I'm 21 years old, and two days ago I went to a psychiatrist to be diagnosed for ADD. Of course I was diagnose. He put me on Adderral XR. I got a free one months worth of the 20mg's. He told me to take 1-2 in the morning, than one in the evening.
When i first got my pills, it was around 2:30pm, I took one and got such a high from it at the start. Then it evened out and I could actually concentrate. It felt great because for the longest time, i felt both unmotivated and jsut an overall idiot. Finally i felt smart. Unfortunately I felt some side effects. My appetite went to hell, i had a stomach ache and i couldn't sleep during the night.
So day two comes along and I took two pills. It was better this time but the symptoms got worse. I took it upon myself to post a thread on a message board I frequent. Found out ADD/ADHD really isn't uncommon. But I did find out my doctor prescribed WAY too much. Consulting a pharmacist, I confirmed my dosage was way too high. I decided to stop taking the Adderral altogether until I can clear my system.
As the day wore down, i started to get some serious withdrawal symptoms. While even before my diagnosis, it wasn't that obvious I had ADD, but while have withdrawal, the ADD was magnified.
Overnight I got about 4 hours of sleep total and had a HUGE stomach age. While i still am feeling somewhat of cravings, i'm starting to get better again.
So today I went to my doctor after going to school. As I was driving on the freeway, I drove like a maniac. I was super hyper and there was no way to bring me down. I think was attributed to my body developing a dependency on the Adderral xr.
Anyhoo, I got to the doctor and luckily there was an opening. I complained to him about what's been going on and pretty much demanded to get the 5mg and let me figure out my dosage myself.
As of right now I haven't gotten my prescription back from the pharmacist. I have decided to give myself three days without it just to clear my system before I try it again. Once I got back on it i'll just start with 5mg and see how that works out. Hopefully I won't get such a negative effect as before.
I am a little worried as far as treatment is concerned. I'm almost to the point where I want to just stop taking any stimulant and go back to the way it was before i was diagnosed. But at the same time, i know that my life won't get straightened out unless I do what I know is necessary.
How has yours or you child's experience been when starting out on any kind of stimulant medication? Do/did you experience any side effects? Did things get better?
kwong200138296.9491435185kwong, my son takes dexamphetamine and there was a tremendous difference in behaviour, his attention is still pretty poor tho.You should have come here first :-) You just split the pills into 4 parts (with a razor blade on a table, then lick the 5mg dose off the table (sounds gross written down on paper doesn't it?) All the problems will go away with a lowered dose, you don't need to wait 3 days, in fact if you take the dose now you will not have any more rebound (crashing) effect.
5MG may be too little though, don't shoot yourself in the foot with your doctor.
Hey is your name Kimberly Wong?
shinsetu_hito38297.0603472222shin - I am having images of that descriptive paragraph go through my mind.Thankfully my doctor gave me free 1 month samples both times he wrote me a prescription. So it's actually more easier for me jsut to get the 5 mg tablets. It'll probably be too little to start with, but i'd rather go slow then get thrown into the mix as fast as I did.
I'm actually feeling a bunch better. So far my stomach isn't upset at all and I got a good 10 hours of sleep without waking up....which is quite refreshing. So i'll start taking the mg today.
Oh yeah, no my name isn't kimberly wong, that'd imply i'm a girl...lol, it's kevin wong
I definitely can't wait for my body to get balanced. My body has been worse off since I took that overdose of the Adderral XR. I've really felt out of it and have felt rather depressed lately. I know once I figure out my dosage, or get another medication and the right dosage, i'll be fine.
I did take a 5mg tablet which seemed to help a little but I still feel worse than before i got diagnosed. But like I said, it'll all even out eventually.
shin-
The cutting the pills is a good idea, except with adderall xr, it's a capsule filled with beads, so he'd have to try to measure out 1/4 of the beads and it'd get kinda tricky because some of the beads are quick release and some are wax-coated so that they release about 4 hrs later....
kwong-
Hopefully you get things all figured out....I'm 19 and taking adderall xr and it works great for me! No side effects at all, although a lot of people say that it doesn't work as well for them as other stimulants. It's kind of trial and error at the beginning. Good luck finding what's best for you!