So the Adderall 10mg ended up being too much on my heart and I had to get off it. Too many dizzy spells and heart palpitations. Now I’m on straterra 40mg and I’m waiting for my insurance to approve an increase.
I had a literal emotional breakdown when I got my diagnosis. It was quite literally life changing for me.
Before diagnosis?
I was plagued with a feeling of brokenness — why does it take me 10x longer to learn concepts than it takes my peers, even when I’m attempting to apply all the same strategies? Why is it so dang hard for me to commit to a single project, and why do I spend weeks obsessing over a project only to suddenly lose interest and never touch it again? Why do I have such a visceral reaction to the smallest, friendliest amount of criticism? Why does that person keep making that tiny paper noise while I’m trying to complete my exam — wait, what was the question asking? Let me re-read itAGAIN.
After diagnosis?
Validation! Holy cow is the validation game changing. I no longer had to blame myself for just not trying hard enough. I was trying plenty hard; however, the tools and strategies that work for neurotypical brains don’t necessarily work for my brain! And that’s perfectly okay. As well, I discovered that my anxiety and depression were symptoms, and as I treated my ADHD and developed coping mechanisms around it, I no longer wanted to die.
Of course, the armchair psychiatrists among my friends and family do sometimes try and chime in to tell me that Adderall is bad(derall), and that’s certainly infuriating; however, f*ck em. I don’t care what they think – they’re clearly not thinking rationally if they see me taking Adderall carefully as prescribed (which they see as me ”basically doing meth” – a deeply misguided and inaccurate view) as worse than quite literally trying to kill myself, and they don’t deserve to have a say – it’s my body and my mind, so I can do what I want.
So… yeah. I’m a big advocate for getting assessed for ADHD if you think you may have it. Does a diagnosis mean you have to medicate? Absolutely not. I prefer not to medicate unless it’s absolutely necessary – my Adderall crash is always draining, so I am nevermotivated to abuse the medication. But when I do take it? All of the internal thought-clutter calms to a hush, the world comes to me more clearly, I am able to find a calm within myself that I never before knew existed, and I can just be. Like, I can just think without interruption. Wow! Clarity of mind is the most incredible feeling. It’s not even a high. It’s just… absence of chaos.
Rant about drugs,addicts, & users. (Trust me y’all…. I have a lot more to say on this subject)
I came across this & its so f*cking true. Been saying it for years!!
To start, I TOTALLY understand addiction & how drugs CAN be bad. I watched it firsthand with my family multiple times! But drugs doesn’t always mean bad.
Ppl think It’s ok to do Coke, Molly, Pills, etc., but if U do something like Meth then ur instantly judged & ppl look at u totally different.
Example!!! I take Adderall which is just pure amphetamines (a super strong upper) that’s in pill form. No harm right?!
Well… What if I told u that METHamphetamine is the SAMETHING as my Adderall, except it has ONE extra Methyl group in it?! Still ok?
TONS of ppl use Adderall recreationally but its fine cuz it’s a prescription. But Meth, the street version of Adderall, is just horrible&disgusting.
I’mNOT saying to do drugs either. Meth & other drugs CAN be devastating on u/ur life!!! I’ve witnessed that countless times..
But ppl need to learn it’s NOT the drug doing this. It’s the USER&HOW they use it! Ppl can be 100% functional & normal while they use Meth/something else daily, weekly, etc. & you’d never know. They keep it a secret so they’re not judged/labeled as “lowlife addicts.”
A dhit ton of lawyers,DR’s,nurses,CEOs,celebrities, etc. do drugs (especially uppers like Meth) but they use it as a TOOL to get ahead, be productive, etc. Not using for an “escape” or to “feel good.”
We need to STOP viewing certain drugs, it’s addicts, & it’s users in a bad light. Addicts/users are NOT any less then us. They’re NOTworthless.
It’s not fair to judge someone because they sin differently then you do.
Drugs are DRUGS, so stop stereotyping. A meth user doesn’t always have rotted teeth & bugs crawling under their skin. Im sure u get the picture.
*NOTE*
I’mNOT condoning or supporting drugs, implying drugs are safe, or that ppl can avoid addiction or a shitty life. I just hate how certain ppl view addicts, users, & drugs in general. Addiction CAN happen to anyone. No ones immune. It takes a lot of self control to use substances without addiction & that’s not even guaranteed. Almost everyone in my family had or has a drug problem. Ppl I love have OD’d.
If you choose to use drugs, just know I will NOT judge you or look at you any less.
Justbe safe,be smart, don’t harm others, and dont think ur limitless.
I’ve been put on Adderall instead of Vyvanse. It was not my intention to switch medications; I wanted to increase the dose of Vyvanse.
It’s not a problem. The Adderall doesn’t cause that sudden silence in my head like the Vyvanse, but I was never sold on that part of it. An interesting sensation for sure, but not one I’d enjoy every day.
I feel awake and calm. I have no appetite at all, which is not great because I get hangry even with no appetite.
Any tips for bruxism with ADHD meds? I have ordered a night guard which looks awful but I’ll have to for now, I know it’s not good to keep grinding your teeth long term, but I finally had a medication regime that was working noticeably well for me for the first time in about 8 years
Has anyone managed to keep taking them and not wear a night guard? Because I have a feeling I’m gonna hate that for multiple reasons including sensory. It’s not just gonna go away because I realise now I’ve been doing this a while and I’ve been on the meds a while. The meds can chill my mind out a lot but at the end of the day a stimulant does what it does to your body and can still tense some parts. Add my regular stress/anxiety to that and I cannot freaking un-tense.
If you read this far then I’ll take the opportunity to turn this into one of those posts that reminds you to relax your jaw and shoulders.
Read the research: “After legal speed started its comeback as a treatment for Attention Deficit Disorder, The Journal of Neuroscience published a study that functioned as a polite tap on the shoulder. Amphetamine and methamphetamine, the researchers wrote, are “about equipotent” and “produce qualitatively similar behavioral responses.” Both excite the central nervous system in nearly identical ways, flooding and blocking dopamine, serotonin, and adrenaline receptors. Also, meth is meth is meth. The brain responds the same whether it’s produced by the Sinaloa boys and slung by the gram-baggie as glass, or made by Lundbeck Inc. and sold in orange bottles at CVS as the meth-based ADHD drug Desoxyn®.” Link to the study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/7869099/
(Although I would imagine that the risk of contamination is much less with the pharmaceutical version. ). But still, you are giving your kid meth, basically.
“Anyone seeking to understand the treachery behind today’s medical-industrial ADHD complex should begin with Nicolas Rasmussen’s essential history, On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine. Rasmussen, a science historian at the University of South Wales, tells a story that ought to inform every media treatment of the subject, but never does. When it comes to speed, the national amnesia is stronger than crank. Ryan D’Agostino’s recent Esquire feature about ADHD, “The Drugging of the American Boy,” dispatched with the history of speed in two references: 1955, the year Ritalin was patented, and 1987, when the American Psychiatric Association codified ADHD (as opposed to ADD). Otherwise, it’s as if we just discovered fire.” - Alexander Zaitchik
Also recommended by Zaitchik: “Alan Schwarz’s damning December 2013 New York Times investigation, “The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder.” The story exposed pharma’s systematic decades-long efforts to expand the market and appeal of ADHD drugs.”
“The clinical literature on speed isn’t very large, and that has something to do with the fact that pharma funds much of the research, then decides what gets released to the public. When independent reports do come out, like the American Heart Association study linking speed use to a more than tripled risk of a torn aorta—which leads to a gruesome and fast death—the conclusions don’t get much attention.” - Zaitchik
“The first time someone handed me 30 milligrams of Adderall, I wasn’t expecting much. As a connoisseur of crank, I thought it would be closer to the caffeine study pills we crushed up back in the more innocent ‘90s. Isn’t this the stuff they’re giving all those third-graders? How strong could it be?
"Strong. My first pharma high was on par with any bathtub crank I ever bought in a Bratislava train station. It was just cleaner, with smoother slopes. After my first taste test, I never did “bad” speed again.” - Zaitchik
“For those who have never taken speed, it’s difficult to convey the seriousness of a public health disaster—and the depths of its underlying corruption—that results in healthy college students taking 90 daily milligrams of amphetamine salts under blasé doctor’s orders. At 90 milligrams a day, the question is not if the person will eventually experience some form of speed psychosis, but what grade and when. Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady would have struggled to keep up with today’s Generation Speed.” -Zaitchik
Watch the videos from Neuropsychpharmacologist Carl Hart to learn more.
Know that acupuncture can help with addiction!!! But you might need daily acupuncture if you “used” daily.
Adderall XR is $49.69 with GoodRx. Unbelievable. I had just started getting used to it being free with insurance after my former doctor had done some finagling. I was paying about $70 out of pocket for it before.
Now with no insurance and no job, I’m kinda screwed. All of my meds together cost $96.86. Almost $100 a fucking month for pills, and that’s not even counting birth control.
