I've been searching for information on this all over the internet, and I decided to just post here to get an answer.
Back Story (lengthy):
I was never formally tested for ADHD. I've always had inattention issues, and I've always been very hyperactive. Lots of leg shaking constantly, the more exhausted I get the most hyperactive I feel, poor impulse control, etc. I've never been able to read an entire book all the way through; unless I was REALLY REALLY into the book (I'm either completely inattentive or hyperfocused, there's no middle ground for me). I usually get a good 15-20 minutes of reading in before I find that I'm skipping lines, re-reading the same page over and over again, or utterly ridiculous things like realizing I'm only reading the left side of the page (this is problematic since I REALLY love to learn and would really like a career in academia). My mother was also diagnosed with adult ADHD a few years ago, so there's a history of it in the family. On the flip side, I was always a good student (though constantly told I wasn't meeting my potential), and I was admitted to Stanford University for both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Don't ask me how I managed to get through, but I will definitely say that it got increasingly difficult through the years.
Finally, during my break from school before law school I decided to try a friend's strattera prescription (she hated it, and she never took it). After two weeks I was absolutely floored. I was motivated, and I was able to sit still for the first time in my life. I could go to the library for three hours and get 2.5 hours of reading done (previously, my forced trips to the library would yield about 45 minutes of actual work over a period of about three hours). So I went to a doctor and told them I thought I had ADHD, and I told them my strattera story. I also have a co-existing anxiety disorder that strattera seemed to really help (not surprising as it has off-label uses for anxiety). So they gave me the strattera prescription, but I think they mostly did it because it was helping my anxiety. They never bothered testing me, and they seemed to express doubt that I had ADHD since I was never diagnosed as a child.
The strattera, unfortunately, causes serious side effects including VERY serious abdominal/testicular pain. I've hidden the abdominal pain from my doctor out of fear that they would take me off of it. I've been very reluctant to take stimulants, and I'm not even sure they would prescribe them anyway. The strattera, after about six months, has begun to taper off horribly, and I'm afraid to increase the dosage because of the severe side effects. A friend gave me some adderall pills, and I finally decided to give it a shot. I'm on the adderall, and the effects are amazing (better than the strattera when it was working at its peak). I'm very calm and collected; I've got far less leg shaking and twitching, and I'm feeling motivated again. I'm not really getting any "speedy" effect from the medicine (though my hands are a bit unsteady as I type, I'm noticing), as many people report.
So, on to the point of this post:
If I'm completely wrong, and I do not actually have ADD/ADHD, how would the adderall be affecting me? I've heard that in ADHD people, stimulants cause this calming effect, but that in normal people they cause a speedy effect. Am I incorrect in this information? I'd like to have as much information as possible so I can decide if I want to give this medication a try. I'm going to stay on it for three days, which is how much medicine I have, and then figure out whether or not to bring all of this up to my doctor.
Thanks in advance for dealing with my lengthy post!
Jesse
I am not sure about Adderall but I can tell you about Ritalin. I took my son's RitalinSR once by accident. It was in the same type of bottle as my thyrold pills. Anyhow I was up all night. I felt very strange and very energetic. I did my laundry. My stomach hurt a bit too. I tried to lay down and go to sleep at one point but there was no way. I didn't stay long.That's interesting. I took it, and I went to sleep an hour later for about an hour and a half. I also just started seroquel though, and I was still groggy from having taken it the night before (though it was 3 PM when I took the nap). So I'm definitely not getting that speedy feeling. I don't feel super energetic at all, though my hands are still a bit unsteady, and I have that "I'm on medication" feeling. It's the first time I've taken it, so I assume that's the reason. On a side note, I just got done doing ironing and dishes I've put off for a week. So, it's definitely working (either that or I have a great placebo effect, either one is fine by me)
Good Luck! I thought I would comment that typical to many ADHDers, my ds gets sleepy or lethargic if he has too much of a stimulant. Recently he was off meds on a long flight...at an airport we let him have two big mugs of coffee (he hadn't done this before...he's 17) His nervous energy subsided, then he stretched out across several seats and went to sleep! In my experience, if I take my normal amount of stimulant meds (60mg Adderall) I am pretty level as far as energy and wakefulness. If I go over that all the typical simulant effects kick in. Out of all the non ADD people that I have known that have taken add stims, a small amount almost always helps their concentration, focus, and motivation, but anything more than a little has the opposite effect. IMO, all the talk about having a negative or opposite effect in non add people is to detur abuse and addiction out of fear. But after reading what you had to say I would guess you have it but like was already said, you should get tested and find a good doc.
Adderall has a tendancy to increase anxiety, just something to look out for, meds effect everyone diffrently, so this may not happen with you.
I would look into getting tested for ADHD, you can get this done by any psychologist, but a neuropsycologist is usually best. Just make sure who ever you choose has experiance with ADHD.
Most doctors know very little about adult ADHD, so they tend to be very skeptical. Many people with adult ADHD were not diagnosed with ADHD as a child because it was not as well known then. Teachers saying you were not living up to your potential is a big clue. How were you with organization? Did you have difficulty with spelling? Handwritting? Math? These are also commin areas of dificulty for kids with ADHD.Just because your grades were good does not mean you do not have ADHD.
Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately, I'm without insurance and using DC free medical care, so getting access to someone who is knowledgable about ADHD isn't easy.
I appreciated the comment about your ds jfla. In college and grad school people would carry around caffeine pills and drink copious amounts of coffee to help them stay up and study. The few times I tried to do the same (taking a hand full of caffeine pills..usually 5 or 6, or one time when I drank two triple espressos), I would end up falling asleep. I distinctly remember telling a group of people about that once, and they were all so skeptical and gave me a lot of crap over it, and I just thought to myself "Well, maybe I'm remembering it incorrectly, I do have a horrible memory". Stimulants do nothing for me; downers hit me like a ton of bricks.
Speaking of which, I've now been on the adderall for three days. I did 20 mg the first two days, and I'm switching over to 10mg now to test that out. Can't say I got the hyperfocused feeling that many people report. Mostly I've just been really calm and able to sit still better. My leg doesn't really shake when I'm on the adderall, and my leg is ALWAYS shaking. So it's been the hyperactivity that I've noticed the biggest relief in. Though yesterday at work I definitely found myself able to accomplish things with less effort. When I forgot something, I could immediately recall it as opposed to normal, which involves me wracking my brain for a minutes or two to remember what someone asked for two minutes prior. I noticed that more in retrospect, however. My boss is the one that remarked on how calm and "less edgy" I was, and I explained to her that I was trying a new ADD med and asked her to give me feedback at the end of the shift. She said she saw no real difference in efficiency (I'm excellent at my job since I've been doing it for a while), but I realized that I hadn't really been fighting as hard to maintain that level of efficiency.
Yes, handwriting and spelling were the two things I was the worst at. I got As and Bs in everything but consistent Cs and Ds in those two. At one point early on, my teacher had to pull my mother in to talk to her about my horrible spelling grades; meanwhile I was in advanced levels of every other subject. Organization has always been horrible. I can't keep a filing system to save my life. Details aren't my thing, and they never have been. I also have a horrible time remembering where I put anything (or even that I put it somewhere), so even if I managed a filing system I probably wouldn't be able to find the stuff that's supposed to be in it! It was all I could do to keep a pen/pencil and single notebook around for my classes.
Math was a mixed bag for me. Math has its own logic to it, so if you know even a little bit about a concept, you can usually figure out the rest. That was my strategy for math. I'd take what I managed to gather out of the lecture (usually the first 15 minutes I could follow, but I would be mentally gone after that point), and then I'd figure out the rest when taking the test or quiz (one of my friends STILL talks about this; it used to infuriate him back in the day). By the time I got to calculus, however, it was less and less possible, and my grades slid. I never went beyond that fortunately.
I think in terms of my academic experience, my notebooks are a good indication of how my mind worked. Each section would start off just fine, with the date and the class and the topic of lecture. Then you'd get a good 1/4 of a page of various notes (always chaotic and hard to follow even for me if I ever went back and looked over them...which I didn't). After that, you'd get pages of scribbles and doodles. Lots of pictures and then random words picked up from the lecture or random names of people I was thinking about at the moment. People often wondered by I even bothered bringing the notebook. Near the end of my education, I actually stopped bringing in notebook to try to force myself to pay attention to the lecture or the class. If I wasn't directly involved in a discussion, there was absolutely no way I could follow what was going on.
Anyway, this post has become WAY too lengthy. I appreciate all of the feedback. The last few months since the strattera and the process of recognizing so many of my character flaws as ADHD-related (and, consequently, things that can be dealt with...which I had long given up on) has been a great relief. I just wish my doctor would discuss the issue with me some more and give me a chance to bring all of this up to her.
I found your story very interesting and hope that you will find many of your questions and concerns answered here. I am glad that you also find relief in recognizing parts of your character ADD related. Once recognized, the med should help you be able to deal with and cope more easily. Wish you the best!
Thanks JFLa, already have. I'm out of adderall now as I only nabbed a few pills from a friend to try it out (didn't want to end up with no prescription for strattera for a month and a big prescription of adderall that I couldn't use for various reasons). I go back to the doctor in two weeks, and I'm going to bring up the drug to her. We'll see what she thinks!