So I've been on and off of adderall for a while, and now I'm really getting on it for the long-term. I was on 20mg a day of Adderall XR, and it turned out to not last long enough and to not provide quite enough coverage while it was working. So my doctor increased me to 30mg of XR and 1-2 10mg SR tablets for the afternoon and evening if need be. I've been doing this for three days, and I'm definitely having side effects all over again. It calms part of me down of course, but it's making me more inattentive at times during the day, and it's causing anxiety. Of course, the 20mg did that to me at first as well, and it tapered off and stopped causing these things. So how do you tell if you've got too high a dosage or if you simply are adjusting to the new levels? Do I stick it out for another week or so (took me like a week or two to get balanced out when I started the XR this last time around), or should I take this as a sign that it's time to reduce dosage? It's only been 3 days fyi.
I had a similar question for my doctor recently and his question back to me was "is it improving with each day"? He said if it was improving each day, then give it a week and see where I ended up. If it wasn't improving and/or I was miserable, then back off on the dosage.
I was improving daily and at the end of the week I felt like my dosage was accurate.
If you just keep struggling daily, with nothing getting better, then if it were me, I would back off a little on the dosage.
Of course it's always best to talk to your doctor :).
Yeah, I definitely burn through adderall like water. I get maybe 3 hours from an SR tablet and 6-7 hours now of XR (with a bit of a gap in between the two releases that is very unfortunate).
I think we've finally got me stabilized on 30mg plus 12.5 once or twice a day.
My doctor isn't very helpful. I feel like I'm kind of in this alone, and he's mostly leaving it up to me. That has its benefits, of course. But sometimes I just don't know what the right thing to do is. If it keeps up, I'll call him and see if he can get me a prescription for a lower dosage. Though I'm not sure how the insurance company will respond to that one.
It took me about a week to feel the full benefits of Adderall XR when I first began taking it. About a month later, when I was increased to 25mg, I began to experience some anxiety. I then began taking Welbutrin with it, and this not only seems to help with the anxiety, but also with focusing.for an adult male 20 mg is too low... i was on 20 mg of xr and it was great until the evening then it wore off.. 30mg of adderall xr works great for me... it last all day and into the late night.. definetly stick with taking 30mg of xr....... theres a big difference.......
[QUOTE=satisfaction]for an adult male 20 mg is too low... i was on 20 mg of xr and it was great until the evening then it wore off.. 30mg of adderall xr works great for me... it last all day and into the late night.. definitely stick with taking 30mg of xr....... theres a big difference.......[/QUOTE]
This is not exactly true. Stimulant meds are not based on weight or gender for their dosage. Every person reacts differently to medication. Some people do great with 5 mg, while others need 10 times that amount. It has much more to do with how the body metabolizes the medication, which is why a great deal of children actually need as high, if not higher doses then many adults, they tend to burn through meds quickly.