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ContactGeneral Adderall FAQ
November 6th, 2008 by MikeDisclaimer: This is the most flamed page on this website, in part because people evaluate it against an expectation that it was never intended to meet.
Most of this is unscientific opinion based on personal experience. It is intended more to validate the experience for those who need it; not to provide any source of hardcore science for severe ADD cases. If none of this sounds familiar, you probably don’t belong on this site.
Table of contents
- I’ve never taken Adderall. What does Adderall feel like?
- What happens if I stop taking Adderall?
- How long does Adderall take to kick in?
- Is there a way to make Adderall kick in faster and/or intensify the high?
- Do any over-the-counter drugs affect Adderall?
- How long does Adderall take to wear off?
- Does Adderall make you smarter?
- Is it OK to exercise on Adderall?
- Should I put my kids on Adderall?
- Does Adderall make me crave cigarettes?
- Can I break up/take apart Adderall XR capsules?
- Can I get Adderall by ordering it online and/or from overseas?
- What happens if I lost my Adderall bottle?
- How can I get a doctor to give me Adderall?
- What is the maximum legal dose of Adderall?
- What is “generic” Adderall and what is “brand” Adderall?
- What is the difference between generic and “brand” Adderall?
I’ve never taken Adderall. What does Adderall feel like?
Think back to the last time you were really zoned-into something and couldn’t pull away from it. Maybe it was a project that was close to your heart. Maybe it was a video game that you played for 8 hours straight. Maybe it was a great movie. Anything that you were totally and completely entranced by and absorbed in, happily. Now add the most productive coffee buzz you’ve ever had on top of that. So what you have is complete, euphoric absorption with endless energy.
On Adderall, you feel that way all the time, no matter what you’re doing.
It’s basically like dosing yourself with a love potion…a love potion that makes every activity enjoyable and worthy of your fullest attention. Heaven, right?
Check out reader Evan’s description in the comment threads for a another take on what it feels like to be on Adderall.
Reader Candice also suggests this optical illusion as an example of what Adderall feels like, adding “This link can be what its like to be on adderall. You focus too hard on one thing and forget important things around you.”
What happens if I stop taking Adderall?
Short term (i.e., you stop taking it for one day): you won’t feel like doing any work. You’ll most likely just want to go back to sleep. You’ll find work extremely, unbearably boring all of a sudden. Time will move really slow at work/school and it won’t be fun like it normally is on Adderall. You’ve also got 2-4 weeks of chemical withdraw to look forward too (depression, fatigue).
Long term (i.e., you stop taking it forever): Please check out the Quitting Adderall FAQ page for frequently asked questions/answers about what happens when you stop taking Adderall forever.
How long does Adderall take to kick in?
A single dose of Adderall (any size) takes about 20 minutes to kick in (allow 30 minutes for time-released Adderall XR’s). The “high” peaks at about the 1:30-1:45 mark (that is, 1.5 hours since it kicked in, so about 2 hours since you took the pill). But there is such a thing as second winds, so don’t go re-dosing unless you’re sure it’s really worn off for good.
Depending on the size of the dose, the overall feeling should last (at least) a solid 4 hours until you start coming down. Unless you’re doing really small doses, it’s not a good idea to take a dose closer than 4 hours apart (or 6-8 hours for a big dose). Make yourself go at least 4 hours. If it’s been 3 and 1/2 hours and you’re paranoid that you need another dose because you’re not getting “optimal productivity” out of the pill anymore like you were at the 1:30 “peak high” mark… then you’re taking too much. Consider cutting your first dose of the day in half, and sticking to a dose schedule more rigidly. The “take one when you feel like it” approach is dangerous (to your productivity as well as to your sanity) because you spend way too much time and mental energy on repeatedly asking yourself “Should I take another pill now?”.
Is there a way to make Adderall kick in faster and/or intensify the high?
Watch an Adderall user closely, and you’ll notice they are rarely far from a sugary drink. Like gatorade, sweet tea, Coke, or anything else with a lot of sugar and electrolytes. They are effectively maintaining a sugar buzz to supplement the Adderall buzz, intensifying the overall feeling.
In this way, many Adderall users are like humming birds…sucking down all sources of sugar constantly throughout the day. Of course, bathing your drymouth in sugary drinks all day will rot teeth pretty quickly. You’re better off switching to water if you can.
Other food and Adderall tips:
- 5 hour energy + Adderall = too much.
- Spicy food + Adderall = yummy.
- Red bull/other energy drink + Adderall = too much sugar. Corrupts the productive high, IMHO.
- Try Propel Fitness Water by Gatorade. It’s a nice in-between drink.
Note: Did you notice that the overall theme of this question’s answer is “doing things that are bad for you like drinking lots of sugar makes Adderall work better”. Think about that. You know what gives you nice focus and energy without Adderall? A healthy diet, exercise, and 7 hours of sleep every night. Which do you think you can maintain for the rest of your life?
Do any over-the-counter medications conflict with Adderall?
1. Advil (ibuprofen) temporarily increases Adderall tolerance. If your morning dose isn’t kicking in like normal, and you’ve taken Advil recently, do not start popping more pills. That will end badly for you. Somehow (and I don’t know the science behind this) ibuprofen seems to block the Adderall effect. Just ride it out and chalk this day up as a loss.
2. Mucinex (expectorant) drastically accelerates and corrupts the Adderall high. I do not recommend taking a mucus expectorant like Mucinex with your Adderall dose. It’s too much. It is not a pleasant feeling. Same goes for cough syrup (e.g., Robatussin). If you’re sick and thus need to take an expectorant, cut your Adderall dose for that day in half, or better yet don’t take it at all.
How long does Adderall take to wear off?
The seriously productive high of an Adderall dose is over in about 4-6 hours, but it will usually take much longer than that before you can sleep. Figure on being able to sleep 12 hours after your last dose of the day, even if you feel kind of “tired”. Test this a couple times and you’ll see the truth to it. Even if you think you’ll surely be able to sleep before that 12 hour mark you usually won’t end up being able to (i.e., you’ll be lying in bed screaming in your head because your brain won’t turn off). So think twice about those 3-5pm doses (putting you to bed around 3-5am).
Does Adderall make you smarter?
No. Adderall does not raise your IQ. It does not increase your capacity for abstract thought. It makes you think more, but not necessarily faster or better.
It certainly makes you feel smarter. It may even make you seem smarter (or at least “more actively intelligent”) to others. What it actually does is make you feel more motivated, confident, and focused — qualities which can often be confused with “smarter”.
The corollary to this question is that nagging fear: But I’ll be stupid without it. No you won’t be. It only took me a week off Adderall to realize I felt smarter without it. Plus, quitting Adderall restores your mind’s proper ruthlessness, and ruthless thinking is key to brilliance. You stop being so entertained by complication and start favoring greater simplicity.
Picture your intelligence as a pool of water inside your head. Taking an Adderall pushes all of that “smart water” against the front of your skull and holds it there. When you’re off Adderall, the water settles more evenly across the whole inside of your head when you’re not focused. You can push it to the front to focus, or let it fall back to an even level to stay even and balanced. It is also prone to its own natural tides. The point is: Adderall does not increase the amount of available water.
Is it OK to exercise on Adderall?
Feels like you’re heart’s going to explode, doesn’t it? Maybe you’re even afraid to do any cardio exercise (e.g., running, lots of crunches) because you don’t want to have a heart attack, right? That fear sucks, doesn’t it? Oh, but lifting weights is a little better. Feels like you can do way more reps and lift even more. But your bench max keeps flattening out. You can’t move up in weight. Know why? Because the direct effects of amphetmine (Adderall) give you the energy to do more repetitions, but all the side effects of Adderall (e.g., not sleeping, eating less, pushing blood to the brain instead of elsewhere) force your body to cannibalize your muscles, so even if you lift weights every day it’ll be difficult for you to see really great gains…at least not the kind of gains you could see without it.
Adderrall typically makes you loose weight. Why do you think all speed junkies are so skinny? Arguably good (short-term) if you’re a girl, but if you’re a guy and you’re trying to bulk up, it’s the opposite direction you’re trying to go in. Wouldn’t it be better if you could just “turn off” the Adderall when you were in the gym? Well, too bad. There is no turning it off. Quit now, and you can push your body has hard as you want…and get in the best shape of your life. No more freaking out and obsessively worrying about a heart attack when your work-out buddy suggests doing some cardio exercise.
Should I put my kids on Adderall?
Adderall, if administered improperly, is bottled complacency. If you want your kids to acheive the world’s definition of happiness and success, put them on Adderall. If you want your kids to find and strive for their own definition of happiness and success, tell them to stay the hell away from it. Adderall makes kids into complacent little lemmings who do exactly what the world wants them to do and convince themselves all the while that they’re enjoying it and actually doing it for themselves. There are some private schools that actually require new students to be prescribed Adderall or some kind of similar drug. Think about that. Why would the school want all the kids on Adderall? Because it makes them incredible students, academically. And that’s good right? Wrong. Because long-term Adderall actually prevents your children from developing a natural work ethic and self-discipline. Who needs discipline and “roll up your sleeves and get the hard unpleasant thing done” work ethic when you can just pop a pill and feel instantly motivated?
That said, there are kids who actually need it, who are neurologically and permanently under-stimulated (ADD). My advice: If you’re really concerned, ask your kid if he cares, if he wants help. If he does, take him to a doctor that is very strict about who he doles out the medication to. Make sure your kid goes through some serious tests before resorting to Adderall. Do not be satisfied with just an oral interview.
And you should definitely read John’s story. He was one of the children (now grown) who was part of Adderall’s initial test group in 1998. Hear what he has to say to parents who are thinking about putting their child on Addderall.
Does Adderall make me crave cigarettes?
Oh God yes. Cigarettes are DELICIOUS on Adderall. Well, as long as you’ve got Gatorade or something to keep the dry mouth at bay. Adderall and cigarettes is the ultimate combination for keeping you stuck in life. You’ve got a recipe for enjoying pretty much any activity you could imagine as long as you can pop your pills and take your smoke breaks. When I was working from home on Adderall I used to burn through 2-3 packs per day while sitting and my computer. You know what happens when you quit Adderall? Cigarettes stop being so incredibly great. They’re still wonderful, mind you, but not like they were on Adderall. And then you quit those too. And then without cigarettes or adderall you know what becomes “not so great”? Everything that is supposed to suck and that you’re not supposed to be trapped in.
Can I break up/take apart Adderall XR capsules?
It won’t work like you think it will. With a normal Adderall pill, it’s the same substance all the way through. You can break it into pieces for smaller doses no problem. But with a time-released Adderall XR you can’t really do that.
How time-released Adderall XR works: If you take apart an Adderall XR capsule you’ll see a bunch of little beads in there. Some are dark orange and some are almost white. The dark orange beads are “instant” release. The almost-white beads are “delayed release” and have a thicker/slower-disolving shell around them.
That’s the idea behind Adderall XR: time release. You take the pill, your body digests the outer shell of the capsule, then your body digests and processes the first batch of “instant release” beads and you get your first does. Four hours later (when the first dose from the instant beads has almost worn off) your body has finally worked its way through the almost-white “delayed-release” beads and you get your second dose.
This structure makes it pretty difficult to break up Adderall XR capsules into your own preferred doses with any kind of accuracy.
If all you have is the time-released Adderall XR capsules you might as well just plan your dose schedule around taking the whole pill until you can get your prescription (or hook-up) switched to the standard pills (which are more more manageable, IMHO). With a standard 30 mg tablet, you can just snap it in half (along the perforated dividing line, no less) and you’ve got two doses of 15mg. Snap it in half again and you’ve got four even doses of 7.5mg.
Trust me, learning to live with taking the XR pill all at once until you can get your hands on some normal tablets that you can break up is a much a more sane answer then spending several tweaked-out hours scouring the internet and researching micro-weight scales trying to figure out how to divvy up an even dose of those little beads.
Can I get Adderall by ordering it from overseas?
The short answer: No. Adderall is a Schedule II medication, which is prohibited from being imported.
The long answer: The United States has an official drug classification list that divides up perscription drugs into different categories, called “schedules” (they are classified by severity of effects, potential addictiveness, and abuse potential).
Most painkillers like Vicadin and such fall under the first, lighter classification (i.e., Schedule I). You are allowed to import these first class of drugs from overseas.
This is what you see the ads for all over the internet and in the spam emails you get every day that say “Buy Prescription Drugs Online!”. Those services are actually providing you ways to import Shchedule I drugs (mainly painkillers).
But those services can’t get you Adderall even if they say they can (I’ve asked them).
If you want to go the overseas route you could probably get your hands on some generic amphetamine salts directly from Mexico (as in, drive there). But seriously, it’s not that hard to find a sympathetic psychiatrist who will write you an Adderall prescription…which is what you want because then you’re legal, legit, and you will pretty much never run out of pills.
Or you could, you know, not throw your life away on Adderall and cherish the fact that you’ve never had enough of a supply to really get you hooked.
What happens if I lost my Adderall bottle?
You have several problems. Your doctor probably won’t (or won’t be able to) write you a replacement perscription until you’re up for your next refill (if he can he certainly won’t do it for you more than once). Even if you can convince your doctor to write you a replacement slip, you won’t be able to get the slip filled at your normal drugstore because your insurance info is on file with them, they know when you got your last fill, and won’t let you fill again until it’s been 30 days since your last fill date.
If you’ve got the deal where you’re doctor writes you three slips at a time and you cash one in each month, then you can go to a different drug store that doesn’t have your information on file and get next month’s perscription filled (at the painfully high retail price) then just ration yourself extra well over the next couple months to account for the lost bottle.
In the future, don’t keep all your pills in one place. Always have a surplus. Keep your main stash in a stationary location (like your desk at work).
If you really lost your bottle and none of the above information is helpful to you, call your doctor and be honest about losing the bottle. Remember that to you this is a drug but to him it’s a medcine, so a patient that lost his medicine is an issue that needs to be corrected. But understand also that he knows people sell Adderall and will be quick to catch you if you didn’t actually lose the bottle. His radar will be up.
How do I get a doctor to give me Adderall?
It’s not has hard as you may think. To you, Adderall is a drug. To a doctor, it’s medicine that treats a problem. Adderall is tragically over-prescribed and comically easy to get. Some doctors will make you take a bunch of tests to verify that you have ADD (I have never heard of somebody failing one of these tests), and others will cut straight to the prescription after a short interview.
The fact that you are looking for help getting a prescription says to me that some part of you is afraid that you don’t actually need it. Listen to that little voice. Presreve your integrity as a person. Don’t go down this road.
Or ignore my warnings and jump down the rabbit hole.
Then, after you’ve wasted years of your life and robbed your spirit of the development and true happiness it craves, after your emotional and mental maturity is years behind where it should be because you’ve been playing in the daily euphoria of Adderall…come back to this website and we’ll help you quit.
What is the maximum legal dose of Adderall?
60-80mg/day (depending on who you talk to). Adderall dosage depends on (perceived) severity of ADD symptoms, body weight, and time-factored tolerance (i.e., how long you’ve been taking it). But unless you’re a big person, 60-80mg is a pretty high dose.
What is “generic” Adderall and what is “brand” Adderall?
When you hear somebody (e.g., me, or your psychiatrist) refer to “brand” Adderall, we are talking about the drug called Adderall that is distributed by the Shire corporation. “Generic” Adderall refers to the knock-off drug that is technically called something like “amphetamine salts” and is manufactured and distributed by several different companies as a cheaper alternative to the brand-name Adderall.
It’s kind of like a “brand” Rolex that you buy in a high-end watch store for $10,000 and “generic” Rolex that you buy from a table top vendor in New York City for $20. Except in this case the knock-off is a bit closer to the quality of the original than it is with those fake Rolexes. By law, generic drugs must be 80%-110% as effective as the original.
What is the difference between generic Adderall and “brand” Adderall?
1. Potency: By law, in order for a generic drug to be offered as generic alternative to a mainstream drug, it must be 80%-110% as potent/effective as the original, brand-name drug (Adderall by Shire, in this case). In my experience (I’ve tried most of the generics in all different doses), the potency/effictiveness compared to the real stuff (brand Adderall) is usually in the 80-95% range.
2. Price: Generic Adderall is often less than half the price of brand-name Adderall. For example, I was perscribed 45x 30mg pills every month. At retail prices, this came out to about $160 for “brand” or $70 for “generic”. With insurance, the generic was an almost-free $7 (I couldn’t believe that price when they first quoted me it), while brand was a reasonable $35.
3. Availability: Most pharmacies tend to push the generics. There was only one pharmacy within 15 miles of me that stocked brand-name 30mg Adderall pills, but dozens of pharmecies that stocked the generic version of the same pill. Brand is much more rare and hard to find in many cases.
4. Shape of the pill: Generic Adderall pills are generally oval shapped and slightly bulging, while brand Adderall pills are perfect circles and flat like a hockey puck.
4. The feeling: Generic Adderall pills will give you a slightly “dirty” high (I don’t know how else to describe it), and some may give you a mild headache/discomfort (I particularly don’t trust the blue, oval-shaped generic 10mg pills for this reason…but otherwise they’re alright).
Basically, generic gives you a “high” while brand-name Adderall gives you a “buzz”. The buzz is more productive.
I have the most experience with generic 30mg pills (orange, oval, slightly bulging). These are the best of the generic in my opinion, and I would regularly get them when I didn’t feel like blowing $160 on the brand pills. Generic 30mg pills are almost as good as the real stuff. They’re so close that you barely notice the difference. But there is a little difference. Generic 30mg pills give you a bit more of a “high” feeling, while brand Adderall 30mg pills give you a bit more of a “push” to go with a bit cleaner high. For that reason, the brand Adderall pills are going to make you the most productive. I had a much greater tendency to zone-out on generic adderall than with brand (because of lack of “push” effect).
In my experience, the only generic Adderall pills that are worth a damn are the blue, oval-shaped generic 10mg pills and the fat, oval-shaped generic 30mg pills. I never liked the genereic 20mg pills, and I never had enough of the generic 5mg pills to remember how good/bad they were. Stay away from the white generic pills…they suck so bad I couldn’t even take them and had to go without for a month (the litterally just give you a headache and a slight dirty buzz).
My advice: Always go with brand if you can afford it, but if you’re tight on funds then generic isn’t that bad (as long as they color is right…blue for 10mg, orange for 30mg). Of all the time I spent on Adderall, I’d say about half of it was on generic.
unbelievably accurate information on every question and topic.. wow.. this explains the life of adderall to a T
Thanks, AJ!
I have been recently given adderall for adult ADD. I think my ADD is situational however having taken my first 10mg this morning things are much better. The most interesting side effect for me is that it’s been proven to aid in weight loss. My question. How much of a weight loss can i expect on 10mg a day?
Hi Christina. Thanks for the comment. If your ADD is situational (which I think most ADD is), then your life will turn out better if you focus on changing your situation. Taking drugs to make you tolerate your current situation doesn’t fix the underlying problem that you may not be in the right place. In fact, it makes it worse, because it helps you convince yourself that everything is fine (because everything FEELS fine all of a sudden).
Yah, amphetamines are pretty good at helping you lose weight. 10mg a day (depending on your weight) may give you a decent bit of weight loss by tuning-down your appetite a little.
But if you want really significant weight loss results, try quadrupling your dose to 40mg/day and spacing it out throughout the day and night. That way you’ll be eating almost nothing and sleeping only every other night. You’ll lose more weight than you ever thought possible and loving every minute of it. Your friends will barely recognize you. And then you won’t recognize you.
Or, you know, stop taking the pills now before you go too far down the rabbit hole, dedicate some time to finding a job you can love enough to focus on naturally (I promise you such a thing exists), and exercise/eat better to get your weight down.
Tell me, Christina, which is a better image of yourself?
1. The girl high on amphetamines all day, working diligently in a job that’s not truly right for her and convincing herself that she actually likes it (that it’s not the drugs making her like it), skinny as a skeleton because she doesn’t eat or sleep, and slowly but surely losing her path and every memory of who she wanted to be in the first place.
2. The girl who has found her true calling in life, spends every day developing her natural passion and striving to be a better person, looking great and glowing because she exercises so regularly, and laughing at the fact that she ever considered forcing herself to like her crappy old lifestyle by popping pills.
Your call.
Thanks for the reply. I see your point. However, I do love my job. I work at home and couldn’t be happier. The ADD was discovered after years of an insomnia problem. And i’m sure you know that course. We found that xanax 2mg at night with .2mg of clonadine give the best night sleep in the world. Once the insomnia was resolved, which i might add was my excuse for my failures at work, i realized that he ADD symptoms got worse. I definitely don’t get this buzz on them that everyone speaks of i’m just able to concentrate and complete projects with severe deadlines. I’ve played with the dose a bit and found that 10mg upon waking and 7.5 around 1:00 gets me through the day and i’m able to settle down in the evening and enjoy my friends and family without wanting anymore. I do however have a question for you. I’m finding it takes a bit longer for the morning dose to kick in. I do eat in the morning as i’m taking it because if I don’t I won’t eat at all during the day and since I’m on a quest of fittness I need to make sure I fuel my body. Anyway, I usually eat a piece of toast with butter or peanut butter with the first 10mg. Could this be why it’s not working as quickly? Should I fiddle with that a little, maybe eat later or earlier or is that not a problem at all and I should just be a little more patient? I know that you are anti Adderall but it has really helped me without the side effects that everyone complains of. I thank you for your time and knowledge.
Hi Christina,
Try coffee. Personally, I liked iced coffee (e.g., from McDonalds) and Starbucks Frappacinos (you can buy them in 4-packs from the grocery store). The caffeine buzz gives you a kind of “rolling start” on the Adderall buzz. Sweet tea works pretty well too.
Plus the caffeine will further suppress your appetite and help you lose weight.
I wouldn’t worry to much about the piece of toast. It’s not the food that matters so much in getting that first dose to kick in…it’s the drink.
The reason your first dose is not kicking in right away is because it has to fight the sleepiness (and not having a foundation dose already in your system like your afternoon dose has).
Don’t cut out the toast…it’s good to have something in your system or you risk feeling spacey with no fuel in your stomach.
Yah, sorry…like you said: I’m pretty anti-Adderall. Maybe I jumped the gun a little in your case.
I will never say that Adderall doesn’t feel like a wonder drug; that it doesn’t seem to revolutionize your life for the better when you first start taking it….It definitely does that…it’s a hell of a drug.
When I first started taking Adderall, I thought “This is amazing! Where have you been all my life?! I love you, little blue pill. With you, I can do anything.”
If you can maintain that low 10mg + 7.5mg dosage schedule for your whole life without ever increasing it, you might be OK. Emphasis on MIGHT. I still don’t trust it.
I think Adderall is too blunt of a sword. Adderall is not a precision chemical like some prescriptions are. Adderall is not complicated. It’s just clean, legal speed…and all that implies.
Look, if you’re taking Xanax at night and Adderall during the day you’re on the classic “upper/downer” cycle. Be aware of that. Lesser people do the same thing with cocaine and alcohol. Now, you’re not like them and you’re not even close to that kind of lifestyle…but does it really feel right living a toned-down version of it?
And you probably won’t be able to quit just one of them. If you’re taking Xanax at night you’re probably going to need the Adderall to pick back up during the day. It’s both or none.
You like your job because you chose it when you were sober (i.e., not on Adderall). Your sober self is good at choosing things you naturally like. I misspoke when I said your problem is you might be in the wrong place. Maybe that “being in the wrong place” doesn’t really kick in until a couple of years of letting Adderall make decisions for you.
But I still hear you say your situation is “failures at work > insomnia > drugs”. Maybe you should go back to the failures and address them head-on by improving yourself and growing as a person, instead of popping pills to mask the symptoms of the problem.
Why did you decide to give up on your own ability to solve your problems?
Sorry, there I go again.
Mike i have a question for you.
i have been diagnosed with adult ADD. all through out my life my teacgers urged my parents to medicate me and my 2 other brothers. from kindergarden all the way up to the 8th grade i did poorly in school. I had trouble focusing and no will to do any homework. I have a great family raised on hardwork and religous beliefs and no real issues in our house. Finally i make it high school and i explode with great grades! i finally had a 3.75 GPA and school was great for about 3 years, then it got bad. I started doing poorly and dropping my GPA from that 3.75 to a 2.995. When i went to college i tried many things to combat my focusing issues. I tried different study techniques, and hardwork, yet i failed. I blamed my poor test grades from anything and everything, and i tried to use my faith to beat it, but three years later i still cant beat it. I am going to the DR next wednesday so he can prescribe me my C2 drug. I had an evalutation for adult ADD and like i said earlier she said i had it. my question is this, i dont want to rely on a pill to make things better. Its that i have no motivation, will or drive to do better. I study so hard and my friends who smoke pot do so much better. I have no idea why but they do. When i am in class i get everything i mean it makes more sense to me than anything and at some points i am the only person who understands it. One of my issues is remembering things. I always forget everything once i leave class it has gotten so bad now that i cant tell whats going on an hour later. I am very passionate about school, yet my failures are causing me not to care. I dont want to be depend on this drug to make things work for me so the DR told me that drugs like adderall i could use on a “as need base” so will this help me. Will it make me remember? i have the drive to do the homework but for some reason i never follow through. I Find myself making every excuse to get somethign to drink when i am not thirsty, i am always trying to occupy my self, i litterally need someones help to make me do my homework. Will this help me follow through? also I am very religious and i have problems with medications. I am 21 years old and i dont medications, i have never really had a headache in my life, cause i dont know what it feels like and i am usually pretty healthy. I took strattera one time and had very disturbing thoughts so i stopped it, the DR wanted me to try it until i was diaganosed with adult ADD, like strattera its a maintance drug and i dont want to lose good ol me to some drug. So breifly these are my questions. Will it promote memory, will it help me follow through, and is it ok to take it on an As need basis?
this is how my day is every day and i have never taken adderall, so is it likely that i do in fact need the medication? as well? also i work at wal-greens pharmacy as a tech, i am a very busy person when i do work it seems like this only happens at school. what does that indicate?
Hey Mike i have a question.
I dont know why i cant see my last post but, here is my situation.
All my life my teachers urged my parents to get us on medications to help with ADD
My parents refused b/c kids will act like kids.
Now i am in college and never did i read books in high school to study b.c i did good, i find my self thinking do i have ADD.
I was diagnosed with it through an Evaluation from a behavior health resource center and she asked me several key things.
First off i usually dont take any type medication. I am 21 year old and i dont take tylenol for headaches for one reason i have never had a headache.
so taking a c2 med is going to the extreme for me.
while i have been in college i find myself forgetting things after every class period. I have tried to defeat this issue with my faith and every other type of technique to help study and focus yet i cant beat it. every day i fail i loose a little bit of my beliefs.
Next week i will be going to the Dr for an Adderall type drug.
I have a few questions.
1. Will it help me follow through?
2. Will it promote me to remember things
3. can i take it on an As needed basis and be ok with out it (I dont want to lose good ol me)
4. When i am in school, i find it very boring time moves slow and i am often wonder about very odd things ranging from anything to everything, like being a superhero for instance, things like that nothing like hurting people or such things like that. But very weird things.
These things concern me and i dont want to be on a maintence medication. I often find myself studying, yet my friends who smoke pot do and dont study do far better.
I thing i can tell you about me is this, i am an overthinker. I make things very difficult, and the Lady who gave me my evaluation told me this will help me not overthink things into something it really isnt.
As you said up there on quitting adderall school seems very boring yet work just seems sucky.
I have tried everything to beat this, and i feel like i am giving up on my faith and beliefs by going this way. I will be taking this medication all through out my Pharmacy and pre pharmcay career, and i will stop when i graduate will this have an issue with my later years when i dont take it any more?
I am very troubled over school, i am in tears b.c i dont have a drive to finish school or continue school, i know what i want to be, but every year it gets worse, will this help me?
also the harder i try to beat the more i fail, i am a horrible test taker i study and i fail it seems like i forget everything when i go in on a test, is this something a med like Adderall can help fix?
Hi Justin,
Thanks for the comments. Let me see what I can do about answering your questions…
Actually, I’ve read some reports that say drugs like Adderall actually DETERIORATE your natural short term memory. From personal experience, I tend to believe them. It may help you a little while you’re on it (but not really…Adderall can instill more ADD than it alleviates sometimes), but may make things worse when you eventually stop (which you probably will…unless you plan on popping speed every day for the rest of your life).
For the memory issue, I would recommend some good brain training games first, and other drugs (not Adderall) as a last resort. Check out Lumosity (http://lumosity.com). They have lots of incredibly well-designed brain games that help you work-out different facets of your brain (including short term memory). You can also try dual n-back exercises, which also increase short term memory and are even shown to increase IQ in some studies (google “dual n back”).
I can tell you from experience that these kinds of brain games can make a noticeable difference if you play them enough.
If that doesn’t work for you; you might ask your doctor about some memory boosting drugs. They are out there…better alternatives to Adderall.
As much as I hate to say it: yes, Adderall will certainly help you follow through. But many times it will still be hard to start a task. As in, you may still avoid doing homework like you do now, except that instead of going to get a drink even though you aren’t thirsty and ending up falling asleep without doing your homework, you’ll stay up until 7am playing the same video game or over-doing the COVER PAGE for your report and finally do the homework 30min before class in a sleep-deprived, amphetamine-fueled rush. Many times, you get almost the same end result as you’d get without the pills but minus sleep.
Now, to be fair to Adderall and reality, you are going to get more school work done with it than you would without it. Adderall will help motivate you to do homework because with Adderall homework and everything else becomes enjoyable. Plus you know you can stay up all night and still function during the next day if you have to with Adderall’s help.
It will motivate you in a way, but procrastination will still be an issue…just in a different form.
You can also have trouble finishing tasks on Adderall. You’ll get so caught up in the middle you never finish it. Watch out for this. I can’t tell you how many times I took a pill at 11pm and said “ok here we go, I’m going to stay up all night and finish this new software feature” and ended up just playing Max Payne 2 (greatest game ever) until 4am and then finally starting my work (wasting a whole dose). And moreover, I can’t tell you how many “new software features” I’ve spent a whole Adderall-filled night working on that I never finished (despite how ambitious they were).
Look out for the thought “I’m just going to do this until the pill kicks in and then I’ll start working.” Make sure you start the thing right away.
If you can be casual about it, yes. Actually, this is what many college students do anyway, except “as needed” means “I get my friend to sell me some of his Adderall when it’s final exam time”.
I hate to advise you to go this route (because you’ll be a better person for figuring out how to take on even the biggest scholastic challenge without the pills), but if you really have to…go for it; it’s better than taking it every day and getting really hooked.
Unfortunately, school is in many ways something you just have to get through until you can do something you actually enjoy. Adderall is brilliant at helping tolerate crap like that. It is bottled conformity, and that’s exactly what modern education demands.
Overall, Justin, I understand your situation is pretty rough right now. But I remain curious: What happened when you first started high school and got all those good grades? What was your mental and emotional state like? Why the drop off? Did you suddenly gain interest in school and then lose it again? I would be more inclined to condone a little drug use in your case if you told me you’d struggled with this your whole life, but you haven’t…you found the answer you just lost it. I would recommend concentrating on finding that Justin again.
Be very, very careful with Adderall. It’s like the mythical siren’s that lured sailors to their deaths.
You said, “Its that i have no motivation, will or drive to do better”…
If that is at all true, focus on fixing that. Don’t take a drug to fix it for you. Treat your mental and emotional problems like you would a problem of optimization. Engage your male problem-solving brain and figure out a solution. You’ll be surprised how many of your hang-ups and personal issues you can resolve in this manner.
@Justin
Ok just approved your second comment. Noticed that it’s mainly a reworded version of the first because you didn’t know that the first went though. I think I addressed most of the main points in my last comment, but I missed some that are in your second comment…
That’s an ideal case. If you use more than you need to fix whatever level of ADD you have, then Amphetamines are notorious for directly causing over-thinking and obsessive paranoia. I am an over-thinker myself, and Adderall made it a thousand times worse. One of the main reasons I quit was to get some level of sanity and decisiveness back.
But that’s just me. I think you’ll know pretty quickly whether it helps or hurts your over thinking.
To me, this is totally and completely normal. That’s just day dreaming. Did you ever see the move “Sidekicks” with Jonathan Brandis and Chuck Norris, where the kid sits in class all day imagining that he is Chuck Norris’ kung-fu sidekick in elaborate action scenarios? Totally normal.
IMHO, it is the school’s fault. They’re crazy to think that they can hold attention spans with some old man standing up and droning on about subjects that kids only care about because they have to pass a test on it to get the piece of paper they need to get the salary they want and job they kind-of want.
It is the nature of the young spirit to crave adventure. It is the nature of modern education to crush that craving with the words “be realistic”.
Adderall will fix this though. I promise you’ll be so absorbed in your professor’s lecture on [topic doesn't matter] that you will daydream and wander (in your mind) MUCH less. And time will go by super fast. But that’s not always a good thing. It’s nice when class is over more quickly, but not nice when you allow yourself to be stuck in the same phase of life for years longer than you would otherwise tolerate.
Giving up on your faith and beliefs isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes, if rebirth is your goal, you have to let go of those fundamental things to change.
Ironic career choice given your current predicament. lol(?). Are you 100% sure that’s what you want to do? When you think about the idea of working in pharmacy, does it excite and embolden you? Does it feel like your spirit grows whenever you think about it? Or did you just choose that because you’re trying to be realistic and you’re “kind of” interested in it?
It always will until you find the perfect fit for yourself.
I know a kid who stopped Adderall when he graduated. His dad says he just sleeps all day and has no motivation. And now he has to face the prospect of working every day for 50 years without that crutch. Stopping is rough. It’s much easier never to start.
Adderall will help you achieve the goal you think you want. But it will hurt you if the actual problem is that your goals are wrong.
They say that there is no such thing as lazy people; just people with uninspiring goals. As in, it is more the failure of the goal than the person sometimes. I think there is a lot of truth to this.
Hang in there though, Justin. You’ll figure it out. It just takes us over-thinkers a bit longer to move because we’re so conscious of each little step in the process.
@Justin
Adderall will generally destroy any test anxiety you have, but it will also make you over-think the questions more, so it’s good for tests with unlimited time, but can be detrimental on timed tests like the SAT.
It will only help you remember in the sense that it helps you focus more while you are studying which does help the information stick a little better.
Again though, careful. If you can find another way to increase your attention span, do it. Really try to think of a creative solution besides drugs. You’ll be surprised how well you can hack your mind.
I think this is normal to a certain extent. I have only known a few people who were naturally uber-motivated and energetic all the time. I envy them greatly. For the rest of us, it is a matter of descipline, willpower, and finding the right goal that makes all of that worth doing.
It indicates that school doesn’t stimulate you like work does. It also means that there is much less wrong with you than you think there is. Plenty of people are worthless at work and school. You happen to do well at the thing you chose for yourself; you just suck at the thing other people chose for you. That means there is hope for you once you find your perfect fit (probably after school).
If you get on Adderall, you risk crippling your natural work ethic (well, crippling when you eventually quit…it’ll go through the roof while you’re on it).
Hey Mike i really do appreciate your input!
i am right now on adderall and yes it i do want to do school work. i had him put me on the basic adderall the one that only last 6 hours he said this is the best route for me since everyone usually is addicted, this is a very safe route to take it, and i also only had him give me 4 tablets a week just for class, and no weekends. when i think about work i love to think i will be a pharmacist, its just i am only gettting C’s and D’s and for pharm school i need A’s and B’s. I am very cautious about this medication, but i would love to keep you updated, i have prayed and prayed and i think this will help me through pre pharm i plan on only making up the mistakes i have made in my past and then use self will on the future. this medication is kinda weird, but it doesn fix the exact problem i do have. i know your a firm believer in what you say as well. this capsule is not an answer, but it is out weighing the bad right now. my girlfriend is a pharmacist and she also i supporting me even tho we are both extremely religous, she believes this is an answer to a prayer. it is hard to interpret gods words and i do admitt to that, but i am going to give this a shot. and if i dont see improvement on test scores and grades, than i am off of it. no questions. my demons dont lay in medications, but other things, that do not pretain to this, i am a very determined person and i think if you have a myspace or facebook to add me just use my email. gugiehouser2006@yahoo.com search it the finder, so i can update you easier thanks, and god bless, you have been more than a blogger to me (no homo)
Hi Justin,
Good luck. Look, I think I’ve pigeoned-holed myself a little into the “anti” side of the Adderall debate. I often say that I have seen nothing but bad come from that pill. But that’s not entirely true (though it is ALMOST entirely true): I owe the varsity letter in Academics I was awarded in high school to my Adderall use…and now those grades are helping me get a job (well it’s nice to be able to say “4.0″ on my cop resumes).
Sometimes you have to just go with it…try an experience until you’ve had your fill…until you’ve understood its full nature…otherwise it will always tempt you and make you wonder.
In that vein, go for it. Pop those pills get those A’s. Feel great.
The difficult part will be quitting when you don’t have to…just because you’ve got your grades up…why not keep going? That’s what you’ll say to yourself. Watch out for that.
Let me give you two final warnings…
1. “I’m just taking Adderall until my work at this software company pays off and then I won’t need it anymore.”
-Me, 7 years ago. Famous last words.
2. Adderall will not fix your personality flaws. Adderall only amplifies what is already there…the good AND the bad. Procrastination, self-sabotage, insecurity…all those things still exist on Adderall…you’re just to busy to feel them holding you back.
Take that for what you will.
In any case, you sound like you have a great girlfriend. And she may be right that this is an answered prayer for you. Just please, use it as sparingly as possible. Like, only use it for tests if you can. Preserve as much of yourself as you can. If you condition yourself to only using it as an occasional emergency tool, then you will stay in control of it and will be less likely to fall under it’s spell and let it control you.
The goal is to be yourself 95% of the time and Adderall-you the other 5%. Keep that ratio heavily weighted towards time spent off-Adderall as “yourself” and you might be ok.
I wish you very well. Happy to have helped. I’ll figure out something on the Facebook front and add you. Not sure I’m ready for my RL friends to know about my secret identity as a blogger (I can write better when I think nobody is watching…well, nobody I have to see every day). Maybe I’ll set up a separate profile or something. In the mean time, please post here or in the forums with your updates! That way others can benefit from them too. If you want me directly just send my a PM on the forums.
Also, lol @ (no homo).
hey mike i know what you mean about it being addicting it makes you feel great, but my own personal self is more important to me, i have used 2 pills in the last 2 weeks, its not a big deal to me cause i value reality and not the high thing, i have had my issues in the past and i know how to deal with things like that all to well, i put myself on the adderall 20 mg its a lower dose for some one 6 foot 220 pounds, and it last 6 hours. i plan on using only in pre-pharm no need in pharmacy school, i can get c’s but i cant get a’s but yeah i just need to block my goofy side its the only way i can get through school with A’s i only need them in pre-pharm and not pharmacy i have one year left and i will give this a shot and hopefully god will help me through it all. thanks for listening responding and just understanding you will be in the prayers of two complete strangers, as a blessing from god… sounds kinda weird coming from someone like me but its true, thanks mike for keeping the other part of reality there. i can look at the good all i want but there is a side that to this that people fail to realize…. but again thanks mike! i will keep in touch
No problem at all, Justin. Sounds like you’ve got it well under control. Keep it that way. Don’t let that dose or frequency start creeping up on you.
Definitely keep in touch. Look forward to hearing how you’re doing.
hey Mike i have another question for you. When i take my dose of adderall i feel normal, like i did when i was 16 i feel like i can focus and nothing bugs me, it makes my paranoid thoughts disappear, it makes me a nice person too. i find myself more tolerable of other people and i also find myself to be a better boyfriend. is there any chance that i might actually have an imbalance in my body and this drug is the balancing factor??? i have no idea what to think. when i take the drug i dont feel a thing, i dont notice any changes really but i find myself being nicer is the real thing. I mean can focus better i love school, i mean i Love it i cant get enough of it with the things i learn. I dont find it addictive at all either, the dr gave me 10 tablets 2 weeks ago and i havent even used them all i dont make an excuse to use it, but i guess my question is could my body actually need this drug to fix an imbalance please let me know! i am hoping that i can be that person without the drug… but do let me know if you know what i am talking about… thanks!
Hi Justin,
This is a hard question to answer. I am a man who has had a terrible experience with Adderall, and who has known many others whose experiences were similarly terrible. It will be hard for me to give you an unbiased answer.
Likewise, if you ask your doctor the same question he’s going to say “of course it’s possible that you have a chemical imbalance and that Adderall levels you out…that’s the whole point” because it’s his role to buy into that kind of thinking.
1. The first few years on Adderall are like a love affair. Trying to talk somebody out of Adderall when they’ve just started taking it is like trying to convince a newlywed to divorce her new husband just because you’ve experienced his abusive side and you have a feeling she will too…it’s a nearly impossible sell.
If she’s going to notice any problems, she’s probably not going to see them until her new husband slaps her a couple times…and that won’t happen until the love affair stage is over…and that can take years.
It literal terms: You may not have your first “gee…I kinda wish I wasn’t on Adderall right now” moment for more than a year.
So it’s hard to know for certain at this point whether Adderall is really a legit answer for you. Regardless of whether it’s helping you with all your problems RIGHT NOW…the true test is whether you still feel that way in 10 years. Can you picture yourself being on it for the rest of your life perfectly happy? If so, then maybe you’re ok and it does balance you out. But if you still intend to stop at some point…why? Why the intention to stop?
2. I am incredibly suspicious of your sudden love of school. That is where it starts. That’s one of my whole arguments against Adderall. Most people don’t love school. Most people get through school to achieve a greater purpose. In that sense, school is typically a lesson in getting yourself through semi-crappy things because they help you get to where you want to go. If the drug makes you love school, then you lose that lesson…you forgo the process of developing your “get through it” skills.
If I had any advice at all for you, it would be to take such a small dose that you don’t love school but you can get through it better than you could without the pills. If you are enjoying your classes completely, then it’s the drug talking.
3. I will concede that it is possible that you have an imbalance that Adderall is addressing. I will concede that it is possible that maybe it just works “as advertised” for you and balances you out. It’s certainly possible.
But I will also tell you this: I have never seen it go that way. For all the short-term gain I’ve seen people achieve on Adderall, I have never met a person who truly benefited from it long-term.
One girl in particular comes to mind. An erratic, insecure girl with lots and lots of inner turmoil that manifests itself as basket case/self-destructive behavior. I’ll call her Susie. If I were ever to argue FOR the existence of serious chemical imbalances, Susie would be my star evidence. She’s on more pharmaceutical drugs than you can count. She told me once she had a serotonin deficiency plus lots of other stuff.
I ran into her once years after high school, when she was around 24-25. In the course of normal conversation, she asked me if I was still taking Adderall (no doubt remembering how I had bummed some from her/to her in high school). I told her I had quit. “Yah, I’m still taking it. I’ve been kinda thinking about stopping.”, she said as she looked down at the ground and shuffled her feet. Why was that guilt there? This girl had every doctor in the world and every friend she ever had and her parents all endorsing her use of pharmaceuticals, and yet the Adderall was the one she wished she could stop; the one she felt guilty about. Why do you think that is? I suspect you’ll find out in time.
Be careful, Justin. I’m happy that your life is improving and that it’s helping you, but I just can’t fully endorse it. Not only have I seen lots of people go the wrong way on Adderall, I’ve see what happens when people quit Adderall: they all tell me, in one way or another, “I’ve got my life back now.” Ask yourself: What do those people mean? Who took their life away in the first place? Then look down at that little blue pill.
Hey Justin,
I’ve been thinking more about your situation.
If you were after any other career choice, I would not be saying what I’m about to say.
But the fact that you’re aspiration is to be a pharmacist is not trivial to me.
Spiritually, it would make sense for you to have a major life experience that makes you passionate for your profession. To be a good pharmacist, you will likely need to be a true believer in the healing power of all kinds of pharmaceuticals. It wouldn’t make sense for you to sit behind that counter dispensing drugs you thought were morally wrong.
So maybe in your case you’re meant to be on a prescription or two that radically changes your life for the better (permanently).
So there’s that argument.
The best advice I can give you is this: follow your guilt. If Adderall is only helping you, then you should not have much guilt about it. You should read my objections and think “yeah I can see that for other people but my case feels different from everything everybody else on his site is saying”.
On the other hand, if you start to feel fake, or guilty, or like you’re moving sideways in life, then dump that Adderall.
Again, just be careful.
Mike i totally agree, i do believe medication helps people but i do believe that alot of people abuse it. i believe that my body was created to fix itself and if it cannot then death will not be a curiosity and will become a reality. i do not feel guilty what so ever when i take the medication, on the other hand the people who do chose to use medication and if it is for the wrong reason only god will be the judge of them. thanks for all the help you have given me Mike and i am always very careful.
Hi Mike,
I just finished reading all your entries and responses to reader comments. I would like to commend you for your articulate, insightful, and very admirable writing style. I have never complimented a blog writer before, but I think you really deserve it. It is rare to find a blog written in such a compassionate and supportive manner. If you haven’t already, you should consider a career in counseling, I think it is definitely the “calling” you speak off.
As someone with experience taking ADD stimulant medication, I can relate with many of the issues you have raised. I would argue that Adderall and other similar medications can be effective if managed in an appropriate manner, however, often it is far too tempting to fall into a spiral of abuse. Its kind of like drinking, how many people go to a bar and have only one or two drinks? Very few. Moderate drinking can be a relaxing and very pleasant without many negative consequences, but it is just too tempting to push the limit. If you are going to take this powerful medication, you must realize the potential for abuse, and understand the dangers of becoming overly reliant on its “miracle” powers.
Without ADD medication, I find it very difficult to associate with people I don’t find interesting, or pay attention to many of life’s minor details. I would also be more prone to self-sabotage at work, because the excitement would be a welcome relief from the constant monotony of workplace boredom. So for my sake, and the sake of my girlfriend, I take it on weekdays. But I have learned to love many aspects of not being on it, so I almost become excited for my drug “holidays”. The following things are so much better off of the medication. Watching movies/tv shows, having a relaxing nap, going for a leisurely walk, eating/gorging, making sweet, sweet, love, having silly fun with the people that mean the most to you.
Basically, I my point is, no drug is a miracle, chasing the “high” won’t make your life perfect, by doing so you are merely delaying the inevitable. If you are going to continue to take the medication, let it wear off, feel down and depressed for a couple of hours, because the longer you delay the inevitable the worse the repercussions. Trust me, eating enough food and having a good night’s sleep are your two strongest allies when trying to prevent stimulant dependence. Even if you feel like crap for a few hours, you will eventually enjoy life again, especially if you have a full belly and a good night’s sleep working in your favour.
Everything has positive and negative aspects, so finding the best possible balance is key. Learn to enjoy being lazy and unproductive once in awhile, and don’t feel guilty about being yourself. I am lucky because so many things fascinate me that I can never let myself get depressed, but this makes focusing on any one task very difficult.
So basically, I am undecided about the long-term benefits of stimulate medication. But if you are going to use it, be smart, research all aspects of it, and be fully aware of potential side-effects and abuse issues. That being said, if I wasn’t on meds, I wouldn’t have written this post. Yet I know that I would still harbour all these same thoughts, but would just be less likely to focus on sharing them.
How can you tell someone is on ADD meds? They never stop writing…..
Keep up the good work,
Dan
Dear Mike,
I’m so happy I found your site. You are changing so many lives, your amazing and thank you. As for me…..kinda the same old story. I’ve been abusing adderall for about 8 years now. Starting off with taking a 20 on the weekends for fun, to taking between 40-60mg a day to get through college. I always took 2-3 20′s before I went out to party. I would continue to take more through out the night, just to keep having a good time. Adderall completly took over me and I couldn’t and still can’t do anything without it. Like all the stories, it started out as a miracle drug, my savior, and it was a savior at many times for me. I checked myself into treatment 5-5-05, I was inpatient for a little over a week. At that time in my life, I saw no other outlet. I was clean for about 6 months, until I started taking phentermine to lose weight, which really isn’t much different to adderall. I took that for about a year, abused that and about two years ago started back on the devil. I’ve been prescribed four 20′s a day. I usually run out before the months over. My usual schedule is 2 20′s to get me going, one 20 before every consultation I do at work, which is usually about 2 consults a day. I have a good job, obviously…i’m tweaked everyday! But now this is the problem and my symptoms……
-I am a complete zombie, even on the med
-I have no short term memory, almost none
-It’s near to impossible to get up and going in the AM or really anytime
-I am starting to really feel helpless to get back to my old self again, which was a beautiful, happy, energetic, outgoing, loving girl. I was always in the gym working out and always the leader
-My family and boyfriend think of me as a tough chick who will always get the job done. Which, for the past 8 years, have gotten it all done and accomplished a LOT in my life
-I have been hallucinating and have horrible paranoia all the time
-I lose my appetite for a little on adderall, but then I get to a point where I think it increases my appetite. I feel I need to keep eating to nourish my brain and body or something.
-I have no real feelings anymore, NONE!
I just hate who I have become and am afraid I have permanently damaged my brain and I’ll never be the same again. I’m willing to face the battle if I know eventually I’ll be alright. And…..nobody know’s I’ve been taking this, so I gotta break that news too. I think about adderall 90 percent of my day, I just want to think about happiness instead. I hope you can give me some advice. I know that I will never be happy until I’m off this damn med, but I just can’t do it for whatever reason! I envy you Mike and pray everyday that God will lead me to the road I should be on! Thank you for all that you do Mike, your a good man! I do know I can do this and I want to, so hell with it…..I’m doing it!
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, and for the compliment. I’m honored to be your first-complimented blog writer! And you’ve raised some great points that I think will be help to have discussed/addressed here…
Speaking of which….
Define “effective”. Effective at what? My issue with Adderall is not it’s effectiveness. My issue is with the effect itself in any measure. Adderall’s stated purpose is to help you focus. It accomplishes this by jacking up your happy juices and convincing you that the task in front of you is something good and worth focusing on. That, to me, is borderline immoral. It’s turning you into a drone and brainwashing you. You are meant to like some things and not others. You are meant to learn how to power through the things you do not like for exactly enough time as necessary to get back to the things you do like. Any lubrication or softening of this natural contrast in life makes you a less principled, less focused (ha!), less decisive, less willful, weaker person. That is not good even in moderation. A great philosopher once said that those preaching moderation in a battle between good and evil don’t realize that with such a stance only good loses out.
Now, I understand your intention here. Your intention is to say that Adderall in small doses can be effective at helping you focus on the things you naturally want to focus on….helps you accomplish the things you naturally want to accomplish. Like you said, without Adderall you have the same thoughts and desires, but you don’t have the focus to execute them. To this I say: Work on that, don’t just pick up a pill to fix it. And the pill is not all that rosy. There’s always a cost. For every natural-passion project Adderall helps you work on, there are ten or twenty other “my heart doesn’t care about this at all” projects that you spent more time and effort on than you would naturally just because you were slightly high.
Sure, if you weren’t on Adderall you would have thought about making this comment but not posted it. But then again, if you weren’t on Adderall, you wouldn’t be on this site at all. How did you get here? Did you google “I love Adderall in moderation”? Most people get to this site because they have little voices inside them that question the virtue of that little orange pill they keep popping and loving. If you have this voice at all (and I suspect you do, otherwise you wouldn’t be googling Adderall) then you’re lying to yourself with the moderation stance and it’s only a matter of time before that voice gets too loud for you to stand. Can you really see yourself popping speed every day for the rest of your adult life? Can you see yourself taking speed daily in 20 years? Does this really seem sustainable to you? If something is not sustainable, do not do it. Adderall only works if you plan to take it the rest of your life. If you ever plan to quit, every pill you’re taking today just works against yourself later.
I hate to keep beating you up here, Dan, because you said really nice things about me and you wrote a great post with some great points.
But this paragraph of your comment is completely damning to me…
You’ve just summarized my whole point inadvertantly. You’re not supposed to hang out with un-interesting people!! You are meant to hang out specifically with people that you find interesting because that’s how you grow! You are supposed to learn how to handle those minor details in life, as difficult/annoying as it may be for you, because handling those minor details through the force of your own will is what shapes you into a consistent, responsible person. Your self-sabatoge is either a symptom of you being in the wrong job and/or a personal problem that you would do well do address through effort and creative personal problem solving vs. popping a pill to mask it. Do not do a damn thing that damages you or keeps you stuck in the same place for the sake of a girlfriend. Wife and kids maybe. Girlfriend hell no. I don’t care who she is.
You “look forward to your drug holidays” and you’re still arguing moderation with me??!! Come on! My whole life is a drug holiday now and I’m freaking loving it! The things you listed as being more fun off-meds (silly fun, relaxing, love) are what you’re supposed to be focused on having more of, not stealing time away from by being high for your crappy job’s sake. And you missed one in that list of things that are better without meds: passionate work. I cannot describe to you the satisfaction I feel over the fact that my hand hurts so bad this week that I have to pop arthritis medication. You know why my hand hurts that bad? Because I’ve been working and writing so much all week! Do you have any idea how good it feels to work that hard without meds? Do your realize that 40% of that work was dedicated to moving forward towards my own greatest dreams instead of some crappy day work? You can’t touch that feeling with meds.
Learning to enjoy being lazy and unproductive once in a while is important, I agree, but only if you spend the rest of your time working heroically on the causes that matter most to you and to who you want to be. Your idle time doesn’t count if you’re popping pills during your work time. Adderall not only strips your effort of its virtue; it strips your leisure of it as well.
And I’ll leave my ranting at that.
How can you tell somebody is naturally passionate about something and doing what they love? They never stop writing…
Said with love and appreciation for you post,
Mike
Hi Sara!
Thanks for the comment. I’m happy you found my site too! Let me see if I can address some of your current symptoms/problems…
That’s because you only have two states right now: plugged and unplugged. Tweaked or essentially sleepwalking. You have to quit long enough to get the stuff out of your system for a while and start taking some shots at living naturally before the zombie feeling goes away.
Bad news: Deterioration of short term memory is a side-effect of the drug and the doses you are taking. Also some of this is the increased ADD you’ve developed as a result of your tweaked-out brain jumping to increasingly-detailed whims and forgetting the overall picture. You’re so focused on the trees that you loose sight of the forest…and this develops into it’s own kind of ADD.
Good news: Quitting Adderall for a prolonged period of time will start you on the road to recovering your short term memory. Also, they’re still discovering all the benefits of brain-training games like Lumosity. Scientists say we’re just scratching the surface of what we can accomplish towards improving brain function with specially-designed games.
You’re on the binge/crash cycle. There’s a reason why they call it “crash”. Once you start developing your natural energy (e.g., by sleeping every night, exercising, etc) this problem goes way. Waking up, however regrettable, won’t be extrordinarily difficult (physically).
Wanting to be that girl again is the first step to your redemption. Believe me when I tell you that you will meet that girl again many times over when you are done with this challenge. She’s still there inside you. You are still here. She is still you. Let her out. It will be painful like childbirth at first, but then it will be awe-inspiring.
Warn your boyfriend. Do not be afraid to lose him (temporarily/permanently) if it comes to that. Your soul matters more. Be prepared to sacrifice your good name and your reputation as a productive person with others. That reputation will die, get purified, then be reborn like a pheonix through this process. Redefine “accomplishment” according to what that beautiful, happy, loving, outgoing, leader of a girl would have defined as accomplishment; not what the world and your friends and your family define as “accomplishment”. They are often very, very different definitions.
You high dosage (plus lack of sleep too probably) is causing that. Ever seen Requiem for a Dream when the mom is all hopped up on meth and hallucicating and being crazy-paranoid? You’re like that right now. 80mg/day is ludicrous unless you way like 400 pounds (which should be impossible popping speed all the time). Your first order of business should be to cut that dose in half.
That’s actually a good kind of paranoia. I think I know what you mean…you eat not because you’re particularly hungry but because you feel like you need to make a “deposit” to your body to compensate for all the horrible withdrawals you’re making….to keep fueling it. That’s somewhat normal. I went through that a little. It’s at least better for you than not eating at all. You do need to eat for nourishment, so better to force it down because your brain knows you need it than to ignore food until you’re actually hungry. Keep eating. Hell, try to dedicate some of that tweaked-paranoia about getting nourishment/fuel into eating as healthy as possible. Try switching to water from sugary drinks (I know what a sacrifice that is to an Adderall user who needs the boost from those sugary drinks).
Yes you do. You have guilt, remorse, fear, loss…and most importantly: desire. All of those feelings will lead you back to that beautiful, wonderful girl…and she has all those other feelings you miss, because she is your heart.
I can tell you from experience that for all your fears of permanent damage and of never being the same again…you will be so surprised at just how much you can recover and how great you can become. You just have to let go of everything. For the first long while, your growth will come as a default reaction from not taking a pill. Sometimes it won’t feel like growth, but it is. Treat your recovery as a lifelong process. Then one day you will be past the point of “normal” and still have the momentum to grow greater and greater still.
Well said. You’re subconscious/conscience alerts you to things you need to fix by constantly throwing them in your face. You’re Adderall problem is at critical mass right now. It’s time.
You’re ready to this, Sara. It’s so scary. But so worth it. It takes so long to recover. But once you’re there it’s amazing. Lean on your relationship with God. That will help significantly, especially during the first phase when it’s the hardest. You are doing a righteous thing by quitting. And He owes you for that. He owes you help with the obstacles along the way. And He’ll give it. It’s healthier to lean on your relationship with God because he’s the only one who can give you the kind of constant and deeply-personal support you’re going to need during this period. You can’t ask that of a friend or boyfriend or family member…you can only ask them for patience (which you should definitely do, btw).
Sometimes other people still won’t understand. I had plenty of friends who didn’t understand at all until I was somewhat back to normal, and then suddenly they understood what I had done…that I had weakened myself intentionally…that this recovery and this better self had always been my goal…and then they respected it.
In the mean time, it’s mostly just you and God. You two are gonna get real close.
You can do this, Sara. It’s time. And it’s going to happen. Wait and see. She’s coming back, that girl you love.
Hey mike it’s justin giving you an update…. Adderall has work great but I do notice it’s addictive properties…fear not I only take as needed. I did get an A in my physiology class and adderall did the trick. It Is very addictive but I told my body no when it wanted it and since that month phase my body knows that it will only get it when I do need it… Without the hflp of God you and my girlfriend I do think I would have been addicted to it honestly… This drug is def not for everybody I don’t become addicted to drugs my addictions are elsewhere but for those who are don’t take it I went three weeks without it and I was fine but a girl I know has now become addicted… So listen to mike…. Don’t think vacations are good either… I take them with the drug and the side effects are prevalent I am 21 and I have trouble with things a guy my age should have no problem with. A fair warning if you know you can handle the drug. Go for it bit if u don’t know then don’t take it
Thank you. It feels good to have my suspicions about Adderall confirmed here. I’ve been stuck on this soul-sucking medicine for 8 years and just took my last orange pill yesterday. It’s time to find myself again. This website is a godsend.
@R
Always listen to those suspicions. It’s the little voices that sometimes speak the most truth. It’s hard and painful to acknowledge them sometimes, because they tell you things you do not want to here, but once you give into them…they reward you for it. They stop nagging and start washing over you…making you better.
Congrats on your last pill. Tough it out. It’s worth it.
Im so scared to stop taking my adderall, for fear that I will become even more depressed and bored with life. I have taken it everyday for 6 years. I started at 10mg xr and am now taking 30 xr. In my first year of taking it I lost over 50 pounds and the best part was I stopped working out and ate whatever I wanted and the weight just kept coming off. I loved my life. I looked amazing, felt confident, was succesful at work and school and had so much ambition and great plans for the future. After about a year and a half of taking adderall my life slowly started a downward spiral. I never realized it until now when I go through a timeline of my life. My confidence declined, slowly started gaining weight and disliking my career that I was so pumped about just one year earlier. After 4 years into the adderall and taking 20 mg I fell into a major depression and was hospitalized for one month. My parents and doctors feared that I was going to take my life and they were right. I had a plan. At this point I had ballooned up to 200 lbs which was the 50 lbs I lost and an additional 20. I hated life and still do. I was put on anti depressants which I have taken myself off of without my dr’s knowledge of it. I still feel so unhappy and cant get that high and love for life back that I had my first year and half on adderall. I dont know if being on it is making me worse or if its keeping me from totally crashing again. Im scared that If I go off it then I will for sure stay in bed all day and hate life even more than I already do. I have aged immensely in the past 2 years and I am only 28. I have become a recluse with literally no friends, a messy house, a failing business and no purpose to live. Could it be adderall or is it all me?
Hi Nicole,
There seems like there’s a missing piece to your story….or maybe not. Maybe it makes perfect sense: You start taking Adderall, feel great during the honeymoon phase, then you get stuck in the haze and begin to feel less and less enthusiastic about popping a pill and spinning your wheels every day…like because there was something underneath that wasn’t being satisfied. Or maybe something else is going on.
1.5 years is a pretty short honeymoon phase. It almost sounds like you came to the natural end of your love affair with Adderall, just much sooner than most people do.
Did the depression exist before the Adderall?
Objectively, do you like your career choice? Is it a situation where it’s YOU that’s the problem — where you wish you felt better so you could pursue the same goals? Or is it the goals that are the problem — you wish you had goals that inspired you like your current ones used to?
Just trying to get a better feel for your situation.
On being a recluse: I understand what it is like to not want to see anybody because you A) Are depressed in general and B) Have catastrophically low self-esteem due to an appearance issue (if that’s how you feel about your weight). It’s like you can’t imagine anybody enjoying your company because you’re such an ugly downer (not saying that you are…just that you may feel that way). So typical remedies for goal-related depression like “go see your friends” feel like they’re out of the picture for you…which makes the depression worse, which makes you want to stay home by yourself, partially because you feel it’s the only option you deserve.
Two of the best things you can do for yourself here are:
1. Use your recluse time to improve yourself. Exercise. Revamp your goals. If you do not use this time to work on yourself you will be stuck in limbo forever. You have to power your way out of the isolation with growth and change. It does not, by a long shot, happen at once. You have to keep pushing every single day. And little by little some of the veils will lift.
2. Stretch yourself a little out of your comfort zone, socially. After you’ve said “no” to going out 5 times (preferably with another person, even if it’s a relative), force yourself to say “yes” once and just bear it. You’ll find that this will make you feel slightly better…some times a lot better.
Now, as for the anti-depressant: Why did you go off it? Was it helping at all? Going off anti-depressants suddenly can be a dangerous thing…especially if you’re the type of person whose depression is serious enough to erode Adderall-induced dopamine highs.
In any case, I wouldn’t come off the Adderall just yet. Right now that’s the only thing that’s keeping your happy juices flowing. You need to address some of the other drains on your happiness so that you feel somewhat confident that you can survive the fall from quitting Adderall. Because when you quit Adderall you WILL be in bed for days and it WILL make your depression worse at first. And if you’re not fairly ready for that to happen, you will likely fail at your attempt to quit…or much worse, if you have a history of depression that is so severe.
On the weight gain stuff. FWIW, my only advice would be this: Splurge on an iPod and fall in love with running. NOTHING melts the pounds of faster than a passionate running habit.
Again, you have to use your hermit time. If you use it, you can actually improve yourself. Balance the depression and destruction with some advancement in some areas…else it will be all downward and no foward, and that cannot possibly end well.
Mike,
I just wanted to let you know how happy I am to have found your website. You have written and explained things I could not put into words! It is so nice to know there is someone else who can truly relate to the feelings I’m having. I was originally rx’ed 40 mg about 5 yrs ago. Over the past 2 yrs I increased the dosage (on my own) to about 100-120mg per day. I was basically forced to stop taking Adderall a little more than 2 wks ago b/c a pharmacy found out I had been getting it filled at another pharmacy also (long story). But this was actually a blessing in disguise b/c honestly, I don’t know if I would’ve stopped taking it on my own otherwise. I’m very lucky…I could’ve been in a lot of legal trouble for all that has transpired but I’m not (though sadly I did lose my job of 8 1/2 yrs).
So, the last 2 wks have been all about “coming clean”…in the literal and non-literal sense (to my husband, family, Drs I was working for, etc.). Everyone was shocked to say the least. Nobody could imagine I’d have a problem with addiction especially b/c it wasn’t noticeable to others. I was the person that always “had it altogether”.
The first week without Adderall was not fun…and each day since then has been a battle, though it is getting better. Today I was feeling especially unmotivated…which is very frustrating to me as I’m a total type A personality/perfectionist at heart. But I forced myself to play tennis and go for a jog b/c I know it’s what my body needs.
The last 2 weeks have really given me insight into how much of a problem I had. Adderall made me selfish. It blinded me. Adderall became my world (& the idea of a pill being “my world” is just sad). I just hope that others find and read this site before deciding to take Adderall themselves and that those people who are out there and are thinking about quitting will see that it is possible! Thank you!
Hi Christine!
You sound like you’ve made a lot of self-realizations in just two weeks. It took me months to realize that Adderall had made me selfish.
Adderall World is an impulsive place, filled with delusions of granduer and obsession with the next perfect task. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for thinking of others.
Brave thing that you did telling everybody. Hopefully you’ll eventually find another job that you like as much or more once you’re fully recovered.
-Mike
I came upon your sight, looking for information on how to quit Adderall. For about the pass 3 months I have been noticing that I do not like the effects that Adderall has on me. I can easily identify with the things that were said on this site.
I have been taking a 30mg generic in the morning and 10mg in the afternoon. At one point I would take 40 in the AM and a 10mg in the afternoon. I found that this was too much. I have been trying to get off of Adderall. But find it very difficult to do. I started reducing down to 30mg a during the week, and 10 on the weekends. Now I am down to 20 during the week and 10 on the weekends.
Today I decided to not take any, but I have no energy. I just want to sleep all day. I get a headache, and become reclusive. I gave in to the temptation and just took a 10mg. I now have my little high, energy and “feeling better”. But not really feeling better. I want to just cry, because I gave in. So I began searching the internet and came across your site.
Should I quit cold turkey? or should I continue to gradually reduce my intake?
I began taking Adderall, because I truly am ADD. Before Adderall I could get nothing done, no memory, depression. I know the ADD will return, but I would rather try to deal with it by using techniques, instead of popping pills. I feel having the effects of ADD is better than the effects of being of Adderall.
My husband and family all know I take Adderall, but they do not know that I am addicted. An adderall addiction is not so blantant like an addition to alcohol, or heroin. I keep having this ongoing battle in my head. I am so lonely trying to fight this addition on my own. But I afraid that my husband will not believe that I am truly addicted. I want to quit cold turkey, but I know if I do, all will wonder why I am being “lazy”.
I need help…
Hi Addie,
You sound like you’re already doing a hell of a job on your own. Cutting down from 50mg to 20mg or 10mg is not a small achievement.
I always go back to the old saying “can’t see the forest for the trees”… The more adderall you take, the more your perspective zooms-in (on individual trees). The less adderall you take, the more your perspective zooms-out (seeing more of the forest).
By nature, we are meant to keep the zoomed-out view of the forest in mind at all times, because doing that allows us to place all our actions in context of our long-term dreams and goals. The more adderall you take, the more your actions become INDEPENDENT OF and detached from your long term goals, which is what’s dangerous.
For many people (myself included), the only way to get that full forest back into view is to quit Adderall entirely.
But every step closer to 0mg represents more forest coming back into view. That is why you can’t discount the progress you’ve already made cutting down to 10-20mg and why even 10mg a day for the rest of your life would still be infinitely better for your spirit than 50mg a day.
Going that last step is really rough.
Keep doing what worked…keep cutting the dose instead of taking it out entirely. When you work down to 2.5 mg you’ll basically think “oh screw it I might as well not take it because I’m taking so little anyway”. Go slow enough to rebuild your work ethic to compensate.
And remember: it takes 2-4 weeks for your brain chemistry to recover from a substance. So one day of misery is a very exaggerated version of what you’ll feel like in a few weeks, which won’t be as bad.
Enduring the disapproval of others at your sudden laziness is one of the absolute hardest parts of quitting Adderall. Afterall, you took Adderall becuase you wanted to be the hero, you wanted to be super-productive, you wanted to be super-confident, and you wanted to make others regard you highly for your work ethic….now all of that is going to come crashing down painfully and you won’t totally be able explain why (to them), at least not so that they can really understand. Like you said, it’s a lonely battle.
Focus on your husband. If you can prepare him well enough and make him understand well enough…if you can create an ally in him, he’ll be able to help you deal with all the others.
I was wondering how to easily split up the Orange and White beads? Is there a SIze difference between them? Please get back to me. I have Adderall XR but doctor is reluctant in prescribing me IR just yet. I am 18 and have been diagnosed with ADHD a year back.
Hi Gary,
You have to break the capsule open and do it manually, orange beads in one pile, white beads in the other. You’re talking about 30min to do that per pill. Seriously, it’s not worth the effort. It takes forever and the dosage is too imprecise. Get on IR and be done with it.
My girlfriend has been on Adderall for years. It is becoming ineffective, even at 75 mg a day. She gets maybe two good hours out of a 25 or 30 mg capsule. Now, her psychiatrist is trying to wean her from it, and she can’t stay awake or concentrate on her job. It’s ruining her life.
I’ve been prescribed Adderall, and have tried to take it two or three times. Every time I’ve taken it, my mouth and tongue got so sore I could barely eat. I developed tics, started grinding my teeth so bad my jaws hurt, and I could not sit still. I couldn’t keep my hands still, and kept picking at my clothes and hair…
Adderall is a nasty, dangerous drug. It’s legal speed, similar to cocaine. It is addictive.
It’ll help for a while, but, coming down off it is the same as coming down off most illegal forms of speed. It is very uncomfortable. You will suffer terribly.
Stay away from this garbage, and under NO circumstance should you EVER give it to a child, or even a teenager.
@Micheal
If your gf is reporting that a 30mg only lasts a couple hours, ask her if she means “the PEAK only lasts a couple hours”. The more you take, the more obsessive you get at staying in that peak high range, when in reality your last dose is still having plenty of effect.
Tolerance doesn’t usually shoot up suddenly unless there are other meds in her system affecting her addy tolerance.
Obsessiveness, however, CAN shoot up suddenly.
Just my 2 cents, fwiw.
In any case, best of luck to you and your gf. The best thing you can so for her right now is keep picking her up when she falls, emotionally and physically.
Thanks for the comment!
-Mike
Hi mike sorry if this post is kind of sloppy I’m texting off my phone. I was diagnosed with this so called adhd that in my opinion doesn’t exist since everyone has at least a few of the symptoms, at age 9 and my dad refused to put me on meds, so I acted like in hindsight every other kid, and I was pretty angry that I couldn’t be like everyone else. When I turned 18 I went a got a script on my own and it felt like I was a different person. About a year later I realized I couldn’t function without it and realized I had a problem at that point. I was up to 60mgs a day and now I’m 26 and have gotten down to 20mgs a day. My question is this should I taper off? I really just wanna quit taking it now and get the pain, depression, irritablity, exhaustion, and the feeling of just giving up out of the way. Should I just flush them now that way there is no going back? How long will I feel like this and how long till I’m back to normal? God bless you for helping all of us and you put the description of this demon perfect. To anyone that’s thinking of using this just to study don’t do it that’s how it starts then you say oh what the hell ill just use it to run errands this time and before you know it you can’t get out of bed without it. Don’t do it this pill is bigger and stronger than any of us and it leaves you feeling dirty and worthless
Hi Different Justin,
First off, thanks for calling yourself different Justin. Saves confusion. Second: Wow that was a hell of a lot to text from your phone. Hope you have a G1 or something with a physical keyboard.
Tapering off 20mg shouldn’t be too bad. If you can handle tapering-off (as in, without stepping back up), it’s a much more sane way. On the other hand, if you really want to go balls-to-the-wall, then cold turkey is certainly doable (that’s how I did it). Going cold turkey is a very powerful gesture. You’re effectively saying: damn the consequences, I’m changing dramatically right now. Stepping-down is more saying “I have elements in my life that I’d prefer not to destroy and/or I want to be as easy on my body/mental state as possible”. Both are valid and good perspectives. Different strokes for different folks.
Step-down/taper-off is healthier in a lot of ways, cold turkey is more emotional in a lot of ways. Do whichever. I’ve seen people succeed at both methods. But never go back. Don’t try cold turkey and then decide that you want to do step-down instead and start taking it again to “start the stepping process”. Once you’ve stepped down, stay at that dose or lower forever. And if you quit cold-turkey, then you’re quit…no going back.
That’s the key: Never, ever let your brain go in that direction — stepping back up vs. down. Keep it pointed downward at all times.
The worst of it is over in 2-6 weeks as your brain chemistry rebounds. After that it’s just a mental game (re-habitualizing your brain to not associate Adderall with hard work). But it’s a very big mental game that can be extremely hard and take a horribly long time to fully win. But you will win eventually if you keep trying.
As far as how long this mental game will take…how long until you are truly back to normal…
You know that old saying that it takes half the time you dated somebody to get over them? I think that estimate’s about right for quitting Adderall too. That’s totally unscientific, mind you, but it seems to be holding true for me. I took Adderall for 7 years, it’s been a 2.5 years since I quit, and I almost feel totally back to normal. There are still some productivity issues I struggle with, but not many. Like, I can put my nose to the grindstone for a full day’s worth of hard, mentally-draining work and still feel like I’m on the pills. The only catch is I have to mildly care about the work and/or why I’m doing it. Some part of the work has to make me feel proud for doing it — like it’s in some way contributing to a future — or else my productivity is crippled. I suspect this is more my environment’s fault than my brain’s.
Anyhow, good luck!
Thank you sir. I have a blackberry so its not that bad but I’m working so its my only resort. I’m taking the cold turkey route I’m done with this and I actually feel passionate about this like the meds made me passionate about everything else. I hope it stays like that. I just can’t believe they are still prescribing it with all these horror stories. The only reason I can even imagine this being used is for a severe sleeping disorder and even then there is no reason for it over 10mgs. I would much rather have a short attention span and if they want to stop people from being hyper why would you prescribe them speed? Sorry for the run ons and bad punctuation just trying to get it all on here in a short time frame
By the way how many of you couldn’t wait to take that pill thinking it would solve all those problems and as soon as you started feeling better you got hit with all that guilt? That right there shows you that subconsciously we knew we really didn’t need it yet we kept trying to convince ourselves we needed it. You don’t feel guilty when you take an aspirin. Just like you said about that girl you went to high school with mike. BOTTOM LINE WE DONT NEED THIS
Just an update. I haven’t taken an adderall since july 15th. The 1st week was miserable but I’m feeling a lot better now 5 hour energy helps a lot I don’t know if its placebo or what but it helps. Thanks for the support and answers ill keep you updated
max payne is my favorite game character and i love to play that game too-’`
Hey Mike I have been on Adderall for 3 months now and my life feels, so different. I have an All-Star work ethic in school, work, and the gym. I have become very solo on it though. I don’t mean addicted. What I mean by solo is like I don’t wanna talk to anyone and get very irritated/ annoyed when people try and talk to me when all I wanna do is stay busy being productive, but that only happens when the Adderall “high” wears off. It’s been like that a-lot of days for me. Is this normal? I don’t know what to think of it and you seem like you have all the answers. I lost a lot of friends and turned down parties and everything else that was fun unless it had to do with making me better. Also my doc has me on the orange 20 mg pills by “Barr”. I take 40-50 in the morning and the other 10-20 mg in the afternoon. The Generic ones. You say those aren’t good. Why not? What is the different between the 20 mg pills and the 30 mg pills. I know the difference between the actual Shire Adderall Ir pills. But whats the deal with the generic 20 and the generic 30? And my last question is: why does Adderall affect me differently every single day? Some days it does what its supposed to like making me focused and concentrated, other days it makes me happy and talkative, other days it gives me euphoria, and others it just gives me horrible side effects like rapid heart beat and trouble breathing. If you could give me a good answer to why the heck Adderall has it’s days I would be amazed.
You are an excellent writer and thinker, Mike, but I have a question about that’s been nagging me as I read your site:
Do you have any established expertise on pharmaceuticals (or the conditions they’re meant to treat) beyond anecdotal experience? I notice many passages from which a reader could infer you believe your judgment is somehow superior to the judgment and interests of a treating physician.
I have no doubt you’ve spent enormous time and energy educating yourself on your subject matter, but some of the assumptions in your writing make me cringe. There are many conditions that can be helped through lifestyle conditioning, but there are also many that, depending on severity and other factors, cannot be effectively managed without medication. Sadly, there are many laypeople who mistakenly believe they know the difference between the two types of situations when, in fact, they do not.
I could tell you a tale of a diabetic been told there was no need to take insulin by a high school biology teacher. I know of a bi-polar woman who was advised by a church counselor that her meds were immoral and that if she trusted God more, she’d be fine. And I know a girl with ADHD who took herself off her meds because she read a website that advocated against them. The result of these three cases, respectively, were a long stay in the ICU and two suicide attempts.
Perhaps you have a disclaimer I haven’t noticed yet, or perhaps you are just that comfortable being responsible for the people to whom you’re offering treatment advice.
I’m not trying to be unnecessarily confrontational. It’s a free country and you can write what you want, within constitutional limits, but if you have no license or professional credentials to render treatment advice, perhaps you should make it clear to your readers.
@J is Confused,
Thanks for you comment! There’s usually going to be a trade off between that all-star productiveness and your social life…if you allow there to be. You have to fight to keep socialization a priority, because now your natural tendency is to work/think/be productive constantly…it’s much harder to just chill out.
Also, try not taking it on weekends. That can help immensely.
On the generics: Generics are totally fine, in my experience. In fact, I know some people who actually prefer them over the branded pills (as in, they like their affect better…not just the cost savings). I think I only ever advised against staying away from the white generic pills. And only because I personally had a really bad experience with them (they just gave me a headache and a rapid heart beat).
As for the feeling being different on different days. I’m not doctor, but in my experience the Adderall just supplements/multiplies your underlying chemistry/mental state for that day. As in, the foundation that Adderall builds on still matters. And that can change day to day. Maybe you’re really well rested and on a biopolar up swing one day, then you add Adderall and you’re in super-manic euphoria.
Or maybe you’d otherwise be kind of tired/down, then you add Adderall and it doesn’t work as well as it does on other days.
My personal rule of thumb was “How good of an Adderall day this will be is directly related to how well I would be able to function today if I didn’t take Adderall.” So again, if I was rested and feeling OK at the start of the day…to where I could conceivable make it through without pills and not get too tired…then that would probably be a great Adderall day. If I started the day exhausted or spaced out or down…then the affects of the Adderall would be more subdued.
The only way, in my experience, to make the feeling consistent is to make your schedule (particularly sleep) consistent, which is sometimes easier said than done with Adderall.
Anyhow, good luck! If you manage it right you can pull it off. Just keep an eye on that social side of you. If it starts deteriorating too much, I’d consider cutting back on the dose.
@howard,
Thanks for you comment. You are totally correct: I have absolutely no established expertise on pharmaceuticals, or the conditions they’re meant to treat, beyond anecdotal experience and the research I’ve done on my own.
I do have a disclaimer that says this at the top-right of all pages, but in light of your comment (and the notion that you couldn’t find this disclaimer easily even though you were at least passively looking for it), I’ve made it a bit more blatant (colorized text in red, added “I am not an expert” to link title).
As I mention in the disclaimer, I built this site mostly for me…as a way to journal something I was going through. At the time, I didn’t know if anybody else would be in the same boat (feeling like they needed to quit Adderall because, material success aside, they felt like it was holding them back from being something better,a nd more true to themselves).
I totally did not anticipate the big response my little message in a bottle would garner. Consequently, I wasn’t really prepared to be some kind of guru or authority on the subject. But then people started posting and asking questions about parts of the quitting process that I’d already gotten past, so I tried to help
I feel an instant kinship with anybody who struggles with Adderall or quitting Adderall, so I naturally want to do everything I can to help them, as I would help myself. That remains my attitude.
All that said, I’ve faced plenty of personal/intellectual turmoil over how to approach advising others. All of the objections your raise: the concerns about me not having anything but anecdotal experience, about having to consider myself responsible for the consequences of the advise I give, about being militant at times and speaking as if I know better than somebody with a PHD in the subject…those are all concerns I have to battle and weigh every time I tell somebody something.
There are people that I worry will take my advise and fall down a hole of despair, unable to take the pills they need to get back up because they are trying stay true to some idea that I put in their head that wasn’t right for them. I’m terrified of getting the comment: “My kid read your website, quit his meds, got depressed, and killed himself.”
That kind of fear makes me want to be wishy-washy and disclaimer-heavy with all of the advice I give, so diluting my words that ultimately the only thing I’m comfortable saying is “Ask your doctor, or failing that, find a doctor that you think understands you better.” If I gave into that fear, I’d probably never write anything else on this site, I’d cover every page in disclaimers, and I’d be too afraid to respond to any comments with any kind of thoughtfulness or specificity.
And then there are the other people. The people that tell me I helped them get their life back. The people that are happy now, and weren’t before. That feel genuine now, and didn’t before. That have a calling now, and only had a job before.
Many of those people needed some strong, authoritative, specific, not-wish-washy left-hooks of advise. In those cases the greatest threat to them wasn’t post-Adderall depression…it was inventing excuses to keep popping the pills. And me being wish-wasy or disclaimer-heavy gives them ammo with which to create those excuses. Adderall is the easiest drug on the planet to rationalize. That’s why it’s hard for me to put in too many wishy-washy disclaimers.
But I love these people…who want to quit for the many of the same reasons that I did. They’re the people I ultimately built this site for. They’re my target audience. They are, without knowing it, my inspiration and my secret personal heroes…who in a way I consider close friends, though I’ve only met a few in person.
If I only thought of these cases, of these success stories, I’d be starting national campaigns to abolish Adderall and writing books about how pharma pills are categorically evil and how quitting helps everybody. And my head would be super-huge, wholey convinced of the absolute righteousness of my cause (you can see me start to go this direction in earlier comments, before I got some constructive critiques and had to calm down a little and consider the alternative cases).
Ultimately, I end up trapped between thinking of these two extremes: The person who’s going to quit and kill himself, and the person who’s going to quit and finally save herself.
I hate diluting my writing, so as often as possible, I write to the success stories — to the type of people who can become them — and throw up disclaimers for the rest. At this point I can’t think of a better way to do it, but I’m open to suggestions.
I have no intention of going around knocking pill bottles out of people’s hands. I do not advertise this site. I don’t go out and post on forums to try to bring traffic in (with one exception, which I regretted instantly). Every visit this site gets is from organic search results — from people looking for it. And that’s the way it will always stay, because it’s the best way I have at the moment to somewhat filter who comes to the site…to get more of the type of people that can benefit from it, and less of those that can’t.
As far as me taking the position in some comments that I know better than some doctor with ten times my academic qualifications…guilty. With some of these doctors, I honestly feel that way. I agree with pharmaceuticals. I’m glad that Adderall exists for those it can help. But I am totally against handing it out as freely as many doctors do. Many of the readers of this site, who end up being much happier people after they quit Adderall, were prescribed by some doctor who didn’t even test them…and it ruined them for a time.
So yes, I have some bitterness towards lazy psychiatry, which I think is far prevalent. I hope you can allow me a little of that, considering that I run a site comprised mostly of people whose lives were ruined by pill that their doctor kept handing them — and would still keep handing them.
I really try to reign-in that bitterness whenever possible though. There are lots of great doctors out there. I just hear about the bad ones so much that I start to get jaded.
In any case, I’ve ranted enough now. As one final note, about those cringe-worthy comments you mentioned: please point out the specific ones you feel are irresponsible, and I will eagerly go back and review them. I don’t want somebody taking them the wrong way any more than you do.
Anyhow, enough ranting. Thanks a ton for your comment. Criticisms help improve this site sometimes more than compliments, because criticisms are specific.
TL;DR – It’s extremely difficult for me to write direct, challenging, inescapable words that help the right people quit Adderall, while also littering those same words with enough disclaimers and exit paths to filter out the wrong people (i.e., the truly debilitated people). The more authoritative I am, the more it emboldens the right people, but the more it can hurt and mislead the wrong people. I walk that line with every word I write on this site, and am open to suggestions as to how I could do it more effectively.
Mike,
Let me begin by apologizing for missing your disclaimer. I think it does the job now that I’ve read it — sorry.
The cringing comes in with:
-some of the apparent generalizations about doctors, and I know there are some bad ones out there. Unfortunately, I also know people who view any doctor who tells them what they don’t want to hear as a bad doctor. I’m sure this isn’t your intent, but as you probably know, people looking for an excuse will take things out of context.
-the suggestions that someone with ADHD can ditch the drugs and get by through sheer force of will isn’t true for many with ADHD. I’m genuinely glad that this is not the case for you or the bulk of your intended audience. But when someone who needs Adderall or similar medication googles it and finds your site, reading something like that might just feed their feelings of guilt and personal failure.
The girl who quit her Adderall because of a web site was not a hypothetical. She’s my niece, and what happened with her was almost tragic. The site that led her astray was a much more heavy-handed one than yours, but I left my initial comment in the sincere hope that your site will never have that kind of negative impact on anyone’s life.
Thank you for responding without defensiveness. I hope you continue to help people who need what you’re offering.
@howard
On the doctor thing: Yeah, I’m really trying to get better about my bitterness and generalizations about doctors.
It’s not so much that their are so many bad doctors…it’s that there are so many LIMITED doctors.
It can take hours of intensive therapy to really discover and break the deep-seated hang-ups of a total stranger. And usually these psychiatrists only get like 15 or 30 minutes at a time with the patient every few months (often due to financial considerations).
In such a short amount of time, the greatest impact they can have is by handing out instant-fix pills. And that kind of constraint can make a person begrudgingly accept his role, where otherwise he might be compelled to innovate.
I guess I’m just coming from the opposite perspective. I’ve seen so many cases were I’ve seen somebody I know get prescribed pills when what they really needed was a life/environment change.
But I could use more experience with the type who actually need the meds. What happened with your niece is exactly what I don’t want this site to do…what I’m afraid of it doing.
That’s the double-edged sort. Like you said, people will take things out of context when the’re looking for an excuse. That works against me in two ways: Somebody who needs Adderall but feels self-concious about it might take might site as an excuse to give in to that self-consciousness and destroy herself.
So to combat this I say “you might actually need it, and that’s OK”. And then the person who doesn’t need Adderall but is addicted to their amphetamine-fueled life and looking for an excuse to maintain it might take that statement as condoning it for himself, saying “Yeah…see! I need it!”…and continues to destroy himself.
And then there’s the person with full-on ADD who channels their ADD and becomes a high-energy entrepreneur or actor or something…and would have never done it if they had popped pills to medicate away their ADD.
There’s so many different brain chemistries out there. It’s so hard to talk to them all at the same time.
For now, I can promise you that I’ll make a greater effort going forward to put more content up that helps people distinguish, advise lots of official ADD testing, and add more relevant disclaimers. Hopefully that’ll be enough to help single-out the people my site isn’t meant to apply to.
If you ever think of some more suggestions, please come tell me!
i watched the movie MAx Payne and it is sort of psyschedilic he he he -.:
I just wanna say that Mike you have opened my eyes to so many truths that I’ve been pushing down and trying not to think about since I started taking adds 5yrs ago now. I literally began to cry numerous times while searching through this site because it accurately describes to a T what I am terrified to admit… Im totally a adderalic! I cant wake up til that 1st dose begins to work. I am constantly running out early, I have 2 beautiful baby boys 1 and 5yrs old who many times I have to talk myself out of one of my many projects Im focused on at the time and remember that they need my attention and company. Me, along with my boys have left our home because my ex fiancee and father of my children has decided he cant live with me while Im taking the adds. I cant imagine the thought of not having my meds. Ive run out early almost every month! but yet can still almost always find a way of convincing my dr to help me get them filled early, expensive, but better than going without! The few times I have gone without for over a day or two I CAN NOT stand life! Im a single mom who works full time plus attends school. I am so terrified my entire world will crash without them! Yet I am so sick and tired of many of the side effects plus the worry and panic that I may not get them early this time when I run low and know Ill be out soon with half the month left to go. This is the very first time in my life I am actually admitting that I may have a problem. I defend them to everyone who dares to say it though! I just feel trapped.
WOW!
Mike,
Great job on all your information & comments. I really thought I was the only person who knew this much about amphetamine and dextroamphetamine.
Your site is a new way I can reward my mesolimbic pathway.
Now that’s funny!
i901
Hi i901!
Glad you like the site! Actually, I don’t know that much about amphetamine and destroamphetamine. I know a lot about the emotional and psychological experience of Adderall, quitting Adderall, and the type of person who is attracted to Adderall (just because of the shear number of people I’ve talked to running this site)…but as far as the chemical science goes, I’m more than a rookie. If you’ve got science to add, please do! Let me know if you want to write any technical articles too, because I’m very open to that.
I feel like I just read through an entire page of a junkies perspective on a legal legitimate drug and how to boost the high you get!
@Anonymous – Then you didn’t read very much of it.
I have been on Adderall for 3 months. I have noticed with-in the last 3-4 weeks I have lost any desire for intimacy with my husband. Is this a side effect of the medicine?
Hi Yolana! Thanks for your comment. In short: Yes, it’s common to have a lower sex drive on Adderall. With your brain occupied with so many other mental tasks, you tend not to prioritize your physical needs as much.
This can understandably have negative consequences for the dynamic of your relationship with your husband.
You may want to give this article a read: How Adderall Affects the Balance of Your Romantic Relationships
Come to think of it, I should probably amend that article with a couple points about how decreased sex drive adds to the distancing effect…
Thanks for all the information. I have found this quite helpful. I googled “side effects for stopping Adderall”, and came upon this site. I have learned some valuable information.
Initially, the decreased sex drive is what lead me to look into stopping. That relationship with my husband is far more important in my opinion than any energy or other effect this pill gives me.
@Yolanda – Just to play devil’s advocate: You can have both — the Adderall and the physical relationship with your husband. But you will have to approach it differently. Whereas before you could depend on your own body to put you “in the mood” naturally, with Adderall you have to treat it more as more of a mental todo-list item. You have to make a point to initiate often, and to respond to your husbands initiations out of personal commitment to do so, rather than out of natural desire. The good news is that once you get going, you’ll be fine. It’s just getting yourself to start the sex that you have to force sometimes on Adderall.
That said, this subtle attitude shift — having to mentally choose to have sex for your husband’s sake instead of for your own — is something your husband can definitely pick up on. So while this approach is better than staying on Adderall and not prioritizing sex at all, it’s still not quite as ideal as not being on Adderall and having your own desires return.
Hi Mike,
Great website and very impressive graphics, good job!
I am what is called PI-ADD and take stimulants primarily for energy, drive, motivation to complete difficult tasks, and to clear the brain fog. If I don’t I am very lethargic and a chronic underachiever so the use of stimulants a lifelong commitment.
Unfortunately this is a medically documented inherited condition from the maternal side of the family. Our family has explored and spent countless thousands of dollars pursuing all avenues for other solutions but stimulants are the only answer to waking our sleepy brains.
Fortunately I am able to take low doses (15 – 20 mg a day) and have been on those same dosages for the past 10 years. I am also fortunate to be able to take frequent drug holidays which helps with tolerance.
I found you comment about the generics having a tendency to make you “zone out” all to true and was wondering if the 30 mg tabs would be a better quality pill at least for me (cut up into halves).
That said I found your comments about the 30 mg pills very curious and had some questions for you.
Here is your quote:
“I have the most experience with generic 30mg pills (orange, oval, slightly bulging). These are the best of the generic in my opinion, and I would regularly get them when I didn’t feel like blowing $160 on the brand pills. Generic 30mg pills are almost as good as the real stuff. They’re so close that you barely notice the difference. But there is a little difference. Generic 30mg pills give you a bit more of a “high” feeling, while brand Adderall 30mg pills give you a bit more of a “push” to go with a bit cleaner high. For that reason, the brand Adderall pills are going to make you the most productive. I had a much greater tendency to zone-out on generic adderall than with brand (because of lack of “push” effect).
In my experience, the only generic Adderall pills that are worth a damn are the blue, oval-shaped generic 10mg pills and the fat, oval-shaped generic 30mg pills. I never liked the genereic 20mg pills, and I never had enough of the generic 5mg pills to remember how good/bad they were. Stay away from the white generic pills…they suck so bad I couldn’t even take them and had to go without for a month (the litterally just give you a headache and a slight dirty buzz).”
I found those comments very helpful and informative especially since I take the 20 mg tab by Teva/Barr (orange, oval pills) and I imagine those are the same ones you found to be your least favorite.
Could you please answer in more detail as to why you found the 30 mg tabs to be better than the 20 mg tabs?
What specifically did you not like about the 20 mg tab?
Since Shire no longer makes the brand name IR version of Adderall and only makes the XR version do you have any experience with the Shire XR? If so, how did they compare? Did they have the same “buzz/push” like the old Shire IR (Instant Release)?
Have you ever tried the Sandoz brand of Adderall? (I personally found them to be too smooth and not enough “kick” or “buzz” to help me get moving.
Thank you for your time,
J.R.
@J.R.
Thanks for your comment! I wish I could be more help about the effects of the various generic pills, but at this point it’s been more than 3 years. It’s hard to remember! I remember hating the white ones. But as for the 20mg generic, I just didn’t feel like they worked as well as the 20mg brand. In general, the generics always felt “dirtier” in terms of the overall effect. Maybe this was placebo. But the brand pill just always seemed to give more of a “push”. With the 30mg generic this wasn’t as much of an issue. If I remember correctly, there was a little extra “high” with the 30mg generic to compensate for their lack of “push” over the brand-name. It was an acceptable difference (especially for the money I saved), and still let me be I’d say 90% as productive as I was with the brand.
I do have some experience with the XR pills. In my experience, they were difficult to manage. Most people I knew that took XRs would do an XR in the morning, and then a 10mg IR in the afternoon. That could work well. But for me the XRs were a little too much. Even though they were time released, I didn’t like taking so many MG at once (30mg in my case). And I also didn’t like having to write off the next 12 hours of my life the instant I took one. With an IR, you can take one and somewhat depend on being “down” 8 or so hours later, with the option of taking a small dose to put you back up again. With XR, you’re going to be under the influence for at least 12 hours. So taking an XR to cram for a final or do homework isn’t really practical, whereas a little 5-10mg IR might do nicely.
As for buzz/push on the XR: Yes and no, from what I remember. They had an OK buzz/push…but sometimes it was too much for me. It just felt sweaty and sped up and bad. I think I would have been happier with a 20mg XR instead of the 30mg XR I was taking.
That’s just my 2cents. And again, it’s been a while. I also have friends that swear by the generic IRs at all mg levels (as long as it’s not the white ones). I think you really just have to try them out and see what works best for you. Your doctor should be up for helping you do this.
Thank you for your input Mike. I really appreciate the time and thought you put into your answers.
I may give the 30 mg IR a try and see if they are (for one reason or another) a higher quality generic than the 20 mg tabs.
I think your input about the “push” and the “high” are very important when using medication. In my opinion it’s all about the “push” and not the high so I can get things done.
In time I will report back to let you know what I find and see if it correlates with your past experience.
I have found the Teva/Barr to give me that “zoned out” experience which I would like to avoid. It happens from time to time for some reason.
All the best,
J.R.
@J.R. – No problem! Yeah it’s all about the “push”. I think the “high” is what produces that “zoned out” experience that’s not productive. You may also want to keep in mind that you are still influenced by your natural mood and energy levels, which may be fluctuating beneath your dose. So if you’re well-rested and in a generally good mood naturally, it’ll probably be a good Adderall day. But if you’re fatigued and/or naturally in a down mood, you’ll usually get less out of the Adderall (more zoned out, less push, etc). This is why, as difficult as it is sometimes, it’s important to still eat well and get a good night’s sleep if you want to get the most out of your Adderall. Just my 2 cents anyway. Good luck finding something that works for you!
Definitely come back and post your findings. It’ll be helpful for other people reading this in the future.
my 8 year old niece is on adderall xr. 20 mg a day. I don’t know much about the drug itself. My brother barely got custody of her because of a stupid incident her mothers ex husband caused. Her mother has had her on it for about 3 years now i believe. I would like to take her off because shes pees the bed at night and when she doesn’t take her meds she goes ballistic. The doctors say its because her adhd, but i beg to differ. i think its because her comedown off the medication. each month for her refill she goes at least a day without the pill, but other than that she is given it seven days a week. Ive always wanted to pop one to experience what she would feel like. but i do not have adhd and i heard it wouldnt work. Maybe you guys can help. Should i wean her off? Take her to a doctor to handle it. I’m just afraid what if they want to keep her on it? i feel she should at least be able to be a kid the rest of the time she has off of it. I dunno its heartbreaking to me. I understand she has adhd but how can they even know the real her if shes doped up. but at the same time she still hates school, has a personality and still talks back and misbehaves. That being said maybe shes just a brat and no pill can stop her from that. lol. The reason i want her off is because when she doesn’t have it, its insane to see teh withdraws!!!
Hi Kay!
First of all: I am not a doctor, but 20mg per day for an 8-year-old sounds insane to me. Even for me at 24yrs and 145lbs, 20mg/day was a medium-sized dose. I can’t imagine they’re prescribing that much based on her weight, so I guess they’re doing it based on “the severity of her ADD symptoms”. Still. Damn that’s a lot of speed to feed a child.
Let me as you this: The way she acts on the day she doesn’t have the pills…how does it compare to how she acted before she was ever prescribed? Like, how bad was her behavior before? And if you say that overall her behavior hasn’t improved now…then I think there’s a serious problem with that situation. Feeding a child speed to fix them is one thing; doing it with no improvement is just a dangerous waste.
Who put her on it? Your brother or his ex-wife? Because if his ex-wife is crazy, then maybe she was just trying to instant-fix the kid she didn’t want to put effort into. How does your brother feel about it? I know this sounds weird, but in all of the circumstances (when it involves a child) I wish more parents would just ask the child: When do you feel happier? With the pills or without them? And then let the child decide which path she wants to take. A child may not understand “attention deficit disorder” but they can certainly understand concepts like happy/sad, love school/hate school, homework is hard/homework sucks but is doable.
It’s not like her grades are important at 8 years. By the time her academic performance actually matters, she’ll be old enough to communicate her wants and needs as regards ADD/Adderall.
Also, I’ll save you some time: Don’t take one of her pills. The tell you that if you don’t have ADD it won’t work, but that’s not entirely true. It’s not like it just won’t do anything if you don’t have ADD. It won’t “level you out” like it does a truly ADD person, but it WILL have a very significant effect on you. Namely, it will work too well. It will overcompensate. So instead of just feeling level, you’ll feel enhanced. That’s a dangerous thing to try if you have any insecurities at all.
For give the crude analogy, but for somebody without true ADD, taking Adderall and working is the equivalent of taking extacy and having sex. Physically, you can recover from one dose of extacy without much permanent damage. But psychologically, sex would never be the same. It’s better just not to know some things and take other people’s word for it.
im a kid on adderall. im 16 and devoleped an urge to smoke ciggerettes at a rediculas age and i have the irresistable urge to have powerade or cherry coke all the time.Want ur kids to be like me? go ahead and put them on this and turn your child into a tweaker.
Hi,
I am a college student who rarely takes adderall. However, it is finals week and I haven’t done the necessary work to be prepared for finals. There were 4 days left before finals, and 2 days of finals.
I bought 6 pills, 30mg XR. This way I could study for the 4 remaining days straight and then have two pills for when I actually take my finals. I am halfway through the pills and I have one day left to study. (is this a good idea to also take them during the tests, since i studied on them?)
After this it will be summer and I’ll be working 40+ hours per week.
I plan on discontinuing my use of adderall as soon as finals are over.
I have a few questions: How severe of an impact will doing adderall 6 days straight have on me? Will i feel extremely crappy/depressed after this? I start work painting houses 4 days after my finals.
Also I think although biased this is a great, informative website and after this I truly plan on never doing adderall again. Longterm, Addy seems to be not much better than speed, meth, coke, etc.
Hi Jack!
You’ll be relatively fine after 4 four days, especially if all you have to do is paint houses. Painting requires energy and commitment, but it does not require a lot of mental focus/creativity. Sustained Adderall use drains you of your ability to do mentally and emotionally complex tasks on your own (without pills), but painting houses is neither. It’s a basic physical task that you just have to get through, usually while you listen to music or go someplace else in your head; that kind of thing is rarely a problem without pills.
After a 6 day binge, you might be a little more fatigued than you would have otherwise been, and maybe a tiny bit less patient with the work for the first week or so. But overall you’ll be fine. Get through finals and just worry about not taking Adderall again as of summer and onwards.
Your real challenge will come when you try to avoid taking Adderall during next semester’s finals.
Also, I’m glad you like the site! It is definitely biased just by nature, but if there’s anything you can think of that might make it a little less biased, please let me know!
Ok thats good to know. sounds like the major problems with adderall come from years, or at least months of continued abuse not just 6 days- although after reading through this site it seems no amount of adderall is worth doing being such an addictive drug.
Also, I don’t think you should make the site less bias, I think you should inform the viewer in some way at the top of the page that what they are about to read comes from your negative experience after doing adderall for 7 years, as well as the damage you have seen it do to others. Or at least inform them in some way that what they are reading is not a scientific research article, purely unbiased information about the drug…. etc
I think this site should be biased against adderall because reading about your personal experience and the strong feelings you have against adderall is quite effective. Upon opening the site, however I wasn’t aware it would be written in a slightly informal biased way therefore I almost discredited the validity of the information and closed the site (thinking it was some dumb blog or rant). Once I continued reading and comparing it to other research i’ve done I realized this was all very real information coming from personal experience.
What I’m trying to say is that by putting some kind of disclaimer or something (I don’t know exactly what) more people are likely keep reading and give the information a chance.
Hi Jack,
Yeah, the major problems with Adderall definitely come with consistent use, because that’s when your work habits become psychologically dependent on it.
Thanks a ton for the feedback on the bias stuff! I actually have a disclaimer linked to on the home page, but based on the fact that you didn’t see it, I may need to make it more prominent. I may eventually put it up at the top as you suggested, like under the “Surviving the painful transition…” slogan. But for now I’ve made the icon and the link on the home page bright red so it stands out a bit more. Hopefully that will help people see it.
Good luck on your finals!
Wow… so, I understand that you and people you know have had horrible experiences on Adderall, but your anecdotes really are not proof of anything except that you either (a) should not have been taking Adderall because you didn’t actually have ADHD, or (b) you do have ADHD but you took Adderall without any kind of other treatment options.
Adderall and other psychostimulant ADHD medications are supposed to be used in combination with other treatments, including nutritional changes, exercise plans, cognitive behavioral therapy, neuroimaging feedback, and general study skills and life coaching. While there is definitely a problem with psychiatrists and GPs prescribing Adderall without these other parts of the solution, that doesn’t mean that Adderall itself is a horrible drug that nobody should take, it means that if your doctor prescribes the drug and nothing else, you should find a new doctor.
Have you ever wondered WHY it’s so hard to get things done after stopping use of Adderall? It’s often because you haven’t bothered actually learning how to do things. Relying on the medication doesn’t teach you anything, that’s why you need ongoing therapy and coaching as well, which will teach you HOW to do things, and help you push through the lack of motivation and energy that is experienced upon ceasing medication.
Furthermore, if you need Adderall, often you will be taking it for the majority or all of your life. There is nothing wrong with that. That is the nature of ADHD – it doesn’t just magically go away.
For those of you reading, please let me share with you a success story of Adderall – I don’t believe this should be any more convincing than Mike’s story, since a story is just a story, but as I work in the field of psychology and come from a background that has taught me the PROPER use of medication and therapy, I feel like my experiences are more reflective of the potential outcome for a person who really has ADHD and who treats it appropriately…
). This was not healthy behavior, and part of the reason was that I was young and naive and didn’t care about myself or my health really, and part was that I was lying to my therapist and psychiatrist about how I used it, so they were unable to provide me with the proper help and treatment.
As a child, I was hyperactive to the point that I was forbidden from using certain portions of the house – I would inevitably end up injured from blasting through at high speeds, unaware of my surroundings. I was an extremely intelligent and highly sociable child, so I got away with a lot at school (fighting, talking back to the teacher, daydreaming during class, etc.) – I always understood everything, and I always could charm the pants off of whoever I needed to charm. When I got to high school, I continued to do well, getting high grades and running several after-school activities. But I was unable to save any money when I worked (which was rare), I never got it together to get a driver’s license (my mom had to drive me everywhere, which I believe is part of why I managed to participate in so many activities – it’s easier when somebody manages your schedule for you), and my relationships with friends were volatile. I was well-liked by most people because I was funny and outspoken, smart and kind, but when I became very close to a person, drama would ensue, as I had no idea how to actually interact with people, beyond mimicking the genial/intelligent/class-clown persona that I knew was appealing. Furthermore, I often hung out after school with homeless people and street kids, drinking and doing drugs. I ended up sexually assaulted and almost died one night after a knife fight. I kept things like this to myself, like I was a different person at school and out of school. At one point during my junior year, I became addicted to dextromethorphan pills, AKA robo-tripping without having to drink robotussin. I barely slept for months. I fell over and face-planted at school because I lost my motor skills and coordination. I cleaned every CVS in Boston out of their Coricidin HBP pills, stealing them to support my habit. I ended up in the hospital, somehow managing to avoid any serious internal damage despite having taken upwards of 40-50 pills per day for months on end. During high school, my mother (a therapist) told me that she had believed me to have ADHD since I was a young child, and thought that perhaps medication would be a plus. The dextromethorphan ordeal really tipped the bucket, and later that year, I was undergoing neuropsych testing at New England Medical Center. They diagnosed me as having ADHD, but as being extremely smart, with a very high IQ and very high social and logic skills. Thus, they determined that medication would be very helpful, but in terms of academic or job performance, I would very likely manage without medication, being able to rely on my own intuition and intelligence. I decided to do just that, as I still was not convinced that I needed medication to function.
In college, everything started to turn to crap. I could barely drag myself out of bed, but had no problem partying all night. I couldn’t focus in class, and for the first time, found myself confronted with material that I couldn’t just “get” through logic or intuition – learning the names of ancient Egyptian pharaohs simply was not happening. After failing a few classes, struggling with and thankfully overcoming a cocaine addiction, and realizing that I was consistently broke, I finally broke down and admitted I may need more help than just therapy (which I had been in since junior year of high school).
When I first began Adderall, I was not mature enough to monitor myself. I would sell some, sometimes I would take a whole bunch to pull an all-nighter, sometimes I would not take any so that I could go on a binge eating spree. (Part of my ADHD is that I overindulge in everything, which is common to some degree in many ADHD-ers, but particularly strong in me – I will overeat, overdrink, play too much of a game, spend too much money when shopping, have sex just because – or, if I couldn’t find anybody, apologies if TMI, but I would “help myself” 10 times a day if I didn’t absolutely HAVE to be anywhere, write overly long responses to blog posts… heh, j/k, I do that because I’m obnoxious
After college, I lost my insurance, and after my few months’ stash ran out, I was off the Adderall. I didn’t experience much in the way of withdrawal at first, because I was careful to taper the meds. But my life slowly started going down the toilet again. Interpersonal relationships were pretty much impossible. I had so many fights, so many friends made and lost within the span of a few months… My eating got out of control and I gained 60 pounds in about 2 years… I used to be a successful performing musician, but I stopped playing entirely for the last year of my no-meds period. My house became messier and messier. I moved from house to apartment to house, a total of EIGHT times in less than 3 years, including one eviction, and one very nasty fight with a landlord where we tried to out-notify each other of sooner and sooner move-out dates. I had found employment as the department head for the toy department of a very popular local store, but was fired after 2 years, basically for being difficult to deal with – they actually said that, that I had brought sales up, and changed the way the store was run for the better, but people simply didn’t like working with me, because I was too moody and forgetful, and I was overly critical of others.
It was at that point that I decided I really needed to get back on my meds. Without insurance, it has been a hellacious process. Finally, after about 8 months of waiting for low-income clinic spots to open up, dealing with insensitive or incompetent psychiatrists, and suffering from my own inability to schedule things, remember things, and get tasks done… I got my script back! Luckily, I’ve also been working for a psychologist, and am in the process now of acquiring my MA in social work (to go on for a PhD in clinical psychology), and access to the resources needed has allowed me to figure out how to use Adderall as PART of a treatment plan.
I no longer get into fights at parties with people I’ve just met. I no longer tell people I’ve just met that [something incredibly personal and embarrassing]. I don’t burst into tears and start screaming at myself that I’m stupid and pathetic, just because I can’t figure out where I put my keys. I eat healthily, but no longer binge. I still drink and use pot, but I don’t think about them all day out of boredom, and I don’t have them when I can’t afford them. I don’t jump on the first guy I see who looks inviting, and treat my body with a lot more respect. I get to work on time, and I do the work I need to do – and if I don’t enjoy doing it, I work on figuring out methods to make it more enjoyable. I clean my room, I do my laundry, I help with house chores. I practice my hobbies (music, art projects) almost every night. When my friends call to ask if I want to go out, if I’m busy or I’ve spent my fun budget already for the week, I don’t enjoy saying no, but I CAN say no, and I do. I have extra money left over from my paychecks for the first time I can remember. My hygiene has drastically improved. There isn’t a single thing that has not improved, thanks to the medication AND therapy/coaching.
When a person has ADHD, Adderall does not induce feelings of a “high”, unless it is prescribed at a dosage that is too high. 99.9% of people with ADHD who use Adderall should not be prescribed more than 60-80 mg per day, yes, and it does frighten me how many people I see on the drug forum boards talking about their psychiatrist prescribing upwards of 150 or 200 mg per day – this is not okay, except in extremely rare cases where all other, safer methods have been exhausted, and is often due to some kind of serious, non-ADHD-related hormonal or metabolic problem, the treatment of which would likely reduce the need for Adderall. So let’s think about the life of a person with ADHD. As a child, they had some problems, whether it was very difficult to deal with or not. As they got older, without meds, they began to develop coping mechanisms – sometimes these are good things (i.e. making to-do lists, putting post-it notes up all over the house, or recording lectures with a voice recorder to be able to listen later), and sometimes these are bad things (i.e. only working 20 hours per week, using illegal drugs, or hiring nannies/cleaners/chefs because you can’t manage self-care). But they never really got there. They always felt like they could have done better, but they just can’t seem to do it. Their relationships suffer. Their self-esteem plummets. Many develop anxiety and/or depression. Many develop unhealthy addictions. Many are overweight or obese, and cannot take care of their own nutrition, exercise, or hygiene. When a person reaches adulthood, they have already cemented many of their habits and behaviors. If you don’t learn to really change those habits and behaviors, and the thought processes behind them (“I’ll never get it done,” or, “If she disagrees with me, then she’s a jerk and I hate her,” or, “I forgot to hand in that report on time, oh my god, I’m going to fail and everybody is going to hate me,”), then the Adderall will only help so much. If you stop taking the Adderall, you’ll be right back where you started, and that much more frustrated because you haven’t had to feel that way in a while.
The only way in which your accounts are helpful are in hinting that the TYPE of Adderall you take can make quite a difference. The generic and brand name do have slightly different formulations, and while the brand name can be quite effective, many find the generic to be less effective and cause a greater rate of negative side effects… it does happen the other way around, as well, but much less often. This is a matter of personal chemistry and medication chemistry, not a matter of Adderall being some kind of demon drug.
The advice you give here is dangerous. Honestly, you should retitle it “Quitting Adderall Because You Don’t Actually Have ADHD”.
Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe that children should NEVER be put on Adderall unless it is an extremely rare case, and all other options have been exhausted. I believe that many doctors DO prescribe Adderall to people who don’t need it, and prescribe too much to the people who do need it. I believe that if you don’t actually need it, you WILL become a wreck, and I believe that if you do need it but you don’t use alternative methods of therapy in conjunction, you will become a wreck during the medication or after stopping it. But the things you say here, it’s telling people that pretty much nobody should be taking it, and quite simply, that is both uninformed and incorrect.
Hi AB,
Thanks for your really thoughtful comment and for sharing your story.
First off, if every doctor paired his Adderall prescriptions with intensive cognitive and behavioral therapies such as you described, this website would not need to exist. Or at least it wouldn’t be nearly as popular. I am 100% with you on endorsing the kind of all-battlefronts approach you outline as the ideal and correct way to treat ADHD.
The thing is…after three years and over a thousand comments, you’re the first person I’ve heard to ever mention receiving such comprehensive treatment. The vast majority of people I hear from went to doctors who effectively said “Here are some pills; come back and let me know if you need more.” And that was the extent of the treatment. Well, maybe one or two over the years have intimated that their doctor went down the “additional therapy” road a little ways…but nothing to the extent you described…nothing to the extent that you and I both agree should be the norm.
I do not blame the doctors (much) for this. I think a lot of it probably has to do with financial limitations (and patients expecting instant gratification). Diagnosing and treating ADHD the “proper and thorough” way requires time and money that most doctors and insurance polices don’t allow for. When a patient’s financial limitations only allow for a 15-30min office visit, there’s not much you can do as the doctor in that timeframe to really change their life besides writing them a script and sending them out the door.
That, and doctors are humans. They are all different kids of people, with different motivations and opinions about treatment methods…all with the same authority and same power. You yourself said you went through several incompetent psychiatrists. Out of those you’ve seen: How many were incompetent? How many offered the kind of complete approach you eventually received and benefited from?
For every thoughtful doctor who takes ADHD seriously and makes efforts to properly diagnose it and treat it, there are five more who think “Oh you don’t like homework? You probably have ADHD! The attractive young pharma rep gave me pills for that. She’ll be so pleased with me when I tell her that I gave them to you. Here, try these! Bye!” Granted, that’s an exaggeration. But from the stories I’ve heard and the experiences I’ve had myself…it’s not as far off as it should be.
Secondly, you should know that I do not think Adderall is in itself evil or bad or anything like that. As I’ve tried to say in my disclaimer (which is in need of increased prominence), I recognize that some people need Adderall, and that it is life-saving for some people.
Of course, I did think Adderall was the devil incarnate when I first quit. And I think that’s part of what you may have read. This website is nearly four years old, written chronologically. If you go back to the posts I wrote when I first quit, you’ll find them much more hard-line against Adderall.
Over the years, as I’ve calmed down, gotten older, and spoken to over a hundred Adderall users (including success stories such as yourself), I’ve come to better understand the full spectrum of Adderall use cases. And when people point to specific inaccuracies or particularly dangerous statements on the site, I try to adjust them so as not to confuse future readers and to make the site more accurate and targeted.
Speaking of which, if there are particular passages/articles that you think I need to take another look at, please point me to them.
So part of what you may have seen on this site in the way of demonizing Adderall is my youth and my earlier inexperience (not saying I’m super experienced now…just more than I was when I started).
The other part is my desire for an effective message. You would not stand up in front of an AA meeting and tell stories of successful daily Alcohol intake. You wouldn’t force every speaker and every printed leaflet for Alcoholism treatment to include the text/words “Disclaimer: you might be the type of person that can handle a drink or two and not booze it up. Alcohol use is fine in many circumstances. In fact, wine includes antioxidants.” Even if those things might be true, you don’t want to give people ammunition with which to further rationalize. And that’s what I try to avoid with this website.
The purpose of this website is to help people quit Adderall. It largely presupposes that you’ve come up with your own reasons for wanting to quit before you ever get here.
If somebody never needed Adderall in the first place and they’re snorting it just to get high and avoid the pain of dealing with some aspect of their life that they need to face on their own…and now they’re ready to try and slay their demons….then this site is for them.
If somebody’s been taking Adderall for weight loss because they didn’t feel they could lose the weight any other way…and now they’re tired of the side effects and ready to try diet/exercise/gastric bypass/whatever….then this site is for them.
And if somebody has full-blown ADHD and has decided that they want to reduce their dose and try to make it purely on alternative therapies…then this site is for them.
And in all these cases, as I’ve said many times in comments, I try to make sure that people aren’t quitting just to quit. I try to make sure they see specific happiness on the other side.
But for the most part, I don’t care what you’re reason or logic is for quitting. If you’re at point in your life where you feel compelled to google “quitting Adderall” at 3am because you’re sick of how it affects you…then my mission is to help you achieve the goal you’ve already set for yourself of quitting.
Sometimes this means pointing out the negative aspects of Adderall to the point of demonizing it…and in the process helping you paint an accurate picture of the demon you’ve already voiced a desire to slay, in part so you can strengthen your resolve.
I cannot disclaim every sentence and every post. It will dilute my ability to help people to quit who want to, and it’s very annoying to do. I’ve thrown up a disclaimer in big red text on the home page, and for now that’s the best I can do to filter out the people that shouldn’t be reading this site without giving the people who should be reading it further excuses to continue rationalizing an addiction that they just told me that they want to beat.
Of course, I do get plenty of stragglers…people with true ADHD who are deeply helped by Adderall. I desperately want to avoid confusing these people, but to some degree I put them out of my mind and write for my intended audience. The same words that will be enormously empowering to one person will be enormously damaging to another. Based on that, should I not write the words at all?
No amount of (very wonderful and appreciated) “thank you” notes from people will let me forget that those others exist…the people I’ve probably hurt with same words with which I have helped others. But as I’ve said before: I am convinced (and reinforced by readers) that this site does more good than harm, so I leave it up and continue to grow it. But I am always open to suggestions on how to do that more effectively and less controversially.
Anyhow. It’s late for me. I already rolled out of bed because I couldn’t stop thinking about your post (See? I told you I worry about this stuff!). My brain’s shutting down now. In summary: If you haven’t already, please read more than just this FAQ page. There is plenty of better content to see on this website in the spirit of the things you mentioned: Disclaimers that Adderall can work, methods for building a stronger work ethic without Adderall, enthusiastic endorsements of nutrition and exercise, as well as comment threads where I’ve directly told people things like “you strike me as the type of person who can be really helped by Adderall” and “Don’t quit unless you can see yourself being happier without it.” and “If you decide that Adderall is right for you, you should not feel any guilt about it.” and “Quitting will not work unless you put effort into alternative therapies”.
And if there is a place where you can find me still saying that “pretty much nobody should take it”, please point me to it so I can update it. I don’t feel that way any more…though I probably wrote some of my most powerful articles when I did feel that way.
In any case, thanks for the thoughtful comment. One of the things I’ve enjoyed about this site is that with few exceptions I never really get flame posts in the typical sense. Even the people who totally disagree with the website mostly do so with care an intelligence. If you had your PHD, I would send my kids to you (if I had kids).
Take care.
Hi Mike, I just wanted to share my experience with you. I have adult ADD, but was never put on any meds. I am, a stay at home mom, and stupid…stupid..stupid. This is why I say that about myself. I should say, rather, that I WAS stupid, and am no longer
.
I tried to self medicate with my neighbor’s medication. They are both on different doses of Adderall, and I was having major issues with energy, and being able to just wake up in the morning, and focus on just about anything. I was depressed, and sad most of the time. I’d put my kid in front of the T.V. or just let them play by themselves in their room for a long period of time. So, I thought that taking adderall was the solution. I started taking a 1/4 of one of the orange oval pills, twice a day. At first it was great! I had energy! I played with my kid again! I got the housework done in record time, I was loosing weight! I was also having to take a sleeping pill to go to sleep at night. Then, I wouldn’t take anything for a few days, and the headaches would start, almost immediately. I slept too much, I stopped playing with my kid again. Oh, all through this, before, during, and after, I’d take care of them, just not give them the extra mommy time, I should have.
My marriage started to suffer, because my emotions were all over the map. My husband noticed a difference in my behavior, I didn’t want to do anything when not on it, and couldn’t stop doing things, when on it. I can’t say I was happier when on it, my mood swings were too crazy.
I decided that I’d had enough of feeling this way. I started feeling what a junkie would feel like, or at least what I’d read a junkie felt like. So, I politely declined any more offers from well meaning friends to take their medication. Which, by the way, is very illegal tvm. I dealt with the withdrawals, the headaches, the sluggishness, the lethargy, the depression. God! I wanted it again! But! I did not succumb to the temptation. Instead, I forced myself to do everything that I had done, while on Adderall, only…sober? would that be the correct term? I took my life back. Yes, it’s harder, yes, I’d love for a pill to make everything “better”. But, there’s one thing that I can honestly say..
Nothing worthwhile was ever easy.
I quit this drug, for me its very easy to just drop drugs normally I mean I’ve tried cigarettes smoked them for a straight 8 months straight and quit without a second thought the next day. I’ve done basically a lot of supposed “Addictive” drugs, and I’ve dropped them all EXCEPT Adderall. I quit Adderall after my 8th grade of middle school, umm the experience for me was very, very hard. I would lay awake in bed for days for absolutely nothing. But now here I am, five years later, in my senior year of High school. Still not graduated. With over 7 classes needed to be finished.
This is literally the situation I was torn by. I’m way behind on school atm, and I “Blamed” A.D.D you know that fake disease. And I got a prescription of Adderall. So basically I’m going to shovel through a year of school work to pass online. And I know Adderall doesn’t make you smarter at all, but it certainly does make you crush work. But this was quite literally my biggest concern.
Not the sex, sex is easy to come by, not the high, highs are easy to come by, but the creativity and personality. Those are what made me reconsider about my decision. I purposely choose to give my soul for school for the personal reason, I can’t pass without it, no matter how hard I try. I’m not stupid but I always think I have something much more important to do. I plan on downing 2 bottles of 30 mg x45 in about a total of 5-6 weeks to crush my school work. Sounds bad but god I have nowhere else to turn.
When I do this drug I finish all my school work ahead of time, I make it look laughable, probably because I am smart, but regardless I can’t focus that ability into any type of school work what so ever. With Adderall I see changes in my personality, people seem to distance themselves from me, I lose interest in girls, I just don’t care about a social life and kind of ignore everything that flies around me, I don’t worry about getting a girlfriend, my Libido is smaller, I don’t care about anyone besides myself. Which wouldn’t really bother me but I’m currently seeing this girl I find to be pretty special to me, and I admit things aren’t going as good as planned but that doesn’t mean I want to shut her out completely. I have so much to confess for her this week, but thats not the point. The point is when I take Adderall I feel different as if I shouldn’t be near anyone, I tend to alienate myself and just do work or school. I literally become a human robot built to not have fun. I honestly don’t know what to do… But School is my main priority right now.
I’d also like to add a question if you don’t mind Mike, I was going to ask if you’ve ever heard of Adderall making you Socially retardant, its kind of what happened to me and when I finally got off the come down at about my 9th to 10th grade of high school, but on those days I’d literally not say a word to any of my friends or anyone, I’d sit down at lunch eat, fall asleep, go into class fall asleep, ect.
I watched ADD and Loving it and it was amazingly informational. ADHD is a hard wire issue and therefore cannot be changed. Life Coach and sufficient dose is my next move. There is a valuable book “You mean I am not stupid, lazy or crazy? Author Kate Kelly and Peggy Ramundo. We can do life with ADHD and enjoy it. Joke here: I have to take a 6 hour soak in wallpaper remover to shed all those “labels”. I am now just going to take care of my medicinal needs and not worry about it. I am into Natural medicine and Natural Cures. If I am HARDWIRED, then I needed to move to acceptence, and feel free. If the world thinks I am too offbeat……so was Einstien…..and Thomas Edison. Our Creativity moves Civilization forward. always work on your strengths. We can perfect them. Weakness’s can never be perfected, no need to waste valuable life time on it. Be wondeful you and educate yourself to the hilt and dodge all the misinformation and Taboo out there.There are no two ADDers alike. I spent 50 years being bummed about me. I would hide,hide,hide. I have honed it to a fine point to make people think I am capable and wonderful and then go home and hide out. No more! the dog is now going to wag the tail instead of visa versa and If I fail? Geez I am used to that
Mike,
Thankyou. You truly do have gift when it comes to reaching your intended audience, and for so eloquently and articulatley putting into words the thoughts that have been running through my head. I think the good you are doing is much greater than any potential harm. That being said I have a couple questions. For a little over a year I have binged on and off. Ir and xr. A couple weeks ago I took 600 mg of adderall in 4 days, probably 200 of it in one day. I also took 60 .25 lorezapam, a benzo. Withdrawal has been hell. There is so much going on in my life I am afraid to quit cold turkey. I’m training for a new job, struggling to make rent, and having a boxing match scheduled. I am currently taking 15 mg xr to try to wean off. I’m not sure if it is doing more harm then good though. My anxiety and depression is through the roof. while sober, before this recent binge, I felt very good about everything, and more productivw then i have ever been sober. Now I feel like i lack any ounce of confidence, and depression is horrible, even the 15 mg. What should I do? I have also been feeling horrible working out. I work out often and intensely. I’m afraid i may have permanently damaged my heart. I know you are not a doctor, but after reading through your thoughtful responses I would love your advice
Hey Mike,I just wanted to say thank you for the work that you are doing to educate people on the effects of this horrific diagnosis called ADD.I am 41 years old and have had ADD my whole life.thanks to learning to deal with myself and love the person that God has created in me,I have learned that my true happiness has come in doing the task that was planed for me instead of doing what society would say was the smartest choice.I have been battling everybody it feels in keeping my son off any medication for his “ADD” from the ex,to the schools,to the doctor.I have self medicated before in my life with pot and have found the effects to work great with small doses(not actually getting to the high)on my concentration.I was diagnosed with add at 30 and was given something(I don’t remember the name….prob. from the pot)that made me feel “normal”. Since I had stopped smoking pot due to the hair test at my dead end job,the effects were just what I needed.It was great!My wife would lie and cheat and I was clueless.My job in a steel mill was good enough for me.And I thought I was actually happy until the dose started to have to be increased,so I quit.Now I realize that I will never be “normal”,thank God.You can check me out what I do now At clarkcustoms/facebook or clarkcustoms.net. Thanks again for your hard work.
I didn’t take the time to read through each and every comment to see if anyone corrected the information about how there is no generic version of Adderall XR. I’m prescribed Adderall XRs and there are certainly generics of this, usually by the name of D-Amphetamine Salt Com XR 30MG Caps. In comparison to the brand adderall XRs the generic brand of XRs blow.
@Audreana – Thanks for the correction, Audreana. I’ve removed that line about there being no generic XR’s. Sorry about that. It’s been 3 years since I originally wrote this page, so at the time there was no generic XR (I think).
Mike, you need to understand that your experience on adderall will not be the same for everyone. These types of drugs can cause different reactions for different people. Brain chemistry is very complicated and poorly understood at present time.
I think you need to lay off the adderall.
Harry, you need to understand that BECAUSE the Adderall experience will not be the same for everyone, some people WILL have bad experiences and welcome the help of a site like this. Others, who have a good experience, won’t go googling “quitting Adderall” and “quit adderall get life back” (two of the searches that bring the most traffic to this site).
When people with positive Adderall use cases find this site, many of them read my giant, bright-red disclaimer and understand that this site doesn’t really apply to them. Others will post their positive story in defense of Adderall, and thereby help others who are on the fence figure out what they identify with most.
And then some people just skim for two seconds and assume that this is just another under-informed anti-pharma crusade. I don’t want to get Adderall of the market. I think it has a place. And I don’t care whether people use Adderall or don’t use it. But when somebody tells me they want to quit, THEN I care, because I know very intimately where they’re coming from.
I think you need to do more than scan one page before you flame something.
“”"”"Ok just approved your second comment. Noticed that it’s mainly a reworded version of the first because you didn’t know that the first went though. I think I addressed most of the main points in my last comment, but I missed some that are in your second comment…
the Lady who gave me my evaluation told me this will help me not overthink things into something it really isnt.
She’s delusional. The idea that SPEED is going to make you LESS of an over-thinker is ridiculous. Amphetamines are NOTORIOUS for DIRECTLY CAUSING over-thinking and obsessive paranoia. I am an over-thinking myself, and Adderall made it a thousand times worse. One of the main reasons I quit was to get some level of sanity and decisiveness back.”"”"”"
I really just read the above excerpt. Its seems delusional to call someone delusional because they believe that Adderall can help you not over think things. For instance, Adderall has helped me not over think things and I know others who feel the same way. I also know people who have racing thoughts on Adderall and can’t stop thinking. Its different for different people.
I’m not spamming you. I’m just trying to educate you.
It all depends on what the underlying cause is, for the over thinking. But “Speed” can definately help in not over thinking for some people.
Please, just cut back to 50 mg of adderall a day, I really think its affecting your analysis.
@Anonymous – Ok I see what you’re saying now. Look, I have a bit of a problem with those old comments: My education with Adderall, particularly in regards to recognizing appropriate use cases, has been gradual over the 4 years that this site existed.
So while current content is much more balanced, I was very hard-line (and less informed) several years ago when I started the site. I have always only meant to help people who wanted to quit, but it took me a lot of flame wars to learn that there were people who actually needed it.
If you’re any indication, I think I’m getting most of my flames based on comments that are 2+ years old. Sorry about that. I’ll try to figure out something to do about those old comments so I don’t look like such an idiot and don’t misinform people anymore than I already have.
Also, you keep telling me to lower my dose…My dose has been 0mg for about 4 years. Back when that reply was posted, I had only ever known people with bad experiences with Adderall…that’s what was affecting my analysis. Out-group homogeneity, I believe it’s called. I assumed that everybody who took Adderall was like the people I knew that took Adderall. I have since learned of the other side. :-/
Spoken like a true gentleman.
FYI, I actually did learn some things from this site.
UPDATE: I have edited the comment-in-question. Please let me know if my edit helped it be less…myopic.
UPDATE2: Thanks, Harry! That’s the fastest I’ve ever gone from not liking someone to liking them lol. Take care!
Hello my name is Brandon ive been priskribed aderall and I’m 13 and i don’t fell like its affective I’m on a half a pill every morning and i was wondering if it would be life thretining if i took one whole pill any ideas any one
Any advice for those of us on adderall for narcolepsy? If I do not take it I fall asleep at random times during the day and pass of after hearing loud noises or becoming stressed.
@sleepy – Sorry, I’ve got nothing. I think you’re actually the first person I’ve met (including online) who has narcolepsy. I would imagine that maybe there are some less affecting drugs available by now, if Adderall is screwing with your personality too much. I think modafinil/provigil was designed to keep Air Force pilots awake long periods…that might be worth looking into.
@brandon – Talk to you doctor before you increase your dose. Whether it would be life threatening probably depends on your dose and your physical makeup (weight, other conditions, etc).
Adderall is the worst dope ever! Prescribing people meth? I see the damage it causes every day! The ultimate price is paid by the prescribed! The prescribed say they don’t know why I can’t sleep? Great excuse for getting high! I feel sorry for the kids that get signed up at an early age by their parents and Dr! Who is supposed to pay for the script for the next 70 years mom, dad or the Dr? In the real world performance enhancing drugs are not allowed so why this should be accepted in the work place? America will not improve until the people get off the dope!
This entire FAQ is full of holes.
I am in my 5th year of studies as a pharmacologist….I have written 3 separate studies on ADAH treatment; one specifically on Adderall, one on its treatment of narcolepsy. Your entire FAQ is based off of opinions, shoddy facts, and what you could try to understand from “webmd”.
This is a joke.
A person whose brain is chemically ADHD will suffer little to no ‘withdraw’ from Adderall. The ‘focused’ theory you shoddily infer is a double edged sword. One who is ADD/ADHD will in fact be more focused on their work. Why? Because their brain is going so fast that “speed” slows them down. If you are in fact feeling ANY ‘high’ from any type of amphetamine then you are improperly being diagnosed by your doctor. That is a medical FACT. Instead of trolling internet medical websites try picking up a PDR, or ANYTHING that has clinical validity.
Adderall is primarily absorbed through the large intestine, NOT the stomach. ANYONE who had any pharmacological education, or atleast the ability to understand medical/chemical terminology can see this. You sir are, in my most professional opinion, an idiot who was misdiagnosed and threw up this bullshit website. How dare anyone misinform the masses on medication. Do you have any idea as to how dangerous…..or deadly that can be?!
Your “addiction” to Adderall was due to its MISUSE. Thus the reason amph-salts are a CII drug. If used for recreation, prescribed by an ill-informed doctor, or abused CII class drugs have a NEGATIVE effect on the human body/psyche.
I am willing to take this FAQ apart section by section and correct it (with scientific proof of course) if you would like to be slightly more educated.
@volume limit exceeded – I would LOVE for you to go through and take apart this FAQ page section by section. That would be a huge help. As you said, all this info is based on opinion, biased personal experience, and comments people have posted. But still, note that the primary audience of this website is people who are misusing it. It was never intended to be a resource for true ADD people or anything like that. Email me at mike at quittingadderall.com if you were serious about correcting errors in the FAQ; I’d welcome the help.
Excuse me but to FIX the things on your website would be to reverse engineer your entire website. While I understand the need to be jovial about certain touchy topics….you have made a mockery of those that are A: CORRECTLY being prescribed an amphetamine/methylphenidate class drug. B: using these drugs for recreational use. and C: those that fall into neither category, whom are only trying to be educated.
You state “facts” and ‘grievances’, yet you play both sides of the fence with little to no pharmacological, or medical education present. You do realize your opinions argue against and for the use of adderall without any foundation of a stance on either side of the fence.
Serously dude. Don’t put things like this on the internet without proper education. The information you present in your website and your comments contradicts itself and could steer someone in either direction. So much for your concern for a schedule II drug.
@volume limit exceeded,
I think you may be seeing this site as something it’s not. For example, the user categories you mentioned…
A. Correctly being prescribed amphetamine: I do not want them here, and have plastered disclaimers all over the site trying to get them to go away.
B. Using these drugs for recreational use: They don’t usually come here, and if they do I’ve never heard from any of them via comments. Nobody posts comments like “I want to quit Adderall but it’s just so fun to do on weekends.”
C. Those that fall into neither category, whom are only trying to be educated: Like category A, I would block these people if I could. I have no pedigree to be any kind of scientific resource. I try to address this with prominent disclaimers, but still some people take the site the wrong way.
D. This is the category you’re missing. People who are prescribed Adderall who can function and be successful with it, but feel like they would be better off without it, often because they are misusing it, never needed it in the first place, were prescribed more than they need, addicted, etc.
That’s the category I came from, and who every word on this website is written for. These Category D people typically care less about the technical absorption rate of Adderall into their intestine, and more about being validated, encouraged, and helped through a difficult process by somebody who knows where they’re coming from and has succeeded at what they’re trying to do.
If I could, I would block all but Category D. But I can’t really control who finds this site, and I’m not going to take it down because I get scores of messages from Category D people telling me that it’s been a godsend for them.
It’s important to me that whatever scientific facts I do list on the website are accurate, but it is not my goal to be a technical resource for that kind of information…in part because the more content I add in that direction, the more I will attract visitors that this site isn’t meant for.
Speaking of which, what did you Google to get here? Maybe I can remove whatever content Google thought you would like so people making similar searches in the future don’t find this site.
@volume limit exceeded,
dude, get a life.
Actually this website just helped me a lot. Lately I’ve been taking the Generic Adderall and noticed that I don’t get as much “push”…
But yet a few weeks back I had the brand name, JUST like you described above the same pills, and then worked wayy better. I also work from home and felt like I got a lot more work done on the Brand name pills.
I don’t know what it is about the generics, It’s just harder for to me get “in the zone”… I find myself just looking at the computer and not being motivated near as much.
Thanks for the great write up… Answered a lot of questions I had.
-J
Testing testing 123
Holy crap! I am so happy to have found this site. My apologies for the novel I’m about to write. But this is the first time I’ll ever share my story with anyone.
I was diagnosed with ADHD at 17. Til then, my grades were horrible. They put me on Ritilin and immediately my life changed. For the first time in my life, I could think clearly. I’d never once thought about the future, I realized that I was intelligent. My grades improved dramatically and I was able to get into college (I would my have). I started getting tutored…amazing.
I went to college and everyone was on adderall. I think bc it lasted longer (?) not sure. But I requested my doc changing my meds and she obliged.
I took the meds all through college but only when I needed to study. I did take it at work or on weekends. In summer of 2004, I got an internship that required alot of critical thinking. This is when I graduated to taking adderall all of time.
Ever since- I am worthless without it. I can’t concentrate, focus, nothing. I am in sales and my job requires motivation an interacting with tons of people through out the day.
My sales have been down and my job is currently on the line. Last week my bottles of pills spilled into my backseat floor. I’m so busy, my car is so messy (bc I’m an ADD hot mess) that I just would grab the ones I needed and left the others on the floor.
Yesterday, I realized that all but four were gone.
I have no idea what happened to them. I didn’t take them and I am assuming someone poured themselves a few out of my purse when I brilliantly had the bottle I m purse last weekend when I went out to a bar.
My refill is not until Feb 5th. I called my doc & explained but they said they can’t write me a replacement. She suggested I call my primary care doc. Which I did, but I was so petrified to ask via the phone, I scheduled an appointment tomorrow. Now I’ve got to figure out if I am going to be honest with him about losing it or lying & just saying I want him to write all of my scripts now…usually I go with honesty is best policy but I’m afraid that they’d call my psych office to confirm everything. Primary Care doc used to write my script several years ago (the last time I lost a bottle) and I remember him going ape sh**.
It’s looking like I am going to have to be yelled at again & made to feel like a druggie and likely still be screwed for the next 10 days.
If that does happen and I literally do not have adderall, what can I do to focus? I’m in tears.
In this awesome scheme of things you’ll secure an A+ just for hard work. Where exactly you actually misplaced me personally ended up being in the details. You know, people say, details make or break the argument.. And it couldn’t be much more true at this point. Having said that, allow me inform you what exactly did do the job. Your text is actually pretty engaging and this is most likely the reason why I am taking the effort to comment. I do not really make it a regular habit of doing that. Secondly, although I can easily notice a jumps in logic you make, I am definitely not sure of exactly how you seem to unite your details which in turn help to make the actual conclusion. For right now I shall yield to your issue however trust in the future you actually connect your facts much better.