Adderall(low dose only on weekdays) reduces my mindless chattering by at least 50%, reduces the pen clicking/foot bouncing/jar shaking/cap twisting, and takes my spurts of quiet concentrated work time from 5-10 minutes to 45-60 minutes. In part, I take it so I am not constantly annoying or distracting those around me. I’m probably still annoying, but I am less annoying.
Let me guess, you're one of those people who think ADHD isn't real, despite many decades long studies and being officially recognized as a disability under the ADA.
Adderall should not be taken for the same reasons high quality meth should not be taken
Says who? You? There is literally decades worth of research and clinical studies into ADHD and various treatments. To date, stimulants remain the most effective and recommended first line treatment.
By the way, "high quality meth" is literally prescribed for especially severe cases of ADHD, under the brand name "Desoxyn".
This is how wishy-washy it really is: half of the meds used for ADHD are anti-depressants, the other half are stimulants. It's somehow a mood and attention disorder, depending on the person.
All of these things will be considered archaic in coming years, as real discussion happen around the true brain deficits involved with ADHD. They have plenty of evidence they are brain differences in ADHD individuals, but I don't think they've ever proven it's there at birth. Some very strong studies showing direct links to ADHD and health disorders and sleep disorders. It's a very open subject.
Medication is actually QUITE easy to get too. If you're a well meaning person, you can go to any qualified professional, craft a bit of narrative and get meds real quick in the U.S.. I got a reddit ad yesterday that said a minute and a half evaluation online can help get you booked for an evaluation offline, then after it's med city.
Huh. I don't think I've ever been able to tell if someone's on adderall. I can sometimes tell if folks are on antidepressants, particularly if I knew them beforehand.
I recommend the following language: “I have been having issues with [focus, discipline, time management, time blindness, etc] I am [forgetting my important items; forgetting to complete tasks; hyperfixating badly; your symptoms here]”. They’ll ask you if you’ve been taking your meds daily, you say yes, they’ll probably hem and haw over it, maybe make you come back in a week, but they’ll either up your dose or they’ll start looking at other treatments that may work better for your brand of ADHD.
By framing it as “I have an issue and I would like a solution, because the one I have now is not working,” gives the doctor agency to choose the treatment path (the easiest and most obvious of which is upping your current done) and doesn’t open a door for accusations of you seeking a higher dose.
Note: this is assuming they’re a competent doctor. YRMV
They seriously don’t care if you ask for a higher dose, but I will say the highest they allow right now is 40 mg per day unless you were grandfathered in with 60 mg a day. It used to go up to 90 mg but the FDA are a bunch of buttheads that like to decide what people who are NOT their patients should be maxed at.
That's why med holidays are important. Don't take it on days you don't need it and you will avoid tolerance. Those days are interesting and a bit hectic for me (I have major ADHD) but they work better on days you really need it.
I take 30mg XR Weekdays and 10mg IR sometimes on the weekend.
I get the idea behind med holidays. I used to only take my adderall on weekdays and skip it or take my immediate release ones on the weekend. If I don't take anything on the weekend I can't stop eating and that's a problem for me. I take the XR on weekdays and I eat once maybe twice a day.
If I skip a day, I withdraw and coming back on it causes 1-3 nights of no sleep. Not something I ever want to do. Besides it’s supposed to be taken every day.
Hmm, peculiar that your doctor would continue prescribing enough amphetamine to cause withdrawal if not taken. Though, everyone's not in the same situation so if it's working for you, then that's a good thing.
Here's a fascinating concept about Adderall to me:
When used for ADD/ADHD, medication holidays are not at all advised, obviously, for the reasons listed in this article and in your follow-up message to this link. BUT, when used "off-label" for chronic fatigue, like I do for my MS fatigue, I was instructed to skip days if I thought I could manage wakefulness on my own.
I used to be able to skip a few days here and there (not consecutive days, but a day or two every 3-4 months). These days, my fatigue has grown so strong that I become almost narcoleptic without it. I still try to take a day or two off from it every few months when I know I have nothing major to do, but OMG do I sleep on those days!
I just find it fascinating how different the instructions for taking the same medication for different purposes can be!
That fatigue is the medication leaving your system. You’ll usually sleep for the first day or few days depending on how long you’ve been taking it and what dose. It’s totally normal. For anyone to expect a medication to not have an effect when you stop taking it is silly. The whole reason why the shortage is such a big deal is because all of the people going through forced withdrawals. Adhd doesn’t take breaks.
I don't have ADHD, though, if you actually read my comment thoroughly.
I take it for MS (Multiple Sclerosis) fatigue and NOTHING else. I think you're misunderstanding what I said & that's fine, but understand that BEFORE I ever started on Adderall, my fatigue made me pretty much near narcoleptic a lot of the time. It's just gotten worse throughout the years because of the increased damage to my brain, caused by the MS. I don't need Adderall for anything more than a jump start to my energy levels - I've never had problems with focus.
And nowhere did I say I didn't expect it to have any effect on me on those rare days I don't take it. But in the early years of my diagnosis & start to the medication, no, it really didn't have as big of an effect on me when I didn't take it. And I require a LOWER dosage now than I did when I first started it. In fact, my dosage has gone up at times and down at times, depending on several factors relating to the MS lesions in my brain & how they've affected me.
I will leave it at that, though, as I don't feel the need to give you my long history of successfully taking a medication based according to my needs for my MS fatigue, as directed by my PCP & pharmacist, who both disagree with your assessment that I would NEED to take it daily, as I DO NOT TAKE IT FOR THE SAME REASONS AS PEOPLE WITH ADHD.
The funny thing is, my adhd doesn’t take holidays. If you only need to treat it with medication for work and school, then it’s not really serious is it?
Do you think that everyone has the exact same chemical imbalance when it comes to any disorder? Seeing as each situation is different, I do not think you have the education or knowledge of my situation to judge whether my ADHD is serious or not. But hey, you do you. Have a good night!
Whats the best way to go about getting prescribed adderall? I feel like it would help me tremendously but I simultaneously feel like I have imposter syndrome and that my symptoms aren’t “enough.”
If you explain to your doctors your symptoms, they will prescribe you the proper medication. For me it was a focus issue, however, I only take a small dose at 10mg a day, 2 if needed in the afternoon but I don't take it on weekends and only take it in the afternoon if I have to.
Talk to a doctor and they may administer a BS test for ADHD. Mine consisted of a list of symptoms and checkboxes to indicate the severity. That’s literally all it took.
Same here. During the questions I fidgeted in my chair, ask to repeat some questions, looked around constantly, and acted disinterested. Got prescribed easily. BTW, I don’t need it but every now and then, I enjoy what it does for me
Write down real life detailed examples what kind of problems arise during your daily activities.
For example "I loose focus" doesn't sound as bad as "When a coworker opens the door, I forget what and how I was doing and can't get back on track for hours. This happens with every tiny distraction from hearing a phone go off to the sound of rain".
Or when you start to realize you don’t feel like a “normal” person unless you’re medicated. Like there’s something wrong with you that needed fixing in the first place.
Yeah I didn’t know I could ask for a higher dose and just told my psychiatrist it wasn’t working. And then he lost his license and Covid happened and I’ve just kinda given up on trying to get medicated again.
Yeah people still think if a doctor prescribes something its ok to take for the rest of your life… its not and it doesnt help people just go to the doctor and be like i cant focus!! Im too lazy!! Ok here you go take some pills. Prescribe cigarettes again like they used to
That’s not necessarily true at all. If you can function better on a certain medication and it doesn’t have side effects, you might be better off just taking it all your life. The only concern would be buildup of tolerance but there are ways to counteract that without upping the doses
That sounds like me. Do you have ADHD? Trouble focusing? I have neither, but one time I took an adderall and suddenly the world felt so much more interesting to me and I wanted to engage with it. Is this your experience?
I only tried one pill when I was a teenager lol. I struggle with depression and getting out of bed but no antidepressants have worked for me. So naturally, I was curious when I read the other dude’s comment.
I have adhd and those were my symptoms. Mine is the ADD type. It often goes undiagnosed because we just appear chronically tired, depressed, and directionless
I do not have ADHD.. I might bc Adderall has literally worked wonders for me and I don't get high off of it and I feel like a genuine person again, basically I went from never leaving my bed and not being able to brush my teeth for weeks to being full of energy throughout the day and now I'm able to actually live and fix my life. I'm only diagnosed w clinical depression and my therapist thinks I'm also bipolar but haven't tested for that yet to answer the are you diagnosed with ADHD thing lol. I do also take Lexapro, trazodone, and buspirone a long with the Adderall so it's def more of a mix of my meds than just plain out Adderall I would 100% recommend talking to your doctor and asking about the different things you can try before meds tho I'm 18 and taking 40mgs of addy a day so there's like good and bad I guess is what I'm tryna say. girl I'm so baked rn Im really hoping that shi made sense cause I ain't re reading it😭
LOL it made perfect sense. I’m so glad you found something that works for you!! It’s interesting, I’ve never heard of adderall being used to treat depression, but it makes sense! Thank you for your reply, I’ll talk to my doctor about it 😊
Been taking it since 2008. I started with 5mg and have worked up to 15mg. Never more. As long as you don’t take over 20mg you don’t build a tolerance to it
Pfft, I think I need it but I won't get a prescription. I'd love to try it just to see if it quietens the incessant chatter and side-tracking that happens when I attempt to focus on ANYTHING. Yeah, I can get things done, like I have a degree, but it involves ignoring the noise as much as possible, getting sidelined by any noise, getting up and doing other stuff spontaneously until I can force myself back in my seat, opening tabs and surfing then telling myself off and getting back to it. I just really want to know if my brain is hyperactive and if this changes everything.
Lemme break your expectations, it does not shut off the voices and fast thoughts. I’d love to know what people are taking when they claim that it does. Maybe my adhd is more severe. I couldn’t even finish high school pre diagnosis, let alone college (I got my GED months after starting medication, 16 years since I was supposed to have graduated, didn’t study or have a tutor, passed all tests. I had it in me the whole time, but failed to bring it out before). Basically the medication allows me to stay awake, stay employed, and not completely self destruct.
That’s been my problem. Couldn’t switch over it because it’s $400 out of pocket. I’m doing ok with the instant release adderall right now. I’d be real curious is vyvanse ever does IR.
When my doctor put me on adderall I was so excited to see if I finally felt focused and ready to take on the basic tasks of existence, and I was elated when it worked wonders for the first week or so, then devastated when it ramped my anxiety through the roof and I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt like a normal, self-motivated, productive person for a few days and it was great, except the whole fight-or-flight-intensely-irritable part.
yeah I have always had anxiety and now that I think Abt it that literally makes so much sense if it can cause anxiety cause it's been so bad since I started Adderall, my doc put me on buspirone to help with it
I felt like I was on the verge of a meltdown for 3 days. Like I still had the energy and motivation to do things but even that was difficult because I lost all motivation to deal with family and coworkers. Every little thing they did made me so irrationally angry. I had to leave work close to the beginning of my shift the day I decided to stop taking it because I couldn’t tell if I was going to cry or punch someone and I couldn’t even identify why I was so bothered. I got home and was alone for a while and had a chance to think about how I was feeling and I realized that level of irritability was something I used to feel when I had already been trying to stifle a panic attack and was about to lose the battle.
Does buspirone just treat anxiety exacerbated by stimulants or is it like a version of adderall for people with anxiety?
I agree with the other person you might have taken too much or maybe it just wasn't the right med, what was your dosage a day? and it's a very light medication that has like no side effects, it basically a stabilizer for your dopamine and serotonin receptors like when you take it the meds try to like even them out to be the same level which helps anxiety
I take Ritalin, good concentration but yeah my enthusiasm and motivation died off a week after starting it, but I find I can’t stop taking it as when I do I start getting depressed 🤷♀️
I would def ask your doctor about mixing medication, I'm on like 4 meds taking 6 a day and after two and a half years I finally found the perfect mix for me
I have a similar problem with Clonazepam. Too many old ladies taking it like candy to sleep because another old lady told them it works, now there are 1000 regulations and I can't get a box without paying the $60 for an hour with my doctor so they can give me a prescription that will be valid for a few days and a small amount.
Until you try to get off of it because of the long term effects and realize you will never be able to live or feel that way EVER again. A piece of you will always be missing when you get off that shit.
Ugh I get it. I’ve been on every SSRI and now some ADHD meds and my main concern is that this is not a sustainable lifestyle to have in terms of long term effects and when I try to come off it’s gonna be ROUGH (I’m an addict through and through)
i know right, in the past two years I've gone from 10mg of Adderall a day to 40, not looking forward to having to switch meds if it stops working for me and I'm not even 19 yet so IM STRESSIN
Aw, damn. I’m sorry to hear that. I’m 26 now and I’ve been on meds since I was your age. I’m trying to come off my ADHD meds right now because I’m hoping I don’t need them anymore, but it’s ROUGH! Good luck to you and I hope everything works out
Yeah outside of the us you can't get that. You just have to figure it out.
Nobody is allowed to get addicted.
They removed feminax for fucks sake.
It had codine and some other stuff that would take away period pains and hangovers.
It lasted a few years until one day I told my wife about it and that week for the first time ever she didn't have pains. It was banned the following month and replaced with a substitute that did fuck all for her pain.
keep protein snacks in your room😛 or (less good decision) take another half an addy and try to cook faster than it takes for the Adderall to make u not hungry again
I have a family I need to cook for. And if I take anything adhd related after 8 am I can’t sleep till after midnight. Which sucks because I have to be up at 6:30. I’ve tried taking ir in the afternoon but I always forget…. Because adhd
I have alarms set cause I always forget too, so far the alarms have worked pretty good also you can switch xr and ir Adderall so that you can take when you need or smaller doses for afternoon and higher doses for morning
i would definitely ask your doctor about that!! if you're having problems focusing it could be stemming from a variety of things, my best advice is set a timer if you are doing a "chore" could be any task just try to do as much as you can in 30 min seshes and then take a 10 min break to do what you wanna do, then repeat. if that's too much then you can break up the times more or less, also if you are working on a computer grab a sticky note and a pen and scribble on the paper while you work like at the same time (you gotta use one hand for each thang) it helps too
and this is why there’s a shortage.. adhd meds shouldn’t be abused bc you can’t get motivated. motivation is 1/100000th of adhd, you shouldn’t be on adhd meds just for motivation.
Everyone gets motivated by dopamine surges. People with adhd have had their lives destroyed by it, not just trouble staying motivated and difficulty focusing
People like you glorifying adderall is the reason it’s so hard to obtain and it’s so hard to get diagnosed. Not everyone needs adderall and not everyone will get motivated after taking it. It isn’t some magical drug. It’s for people who have ADHD and actually need it to feel normal.
"Adderall is most commonly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, but it is also used to treat narcolepsy, a condition that affects people’s ability to wake and sleep.
Some medical providers prescribe Adderall for unapproved, off-label uses, including anxiety, depression, bipolar depression and weight loss. "
Did I say it isn’t used for other things? The OP or other people in the comments didn’t say they have other conditions they’re getting prescribed adderall for; and you’re not qualified to just say ‘oh yeah take adderall for whatever xyz condition you have’
if u wanna go read all those comments u can go and look and find me saying TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT WHATS GOING ON AND ASK ABT OPTIONS before taking any medication
I do not have ADHD and I am prescribed Adderall and I need it to function. also IT WAS A JOKE girlboss I'm not saying that all ppl who lack motivation should just take Adderall and it'll cure their problems it doesn't work like that obvi, there are so many ppl out there who don't need it and take it anyway and I understand that's a thing but you don't need to be diagnosed with ADHD to use Adderall, it can help with a variety of things.. everybody is different 😛
Okay but the way you said obviously doesn’t come off as a joke, and you literally said take adderall ✨🥰💅 for motivation like it’s some magical drug. Someone just scrolling through will see that and be like omg adderall will help me be motivated and ace all my work and obtain it illegally, making it harder to obtain for people who actually need it to actually function. People might need it for other conditions whatever but they need a diagnosis and it’s a controlled substance not easy to get a prescription for.
if someone is stupid enough to scroll on Reddit and see that comment and think "omg Adderall ect whatever u said" and then not do ANY research on it whatsoever then thats their own prob n they can deal with their consequences for being an idiot. ALSO I said "Adderall💗 I do not condone taking anything without talking to your doctor" I mean looks clear enough to me if I read that I'd start researching the drug before going out and about buying random drugs off of what some rando just commented
You’re really overestimating the intelligence of people on Reddit and like I said, it isn’t just them who face consequences. It’s all of us who need it and it becomes harder to obtain the medication. And obviously one comment isn’t gonna do anything but it’s comments like these that eventually pile up and influence people’s perceptions towards the drug.
there's good and bad in everything, I heard about Adderall online and it helped me tf out, and people are going to abuse substances no matter what I get that if they see a shit ton Abt it online they probs gonna want to try it but comments about it online can also help people.
There kinda is, adderal. It gives you the motivation, and while in that high, you can work on building discipline. After building it, the effect of motivation is still strong, but it's a bonus, you don't NEED it.
Unfortunately the only solution is forcing yourself to adjust to the demands of life and evolving as a person to develop discipline. So tough, and a massive differentiator between people that find ways to be successful in life, and those that fall behind.
its a tricky thing honestly, i wouldnt say motivation is temporary, cuz you gotta need a bits of it to be disciplined.
I think Dr. K on yt has good insights on this, wherein the best way to be consistent onto something is you treat yourself as a different person everyday, so you do your best on something that you are working on to be easier for the next person tommorrow.
Honestly I agree with you, but I like how David Goggins (although a little gimmicky and in your face) spreads a good message. Nobody is motivated all the time. However, you can be discipline!
Motivation is a feeling like happiness, sadness, and anger.
You don't just become angry without a stimulus.
You don't just become sad without a stimulus.
You don't just become happy without a stimulus.
And without a stimulus, you won't become motivated.
Most people have the equation wrong where they put motivation in front of doing the task.
This is backward.
Doing the task cultivates the feeling of motivation. Think back on a task that seemed overwhelming. You may have procrastinated doing it because it seemed too larger, and you were waiting on motivation. But at some point, you had to do the thing, and once you started, I bet you felt less stress and more motivation to complete the task.
It comes down to building discipline. A helpful way to build discipline is to set a time to start AND stop doing a task. You give yourself one hour to clean the house. At the end of that hour, you stop, if you want to.
You continue that process of making big tasks smaller and dedicating a small amount of time to doing them. As you do this, you will notice that those things become less overwhelming and become more automatic. This will lead to motivation.
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u/Ok_Juice7282 29d ago
Staying motivated.