Ive been a heavy drinker for 20 years. Alcohol stimulates me and helps me get housework done. I recently realized I was abusing alcohol to treat my ADD. No one believes me when I say it stimulates me because alcohol is a depressant.
I decided to treat the ADD with a dr help instead of myself. So, far everything Ive tried makes me drowsy. No one believes me because Adderall is a stimulant! Lol!
Now that I am taking the adderall, the alcohol is more of a depressant and I don't get the energy from it any more and don't enjoy drinking like I used to, which is AWESOME!! Has anyone else experienced this? To be clear - I am not talking about taking adderall and alcohol together. I take it in the morning and then at night have a drink and I drink drastically smaller amounts than I used to and am less obsessive.
Also, I have read the lethargy when ON medication means you need a higher dose. Is that true or does it mean you don't actually need the medication??
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I think it may be (at least partly), due to the fact that you may be sleep deprived. Let me explain. Many people with ADHD have sleep issues too and possibly undiagnosed sleep apnea. When you take your stims, it shuts off all the “voices” and you can focus on your current state…and if the state that you’re in is “sleep deprivation”, then that’s what you’ll want to do. You may want to look into a sleep study to rule out sleep apnea which is quite common, and I bet you’ll get some interesting results. Also, if you drink at night before bed, there’s a very high likelihood that your sleep is very inefficient…same goes with caffeine after 2pm (for some even after 11am will mess with their sleep). But I would focus on restful sleep to get to the bottom of why the stims make you tired…
This interests me. I don't drink often and when I did in the past I would be stimulated. The party goer with endless energy until I drank beyond my body's tolerance and would crash. I recently began taking meds for adhd and at first I felt like I was talking a lot but that subsided after an hour or so. I don't know if this was because I was more aware of how much I talk. I have noticed that I yawn more over the course of the day on meds. I notice someone wrote about having poorer sleep. I feel that I have always slept well, on or off on meds, although according to my fitbit, my quality of sleep (REM in particular) is better when I don't take them. Have you taken your meds for long? It's still early days for me. I'm reluctant to take a higher dose and I do worry about building a tolerance and the meds being less effective.
Its strange how chemicals can affect people differently. I have only been on them a few months. I tried Concerta first and when it would kick in I would lay down and sleep for 2 hours. I was staying up late then though. The Adderall isn't nearly as bad as the concerta. At first the Dr said the Concerta was too strong and that was why I was tired. But I take higher doses of adderall and do great. But she only prescribed 20 mg of adderall.
Yes it is strange. I always, always wondered why I seemed different to my friends and others. I am on 36mg of Xaggitin XL. I don't take it until lunch time because it wears off after about 8 hours and that's no use to me in the afternoon/early evening. I use coffee to get me through the morning. I have a med review tomorrow so hopefully I can get some advice/answers regarding what's best going forward. I have been on SSRIs since my teens and I believe this was partially due to misdiagnosis but also overlap of symptoms so now I'm wondering if I should even be on the ssri. I might post this as a question actually.
I have learned so much about myself in the last few weeks. Please read ‘my story’. Understanding that stimulation was actually calming me was a huge one. I self medicated at night with weed for the last 30 years to help turn off my brain. Never realizing it was working against ADHD meds. And to GXT9999’s points, my sleep also probably suffered.
Thank you so much for sharing! I relate to a lot of what you said!
I tried to start a home cooking business this past winter and wow!! Yes - I felt like I was on an episode of Chopped everyday and racing against the clock. But I could NOT figure out a way to make things more efficient. I was doing it all by myself and everyday was sane. I was taking my husbands Adderall and I felt like it almost things worse because then I couldn't multitask.
The RSD is a biggie for me too. And I am really seeing how much ADHD has affected my whole life. My impulsive nature and I used to be slutty. I STRUGGLED in school even though I am pretty smart and love to learn new things. I cried about school every year from Kindergarten until I graduated from college at 30.
Life and being happy has just been hard. I have no self esteem because of struggling in school and no being able to meet the high expectations of my parents. Ive been told Im lazy, don't try, rebellious, etc. All I ever wanted was to do well and be accepted.
Will you tell more about why talking about your feelings is a really hard thing for you? Ive been googling this and can't find anything. Ive been in 12 step recovery and my sponsor wants me to talk to her all the time about my feelings and I don't want to. Like just flat don't want to. I don't get any relief doing it. I don't really like to talk. I really don't like talking about myself and my feelings.
Let me start my saying I am not a therapist. There is a lot to unpack here. I was also reserved when it came to opening up or discussing certain topics. I am able to learn more about my behaviors and why I react a certain way. I’m working on recognizing different triggers and my feelings/reactions to them. This has helped me to reframe my thought process and how I feel about myself. I’m still in the beginning of my journey but do feel I’m headed on the right path. Do not beat yourself up. Personally I think you sound pretty cool and that you are moving in the right direction.
For me, I think it is a combination of RSD and Emotional Dysregulation. I am not very good at understanding what I am feeling, or how to put it into words. Then the sharing part is harder because of my perceived thoughts that I might upset or be criticized, or falling short on their expectations or even rejection. I struggle with some really unimportant things that I shouldn't have an issue sharing with my wife. My "anxiety" is low with those items, but when it is a more important subject, I really freeze up and shut down. And it really is all based on my perception of how the person my react, which is probably way off.
It reminds me of when I was married (I'm divorced now) and how I dreaded cleaning the house. I used to put loud music on, smoke and drink whiskey. My ex-husband never said anything about this routine...😆 I don't drink at all anymore, or smoke. I have even noticed since starting Adderall that I feel cravings for dark chocolate, which used to be a daily addiciton of mine.
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