct and impulse). According to my teacher, this man was a certifiable genius in psychology, and his experiments ultimately […]

Adderall helps you fit into any mold. It doesn’t matter what your job is — as long as you have your pills, you will fit yourself to the job and tell yourself you enjoy it. One of hardest parts of quitting Adderall is suddenly realizing that you don’t fit your old mold anymore, or worse, […]

One of the first things you’re going to notice when you quit Adderall (at least during the 5 hours per day that you manage to stay awake) is that time moves excruciatingly slowly without Adderall. But that’s just the beginning. Over the course of quitting Adderall and rebuilding yourself, your perception of time will change […]

This 2-minute video animated by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (of Southpark fame) takes a stab at the standard expectations of life, and helps you feel a little better about beating your own path.

From the often-classic yet rarely-updated SpaceAvalanche. I suppose this could represent your job’s or Adderall’s affect on you. Either way, the real question for you is: What happens when he gets his soul back? What happens when he finds himself, soul fully restored, trapped in an environment that demands soullessness? Will he escape? Where will he […]

From a close friend of Bruce Lee’s… Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-tow minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a-half minutes per […]

Not directly related to quitting Adderall, but related to the exercise most people find themselves compelled to after quitting. Really well done video.

You’ve probably come across a page or two of the Urban Dictionary during your years of internet travels. Where once it was merely the explainer of fringe sexual slang, it has now grown into “bullshit-free definitions of pretty much everything”. I’ve actually started using it before dictionary.com, since I know it’s going to explain the […]

“Other” answers submitted so far… “I am less rushed in everything i do. I don’t smoke cigarettes.”

On Adderall, you’re in your own little world. All you want to do is work on your epic project, and you don’t want anything else to interfere. As long as you keep popping pills, you never get tired, you never lose interest. You just keep working into increasingly intricate details. You don’t want to stop. […]

Check out this comment from Foranea, who recently moved to the US and started an internship, working alongside a girl who was taking Adderall… I came to know aderall when I went to the USA for an internship and the person sitting in front of me had the strangest behaviour: she would come to work […]

Aside from keeping up at work, it seems that weight gain is one of the biggest hurdles many Adderall users face when quitting. Totally understandable! Adderall takes the effort out of staying thin, just like it takes the effort out of doing work. Plus, most people who have been on Adderall for a long time […]

A custom written essay is an essay specifically tailored for individuals that place orders with any writing company. Online writing firms deliver customization services in various writing fields to students and corporate personalities that may be interested in procuring online writing services. Essay are perhaps the most commonly customized forms of essays because they are […]

You know, this is probably meant to be a parody, but it’s really not that far off from reality in many ways. Thought you guys would enjoy it. Let me know via comments if the video goes dead and I’ll find a new source.

Alrighty, readers. The last poll I put up had some really revealing (if not predictable) results, so let’s try another. If your answer is not represented as a choice, please add it using the “other” field or post it in the comments! Note: With this poll, you can select multiple answers; that’s totally fine. Sorry: […]

The above ad was designed by Purdue University in an effort to cut down on Adderall use. Good luck with that, Purdue. “Hey, kid…Adderall is bad. You don’t need that junk. By the way, you have three research papers to write before tomorrow or you fail at life.” It’s interesting too that their argument is that using […]

This is a TED Talk. For those not familiar with T.E.D (Technology Entertainment Design): it’s a conference where the brightest minds in each industry are invited to give the presentations of their lives. And they just recently started posting full videos of these life-changing speeches on the web for us common folk to see. You don’t just […]

I know of a school in my area that actually requires that a child be on Ritalin, cheap jerseys Adderall or some related drug before they’ll accept the student into the school. Makes sense. If I was a school and all I cared about was test scores and obedience…I’d be demanding robots too. Also, I […]

Awesome parody article over at The Onion. Here’s my favorite exerpt… Jill Haskins, who received a Ph.D. in history payday loans online Thursday, spoke rapidly to reporters as she explained in excruciating detail how Adderall had heavily influenced her dissertation, “A Hermeneutic Deconstruction Of Nazi Feminism As A Function Of Gender-Role Exploitation In Vichy France: […]

Read the passage below, from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged… Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it […]

Ok, I don’t fall completely into this “Adderall = meth” camp (well, except when I think it can help to highlight similarities). I do think Adderall has some cases where it’s appropriate, and it’s been proven so. Plus, meth is a pretty different animal. Meth users and Adderall takers are usually very, very different people. Most Adderall […]

Best. Adderall graphic. Ever. I should find that graphic designer and get him/her to send me the original copies of those little pills with the graduate caps on them. Classic. The special is called “Popping Pills a Popular Way to Boost Brain Power”. Picture above links to the video. I’ve seen a lot of these […]

Took this from the comments. It’s such a great, beginning-to-end success story that I though it could use a little more prominence… Hello, My name is Tyler Ward. I am 22 years old and I took ritalin, focalin, adderral, vyvanse, and every other adhd medication since I was 8-11 (I really do not know what […]

Here’s a comic from the occasionally-spectacular web comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. It features Superman. I think you’ll find it relevant to Adderall.

To finish off my three part exercise theme here at Quitting Adderall,  here are 5 stupid decisions I’ve made during my time as a compulsive exerciser. Some of these decisions just cost me money, others costs me months of frustration and pain. You can see the other two articles in this series here.. Part 1: […]

When you quit Adderall, you may start to feel a renewed interest in physical activities. For one thing, you’ll want to stave off the weight gain that often results from the lifestyle changes related to quitting Adderall (like eating full meals and sleeping at night). But more than that, virtual reality headset most people report […]

As said many times in the comment threads: developing a love for exercise can be a huge boon to your post-Adderall recovery process. To start off a three-week series on exercise here at Quitting Adderall, here’s an awesome quote from over-the-top sbiancamento denti punk rocker/writer/comedian Henry Rollins. I believe that the definition of definition is […]

Sorry for the blur. Shot hastily with my phone camera at a work lunch. Sub-line reads “Shot of 3AM and a glass of your favorite energy drink”. What’s interesting to me about this is the connotation:  The implication is that Adderall stimulates you. Doctors say that Adderall is for calming down and focusing ADHD people. […]

Depression can be a big problem when you quit Adderall. Here’s a link to a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” thread where a guy with severe depression posted the tips and techniques he has relied on to stay ahead of his depression. Pretty good stuff.

Reader Chris sent the below letter to his two best friends, asking for their help and support in his quest to quit Vyvanse (similar to Adderall). He sent me a copy, and I thought it was awesome, so I got his permission to post it here for all to see. Dear Alan & Trista, What I […]

If you’ve been using Adderall regularly for any extended period of time, you’re facing a multi-pronged challenge when you quit. First, you’ve most likely developed a strong psychological addiction and/or dependency on the way the drug makes you feel. Second, you’ll have to weather through physical effects of legitimate amphetamine withdrawal, as your body struggles […]

There are clear, observable differences between the kind of people who succeed in life, who glow like shining stars on an upward trajectory, and those who stagnate and fail by omission. Here’s a list of traits on either side of the winner/loser fulcrum.

As an Adderall user, you’re accustomed to having your brain flooded with so many ideas that you can’t possibly execute them all. But the flood of ideas doesn’t stop when you quit Adderall. In fact, the ideas often get better. It’s crucial that you take action on these ideas and don’t just let them stew. Here’s web-celebrity Ze Frank’s awesome take on the danger of ideas left un-executed.

Most slacking off is mentally draining: it just makes you more ADD, less productive, and overall less satisfied with your own ability to accomplish things. But there is another way to slack off that actually gives you energy, strengthens your work ethic, increases your attention span, and still feels just as naughty as normal slacking off. In short: slack off by working on your personal goals on company time.

Most Adderall takers are at least social smokers, probably because Adderall and Cigarettes can be such a delicious combination. Like Adderall, cigarettes help you lubricate an otherwise less-than-tolerable experience. If you really want to race lightning-speed towards your goals, quitting smoking will help make you uncomfortable enough to keep moving. I was a militant smoker for years and I quit smoking cold-turkey. No Chantix, no patches. Here’s how I did it.

What do you have in common with one of the best tennis players ever to step onto a court? You both used amphetamines. As a crystal meth user, Andre Agassi went twice as far down the rabbit hole as you did with Adderall. And not only did he recover, he came out swinging and turned his entire life around. To this day, he refers to the year when he hit bottom with meth and pulled himself up as the year when his happy new life began.

Check out this clip from the Colbert Report, where host Stephen Colbert interviews documentary film maker Cevin Soling about his film “The War on Kids”. Also included in this article: how I think schools should be structured (short version: 1 part Harry Potter, 1 part Starship Troopers)

In short: Adderall disables your built-in on/off switch for happy juices and flips it “on” permanently (until the pill wears off), making you act as if you are always enjoying everything. Chemically and philosophically, Adderall is a love potion for work.

If you asked any successful creator what he felt like while he was creating, he would describe to you a feeling indistinguishable from an Adderall high. The fact that Adderall is just a chemical love potion works both ways: Adderall feels like natural passion, and natural passion feels like Adderall.

In psychological terms, there is a difference between “reactive depression” and persistent depression. But the rule of thumb is: If the depression lasts more than 6 months, go see somebody. If you’re ready to try and face down your depression on your own without meds, here are some handy tips.

Great article from AOL Health chronicles some of the negative aspects of dosing your kid up with stimulants to make him better at the homework that is so important to him. My favorite part of the article came from the comment thread, where one person said “Your kids are evolving, And your murdering them for it.”

Learn about the secret to all relationships: the pursuer/distancer balance. Short version: in most relationships, one person is usually chasing (pursuing) the other, while the other standing still or actively pushing away (distancing). This is a delicate balance. Adderall disrupts it by creating false distancers.

Nothing in this video is going to surprise the average reader of this website. I thought they did a good job of covering the Adderall lifestyle, at least superficially. It’s basically a standard “look what kids today are doing” type of report. Noteworthy fact contained within: 7 percent of college students admit to using Adderall illegally.

Check out these two clips from last night’s episode of Glee on Fox. In the episode, all of the Glee Club kids are tired and unmotivated. So they visit the school nurse, and she hooks them up with a little blue pill that cranks them all up to 11. Look familiar? The blue pill in the show is over-the-counter pseudoephedrine, but based on the affects shown in this episode it might as well be Adderall.

A bit of pill-popper humor with a secondary message. This paradoy song was written by Jonathan Coulton in response to a PopSci Magazine article describing how in the future we’ll be able to take a pill to feel however we want. Watch this video and listen to the song. Is that how you want your life to be? What kind of person would such a lifestyle produce? What’s missing?

Exactly what that sounds like: Calvin on Adderall. Really, I could take down the rest of this website and just leave up this cartoon as my entire argument.

At some point in your journey you are going to find yourself at a precipice, where your only choices are to turn back or continue forward armed only with a level of faith that is so blind it makes you uncomfortable and worrisome.

When you quit Adderall, you will reclaim your soul and your proper direction. The downside to this is that you must come to terms with the years you lost while running in the wrong direction on Adderall. All that damage you did to yourself trying to bloom early, and you end up blooming late.

This is one of the most influential psychological concepts ever defined. Like, they should teach it in Middle School and repeat it ever year thereafter until it is common knowledge. It is the key to all addiction and recovery. It is the key to making and breaking habits, and to changing yourself as a person.

The Top 6 Lessons Are: Going to bed early will change your life. In the land of the sober, the good routine is God. A creation per day keeps the depression at bay. Stop trying to do your old job. Only go out on weekends. Action breaks the cycle of worry.

To those who have taken Adderall, it’s a pretty big “no duh” moment when a news reporter starts going hysterical over the “discovery” that kids are popping pills to get through exams and insane workloads assigned by colleges. But this article is pretty solid.

When you make the decision to quit Adderall, you are consciously choosing an unknown adventure and earned happiness over manufactured daily euphoria. It can be a hard path to follow, but there are often rewards along the way.

1. Save Me (by Shinedown) Sample lyrics… Someone save me if you will And take away all these pills And please just save me, if you can From the blasphemy in my wasteland …I can hardly remember The look of my own eyes How could I love this A life so dishonest It made me […]

Some psychiatrists tell their patients that the proper function of Adderall is to “train your brain how to focus like this naturally”. You take a small dose until your brain “learns how to focus” and then ultimately you won’t need the Adderall anymore. That’s the idea. That’s what they tell you. Sounds nice. But that’s not […]

The great truth of this life is success by righteous effort. Any substance that removes the effort from life also removes its righteousness. And that is the feeling that will gnaw at the back of your mind while you’re on Adderall for a prolonged period (e.g., years). When you quit Adderall, the effort returns to your […]

Never. Touch. Adderall. That’s what my last words to the world would have been if I had gotten into an eventually-fatal car crash or something  during my time on Adderall. I don’t have many regrets in my life. Sure, I wish I could take back some of the stupid/hurtful things I’ve said and done to […]

It’s not all feel-good, fun-and-games, do the best you can. There’s a mission here too. And you must not forget about it.

Take a look. Reader Chris from South Carolina posted this video of himself dumping his Adderall down the drain after saying a few choice words. He made this as a video reminder to himself. A reminder not to go back; to remember his decision. I hope you don’t mind me posting this, Chris, but I think […]

Once you take a pill, there’s no going back, even if you sometimes wish you could turn it off. Read through the 5 examples of times when I wish I could “turn it off”. Do any of thse situations feel familiar to you? If so, it may be an indicator that you are nearing the end of your love affiar with Adderall. Please post your own examples in the comments!

You may remember the game “Perfection”  from your childhood. The basic idea behind the game is that you have a bunch of pieces of all different shapes and you have a game board with slots in all different shapes. The object of the game is to get all the right shapes in the slots where […]

Adderall is a crutch. A big one. Quitting Adderall is like learning to walk without crutches again. Maybe you haven’t been on crutches that long and your legs aren’t too atrohphied. Maybe you’re OK with weaning yourself off, taking baby steps. Limping a few feet a day with only one crutch, and gradually working up […]

Quitting Adderall is like locking yourself in the basement of your mind and facing each of your personal demons one by one.

There was a character in the book Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand’s masterpiece) named Sebastián d’Anconia, grandfather to central character Francisco d’Anconia. Sebastián d’Anconia was known for the legendary story of how he built d’Anconia Copper, the world’s largest copper mining empire, from scratch. Sebastián was born in Spain, where he grew up and met his beloved […]

Reader Dave left this comment on the Your Challenge page: Here are a few questions I would like to hear opinions on because I think there are alot of others in this situation. What do you do? If you have a masters degree in physics (which I hate it very much, but pays extreemly well) that you […]

1. Your coworkers’ snide comments about your productivity What you’re heart screams: Lazy? Unproductive?! I used to run this place! My years of hyper-productivity built the foundations you’re working from even today! Remember? Remember how I was the head ox pulling the cart? Most of my current attitude and lack of pro-activeness/productivity comes from the […]

That thing you love. That idea that just captures your attention and imagination. That first idea you decide to actually do something about. And you start to work on it little by little. I started by forcing myself to give it the last 15 minutes of my work day. And you find that once you […]