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ContactWhy do you want to quit Adderall? [vote]
July 5th, 2010 by MikeAlrighty, readers. The last poll I put up had some really revealing (if not predictable) results, so let’s try another. If your answer is not represented as a choice, please add it using the “other” field or post it in the comments! Note: With this poll, you can select multiple answers; that’s totally fine.
Sorry: Having some trouble with this poll. It may not work for you right now. Will get back up as soon as I can. ย In the mean time, the top answer to this poll (by a longshot) after hundreds of votes was “To get back a piece of myself that feels lost.”
I just checked the first 3 boxes because each of them is part of my reason. I have been Adderall-free for 23 days today and started to decrease my dosage 76 days ago. I am pretty proud of myself but miss the energy and weight loss attributes of the drug.
Honestly, I am here because I need some words of encouragement. I bought a pack of Stacker 3s from the gas station today because I want my Adderall. I am regretting telling my husband the truth about everything because now he is strongly opposed to my taking it again. Clearly, I am an addict and I know for a fact that most of it stems from my issues with body image. I have gained some weight already and find myself unable to fit some of my clothes. ๐ This is what made me buy the Stacker 3s.. was this a “relapse” of sorts? When I bought them, I also was hoping for an Adderall-like rush but of course, I have not had one yet because its not Adderall. .
I know I just need to start exercising like my husband and I had planned but we are still “pricing” weight sets. Yep. Seems very counterproductive. Not to mention, my energy level is ZERO. Somedays I have more natural energy than ever before, but today it is low (prob. from the holiday weekend) and I feel fat and miss it more than ever. Think maybe I need both therapy and exercise..
Thanks for having a blog where I can vent about this. Someone tell me how bad Adderall is again because I am quite the Adderallic..
Hi Elizabeth,
I think your experience buying the Stackers is normal. Most people go through a phase after quitting Adderall where they start trying to replace it with things. Coffee, energy drinks, caffeine pills. I definitely tried the Stackers once myself (on one of my unsuccessful attempts), and I’ve known others who’ve totally binged on anything with sugar/caffeine/etc trying to replace Adderall.
It’s not a relapse. It’s a phase. It’s an error in approach. You have to stop trying to replace Adderall. You have to murder the concept of supplementing your performance and start re-tuning your natural self to be able to achieve the same (or better!) goals without any chemical aids. That takes longer.
Plus, stacker 3’s will never be Adderall. No other chemical replacement will ever measure up…and the contrast will just make it harder. You’re just delaying the inevitable: having to face life with no quick booster.
If your concern is your weight, then yeah exercise should become your new addiction. Weight sets cost money and must be shopped for. Running is free and melts the pounds off in no time. Plus by the time you finish a long run you’ve lost so much water weight that you see *instant* results.
Cardio, in general, is going to melt the pounds off more than lifting, in my experience. That’s why I do both. Weights to bulk up the muscle, running/biking/swimming to melt off the fat.
I also cannot express in words how therapeutic running is.
As for energy level, exercise helped me a little in that regard…but what shot my energy way up was forcing myself to do one thing to move my passion forward every single day, no matter what. It sounds cheesy, but it’s the only action that is distinctly present in the weeks I am energetic and happy, and absent from the weeks I am slow and down.
Hi Elizabeth,
I can totally relate. I started buying 5 Hour Energy shots (extra strength, of course) in Costco packs after quitting. Nearly everyone I know who quit Adderall went through a period of heavy caffeine binging after quitting. Some “purists” might disagree, but I don’t think there’s much wrong with it. Its kind of like tapering down… stepping down from amphetamine to caffeine. Its not going to give you the Adderall buzz, but it might help you get through the initial adjustment, and there’s nothing wrong with that in my opinion. I quit drinking so much caffeine without even thinking about it once I started exercising more. Exercise and healthy eating (which means not just eating healthy food, but AVOIDING unhealthy food as well… heavily processed food and refined carbohydrates are going to slow you down a lot) is really what’s going to bring your energy levels up.
I can also totally relate to your gripes with weight. It was so effortless to stay thin on Adderall because you don’t need to use any willpower to not eat! I gained a bunch of weight when I quit, but I shed it promptly when I got serious about diet and exercise. I actually took it a bit too far and lost so much weight that I was thinner than I was ON Adderall for awhile there. I’m thinking about writing another post about weight gain and quitting Adderall, since it seems to be something many people are really concerned with. But Mike is right, cardio is what you really need right now. Google “The Non-Runner’s Guide To Running A 5K” and start on that program… its free and I guarantee you’ll lose some weight ๐
Best of luck!
I totally agree with Lilah’s point about using caffeine/energy drinks as a step-down tool if you need to (and if it works for you in that way). In my case, all the stackers in the world didn’t seem to make a dent. But hey, if it works for you do it.
There’s a related story from the “To Write Love on Her Arms” movement. I couldn’t find it for you, and somebody told it to me, but the gist was: Girl addicted to cocaine, wants to quit, a bunch of her friends lock themselves in with her and they stay up all night smoking cigarettes, drinking tons of coffee, ordering pizzas, and playing cards until her withdrawls pass. Best intervention ever.
Also, Lilah: I would KILL to get you to write a weight loss & quitting Adderall article. Like you said: Everybody asks about it. Email me if you get around to it!
Elizabeth,
Congrats on the 25 days of being adderall free! I can totally relate to everything you said. I’ve now been adderall free for 4 months. I was on it for 5 yrs at a very high dose (I too was quite the adderallic!). I tried the 5 hour energy shots and had daily venti americano’s from starbucks but of course nothing can compare. I promise that the low energy levels will get better! Just remember that it really takes a while for the chemicals in your brain to adjust back to normal…but it will happen and it gets better each day. I also have gained weight since quitting which was very hard to deal with at the beginning especially while dealing with life in general without adderall. Exercise has helped me to not only control my weight but to make me feel better all around. I’ve also been surpised with how many compliments I’ve received since gaining weight. Everyone says I look so much better. (Adderall skinny is not that pretty and it’s definitely not what your body is intended to look like either). As for therapy, I did go to a couple of sessions but found that the reason I loved adderall so much was b/c it helped me to be even more of a perfectionist than I already am. I have since decided that I enjoy being a perfectionist and instead have found this website to be “my therapy”. So, keep coming back here to vent…not only does it help you but it helps all of us to see we’re not alone. Best of luck to you! Thanks again Mike for such an awesome site!
Mike- consider it done. I’ll do it sometime this week. No killing necessary ๐
@Christine
Ha! Ditto on that one. So true. I find that I’m still equally as much of a perfectionist as I was on the pills, I just don’t follow through with that perfectionism as often unless it’s on something that really warrants the effort. The desire to go nuts and overboard with everything is still there…but the will, energy, and attention span necessary to carry out that desire is only available to me when I’m working on something that really lights my fire.
@Lilah
Sweet! I’ll tell the puppies and baby seals I kidnapped that they’ve been granted a stay of execution.
Today is day 30!!! I am really proud of myself but need to find a new job before the ADD really catches up with me. Productivity is at a low. Not to mention I usually finish the laundry on Sunday night and did not accomplish that last week or this one..
Thank you, Lilah and Christine. I have used this site as my therapy as well. Unfortunately I am an individual who has a lot more than this to talk about, so I will have to figure out something that works for me financially. Which reminds me, I am also on Prozac and my doc said that they are commonly taken together to “fuel” each other, but everytime I went to a new pharmacy for both drugs they called me to inform me about Serotonin syndrome. Which may explain why I was fainting from time to time..
Mike- lol @ “puppies and baby seals”
08/21/2010 Most of you sound fairly young. I was diagnosed with ADHD when my son was diagnosed about 20 years ago. At that time I decided against treatment for either one of us until I did some research and had him throughly worked up by an MD and a neuropsychiatrist. They felt that he should be treated while in school and taken off on weekends and other breaks his grades went from c’s to A’s. He seem to do ok and now is an adult in college and chooses to take it while in school and does well with it I on the other hand have not done so well. I am a registered Nurse and now 55 years old. I was advised not to be treated for a while because I became addicted to hydrocodone after having several surgeries with complications and they wanted me to be sober for 5 years. I had a hell of a time getting off that stuff I went to rehab four times and spent 10 years in AA before I got a clue. My husband is a emergency room MD so I at one time started writng my own RX’s and eventually got caught and had to spend a little time in jail needless to say I was extremely ill. That was 13 years ago. Five years later I was evaluated by a neuropsyhchiatrist and put on adderall short acting 20 mg twice daily I immediately convinced myself that this was my underlying cause of my addiction and this is what I’ve been lacking all my life. I have been on this now for 8 years and over the years my dose has been increased up to 60mg twice daily. But I convinced myself that I needed more and take 120mg three times daily I stay up late sometimes all night I take atenalol 100 mg so my blood pressure and heart rate don’t get to high. My relationship has suffered the intimacy went to hell. I’m spinning my wheels, I can’t make decisions on what I want to do with life and I can’t multi task like I did when I didnt take adderall. I haven’t worked in the last 3 years Im an ER nurse and fear that the medication and the natural addrenalin would make me unable to perform safely. Of course I run out of medication in 2 to 3 weeks and crash and start the process all over again when I get my RX again. When you guys say your productive when you take adderal are you really? Anyway I m sick and tired of it and once again I have to deal with the fact that I have been lying to myself making all kinds of excuses for my usage. At least I didnt commit any crimes this time. Im in the process of making a plan to get off of this deceptive drug . I’m going up to our farm house in the mountains and have my husband drop me off for a month so I don’t make anyone else suffer. Im going to detoxify myself with lots of fluids and good foods and replace vitamin deficiencies, excercise, read some good books On learning to live life without having to look outside of myself for happinesss . Prayer and meditation helps as well. Its time to buck up and pull myself up by my boot straps. I actually am excited to get this monkey off my back I know that I can either wallow in self pitty or I can forgive myself and use adversity as a tool in making things better. I thank God for allowing me to see the truth. Thankyou, for reading my long disertation on addiction its been extremely therapeutic. I need to be grateful that I’m alive and well. I had a brother die 2years ago 42 years old alcoholisim, and a sister go over the edge shortly after that was misdiagnosed ADHD treated with adderall x 10 years went to crystal meth. for two years and now on adderall again with heavy cannibas use and suffers from a genetic predisposition to schitzophrenia untreated now times 8 years and due to severe frontal lobe damage from the schitzophrenia she has decreased cognitive ability making her unaware of her illness. My sister used to be very intelligent and practiced as a physcians assistant harvesting veins for cardiac bypass surgery. Because of the laws in California you cant force a person into treatment against there will which seems ignorant to me when its illegal to let a patient sign a concent for surgery if they were given a mind altering substance prior to. So she’s denied the treatment she desperately needs its devistating. Obviously seeing her suffer like this has also convinced me that myself as well as other family members should not be drinking or taking anything stronger than asprin or milk. Thanks, I’ll be in touch. God bless all of you and to those of you that have stopped congradulations and keep going it will be worth it. And to those of you that have not stopped and have a problem with adderall plug your nose and jump in because it only gets worse if you dont.
I am 27 years old and at the heaviest weight of my life(Im usually 110-115, now im 135-140). I used to be a runner and into fitness, but after a tramatic incident, I stopped. I have been trying to get back on track, but my passion has seemed to slip after it being over a year since I last exercised. I am greatly considering taking adderall as a “jump-start” for my weight loss and getting back on the wagon. When I was 24, I did a form of this and it did wonders…but it’s been a few years, so i dont really remember the process. As in, I only want to use adderall as an aide for 1 month, to 2 months TOPS…A:because of the high addiction rate this drug can have B: the essential cost C:I just dont like popping pills much. ANYhow….please no preaching and smack talk, I am well aware of the risks, just shooting this message out for some helpful input. Thanks.
Omg…this all sounds so familiar
I am a 26 year old female who recently was introduced to vyvance and adderall…my dr started me on 30mg of vyvance for going back to school so i could concentrate…and 5/500 hydrocoden for my back problems….i started off only taking 1 30mg of vyvance a day…then i took a hydro with it 1day and i got a huge rush of energy so then i started taking 1 30mg of vyvance and a hydro everyday….not long did it take for it to spin out of control….now im up to 1 50mg vyvance 1-2 20mg adderoll 3 5/500 hydro and every now again i will trow in a 5 hour energy drink….i dont know how this happened in just 3 months…i crave the energy….but when i run out its a constant chase on how to find more…all i do is sit around texting and calling friends to buy it…adderall has taken control over my life….i feel so lost idk where to start with getting off of it…i just got hime from buying stacker 3s to hopefully get me off of this crap….everyone tolde adderall was the devil…i never believed it until now….and want to get off of it sooooooo bad….i dont want to crabe it….im so over it….any advice will be much appericated…im lost in the drug worls…