I read somewhere that you can develop tics and odd bits of behaviour on Dexedrine. I think I'm showing some signs of aggravation in this department.

I've always been a bit on the anxious side but last night I was more conscious than ever about things creeping into the way I conduct myself. Gawd what a wordy guy.. I'm a word hugger if I ever saw one.. lol Never can just say things straight.

I have a weird bit of mouth/lip rolling under concentration, I can't stop running my fingernails across my thumb or my thumbnail across my finger tips.

Yesterday I had to put some mortar on the top of the chimney and it took me until two in the afternoon to get to it. By the time I did get up there I was ramped up with anxiety to the point of being a hazard. I checked myself and slowed down enough to be careful but I couldn't help wondering if this was always the way I am when faced with a task I'd rather avoid or is it aggravated by the meds. I honesty can't make the distinction between what it was like before and what it's like now. I have the distinct impression though that it's getting worse as time goes on.

My Dad does the fingernail thing and I've always done that but now it seems like I don't have a choice. I can't quit doing it. Sometimes it makes my fingers sore from the effort. Sometimes my fingers are sore from just wearing the skin thin where I'm rubbing. I'm highly conscious of this and try to not hurt myself but it's an effort.

Should I consider looking at life without dex for a while to monitor the differences? I'm thinking this would be a great idea. I know my therapist makes notes on my fidgeting every time I see her.

I have had tremendous success coping without meds previously but ended up losing my dates with my coach and things fell right apart. I didn't know she was "coaching" and neither did I at the time but I do now and we are back on track.

What's the recommended withdrawal scheme? What side effects might I expect? How long before I'm clean again?

I think it's time I made a move on this but I'll wait to hear from you all and finish the meds I have. That will give me some time to put in place whatever I can to take up the slack in their absence.
ian

Hi, not sure that this will really help but I thought Id wright anyways.

I have been taking dex for only 3 days now. Well yesterday about 2pm the tablet I had taken about 10am was starting to wear off. I was so completely shocked at how super hyper I was becoming as the dex wore off. After closely analysing the situation I come to the conclusion that the hyper state was Is how I natuarlly am. It just seems that now I had another state of mind to compare with the usuall hyper state. Its kinda like not really understanding what light is until you night comes.

But another thing, I know definately when the dex is wearing of because I start to touch my face. I will start with combing my hand through my hair then I start to rub my eys, pull out the fallin out eyelashes. Then I will notic that my clothes start to feel irratible. I one HUGE benifit I have noticed on dex is that when its in full effect I simply do not even have any urge to touch, scratch etc.

anyways I hope it helps in anyway, and if youve got any question about the figits like touch scratching etc ill try to answer, sounds like you finger fidgets are similar.

cheerio

Hello, I only had three hours of sleep last night, so I didn't take my 2nd dose of Dex during the day because I wanted to make very sure that I got a full 8 hours rest, I've been collecting a lot of sleep debt lately because of school and social life and my body really did not want to take the medication, that was how I was feeling anyways. Anyways, I have pretty bad withdrawl symptoms, the worse of them being (especially as I've been under a particular amount of stress and my roommate is gone home for the weekend and I have the whole place to myself) a desire to eat and eat and eat, also very bad hyperactivity, it's like my ADD is magnified. I can't concentrate on one thing for more than 10 minutes. I can't wait to just go to bed in an hour and wait till tomorrow, the side effects were not so bad before but they are pretty bad now. The longest I've gone without my Dex was 2 full days in a blizzard when I was shut in in my friend's house, all the stress and I felt so caged in, all I wanted to do was eat junk food and the only thing that gave me relief was pot and shrooms. I don't do these things normally, but this was a desperate time. Anyways, that's my two cents worth!

I do a bit of finger fidgeting and face touching (swipe hand across nose then lips then chin) though it's weird how I don't notice those things or maybe I only do them sometimes? I just had a final session with my psychologist (14 sessions) plus two others before & two pdocs. She said I've improved A LOT since I came in. I was an anxious mess according to her, like a cloud of anxiety three feet thick hovering around my body. Strange because I didn't really realize but it sounds right when I look back a few months.

For Ian and addhill, how about cutting the medications back some. Does that help?

I've been taking dexedrine for two years and its helped me:
- stay awake when appropriate (meetings, shopping, bars, driving)
- loose the fog that envelopes my brain sometimes
- not loose track of what I was doing
- make decisions

On a few occasions early on, I took extra doses of dex (after the day's doses have worn off) to stay up late and complete important overdue tasks. I learned that this is only a short term benifit. My spouse says I'm like a caged rat when I did this. I did become jumpy. This wears off after a week.

I will never take extra doses anymore. In fact I am currently trying to take as little as possible (see other thread in this section).

My psychiatrist tells me that there is no health danger in missing doses of dex and a missed dose of dex does not change the effectiveness of subsequent doses. My experience agrees with this.

My psychiatrist also wants me to take as much dex as possible (up to 45 mg/day) as long as I have no side effects. I don't fully agree with him.

I"m hooked on the benefits. I'm going to have to stay put for the time being.
ian

dex increase your awareness, therefore it increases your anxiety. I've been on it for 4 years. I never have withdrawls from it if I take a break but I find it so hard to go back on it coz I'm yanked out of my blissful little world into the harsh reality and I cry & cry & cry

On all these meds you should not be locked into a specific dose. Maybe someday's you will only need half the dose, take the whole dose and you get edgy. Other days the dose doesn't do anything. But the worse is when it seems to sit in your belly and doesn't absorb, then you take another dose and the first one kicks in :::ZINGG::

I have tried smaller doses and 10mg long in the morning and 5mg short in the afternoon is as low as I can get and still benefit..
ian

I do a bit of finger fidgeting and face touching (swipe hand across nose then lips then chin) though it's weird how I don't notice those things or maybe I only do them sometimes? I just had a final session with my psychologist (14 sessions) plus two others before & two pdocs. She said I've improved A LOT since I came in. I was an anxious mess according to her, like a cloud of anxiety three feet thick hovering around my body. Strange because I didn't really realize but it sounds right when I look back a few months.

For Ian and addhill, how about cutting the medications back some. Does that help? Sometimes it helps to spread 10 mg of Dex 3 times throughout the day instead of the 2 doses of 15 mg. It depends on my schedule, if I have a lot of time in the afternoon to do my homework I'll take the 2 doses, if I'm going to be working late into the night I try and spread it out.

I also experienced frequent tics in my legs while laying down in bed for the first few months after taking Dex, but they've subsided.

I read somewhere that you can develop tics and odd bits of behaviour on Dexedrine. I think I'm showing some signs of aggravation in this department.

I've always been a bit on the anxious side but last night I was more conscious than ever about things creeping into the way I conduct myself. Gawd what a wordy guy.. I'm a word hugger if I ever saw one.. lol Never can just say things straight.

I have a weird bit of mouth/lip rolling under concentration, I can't stop running my fingernails across my thumb or my thumbnail across my finger tips.

ian
i do that stuff all the time, and always have. (still not officially diagnosed adhd).

andyeah, i can never 'just say things straight' as you just said... usually i have a big build up to nothing (i feel i have to explain a lot of background scenario for a tiny story), or i will forget what iw as saying, or i will keep adding other things into my sentence, making one big huge disconnected sentence, and i can't carry a straight conversation about one topic. if i do that, i just ramble on and on and on and take over. and thats no good.