5 ms·

I'm currently taking adult ADD meds (Adderall); it's a double edged sword, and I'd personally really prefer to find another method. The primary problem is, dur

• ulisesrmzroche 15y ago
  I stopped on 56mg for two months and did not have any withdrawal symptoms. You may want to talk to your doctor about this, withdrawal like the one you experienced is not very common, I think.
  • rue 15y ago
    I'd be interested to hear why the GP thought tapering would be worse. It's almost universally the better option.
    • ulisesrmzroche 15y ago
      I think it's probably a lack of familiarity with this sort of thing. Sort of like how folks are thinking 56mgs is insane, and 25mgs are almost cocaine and speed. High dosages are up in the 150+, more like people who binge on 3 pills, or crush and snort them. That would create withdrawal symptoms and be neurotoxic. Therapeutic dosages (like the ones the doctor will prescribe you) are supposed to be just that.
    • dlytle 15y ago
      The reason I went cold turkey was that I was already seriously tolerant to my prior dose, and the doctor had recommended several months of tapering to reduce my tolerance. (I had been on that dose for about 5 years.) I couldn't afford to spend that amount of time eliminating my tolerance, because I'd be operating at such a reduced capacity (from withdrawal) that I'd risk my job. So, instead, I took a week off coinciding with a long weekend, and just went off it completely. It sucked really bad, but I had some stuff in place to make sure I wouldn't be in as much danger as I could be. (I removed all potential weapons/poisons from the house, stocked up on "comfort food" so I wouldn't be tempted to get in a car, etc.) I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, especially due to the suicide risk, but in my case (for various reasons) that risk was pretty much 0. (I'm aware that self-diagnosing suicide risk is really unreliable, but I have a few personal situations that make suicide impossible to seriously contemplate, so I'm pretty safe in that regard.)
  • wahnfrieden 15y ago
    When I used to be on an Adderall IR prescription, I didn't have any withdrawals but the effects declined very noticeably after a few days use, and the side effects worsened. I started taking it only a few days a week at most instead and was much happier. If I didn't have work that needed the extra focus on a particular day, there was no need for taking it that day. I've never understood the people who use it daily, including weekends, unless it's for something else like narcolepsy of course.
    • ulisesrmzroche 15y ago
      I don't get the "happier" part, it's very subjective. I take it daily, as the doctor prescribed, and it has made my life noticeably better. If you use the medication only once in a while, do you have ADHD or do you only think that you do?
      • wahnfrieden 15y ago
        My doctor prescribed it for daily use too, but I asked him about it and was told it's fine to take it whenever I feel the side effects are worth the relief from ADHD. Where did you get the idea that it's necessary to take it every day or not at all? Adderall is not a drug that requires that. You should ask your doctor more about it.
        • ulisesrmzroche 15y ago
          That's how it's commonly prescribed, but I'm sure it varies depending on the person. I have stopped taking the medication in the past and I did not have any withdrawal symptoms or felt happier or anything of the sort. I've always used caffeine though. I guess what I'm saying is that someone who thinks they may have ADHD shouldn't discount methylphedinates because some people have withdrawal symptoms, which mostly happen only when someone is abusing the medication, or is nervous about it in the first place.
  • rms 15y ago
    That's a high dosage, to the level where I expect it is neurotoxic. I think you might be more of the exception than the rule... some withdrawal is to be expected, though not necessarily as strong as OP.
    • ulisesrmzroche 15y ago
      I really don't think my psychiatrist would prescribe me anything that is neurotoxic.
      • rms 15y ago
        High dose stimulants in rats are neurotoxic. http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/neuro/20091104/msgs/931964.html http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/neuro/20091104/msgs/931964.html Your mileage may vary, but I think prescribing patients >50mg amphetamine is often irresponsible. Ask your psychiatrist at what dosage he thinks amphetamine is neurotoxic. 90mg maybe? Doctors agree that a certain dose is neurotoxic but disagree on what that dosage is. 60mg is the official maximum safe dose, but it's not like you should put all of your trust in the FDA. Given clear stimulant burn-out I have noticed in multiple taking >50mg of amphetamine daily, I have no doubt that dosages like that cause negative neurological effects and that caution is merited in amphetamine dosing.
        • ulisesrmzroche 15y ago
          Methylphenidate and amphetamine is not the same thing, and I have not experienced anything like what you've said. I really don't think burn-out is as common as people say, high-doses are more like in the 100+mgs, and that's not in anything that is considered therapeutic and extended release.
        • trotsky 15y ago
          Stimulants aren't neurotoxic, specific substances at specific levels are. Methylphenidate's majority of benefit comes from its reuptake inhibition of both dopamine and norepinephrine. While it is also a dopamine releasing agent, it does so at dramatically lower levels than the amphetamine family. The difference turns out to be significant - while they both promote more dopamine activity in the brain, it turns out that preventing the disposal of brain chemicals is generally much safer than promoting their release. As far as I know there aren't real concerns about MPH neurotoxicity.
• qrybam 15y ago
  Scary thought: Going cold turkey with coffee has had very similar effects on me (after 2 weeks of 1-2 cups a day; 2-4 shots/day). I've also had a similar feeling of deadness when I stopped eating meat, dairy and anything with additives for 6 weeks. The first week or so I was completely useless - this could have also been due to me trying to feel my way through to a balanced diet. So much of what we consume ends up having all sorts of unknown effects on us and the minute we stop consuming them we really feel it - it's easier to never stop. One bonus of cutting certain stimulants out of my life has been that I've ended up feeling much better.
  • deleted 15y ago
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  • protomyth 15y ago
    The last time I got rid of coffee (back on it now), I switched to a high caffein tea and then steadily walked my way to low / no caffein teas. It is really, really hard to get going with cold drinks in a ND / MN winter.
    • pearkes 15y ago
      Hot water with lemon and honey is easy and warms you up. If you feel more adventurous, non-alcoholic hot cider.
      • salemh 15y ago
        I'd add, cinnamon naturally "perks" one up for the most part. I used to add cinnamon to my coffee (to avoid sugar), but works as well for tea, or your hot water, lemon and honey for a non-caffeinated morning (or afternoon slog) beverage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon#Medicinal_value http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon#Medicinal_value It has insulin "mimicking" effects, which could be part of the "boost" I feel.
  • X-Istence 15y ago
    I went cold turkey from all caffeine. One day, almost 10 months ago I said enough is enough and quit. While on caffeine I was always highly irritated, and was snappy with people. I just couldn't get enough caffeine to feel good, and was always tired. When I went off I was dead to the world for about 2 - 3 weeks. I had a splitting headache which no medicine seemed to fix, and felt laggy. But after those 3 weeks I started to feel better. I had more energy, I was a lot less irritated and was happier in general. I was able to contain angry outbursts and in general have changed entirely. I have more energy now than when I was binging caffeine. I can stay awake longer, fall asleep faster, and I feel refreshed when I do get at least 6 hours of sleep. Not drinking any soda has also helped in other ways. I no longer have a real need for sugar throughout the day and don't have nearly the same headaches I used to get from not getting my sugar fix. Since I have also lost a major source of calorie intake I have started to lose weight. I don't drink anything with HFCS in it, soda's with natural sugars every so often (maybe once or twice a month), but mostly I drink water. I drink a glass or two of milk a day as well. One thing I have noticed is that living in America is that soda is pushed with every single meal. It doesn't matter where you go, what soda would you like with that. --- Since you mentioned no longer eating meat ... I have recently started eating a lot less meat, and even in the past week have stopped eating meat altogether, and I have yet to feel a real difference. It does make it a lot harder to think of meals to make though as I have been eating meat my entire life and it is an integral part of any meal my family used to make. Will see what happens in a couple of weeks from now :-)
• drumdance 15y ago
  I tried Adderall last year and had a similar reaction. I used it during the week but went off it on weekends. I only did it for two weeks and that was enough for me to know I didn't want it.
• furyofantares 15y ago
  I'd love to find another method as well. I am 31 and I've been on and off it for the last 6 years or so. More off than on, because I really don't like the effects it has on me, so I really only go on it when my life is in shambles. One pattern I've noticed is that when I'm off it, I self-medicate with caffeine and energy drinks. It starts with an occasional Starbucks or Coke and before I know it I'm getting a venti latte with an extra shot every morning, then drinking 3-6 rockstars/redbulls/cokes throughout the day.
• tocomment 15y ago
  What do you mean by transition?
• tripzilch 15y ago
  I tried a few sessions of bio-feedback but quit because I got frustrated by it and not being worth the time and money. During the intake the therapist described Ritalin as "poison". I should have probably gotten up and left right there. If you have the opinion that Ritalin is overprescribed, or that it should not be given to small children, that's all fine with me. But "poison" has a pretty clear definition, you'll find that whenever someone refers to a drug as "poison", you're dealing with pseudo-scientific quackery. What made me quit was mostly that I couldn't find any correlation between the signals received from the electrodes and my own state of consciousness, be it more relaxed or more concentrated or alpha/beta waved, whatever. When I watched the graphs on the monitor, I noticed a few things. There is a LOT of noise. If I'd clench my jaw, move a muscle in my neck, my ears, whatever, it'd cause an avalanche of noise, completely drowning out any possible brain signal. Ok so you sit still, you're meant to focus or relax anyhow. Except that muscles just seem to generate a whole lot more electrical signal than your brain, and every time I even blinked my eye there was a burst of noise (probably also because the eye muscle is relatively close to the electrodes). The software did nothing to filter out these noise-bursts, even though it'd have been trivial to make at least a basic attempt that would throw away the data during a burst so the other filters wouldn't trigger. Ah, the other filters. Well, it quickly became clear I knew a lot more about DSP than this guy. He had no idea how his device operated, at least not how the signals were transformed into whatever was displayed on the screen. There's not really an excuse for this. Sure enough a surgeon might not know about the algorithms used to convert an MRI scan into a picture, but the radiologist does (at least, on some level), which is why we have radiologists. So you know about these alpha/beta/theta/gamma brain waves right? They're at 12/10/7/3 Hz frequencies or something like that. Now I always had the idea that by this they meant some fundamental Eigen-frequency of signals in the brain, so you'd think to apply some auto-correlation to determine the base frequency and its harmonics. But instead he had a bunch of bandpass filters running concurrently being graphed through some ancient MS-DOS program with obvious leakage from one band to another and we were looking at the raw filtered signal, not even its energy and as I said there was no noise suppression. I'd have loved to take that device home, write some code for it and see what it could detect though. Hell, even detecting muscle movements is already way cool :) Anyway, no correspondence between my state of focus or relaxation. Staring at a computer screen (with a game, usually one frequency band was used to control a game of some sort) for 1-2 hours per week, actively trying to relax or focus would definitely have a result of course. Which is why I'm doing a universal yoga meditation class. Dunno if it helps with the ADD, but it can't hurt and it definitely has some other advantages (notably: posture and stress/tension). One thing I do notice, yoga works best if I haven't taken meds that day. You'd think it improves focus, but this yoga class is mainly being able to really feel your whole body and muscles should not be tense for that, but on meds I find I get way more fidgety and subconsciously re-tense every muscle I relax as my focus shifts to the next part of my body. Fortunately, noticing and being aware of such subtle effects in your body is exactly what the class it about :-)
• rms 15y ago
  Modafanil works to cut Adderall withdrawal symptoms for most people. And Modafanil withdrawal is nothing more than being unusually tired, but not miserable.
• Osiris 15y ago
  I was also taking Adderall XR 25mg for about 2 years until I had to change doctors and the new doctor was concerned about my high resting heart rate so he gave 1 month of 10mg. After that was gone, I was pretty unproductive for about 2 months. I simply had a hard time concentrating, like I was in a haze. I just restarted on Adderall (generic, 5mg x2 a day) and the side-effects are definitely difficult to deal with. I am able to hyper-focus but I also get irritable, daily headaches and exhaustion when it starts wearing off. I tend to take it one in the morning as I start work and perhaps once in the afternoon if I find that I need it, but I don't take it on weekends at all. There's definitely something to be said for behavioral adjustment rather than medication. That's how my mom deals with it, but even so she's pretty scatter-brained.