Started Adderall 1 week ago, HELP!

[QUOTE=bbeck]
but I am only taking one in the morning with breakfast, and the provigal (200mg pill) but that one broke in half.
so with just that dosage, no other meds the rest of the day, that's the reaction that I got.
thats all that I have been prescribed to take, one pill in the morning, just like the concerta's
[/QUOTE]

sorry for the misunderstaning,

and thanks for the replys,

as I stated above. but let me clarify, I think that I can see where I went wrong in my listing.
so if I can clarifily this way.
(first part of the month )
one concerta 36 with 1/2 of the provigil, once a day, in the mornings, 1/2 of xanax for sleep at bed (only problem here was a minor mood fog in the evenings)

then switched to the adderall's with
one adderall xr 20 with 1/2 of the provigil, once a day, in the mornings. 1/2 of xanax for sleep at bed.

on day three of the adderall/provigil combination,
I had the above mentioned reation.
in adition seince last friday, I have taken nothing in the mornings, with only the 1/2 of xanax for sleep, at bed. at least until I see the dr on Monday.

So,on monday the dr can change somthing in the doseage.

the dr's nurse had stated to me on thursday night that even with the above reations( I don't think that the dr realized the depth of the depression)that I should stay on the adderall/provigil combo and add a anti-depressant,

my feeling was that the adderall 20 xr were too much, too fast and that I was dropping too soon, with no way to level out.

I was wondering if a lower dose of the adderall (maybe not the xr ) , no provigil, and then not need a antidepressant.

as it is now the adderalls are $45 the provigils are at $45 and the xanax are $20 ,

so if I could reduce that combo I would'nt need the xanax,provigils, and no anti-depressants.

and again thanks for trying to figure out what I am trying to say

Brian

i forgot to add the dosages of the xanax.

the xanax are prescribed at 1mg and I am taking 1/2 of that, so .5mg of the xanax

Brian
Good luck Brian. I am halfway through my day and still feeling great, but my appetite has come back, I am not sure if this is a good thing. I was hoping to lose a few more pounds. I should have talked to my doctor before cutting my dose in half, but I did not feel that she took me very seriously in my pleads for help. I really felt so low before I was kind of afraid of my own feelings. I yelled at my son one night and it was like I was possesed, I said really filthy words to him and he is 11. He cried and I felt so bad for losing control. After not hearing from my doctor in three days after calling her I decided to take action myself. I hope that my a.d.d. gets better, I have only noticed minor changes, I am not sure how long the medication takes to make major changes. I have heard so many miracle stories about adderall that I was sooo excited to try it, maybe I am expecting too much too soon. Hang in there!!! Keep me posted and i hope that all goes well for you too.

I have been on Adderall for over a year and it all started with a few side effects but they quickly dissappeared for me after about 3 to 5 days.I went from 20mg to 30 mg both of which seemed too much.I then got 10 mg ea morning for about 10 mos now and it seems to work great for me.I seem to focus much better at work ect.I wouldnt worry too much about long term effects as they will probably subside with time.Hang in there and good luck my energetic friend!!! Shane in LaI definitly felt overmedicated,

I am planning on asking for the adderall that can be cut in half, the ones that I currently take are the adderall 20mg xr, (I have tried opening and trying to split but no good)

but I am only taking one in the morning with breakfast, and the provigal (200mg pill) but that one broke in half.

so with just that dosage, no other meds the rest of the day, that's the reaction that I got.

thats all that I have been prescribed to take, one pill in the morning, just like the concerta's

when I have taken the provigal's alone, they feel like a sugar pill, but with the concerta's there seems to be a longer effect.

am I reading the adderall 20mg wrong?

Brian

You did not mention you were taking XR, Adderall XR and Adderall are 2 different drugs, what I wrote before was for adderall.

No one is prescribed adderall XR 3 times a day. Let me see if I heard you right, you take Adderall, PLUS Ritalin (concerta) PLUS provagil PLUS Xanax? Of course you are crashing. You need to detox. If you mix Ritalin and Adderall the crash is horrendous, it amplifies the bad side of Ritalin 10 fold. Xanax has a really long half-life, you are recovering from the xanax by popping ampethimenes, then popping xanax to sleep. That's what killed Marilyn Monroe. You are in a dangerous spiral and you need to get help.

P.S. You can no longer say you have never abused drugs because this is a classic abuse scenario.

Hi, I cut my dosage in half of the adderall, I took 5 mg. in the am, another 5mg 3hrs later and another 3 hours later. I had a great day today, I felt like I could communicate better with more control (not giving my whole life story to everyone who would listen) I felt really good, relaxed, watched a movie last night and went to bed. I woke up this morning feeling pretty okay too. I am so happy for the input, I was definately taking tooooo much adderall and it was affecting me in such a bad way. I cannot believe that my doctor upped the dosage when I called her and described how bad that i was feeling and that made it worse. I hope that today is sucessful also. sounds like you may just have figured it out, that is very similar what I am planning on asking my dr for tomorrow, possible adding the wellbutrin back in at the previous 150mg, to help with the lows.

I really had expected the adderall to work, silimar to the ritilan or the concerta, but it is a very different animal.

hang in there. I am,

,   by my fingernails some days but I am still trying.

Brian

after reading this post everthing that I have been going through made more sense, kinda feeling like I am really screwed up, strange reactions that I never even thought that I was going to have. etc.

so hang in there, your not alone, followed below is what I have been going through the last month or so, with adderall. and a few questions at the bottom.

after taking adderall 20mg /three days with provigil (all prescribed)

It really is strange(coincidence) that I read these posts the day after I am "recovering" from a verry difficult afternoon/night in which I ended up so depressed that I was in the position that I wanted to end it all, talking about it, really felt like I wanted to.
but all along knowing that I could not.( From the people that I talked to that is really the important deviding line.)

the want to crawl out of my skin, gotta move, cant sit still, emotionall wrek! and exhausted. had a aurgument with my wife about the adderall not helping me, of 'course she hasn't seen the good part at all.
         but at work (thursday) I had gotten soo much done, I had fixed equipment that I had not wanted to do for weeks, cleared out the fixit book of everthing there,at two gyms, except for one item that I was waiting on parts for. I had had a great day!@#! and then the adderal 20mg wore off and the evening hit.

I have never used drugs, expermented with them, intentionally ever. I had stepbrothers that used drugs, there was one day that they came to me when I was 13 or 14 and said here try this!
I said not interested, and there like "look all it will do is make your tounge numb,"
I said "really?" and they put some white powder on my tounge, now I'm not sure what it was supposed to do, but i do remember their reaction when it didn't do anything at all. but make my tounge a little numb.
    (side-note) my stepbrothers to this day still live at home with their mom, and are still trying to keep a job down.

I was in a pretty smart group in high school, no drugs, mostly high grades, good attendance, etc.There were a few in our group, that tried drugs(not study at all for english, show up and get a A, where I had really tried out how to digagram a sentence, and gotten a D on the same test),

I was able to see that once they started down that path there was no turing around, they moved on to bigger and stronger doses, and they left our group,
last I heard one of the guys was having trouble keeping his job at a carwash and loading the catering trucks for job sites. oh, and he had gotten a job at a oil change place, and after three days on the job, drove a customers car through the bay door, yes it was closed, and yes that was his last day.
so in my mind to this day,"illeagal drugs are bad" and I have examples to prove it.

Almost a month ago, I had been having trouble with trying to sleep just after starting adderall from concerta, REAL trouble, 3 hours a night kinda trouble, the dr first prescribed the provigil hoping to rev me stronger during the day thinking that would help the sleep. five days after that with a phone call to the office and a hellist weekend,then he had prescribed xanax to help with the sleep,I wanted to quit all the meds alltogether,
so I was then told to stop taking everything except the xanax, for a few days, to get some sleep, recover. and then slowly reintroduce them one at a time to see which one had caused the insomnia. So for the last three weeks I've been sleeping good, (still needing the xanax) I had found that the provigil did help some, hard to describe whrere though, so with the provigil, not really doing much I left it in, and put the previous drug concerta36 back in, and for a couple of weeks everything was kinda ok, not great, but the concerta when it would wear off, It leaves me in a mood fog, not want to do anything or go anywhere, but not seriously depressed.

so with the next appointment getting close to a week away , I quit the concerta36's and started the adderall20 xr,and the provigil at 100mg (half the presribed) the first day not much effect , a little push during the day , felt good, no fog at night, slept good with the xanax,
the second day a bit better push during the day, evening's a bit more like the concerta fog. and sleep that night was difficult, in fact I woke up at 3am and never really got sleep(rest) from then on, I was awake a hour before the alarm clock went off. and 10 minutes early to work, that mornings mood was getting dark then, with my wife going here we go again, then.
Now that third day, I took my half pill of provigil, and the adderall20 xr, my mood improved in about a hour , wondering if this was going to be a normal morning mood thing.

was'nt hungry , ate a chocolate donut and a quart of milk,(my usuall)not hungry all day, skipped lunch, worked right on through. worked untill allmost 5 when I called it a day, and went home.

thats when things went downhill FAST, Nothing I said or did happed like I expected it too. Had a HUGE argument with my wife, she needed to go with her sister and I didn't want to be alone. she ended up going anyway, and I ended up driving towards the mountains. not really wanting to. but with the argument still fresh in my mind and my mood extremely messed up. ended up calling a crisis center got the runaround from them , was told that they would page my dr (either they never did page or ? because he never called) called my bishop talked with him for a while, ended up calling a crisis center a county away and found a psyc doc there that would at least talk to me.
"he explained that the adderall20 mg was like running your car at 90mpg all day, that basiclly I had ran out of gas, and crashed. that it appeared that I was taking too much , too fast. that there were other meds out there and not to give up on meds"
called my dr office the next morning told them after 3 days on the adderall 20mg and 1/2 of the prescribed of provigil, I had a severe depressive reacton to the adderall, and what should I do?

    this was friday, and at 5:00pm I get a call back from the nurse, with the info
"I should keep taking the provigil, and the adderall, and they will call in a prescription for effexor" I told them that the ssri's had allways messed with me, that I thought the 20mg xr was too strong, and wearing off too fast, droping me like a stone. That I had a appointment with the dr monday and that I needed to talk with him about the meds.

heres where I really need the advice, for this dr appointment monday,
shoud I change doc's?
I plan on handing him this for him to read monday. probably sans messages from the group.

I am not really interested in trying a anti-depressant for a drug induced mood change. I am not depressed when I don't take adderall. just spacey. From what I have read getting off of a anti-depressants is not a easy thing.
also ssri's that I have tried even in 1/4 dose I have had severe side effects.

sorry that this turned into a long post,

Brian

You are almost certainly overmedicated, just cut down

If it were me.

1.) I'd try the provagil by itself. or

2.) Cut the adderall in half and try that.

3.) You don't need to take them on a schedule, just as you need them.

It's not the adderal causing you problems so much as it is the crashes. 60MG a day is pretty strong, it takes most people several years to work up to that dose, most people start on 5-10 2 times a day. Or something like this

6:30 Wake up drink coffee.

8:00 Take a 10MG adderall

12:00 Go to lunch.

1:30 (After lunch is digested) a 10 MG adderall.

Around 7 you start feeling cranky, take a 5MG adderall to take the edge off.

I am on my second week of Adderall and I really feel like I am want to jump out of my skin by about 4 p.m. My doctor uped my dosage because she thought that maybe that was the problem. I am now taking 15 mg at about 9 and 15mg at about 1 or 1:30 and by about 3:30 or 4 I start feeling so restless. I feel like I don't want to sit and I don't want to stand and really nothing makes me too happy. I just feel like I am not content. I am hoping that this goes away. Does this sound familiar to anyone and does it infact go away?? I usually do not cry easily and I found my self sobbing a few times in the past week in the evening. I have noticed a little difference in completing daily tasks, but nothing drastic. Should I be noticing more of a drastic change in 9 days?? I don't want to complain too much to my doctor because I DO want this medication to work for me, I am counting on it to help me with my ADD. If there is anyone who has had similar experiences and they have or have not gone away, please share. Any input would be great. Thank you so much!!

Chrysalis: I'm pretty sure you never abused drugs in your life. Such an innocent response. I wanna take you home with me :-) I have abused drugs in the past so when things like you described happen to me I understand them and I can roll with it. But your message made me wonder how someone who has no experience with drugs would relate to adderall crashes?

First up, I think 15MG is too much for you, I'm old-school and 15MG often sets me tweaking. I'd cut that back to 10 or less (keep the extra for a rainy day) If you want solid therapeutic help you should switch to adderall XR. If you want to stay with reg release (or you have to) consider spacing them out more on feeling rather then a clock. I use them every 4 -6 hours depending on how they effect me on a given day. Some days I can squeeze 6 hours out of a 15MG dose, sometimes at 3 hours I feel anxiety like I'm crashing (but I'm not adderall is still active at 3 hours). I usually stop what I'm doing, go for a walk or eat something with a lot of sugar. A candy bar sets me back to normal.

I don't cheat or up the dosage or take the next dose ahead of schedule. It's like all things in life; One Friday night you might go to the Mall, see a ton of friends and have the time of your life, the next Friday the mall sucks. One day your adderall might really be effective and makes you feel so good about life, the next day it doesn't seem to do anything. That's the rhythm of life, can't change that.

Once I start I don't stop till it's time for bed because I don't want the crash (the bad sensations (crying) you experience when the drug wears off)

So in short, my guess is - you are taking too much, this will cause a crash.

If you are taking too much (as I think you are) the drug LASTS way longer. (maybe 8-12hours) This really screws up your head when you take that second dose because the first dose is still working.

shinsetu_hito38289.0331597222

Most likely the initial dose will be too high. They don't write a script for 5MG, because within a few days you will need more, they write it for what they think will end up your maintenance dose, 30XR per day or whatever.

But with adderall that can be a problem. Take a small amount and see how it goes then add some more. With XR it's ok to pull the pill apart and take half or 1/4

My son started out at 5mg, & my husband & I started at 15mg. He only takes 25mg.

Let me introducuce to my little friend - - -> The enter key.

That was impossible to read, I had to cut and paste it into notepad. Basically, once you start on adderall you have to finish the whole day or you will feel like sh1t when it wears off. It's 4:30 PM now and I am going to take my first dose any minute. So I delay it as long as I can so I don't crash at night.

The good feelings are temporary, you'll be past that fast. The Sped up feeling will remain. Your body is working harder under adderall, like you are walking really fast, but your brain is slow to catch on - so you are not breathing right, you will adapt to that as well.

Sorry that it was hard to read, I did not realize it was so long. Sorry : ( Thank you for the advice. Do you have trouble sleeping at night when you take it so late in the day?? How do you feel in the morning??Well, I use ambian. I've always been an insomniac.I'm starting adderall in 2 days , for some reason I'm a bit nervous to start it although I'm the one who pretty much asked my doc for it. Do you have any side effects like heart palipatations or nervousness? I'm sometimes really anxious for no reason and I wonder if its going to make me worse. Also does anyone know whether or not its ok to work out while taking it?

Reneecon, everyone reacts differently. For me, I feel like I am on speed when I tried Adderall, but my husband cannot imagine life without it any more, & my son had a real nasty rebound effect.

The great thing about Adderall is it is an in & out med. Even with the XR it is in at 8:00am, out by 2:30pm. You should know in the first few days if this med is right for you. Good luck.

Hello, I started Adderall about a week ago after being diagnosed with Adult Add. I have struggled my whole life with everything from school to jobs to getting myself and my kids dressed and on time to school. I lose my keys at least 4 times a week and my house is a mess always even though I am never sitting all day long. I am currrently taking 10 mg twice a day right now. I take my first dose at 8 or 8:30 in the morning and my second at 12 or 12:30 in the afternoon. The first day I only felt kind of sleepy on 5mg two times a day and felt nothing really on my second day of 5mg two times a day except NOT HUNGRY!! Then my 3rd day I went to the 10mg twice a day and I have noticed that I feel like I need take in a big breath and breathe it out because it feels like it is not getting in there enough at times. I cleaned my entire house on day three and felt really good, but slightly buzzed and I was bummed when the buzz wore off. I did read in another post about the breathing thing that I just listed above about feeling that I am not breathing deep enough unless I conciously breath in and out a few times. I noticed this when I was driving mainly.this I was so glad that I wasnt just imagining this and someone else was experiencing this too. I have NO anxiety and no depression (at this time) The other thing that I have noticed the last few days is I get very irratable when the meds wear off right before I take my dose in the afternoon and in the evening. I felt like I wanted to jump out of my skin about the 4th night and I ended up crying for about an hour about everything that had been bothering me. I dont know if this is a good thing because normally I just hold it all in and maybe I am thinking clear enough to realize that some things need to change. I want this medication to work for me but it scares me that I am having this feeling of "uncontentness"(is this a word???) when it wears off. I have NEVER been addicted to drugs or alcohol, (have had 1 glass of wine in the past 3 years) but have tried cocaine before years ago before having any children and did not do it again because I started to crave it after just doing it a few times and was the one at the party saying, lets get more, lets get more. So I decided never to do it again and have not. I did not get real high like everyone else did, I just found it very easy to talk and talk and talk about everything. Adderall reminds me too much of that feeling when the night was over and I would still want more. I am scared that maybe I would become a "high chaser" as I have read aboout because I feel so miserable when the buzz is worn off. Should I worry? Like I said before I have never had a drug or alcohol problem, but I also had kids very young and made that commitment to be a good mom and set good examples and so far with kids 12, 11 and 2 have done a great job of that!! I have heard that people with add have a tendency to become addicted easily.I would not want to take anything that would interfere in my life like that, I amazingly have been a pretty good mom despite all of my inabilities to function (besides that fact that my 2 year old is missing sox alot, or I have to ask my kids what time school is out almost everyday) Is this just a normal side effect that goes away or should I be afraid of this medication? Has anyone else had these fears in the beginning? I really want to get better so that I can go back to school and not quit and keep a job without getting fired or quitting.I am fortunate enough right now to be able to stay at home with my kids and not work, but I know when I have to go to work I am going to be a mess at this point. I am not too concerned about not being hungry because I am about 25lbs overweight. I hope that I actually do get rid of some of this extra weight. As of a week I have lost a few pounds. Does this side effect go away soon too?? Any input would be greatly appreciated.