Hello, I wrote a small novel as my first post that contains more details about my situation so I'll keep this brief; I've was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 7 and have been fighting a losing battle with depression up to this day since I was 9 (I'm 23) and have been treating myself for depression, recently realized it may be ADHD is my problem. I got re-diagnosed with ADHD and plan on convincing (not that it'll take much convincing I think) my psychiatrist to prescribe me Adderall as people I've spoken to who use it/have used it sound exactly like me in their focusing issues and it helps them.
I told myself I hated reading when I was younger but as I've matured I've rephrased it to "I understand reading is important but I just don't do it" to now "I wish I could stand to read because I'm losing out on so much knowledge, but I can't even read for more than 5 to 10 minutes before I get bored and need to do something else." Same thing with exercise, I just get bored and want to do something else despite understanding how important or beneficial it is to me, whether that be reading or exercising or learning a new skill. I don't learn well unless a person is explaining things to me and I'm fiddling with the subject hands-on and absorbing the information. You could teach me how to build for example, a nice wooden chair, verbally and hands on, but if you just tell me the steps or outline the process or tell me to read a book on wood working I'll most likely try, fail once, get frustrated and abandon the endeavor. This is essentially the dominating factor of my failures in life so far and Adderall seems like a blessing. If it isn't, what do you think might be the solution? Thanks in advance.
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Caltic
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This is my 1st post/reply for this site ever! I feel that I must share my story, & hope that you will look into other alternative meds that are actually safer than adderall... I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 12, I was prescribed Ritalin which I took off & on even thru college years, along with Wellbutrin... Ok so I married my high school sweetheart & had 2 kids together, 10 yrs later, we got divorced ( it’s a long story which I plan to write book about one day) 2 years later I met this wonderful guy, my kids loved him & we took our time & didn’t rush into anything but after dating for 2 yrs we finally go married which has been such a blessing cause I’m a strong believer in 2nd chances... ok, I’m trying to get off Adderall & having such a hard time with admitting that it’s been more a problem than a solution health wise... If I could go back in time 5 years ago before I started Adderall I would slap myself & never took that 1st pill... Now, I’m not gonna lie, it did help me a lot with focus, concentration, seemed to balance me where I needed to be at first... But, because of what it contains there are side effects that sneak up on u too... at least it did for me...
I’m 41 & when I turned 39 I got my 1st cavity along with 5 others!!! I take good care of my teeth, brush floss 3x daily take vitamins but it don’t help with dry mouth which is what caused the cavities along with poor adsorption of the vitamins I was taken... I had lost a lot of weight thanks to not having much of an appitite but I still ate... Just not enough... Then, I started having these bone chills at night in my hands & feet so I wear gloves, 2 pairs of thick socks & use a heating pad every night for over a year now... again another negative side effect from adderall, it can cause poor circulation to your extremities : mainly hands & feet... there is an actual diagnosis for it called Raynaud's Disease, usually folks in Alaska suffer from it not Alabama! Then I started losing my hair! So Ive been wearing wig toppers to hide it.. So after talking this over with my primary physician, My OBGYN doc, my dentist & my therapist it’s been decided to slowly & safely get down to a low dose of adderall then switch to a different medication called Vyvanse... I’m hanging in there, I’ve went from 40mg to 20mg & will be placed on 10mg soon! Coming off of it has been complete hell! I crash & Sleep like forever, I’m very very depressed but again like I said this is part of the withdrawals... And just glad I’m almost there, I’m hoping that the Vyvanse will be a great alternative med to help me with my severe ADHD! I hope my story helps u in some way.... Again, I understand everyone is different & what happened to me won’t hapen to you but “What If”
Thanks for the information, it sounds like you're almost over the hill as far as coming off it goes. I wish you luck kicking it 100%. I'll take that into consideration moving forward, if it does not benefit me at a 10mg I may not try it further in an effort to avoid side effects. I've had negative side effects from SSRI's that sneaked up on me as the dosage got higher (erectile dysfunction from Prozac when I was 18, not fun) and I'll be particularly cautious with adderall.
YW😊 I wish the best of luck to you & hope whatever medication that you end up taking helps you in every way including maintaining your Health now & your future! Thank you for reply & encouragement! I’m much better at trying to help others rather than myself but in this situation I must continue to do what’s best for me... Life is too short... I use to be so embarrassed about being ADHD but I’ve came to terms that’s part of who I am but I’m not gonna let it define me.. And “Time Management” ugh! If anyone throws that at u just tell them to take their micromanagement issue & shove it where the sun don’t shine! Lol...
I get cold feet as well when I take adderall or concerta, it causes me to have poor circulation. Plus I get sore muscles and sprains very easily. I feel your pain about the side effects issues.
Fair warning: Vyvanse metabolizes into the same amphetamine compounds present in Adderall—it's simply a “prodrug”, rather than the drug itself, with the primary advantage of being harder to process into illicit, street drugs (so it might be less likely to get stolen).
I had to switch from lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse) to methylphenidate (specifically, Concerta, but marketed as generic by Actavis) to stop side effects like dry mouth, excess hair loss, and difficulty sustaining expectation of reward enough to “perform” sexually. (Could only remain erect during REM sleep or between about 5AM and my next, morning dose—bad news for relationships.)
Yep. There's believed to be a subtle difference in how the two types of compounds act in the synapse that I reasoned could account for the unwanted persistence of cognitive effects; and the other side effects turned out to improve as well.
Of course, “your mileage may vary”; and the tendency for stimuli to be less enticing is part of the intended effect: I just wanted that not to persist quite so long after the medication wore off, at night, because the consequences were bad for an important relationship.
I definitely understand that, I had a similar issue from Prozac when I was 17, psych kept upping my dose because it wasn't having a primary effect and I noticed ED started to set in the higher it got and I never really bounced back from it for a few years. I'll keep the alternative in mind if I begin to suffer any side effects.
SSRIs cause ED for a slightly different reason: they mimic the state following an orgasm or large meal, keeping the system in a perpetual refractory state. I once had a similar reaction to a poorly-chosen diabetic medication that drove my already-high insulin levels higher, forcing my brain to absorb enough glucose to substantially elevate my serotonin levels.
What this and my difficulty on Vyvanse had in common was “morning wood” that wilted promptly as vestiges of REM paralysis faded—evidence that can lead a partner to interpret failure to respond as disinterest or even a sign of cheating.
The more insidious problem with treating depression consequent to living with ADHD instead of ADHD itself is that SSRIs now used for such can make ADHD worse: raising serotonin level lowers dopamine release (and vice-versa, for that matter). Indeed, the aforementioned diabetic-medication episode also afflicted me with a crippling “brain fog” that felt like having been made pathologically stupid.
Sustained release of any neurotransmitter also lowers sensitivity of its own receptors. That's also why reuptake inhibitors sometimes produce less tolerance and weaker side effects than releasing agents—and is precisely what is believed to be the difference in mechanism between methylphenidate and amphetamine.
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