Anyone take adderall for a long period of time?

[KingGheedora]

Anyone here take it on a regular basis to treat ADD/ADHD?

I was thinking about going to get tested to see if I might have ADD/ADHD (i'm pretty convinced after reading a lot of online material that I do have it but of course I can't diagnose myself). Is Adderall very addictive? How common is it for people who are prescribed adderall to become tolerant, have to increase their dose, and then become addicted later on? I read some random forum posts about this from google search results and I'm not sure if it's just fear mongering by people who don't know what they're talking about.

Right now I'm just toying with the idea of going in to get tested for ADD/ADHD (or whatever the proper term for this is now) but the concern above has been bouncing around in my thoughts once I found out the stuff is some kind of amphetamine. How different is it from meth? Maybe that's a dumb question but I don't know shit about drugs.

 

[KingGheedora]

Sorry, didn't finish my thoughts, got side tracked by the tangent of the addictiveness and didn't finish my questions (see?...)

So what I wanted to know was if you've been taking it on regular basis for more than a year or two, how has your life changed? Has it had a positive impact on your life overall? Has your productivity at work/school improved? Have there been any negative effects?

I don't really care to hear from the people who take it once in a while to cram for tests. That's fine and all but I am inquiring specifically about taking it on a regular basis.

 

[zanejohnson]

Sorry, didn't finish my thoughts, got side tracked by the tangent of the addictiveness and didn't finish my questions (see?...)

So what I wanted to know was if you've been taking it on regular basis for more than a year or two, how has your life changed? Has it had a positive impact on your life overall? Has your productivity at work/school improved? Have there been any negative effects?

I don't really care to hear from the people who take it once in a while to cram for tests. That's fine and all but I am inquiring specifically about taking it on a regular basis.

it's amphetamine salts, or methylphenidate...cant remember which is which nowdays.. either ways it's an amphetamine/strong stimulant....

you'll love it, as for long term effects, you'll get used to it, learn to be able to eat/sleep on it.. but yeah, it's speed....

 

[yhelothar]

Amphetamine is a helluva drug.

I was prescribed methylphenidate(ritalin) once. I had the most intense manic episodes and flight of ideas. I felt insanely intuitive and concepts seemed to connect so effortlessly. I sat there writing for 5-10 hrs a day for the week I was on it. Had a followup with the doctor and he said if you really had ADD, your mind would feel dulled and you'd feel somewhat tired from these intense stimulants. It's supposed to calm down their racecar like brains so they can focus at one thing at a time. He subsequently declared I didn't have ADD and discontinued my medication.

Adderall is pure amphetamine. Most claim it's stronger and it is supposed to be a second generation drug over ritalin. Personally, adderall has quite a bit of euphoria added compared to the ritalin and actually feels like a 2/3rd strength MDMA(ecstasy) dosage, but I've heard people getting quite the opposite of effects with ritalin being euphoric and adderall not being euphoric.

As for increasing your productivity, it does do so quite well, as it's a strong ass friggen stimulant. Caffeine would work similarly.

Personally, I don't like to take it. It still feels like a very potent drug, with quite a strong come down. You would certainly build a dependency on it if taken daily.

 

[TruePaige]

If I were you I would look into Straterra. It's like adderall without all the addictive qualities, it would be a much better start for your ADD than amphetamines. If that doesn't do enough THEN try the hard stuff.

The doctor will probably just give you a month or so worth of samples for it if you ask, Eli Lily throws that stuff out like candy from a parade float.

 

[KingGheedora]

Amphetamine is a helluva drug.

I was prescribed methylphenidate(ritalin) once. I had the most intense manic episodes and flight of ideas. I felt insanely intuitive and concepts seemed to connect so effortlessly. I sat there writing for 5-10 hrs a day for the week I was on it. Had a followup with the doctor and he said if you really had ADD, your mind would feel dulled and you'd feel somewhat tired from these intense stimulants. It's supposed to calm down their racecar like brains so they can focus at one thing at a time. He subsequently declared I didn't have ADD and discontinued my medication.

Adderall is pure amphetamine. Most claim it's stronger and it is supposed to be a second generation drug over ritalin. Personally, adderall has quite a bit of euphoria added compared to the ritalin and actually feels like a 2/3rd strength MDMA(ecstasy) dosage, but I've heard people getting quite the opposite of effects with ritalin being euphoric and adderall not being euphoric.

As for increasing your productivity, it does do so quite well, as it's a strong ass friggen stimulant. Caffeine would work similarly.

Personally, I don't like to take it. It still feels like a very potent drug, with quite a strong come down. You would certainly build a dependency on it if taken daily.

I'm a bit confused now. How is dulling someone's mind supposed to help the symptoms of ADD? Seems a bit strange that the drug helped you out with your symptoms but they decided to pull the plug on it. I read something about paradoxical effect, is this what that refers to? So the effect that random college kids (intense focus, ability to focus on intense academic or work related tasks for long periods of time) get from Adderall completely different than what ADD people get from it?

 

[cardiac]

It is kind of like the effect that narcotics have on severe pain. Someone who wants to take morphine sulfate for a high will get that high and a great euphoric effect. Someone with severe burns or broken bones, etc., can get 20mg of morphine and all it does is dull their pain, with no real "high". Same way with ADD folks. My son has been on Adderal XR for about 4 years and functions fine at school with it. He could not focus without it. It does dull his personality down just a little. He seems to be more "creative" when he is NOT on it. He comes off of it all summer, and he says that he has no withdrawal, so to speak.
He really struggled in school before he started on it.

Bob

 

[yhelothar]

Yup that's what the paradoxical effect is. As I mentioned, people with ADD are often described to have racecar like brains whose mind jumps from topic to topic without proper control of executive function from the prefrontal cortex that mediates attention, arousal, and planning. I'm not exactly sure why people with ADD would feel sedated with the amphetamines, but as my doctor explained it, this sedation supposedly helps slow the brain down so it could focus on one thing.

But from what I learned in neuropharm, it does stimulate the normally underactive prefrontal cortex that is associated with ADD, although I don't understand why that would create sedative effects.

Another thing I would add is that lifestyle may play a major role in ADD, despite popular beliefs that ADD is genetic. ADD is very commonly linked to thrill seeking and sexual addictions. But the common viewpoint is that ADD creates the desire for thrill seeking/sexual addictions. However, it is also shown that overstimulation from risk taking and sexual addictions do produce symptoms of ADD.

Nutrition may be another aspect I'd look into. Improper diets/infrequent meals may cause drops in dopamine levels that would also produce ADD symptoms. You'd want to make sure you're getting 3 meals a day with adequate protein in each meal to minimize these drops. Protein contains the amino acids that are precursors to your neurotransmitters. I've found that supplementing on phenyalanine, the precursor to dopamine did provide some benefit to my concentration abilities during cramming, however it could have been a placebo.

 

[destrekor]

It is kind of like the effect that narcotics have on severe pain. Someone who wants to take morphine sulfate for a high will get that high and a great euphoric effect. Someone with severe burns or broken bones, etc., can get 20mg of morphine and all it does is dull their pain, with no real "high". Same way with ADD folks. My son has been on Adderal XR for about 4 years and functions fine at school with it. He could not focus without it. It does dull his personality down just a little. He seems to be more "creative" when he is NOT on it. He comes off of it all summer, and he says that he has no withdrawal, so to speak.
He really struggled in school before he started on it.

Bob

That's fairly accurate.

Most people can actually be classified ADD in some manner or another, but whether its clinical, low [specific] Neurotransmitter levels, is a whole different subject.

Most college students can benefit from ADD stimulant medications, but even then, sometimes caffeine doesn't do anything for some people, or has a nasty effect instead of the stimulant properties. But stimulants will bring energy and focus to just about anyone, simply based on the way the stimulants interact with specific Neurotransmitters.

For the clinical ADD/ADHD, specific stimulants have an odd reaction. Those who can clinically be diagnosed as having ADD/ADHD often have an imbalance of Neurotransmitters, and for this disorder, specific drugs in the stimulant class of chemicals can jump in and help right the brain's NT imbalance. Norepinephrine (noradrenaline), dopamine, and serotonin levels, specifically, iirc, are the NTs thought to be responsible for ADD/ADHD when they are imbalanced together.
Why ADHD kids have intense energy and a stimulant can bring them down to "normal", hell if I know. ADD, on the other hand, is a little bit different of an animal, because often when the brain is wired one odd way, those wires cause imbalances elsewhere. People with clinical ADD have a moderate-to-high chance of having clinical depression too (and everything isn't Yes or No, varying degrees of all symptoms from random NT imbalances). A stimulant for those people, I don't quite know why something like amphetamine turns their volume knob down a bit, but it does help bring their attention and focusing-ability into baseline levels, and for those individuals that is like a much-welcomed boost in attention span.
For us mildly-normal folks, that normal level doesn't work for us, because we've had it for so long. So intense periods of insane focus due to stimulants, is awesome.

I'm starting to think I don't have clinical ADD, because yep, amphetamine just doesn't "change" me, I just get mildly euphoric (very mild) and have an itch to do SOMETHING, with a great ability to concentrate on whatever I'm doing. Sadly, the procrastination bug sticks around, so I'll use that "itch" to do whatever I can possibly do that ISN'T what I need to do.
And then I focus so damn sharply on whatever I'm doing, time ticks away. But eventually I usually get to the point of "damn, I'm on this drug, I need to do what I said I was going to do". If it's a paper, I typically don't have much of an issue getting around to it, but rarely does a paper cause me much issue without Adderall. It's the reading a lot of pages to study/review, or doing something else to review for a test, that I just keep pushing away. When I get around to it, Adderall keeps me locked in once doing it, but I still battle the procrastination bug no matter what I throw into my body.

I've basically concluded I don't have ADD but rather have an inability to care/desire to do what I want/lacking self discipline. I hate myself for it because I've yet to win out, sometimes I get good times where getting things done just happens and feels natural, and other times where I have fight myself every minute, and eventually I fall off the horse and nef or aimlessly run around the internets.

And I'm glad I can't get a prescription for Adderall because I wouldn't want it to around me. I take enough shit to try and keep myself going throughout the day, I don't want a prescribed and controlled substance daily just to get things done. I like it for the cram session where I need to pull an all nighter (and for all-nighters, it's perfect because it just feels like I am awake in the day, no real extra stimulant effects), or an extra leg to tackle a huge task/project in a day... but haven't had any of those in awhile (maybe I'm not stressing enough lately), and haven't needed to find anything.

 

[Modelworks]

The problem with all drugs like Adderall is that you will build up a tolerance over time. That usually leads to increasing the dosage so it can be a problem of 6 months 20mg, couple more months 30mg, then 30mg x 2, etc.

 

[TruePaige]

If you have ADD/ADHD, these stimulants tend to calm you down and help to focus your attention, whereas if someone without ADD takes a recreational stimulant they're physically and mentally jumping all over the place. The ADD/ADHD brain has areas of under-activity primarily in the prefrontal cortices. Anyway, the lack of activity in the prefrontal cortices is the reason why our train of thought is always jumping tracks, if not crashing outright. Nature abhors a vacuum, right? So the brain makes up for that under-activity with extra activity elsewhere, thus the hyperactivity part of ADHD. The ADD meds go right to the prefrontal cortices and generally boost the activity everywhere, but mainly, when they work correctly, where there's not enough activity. Thus activity in the brain is smoothed out and regulated and there's no need to be hyperactive in one place because you're not under-active anywhere else. And with normal brain activity you can keep a train of thought going. It's easy to extrapolate from here how someone without ADD will be boosted and how someone with ADD will see a bit of a "slump" as other parts of the brain stop overcompensating.

CAR ANALOGY:

To use a somewhat flawed analogy of a car with a misfiring cylinder, the one or two cylinders that aren't firing correctly are the under-active parts of the brain, while the ones causing the annoying backfires, knocks and bangs are the hyperactive parts of the brain. The ADD meds smooth out the activity of your brain so everything runs at the same level of activity. The trick is just making sure you're not revving too fast all the time.