Adderall
CityMouse
Posts: 1,010
Does anyone take it?
I was just diagnosed with ADHD and the doctor wants me to take Adderall but I told him I'd think about. I'm trying to research it, but I don't know anyone who takes it and it would be interesting to hear about REAL experiences with it.
it just seems a little scary to me for some reason.
I was just diagnosed with ADHD and the doctor wants me to take Adderall but I told him I'd think about. I'm trying to research it, but I don't know anyone who takes it and it would be interesting to hear about REAL experiences with it.
it just seems a little scary to me for some reason.
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
I don't know anyone who has been prescribed Adderall. I wish I could offer more assistance.
Let me know how you make out.
I have to wonder why the doctor said Adderall rather some of these other drugs. but Adderall was the first and only thing he mentioned. I can't figure out what makes them different.
You know what I would prescribe
...I think that's probably the absolute worst thing someone with ADD could take
For serious, I got a good laugh though.
did it do anything to like your creativity or personality?
if he's missing an entire days worth of work, i'd say it probably stifled his creativity.
~D.K.S.
The first time I took it was in college when I needed to study for my midterm in Financial Management. I hadn't been to class all semester, or even opened the book for that matter, because we weren't given quizzes or required to come to class. The class was 40% midterm, 40% final, and a 20% project. Anyways, I took some adderall 24 hrs before the exam, and in that time I read all the required chapters and taught myself 6 weeks worth of material. I then went straight from my 24 hr. study marathon and took the test. After I was done, I went to my girlfriend's place and we were going to go out and party to celebrate me finishing my test. Instead, I stayed in at her place while everyone else went out... so I could keep studying:eek: Not because I had another test... but because I wanted to learn more!:D I ended up getting a 94% on that test.
I have plenty of other "success" stories that involve adderall. Numerous college papers, Las Vegas blackjack wins, good song/ lyric writing, etc. It makes you focus like you've never focused before. You get a slight buzz when you first start taking it... kind of like a wave of goosebumps that send chills through your body every once in awhile. The more you take it though, the less you will feel this. As someone said earlier, you will not be that hungry on it initially, so make sure you force yourself to eat. It will also keep you wide awake at first, and you will have a hard time falling asleep.
Basically, you will not be distracted by daydreams or things around you, but rather will be extremely focused on whatever task you have to accomplish. I love that drug for when I really need to get something done, and have it done to the best of my ability... but like I said, I'm not sure if I have ADHD. It might not have the same effect on someone who does have it.. I can only give you my experiences with it.
As far as your physician only offering Adderall, doctors tend to find something that works and stick with it.. especially when it's tried and true within their own patient population, there is really no need to look further unless a patient fails on that particular drug. Concerta and others are newer on the market and physicians can be leary of Rx'ing new meds with unproven long term side effects.
I hope this helps a little bit,
Peace
I have hyperfocus ADHD, so I tend to hyperfocus on things that ARE interesting or important to me. So if you take Adderall, how do you know you'll focus on the right thing? So say you've got a memo due at work, how do I know I'll focus on that and not read the entirity of the lastest issue of Slate or something?
wow, seems kinda scary to prescribe something like this just for weight loss! especially since the weight loss is just due to not eating as opposed to like increased metabolism or something. I'm actually taking wellbutrin now- the dr thought it would be a good thing to start with as it usually improves focus in children and because of my troubles waking up in the morning. the eating side effects and stuff sound very similar- the first few weeks I took it I'd just be like "shit, I have to eat!" but that wears off (unfortunately it seems like the improvements in waking up wear off too).
Sorry if this steered from the point of this thread.....
The only effect it had on my personality was it made me more talkative. Creativity-wise, it really helped, because it helped me follow through on my ideas. My work is writing software and I've always been pretty creative at it, but only in bursts of an hour here, two hours there. After I started Adderall, I could write code for 4 or 5 hours, take a break and come back and pick up right where I left off.
No, the complete opposite. I was losing track of time because I was working so well.
interesting and good to know. the wellbutrin made me more talkative too.
crap. well, hopefully that's because your friend gave you high dose. I hope this doesn't happen if you start slow...
yeah that is true too.
it's kind of sad, I read that ADHD is now thought of as a genetic trait that was useful back in hunter-gatherer days that has stayed in the population even though now the opposite characteristics are useful. it's kinda sad to medicate something that's just how someone is just so they'll fit into current cultural norms.
It wasn't untill a couple of years ago though that I finally found out why it works for people with ADD. I was told that the normal human brain operates in four basic stages, theres sleep, then the foggy stage when you first wake up, then there is a middle stage where you spend most of your waking day. This is when you function but could still slip off into a daydream or something like that. This is the stage where you do the tasks that don't take a lot of thought. Then the fourth level is when you are focused and attentive, like when you study or are working on something that requires a lot of attention.
People with ADD have a hard time getting their brain to stay in this fourth level. For whatever reason we just chill in the third level. The Adderall speeds us up and as a result helps kick the brain up to the fourth level.
And I had always wondered why they would give speed to someone who doesn't pay attention already. This explanation makes a lot of sense to me.
http://www.myspace.com/christianjame (Music Page)
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/19598996 (Personal Page)
very interesting. as far as I have learned, there are a lot of different types of ADD/ADHD too, so this could be one explanation. I think I get into that 4th phase sometimes, which is why she said I have hyperfocus ADHD. the problem is I have to be really excited to be in that forth phase. it also probably explains why I tend to focus better in the evening. thanks for that, I haven't heard this explanation before.
I tend to hyperfocus by times, but i'm finding that it's not as prominent as it used to be. My biggest problem that was interfering with my work was having 9 things on the go and never finishing one...i'd start writing a letter and suddenly switch to doing the mail, to filing, to surfing the internet, to taking phone calls, to remembering something i wanted to tell someone at the other end of the office...and i'd never really notice that I was doing it. I'm more cognizant now when i'm doing it. I try to keep my multitasking down to one or two things (when i catch it).
I also had a problem with impulsivity (speaking, thinking, shopping, etc) and that's pretty much gone now (which is awesome!)
My biggest problem that's not helped by the meds is my ability to deal with switching gears...like when things are humming along and suddenly something unexpected comes along. According to my therapist, my temporal lobe starts to misfire and i panic. We're going to start working on some way of controlling this at the end of the month.
Did i mention i talk a lot more? I always was a little chatty, well now i'm a regular motormouth.
I just wish i had been diagnosed at a younger age instead of at 35. I might not have racked up such a huge student loan debt and still have no university degree!
oh that's really too bad that you have students loans but never finished! Yeah I just got diagnosed in my 30s too...I think when we were kids no one was looking for ADHD...especially if you were a girl (I'm a girl).
Damn, I could have written this post. I wrote something so similar to your first paragraph in my journal that it freaked me out for a second. I was diagnosed at 34, but am 35 now (at least for next couple of weeks).
I am just NOW realizing I have a problem with impulsivity, mostly with speaking, but other things too.
I am a girl too...or at least i was last time i checked.
When we were kids in the 70s, kids like us were just slow, lazy or bad. In the early 80s we were hyper or lazy or sometimes stuck in remedial classes for those ones we just couldn't get a handle on. In the later 80s only the boys bouncing off the walls were even considered to have ADHD. In the 90s they suddenly started looking at the other kids who didn't perform to their "potential" and saw that maybe they could have this problem too.
Now there's a whole generation of "kids" who are suddenly realizing that after years and years of feeling inadequate and suffering through low self-esteem it was really for naught.
While I wasn't thrilled over my diagnosis (or the cost of it), that bit of validation has lifted 30 years of self-doubt and loathing off my shoulders. It is nice to hear from other people my age who are just being diagnosed...in a strange way it's comforting because we've all been through similar things that other people can't relate to.
Ramble...ramble...ramble...i didn't take my meds today...this message has taken an eternity to write.
I did well in school as a kid but I got horrible marks in "conduct and effort" in elementary school. I also had major issues getting my work done, especially if it was something I already knew how to do, like I hated repeating arithmatic skills over and over or doing grammer exercises which I always thought were too easy (like it was almost physically painful). I've also ALWAYS had trouble taking timed tests. Really looking back on it it seems extremely obvious that I had this problem (I've suspected it for years but never really did anything about it- ha! probably because I have ADHD) but I guess back then no one cared. Plus I went to a pretty shitty high school so they probably didn't even know what it was...
I have been diagnosed with the same condition for about 3 oe 4 years now. I am taking Adderall and it has helped me alot. At first, the doctor had to see how much I needed and what sort of Adderall; XR or just the regular version. XR is the time released version.
After like a month, I was regulated in my medicine and then it worked much better.
Together we will float like angels.........
In the moment that you left the room, the album started skipping, goodbye to beauty shared with the ones that you love.........
seems very similar to the medicine I'm currently taking in that respect.
thanks.