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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Dolewhite on February 7, 2003, at 18:54:55
I have been diagnosed with inattentive ADD. My dr. is prescribing Adderall. I was leaning toward strattera since it's not considered a controlled-substance and no potential for abuse. However, my dr. doesn't know much about it and he has read it may be less effective in adults. He said he wanted to begin treatment now on adderall and maybe later start me on strattera if I wanted.
My question is, are there any adults who have taken Adderall for a while? What is it like ? Does it work? Do you build up a tolerance after a while? I've read that it works wonders for about 2 years then it kind of goes downhill from there. Whats your opinion?Thank you for your time
Posted by utopizen on February 7, 2003, at 19:07:20
In reply to ADDERALL USERS PLEASE READ!!!!!!!!! , posted by Dolewhite on February 7, 2003, at 18:54:55
it's going to be fine forever. no tolerance unless it's abused.
Posted by cybercafe on February 7, 2003, at 19:15:51
In reply to adderall, posted by utopizen on February 7, 2003, at 19:07:20
so are most people with serious ADD unemployed?
and when you start taking a stim, how long does it take before you can start working?
Posted by JohnDoenut on February 7, 2003, at 22:30:14
In reply to ADDERALL USERS PLEASE READ!!!!!!!!! , posted by Dolewhite on February 7, 2003, at 18:54:55
> My question is, are there any adults who have taken Adderall for a while? What is it like ? Does it work? Do you build up a tolerance after a while? I've read that it works wonders for about 2 years then it kind of goes downhill from there. Whats your opinion?
>First of all I think it varies from person to person. From what I've read it is possible to build up a tolerance to any drug but of course that all depends on the drug and a person's individual body chemistry. One thing I read said that the brain attempts to reach equilibrium so that if you take a drug which increases a particular neurotransmitter, the brain will eventually compensate by creating more receptors. Thus the drug is not as effective anymore and one needs to try something else. A couple good books to read which talk about this is Driven To Distraction and Answers to Distraction. I think one is mentioned in the books section here.
Personally adderal was working well for me but then recently I underwent some sort of mood or biorythm change and it started making my sleepy instead of alert. So I started taking ritalin instead and Im doing fine on that. I still have the adderall and may use it again after I've given it a rest and maybe the ritalin seems to not work as well at some point. So you might as well just try it and as long as it works then you're fine!
J
Posted by viridis on February 8, 2003, at 0:48:43
In reply to ADDERALL USERS PLEASE READ!!!!!!!!! , posted by Dolewhite on February 7, 2003, at 18:54:55
I've taken Adderall for over a year, at a pretty low dose. Typically I take 5 mg in the morning, and often another 5 mg a few hours later. It works very well, and I haven't had to increase the dose; the only change has been that I tend to space the two doses closer together than I did initially.
I haven't detected any tolerance yet. I do skip it for a day or two here and there and haven't had any withdrawal etc. My pdoc likes this approach, because he says it tends to reduce the chances of tolerance developing. I haven't experienced any of the "crashes" etc. that some people here have reported, maybe because I'm on such a low dose.
Adderall has been a very useful drug for me for ADD, and also has a strong antidepressant effect, so I recommend it highly.
Posted by Craig Allen on February 8, 2003, at 16:08:30
In reply to ADDERALL USERS PLEASE READ!!!!!!!!! , posted by Dolewhite on February 7, 2003, at 18:54:55
i'm on 20mg of adderall 3 times per day, along with 225mg of effexor daily. this is my second time on adderall. both times it has pooped out relatively quickly, in terms of mood lift. this time, i've been on it for two weeks, and it has already significantly pooped out. it still does a good job of keeping me from daytime sleep which is the reason i was put on it to begin with. what i found in the beginning was that it was great for my depression/anhedonia too. it made me feel like doing things. this effect has almost completely gone away in two weeks. perhaps it has something to do with the high dosage i require. by the way, the other thing about adderall is that it was extremely difficult to come off of. i had the most miserable, depression filled 2 weeks after i stopped the medication. i mean awful. i dread having to go through it again. anyone else have this? i felt like i needed to go back on it though after i was unable to stay awake at work every day. it's the only drug i've been on that keeps me from drowsiness.
Posted by Cindylou on February 8, 2003, at 22:21:54
In reply to Re: ADDERALL USERS PLEASE READ!!!!!!!!! , posted by Craig Allen on February 8, 2003, at 16:08:30
Adderall is a heartbreaker for me. I react very strangely to it because I develop a tolerance extremely quickly -- after only a couple of days. The bummer is that it works GREAT for the first couple of days, then stops working, then I get MORE tired, and if I try to increase the dose I get very sick.
I take very low doses -- usually 5 mg. I recently tried 10 mg. sustained release to see if it would make a difference, and the same thing happened -- worked great one day, not as well the next, then not at all. I thought maybe more would be better, so I tried 15 mg., and was so sick for two days it felt like I had the stomach flu. I also get quite depressed the day after taking Adderall.
I know I just need to stop trying it, but it works so well at first that I just keep hoping against hope it will somehow work for me.
I am not your typical Adderall user, that's for sure. I am very med-sensitive. My husband has been on it for two years -- 20 mg. -- and doing fine on it, but he also gets depressed and fatigued if he skips a dose.
Good luck to you.
cindy.
> i'm on 20mg of adderall 3 times per day, along with 225mg of effexor daily. this is my second time on adderall. both times it has pooped out relatively quickly, in terms of mood lift. this time, i've been on it for two weeks, and it has already significantly pooped out. it still does a good job of keeping me from daytime sleep which is the reason i was put on it to begin with. what i found in the beginning was that it was great for my depression/anhedonia too. it made me feel like doing things. this effect has almost completely gone away in two weeks. perhaps it has something to do with the high dosage i require. by the way, the other thing about adderall is that it was extremely difficult to come off of. i had the most miserable, depression filled 2 weeks after i stopped the medication. i mean awful. i dread having to go through it again. anyone else have this? i felt like i needed to go back on it though after i was unable to stay awake at work every day. it's the only drug i've been on that keeps me from drowsiness.
Posted by Festus on February 8, 2003, at 22:55:11
In reply to Re: ADDERALL USERS PLEASE READ!!!!!!!!! , posted by Cindylou on February 8, 2003, at 22:21:54
I,too,had similar effects as you guys(Craig,Cindy)where the drug did a good job the first few days,then it just seemed to feel like I drank a pot of black coffee or something.It felt sorta like being sickly and jittery.I switched to Dexedrine Spansule caps and they work pretty well with a lot less "crash-effect" when it wears off.Have ya,ll tried them? Festus
Posted by Cindylou on February 9, 2003, at 18:35:05
In reply to Re: ADDERALL USERS PLEASE READ!!!!!!!!! , posted by Festus on February 8, 2003, at 22:55:11
Hi Festus,
Thanks for the tip on Dexedrine. Awhile ago, I mentioned it to my old pdoc but she seemed to think I'd react the same way to all stims (since the same thing happened on Ritilin and Provigil). Still, I've often wondered if Dex might work for me. With your input, I will run it by my NEW pdoc and see if I can give it a try. thanks!
cindy> I,too,had similar effects as you guys(Craig,Cindy)where the drug did a good job the first few days,then it just seemed to feel like I drank a pot of black coffee or something.It felt sorta like being sickly and jittery.I switched to Dexedrine Spansule caps and they work pretty well with a lot less "crash-effect" when it wears off.Have ya,ll tried them? Festus
Posted by Craig Allen on February 9, 2003, at 20:04:31
In reply to Re: ADDERALL USERS PLEASE READ!!!!!!!!! » Festus, posted by Cindylou on February 9, 2003, at 18:35:05
i've never tried dex. i didn't respond at all to concerta, and provigil made me jittery and gave me a headache. my assumption has been the same as cindy's doc (previous post) - that my response to dex wouldn't be any different than my response to adderall. i haven't found an "activating" drug yet that doesn't poop out quickly, as the adderall has. so i doubt that dex would be any different in terms of its lasting effect. any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
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