Bad adderall symptoms...

Parents Forum Learning Differences and Challenges - LD, ADHD
1

<p>I just started taking aderall for my summer classes no more than 3 weeks ago. I had taken it before when I was in 6th grade and HATED the way it made me feel. I decided to try again, now that I’m about to be a college sophomore to see if it helped me in my studies. My Dr. prescribed me a bottle of 20mg tablets with directions to take 30-40mg twice a day, but failed to tell me much more about aderall. For sake of clarity the bottle does NOT say take UP TO 30mg twice a day, only “take 1 and 1/2 to 2 pills twice a day”. I’ve been experimenting with the dosage to find what works for me best and am just now getting the hang of it. </p>

<p>I started taking 20 mg at 8:30 every morning first and found that on many occasions I still was tired and unfocused through my first morning class. By my second class I was generally awake, but I assumed that it was because it starts at about the time I usually become more alert anyway. Thinking that the adderall wasn’t having the effects it should, I bumped up the dosage to thirty. It usually worked pretty well, but my problem with it REALLY starts due to my lack of knowledge about the effects of adderall and the side-effects.</p>

<p>On days I was particularly tired I assumed it to be ok to take 40mg in the morning (but that wasn’t too common). At this point I assumed that the dosage of an average kid with ADD is about 50mg. Some days I would take 2 doses a day but I haven’t exceeded 60mg in a day. Usually, there were no serious side-effects other than lack of appetite and minor sleeping problems. Nothing that bothered me too bad though because I’m used to staying up to around 2am and by then the adderall was worn off most the time.</p>

<p>HERE IS MY CURRENT PROBLEM:
last night there was some turbulence in the home that caused me to get 3 hours of sleep AT MOST with an exam the next day. Well, I woke up today, EXTREMELY tired and not functional enough to take the exam. I got out of bed, took 40mg, and slipped 10mg more in my pocket. I sat in my first class that went from 9:10am-11:10 am and was still very groggy by 10:45. So around 10:50 I took the 10mg more and went to take my exam 20 minutes later. I got home and my body feels completely exhausted but no matter how hard I try I can’t take a nap, even up to about 4:30pm. My body still feels quite jacked up due to the lack of sleep. Earlier I felt extremely anxious, twitchy, and I could feel my heart beating if I layed down and tried to relax. I have a couple questions…</p>

<li><p>I did some research when I got home and now feel that my prescription is MUCH too high, especially for twice a day. How is adderall ideally supposed to feel? Like drinking a cup of coffee?</p></li>
<li><p>I think I expected it to kick in within 30 minutes, and when it hadn’t I thought I needed to up my dosage. How long does adderrall take to effect you generally? </p></li>
<li><p>I really would like to stop taking adderall for a while. It helps my studies but there are too many bad side-effects to it. However, I heard that immediate cessation of the medication can cause tiredness and depression. Is my dosage (we’ll say 40-60mg a day) considered high? If I didnt take it for a while starting tomorrow would I experience the negative side-effects?</p></li>
<li><p>I would REALLY like to sleep tonight. I only got 2-3 hours of sleep last night and that being mixed with 50mg of aderall makes my body feel very jacked up. What do you do about your insomnia caused by adderall? Is it ok to take Nyquill or tylenol PM?</p></li>
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<p>I would seriously recommend that you give your doctor a call or pay him a visit...</p>

3

<p>Well the good thing is that now most the symptoms have gone away and I probably could go to sleep if I had to but I'm still not as tired as I should be for my lack of sleep. I took a couple of Tylenol PM about 5 minutes ago to knock me out so we'll see...</p>

<p>The thing is, I've only been taking adderall for about 3 weeks and I've only been taking the high doses of 40+mg for about a week or less, so I'm hoping there won't be any bad side effects tomorrow when I quit taking it for a while. I've come to the conclusion that the medication only seems to effect me in high doses. It seems to be very little noticeable effect or the opposite extreme. I'm not taking the drug in such high doses because of an addictive personality, only because I didn't know what a high dose was until I did some research. I thought the way adderall feels at 30-40mg a dose is the way it is supposed to make you feel, because below that there is very little effect, if any, on my perception compared to how I feel while I'm not taking it. Either that or it takes a long time for smaller doses to fully kick in and I don't realize it's effecting me. When I take 20mg I can go to class and come home and take a nap 3 hours later.</p>

4

<p>It takes it a long time to kick in
I take one Adderall xr- 30 mg- at 7 am.
Have a cup of coffee- it starts to feel like it is working around 10 am
I don't need or take any more than this- I am at my most productive from 10 to 3pm- so I try and adjust my schedule to take advantage of this- because I want to be on minimum dose.</p>

<p>I exercise about 2 hours- for 3 or 4 days aweek
this is important to keep energy level high and I sleep well even if I don't exercise till 7 or 8 pm</p>

<p>YOu are on too much meds I think- you best talk to your dr and don't take more than prescribed dose.</p>

<p>Strattera or one of the other non stimulant meds might work better for you</p>

5

<p>Ya, I've come to the conclusiont hat it was way too much. I slept great last night and didn't take any adderall this morning and I feel excellent. So bad effects or anything so far and I still feel alert. I agree about trying something else. I don't think adderall is right for me. I only take it to help with classes and make them a little more tolerable and I've decided I can make myself work to take care of class without any medication.</p>

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<p>T-Unit
My D also started Adderall in college and it has been VERY helpful for her, Dean's list and able to pay attention for even the 1 1/2 and 2 hr classes. HOWEVER...you must treat the medication with great respect.<br>
Until they got it right She contacted her doc freqently and adjusted the dose. She has had great success with Adderall XR, 10mg the long-acting form taken before 10 am...talk to your doc. She had BAD problems with the shorter acting med later in the day. ..and once forgot she took it and took an extra which made 30 mg for the day - it was way too much..she felt terrible...I won't describe it here but it 'freaked' her out.
Never the less, It can be a good med and contribute to success for some students...But with these kinds of meds, teamwork with your Doctor is essential....Good luck</p>

7

<p>There are alternatives to adderall, like ritalin, or non-stimulant versions with less of those side effects like straterra or dexedrine. Talk to your doctor about side effects and see what they can do</p>

8

<p>ive had the same problem,i dont worry about insomia or getting tired, all i worry about is my heart beat, i guess i have high blood pressure i take a 30mg not everyday, i only take it on exam weeks which basically i would say i take 15 pills every 3 months, but please tell me what to do with the heart beat.</p>

9

<p>You need to talk to your doctor about this.</p>

10

<p>ok honestly I moved to a new school and transferred into a lot larger of a school with a lot more demands than my previous university...I guess because of this I heard a lot more about how many kids were trying to get ahold of it which makes it hard to talk about without hearing the ol' "have any left over?" which is really frustrating...
I've been taking this for quite some time and it has been trial and error for me, as well. sometimes I have good days and sometimes bad it really all depends on the day and the way my body responds (it's quite stubborn) but with moving from doctor to doctor I finally found one that works with me without the accusations or anything like that because it is really frustrating when you tell a doctor it's not working right or you don't feel right on it and they dismiss it or accuse you of something else....
my guess is to find another doctor...you may like the one you have, but maybe shop around a bit until you find one that you can actually talk to that listens to every detail...WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN ...keep a little journal of everything for at least 2-3 weeks about how your feeling when you take it or what's going on...that's helped a lot with pinpointing how to get my body to respond correctly to the medicine...it's good to figure out that this is what I needed all these years of being all over the place but it's not good when the medicine that's supposed to work ...well, isn't working...
I'm guessing that the mgs are way too high for your body...my doc tried putting me on vyvanse at 30 mg after I told her that the 20 mg of adderall xr (from another doctor) isn't lasting as long...about 5 hours tops...the vyvanse is supposed to be a more steady type of medicine instead of the up and down effect that adderall/adderall xr has...my body basically rejected it and I was all over the place even more so...we switched to adderall xr 30 mg and through more trial and error (and keeping a journal) my doc was able to tell me that if there are too many mg for your body it can have the opposite effect and you'll get sleepy (I couldn't wake up for anything and would fall asleep in class which is never like me) so you being sleepy may mean it's too strong for you...I had to switch from the xr in order to better manage how my body would react...I now take 15 mg of adderall 2 times a day and then 10 mg of it at the end of the day and it seems to be working...
another thing....get enough sleep the night before...I have a problem with insomnia too...It's because of the medicine and I'd rather not take anything else to help me fall asleep but I'm at my wits end lately...but my doc told me if you don't get enough sleep then your body cannot absorb the medicine the way it should and it will not have the same effect....
these could all be the same reasons you're having a problem...first-either talk to your current doctor about being a little more open to discussion and more hands-on or find a new doctor that will (I've been through a few before I found a good one so hang in there) but it's important because this is a serious medication...DONT mix anything with it without checking labels first I've had two VERY serious reactions because I didn't check what was in midol and benadryl 2 things I never would have thought to check....BE CAREFUL! and do some research yourself-knowledge is power and it doesn't hurt to know what you're putting into your body especially when the professionals don't know what they're doing (I was told by my pharmacist last night to take benadryl to help me fall asleep--smart guy)
don't be afraid to tell your doctor if it is or is not working and if they accuse you of anything like mine did then it's time to find a new doctor (or if they don't listen at all) you're paying them remember that so don't put up with anything the right doctor will help you and understand that it is a trial and error medicine and when it starts working then you'll know ok sorry for the novel it's like my past 2 year experience with the up and down of finding the right dosage and stuff...I hope this helps...keep me updated</p>

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<p>I am really irritated with people who use and abuse Adderall. </p>

<p>This is not a keep-you-up-for-your-test drug. This is a serious drug made for people who suffer from ADD-ADHD. People who use it and get negative side affects are the people who don’t need it. People who have ADD-ADHD have far less side effects, (if you want to call them that) then people who use it recreationally and for their own benefits. </p>

<p>I am a 27 year old female who suffers from ADHD has been taking Adderall for a while now. When I first started on the Adderall therapy regiment I was prescribed 20 mg a day. My doctor then himself raised my dosage little by little month after month until I got to the appropriate dosage. I take 60 mg a day. 30 mg twice a day. This has leveled me out. </p>

<p>I am so tired of kids using this drug for school purposes or getting high! You say you are stressed because of college? When the real world hits you, then where are you going to turn? I work full-time, Monday-Friday, 8-5 and I am also a Full-Time Student at a great University. But on top of that, I have a mortgage, utilities, animals, etc. You get the picture. So for you to say that you need this drug just for taking a test? Give me a break! Are you going to take Adderall everyday of your real-world-adult-living too because you have to be at work on time? </p>

<p>If you do not have ADD or ADHD then you should not be taking this medication. It is not for the faint of hearts. It is a serious drug for a serious disorder. They are not vitamins so stop popping them like they are one. If you want to pop things like vitamins then go buy yourself a pack of tic-tacs and call it a day. </p>

<p>Yes, when you first start off using Adderall, your jaw is tight, you get headaches, you can’t sleep, but once your body gets adapted to the drug (1-2 weeks) then all those go away and you live a normal life… Actually a better life for those who actually medically need it. </p>

<p>You kids these days are out for the cheap thrill, the quick fix, the “this pill or that pill”. Why don’t you just take life how it is because if you can’t take how it is now, then how do you honestly expect to handle it once you have a full-time job, payments, family, etc.? </p>

<p>Unless you medically need Adderall, Adderall is not a drug to be messed with. If you want to get into a fight with Adderall, it will win!</p>

12

<p>Be very cautious about taking “downers” to counter the effects of the adderall. You can get into a seriously bad cycle of pills to wake up and pills to calm down that can really get out of hand. If the adderall isn’t kicking in early enough and not wearing off early enough, consider 1. decreasing your dosage. 2. wake up one-hour before you get up for the day and take the adderall. It’ll kick in by the time you need to wake up and it’ll wear off earlier.</p>

13

<p>"2. wake up one-hour before you get up for the day and take the adderall. It’ll kick in by the time you need to wake up and it’ll wear off earlier. "</p>

<p>This may also make your morning routine easier if you are not a morning person, I highly recommend this suggestion.</p>

14

<p>I say only take adderall when you REALLY need to. A lot of people take them when they start the first week of school or when they need to write a paper or study. I have taken adderal many times and have been in the same situation you have. I have also been at that point when you cannot go to sleep and your mind goes crazy cause you are thinking about so much stuff. I would not recommend you taking adderall an hour before you get up for bed because you need to eat, and one of the reasons for your body being tired and sluggish is because you have not gotten the right nutritients to give your body energy.
I would say take adderall as early as you can, try to have a big meal, because it will help you. When you go to class, make sure you have snacks because you will not have an appetite. Bring a bottle of water with you cause you will need it. If you know when it will hit you, and you will need to take more. You should take it as early, because the longer you take it the longer you will be awake!
Usually after 12 hours you will not be feeling it that much. So make sure you take advantage of every workload you have or else you will take more and your sleep and body will get messed up. Usually when Im done with school and hw i get home aorund 8pm and have a beer, it is not great for you but hey a lot of things are not good for you. slowly get yourself to relax. If you need to smoke weed do it, because eventually you will be gone.
My friend take tylenol pm, about 2 or 3, and he falls asleep. But that is why you take adderall early in the day so you will not have to work so hard to get off it. </p>

<p>But i recommend you taking the right amount of doses in the morning so you do not have to take another dose couple of hours later. Hope everything will work out</p>

15

<p>I had to return to Adderall after trying to function without it and I was seriously enraged at the scrutiny that my Dr.’s office put me under. I now at least understand where the concern is coming from.<br>
I’m old and my first diagnosis for ADHD was before we got a label. My pediatrician at the time did not want to put me on Ritalin because my dream was to work for NASA or join the Air Force and prior use of Ritalin was flagged for pilots. He had my mother give me Sudafed, 2 tablets twice a day. My teachers were great and made exceptions for me that didn’t help me “fit in” but that kept me from getting suspended. My chair would be removed so I had to stand in the back of the class but it kept me from leaning back in it and rocking excessively and in between recesses and lunch my teachers would just point at the door when I was getting wound too tight and that was my signal to take a lap around the track and come back. </p>

<p>I am anti-drug and if my need wasn’t so great, I would avoid it all together. Because I am responsible for the wellbeing of my family, I am medicated.</p>

<p>For those of you that are “taking Adderall when needed” or are complaining about “feeling it” I would like you to know that for me, there is no “feeling it”. I take 60mg-90mg daily and religiously and my heart rate never increases, if I sit still for too long without some form of mental stimulation, I can fall asleep one hour after taking it. My “feeling it” is when I don’t take it. Residual ADD/ADHD is not just the inability to stay focused or one’s desire to overachieve. I fear myself when I am not medicated. I will start a bath and then agree with the kids that we should bake a cake- put the cake in the oven and realize that the bathroom is flooded- go to the garage to get the fans and heaters and be reminded that the cake is done----by the smoke alarm. I have left my truck running all day because I wanted it warm when the kids and I went to the store. Since the Tinker Toys were next to my car keys and the kids were in an awesome mood, we sat and played with the damn Tinker Toys until we were hungry for lunch—in our winter coats and scarves because we were going to the store—to get the bread for lunch. This is where the depression associated with AADD/AADHD comes in. Symptoms will often be listed as “accompanied by depression or low self esteem”. How worthless as a mother would you feel? So when I can be consistent with my medication, it is not taken “when needed”, used because “I have to work 2 jobs”, “be a domestic God”, “shred every other Scout or soccer mom”,” loose weight” or “recover from a late night of partying” it is so I can get from A to Z without blowing up B through Y in the process. So, please leave my drug alone before your recreational use leads to even stricter distribution protocol or before the medications become black labeled all together. If you are getting wired from the stuff, you have been misdiagnosed or you are over medicated. As for the recommendation of Benadryl, Nyquil, Tylenol PM and whatever else was listed above- please know that you are playing with your brain’s chemistry and those A’s that you recreational users are trying to achieve won’t be any good when you give yourself schizophrenia. Spend a few minutes with Google and look up the rates of amphetamine induced psychosis related to withdrawal and maybe common sense will set in. Maybe.</p>

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<p>judaith-- THANK YOU for posting that! Finally someone who gets it! I am in the same boat as you and at the moment unable to get my medication, and it is just terrible and nobody understands that it’s not just like the birdy chirping outside distracts me from my homework for a minute. It is kind of a huge deal.</p>

<p>My mom has ADD too and her thing is that she will have something important in her hands, put it down, and have NO IDEA where it is-- it takes the whole family searching the house from top to bottom to find it again. I think her best recent examples were leaving her cell phone in the ice box while she was cooking and throwing her car keys in the toy box. I’d like to say I don’t do the same sort of things but it would taste of a lie. >.<</p>

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<p>I just decided to join after reading these posts. I am in a tough spot studing for the bar exam. I am on my third attempt and not far from passing. It is very hard to study this time around especially because I am so bored of studying the exact same subject matter AGAIN.</p>

<p>I was first prescribed adderall one year ago. I took a break from it, but started taking it again to study once more. It was just as effective when I started again, but now, about 3 months into studying, my concentration is not as strong under my normal dose of 10mg-20mg. Today was the first time I took 30mg in the morning and 30mg in the afternoon. So 60 mg for the day. It scares me because it sounds so high! My general side-effects seem minor: trouble falling asleep and loss of appetite. But I am wondering if it is safe to take this kind of dose? What has anyone else experienced by taking about this much as far as health effects?</p>

<p>I have an appointment with my Dr. but it is a month from now, and the earliest I can get believe it or not…horrible. There is so much studying to do before then, that I have no choice but to slowly up the dosage just to hang in there. I am thinking of limiting the 60mg total to only a few days per week that I really need to…</p>

<p>What am I doing to myself? I feel like a drug addict, but I’m not! The worst I have done to myself is drink too much wine like twice in my life. I just can’t concentrate on this incerdibly dry material and I literally have to drug myself to do it. </p>

<p>So what’s the verdict? What would you do?</p>

18

<p>My closest “bowing up between B and Y” moment was when I left a boiling teapot on the stove when I ran out of the house to class. I was in the middle of making tea, left the kitchen and then realized that I was late for class and left!</p>

<p>One of my housemates came in to see a glowing red stove AND teapot. Thankfully, nothing was damaged. </p>

<p>When my housemates told me what happened, my attitude was “Woops!” and “Good thing nothing happened!” They felt I did not grasp the severity of the situation.<br>
I wasn’t diagnosed at that point. I had no idea that other people didn’t do stuff like every once in a while! </p>

<p>BTW-I think my mom has it and I my brother has been diagnosed. Absentminded mistakes are a common occurrence at my house. My mom would put sticky notes in the car to remind her to “count the kids” before driving anywhere.</p>

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<p>I am in my final semester of graduate school and some of the subject matter is dull and I am revisiting and polishing past assignments. The redundancy and lack of novelty is wearing me down. I increased my dosage by 5mg when I have to get down to the nit and gritty. You might be able to try and discuss the situation with your doctor… like call them and let them know that it isn’t working??
Or have the first dose be an increase and the later ones be normal.<br>
Have you tried learning the material in a different way?
Color-coding? Outlines? Using wall space (butcher paper, GIANT post-its) for material you learned the previous day? Voice recording? Sketching pictures to represent material? Post-its in your books for key words or summarizing? Music, no music?
This site has tons of information: [Attention</a> Deficit Disorder | ADHD Symptoms, Medication, Treatment, Diagnosis, Parenting ADD Children and More: Information from ADDitude](<a href=“http://www.additudemag.com/index.html]Attention”>http://www.additudemag.com/index.html)</p>

<p>Good luck on your exam!</p>

20

<p>There is too many text on the first page. Can someone cliffnotes it for me! </p>

<p>Maybe I’m still using my ADHD as an excuse not to read all that, but I have no time right now lol. </p>

<p>Personally, I hardly feel the negative effects of my adderall. I can eat as often as a I want and never feel sick or have trouble sleeping. I actually sometimes forget I took adderall and fall asleep.</p>