Hi, all, Its geno. The type to long ADDER>! I should tell my doc that people are complaining about my typing to long, and i feel its my ADD, in overdrive.
No, just to say that tommorrow Im calling my doctor, and asking him if he could switch me back to Adderall. Now there is another choice, which would be taking regular Dex at 15mg 3x daily, but, hell probably say if the dex spanuals didnt do much, and Adderall worked alot better , well switch back.
Now I talked to my pharmacist. She said that My doc has to write a script and just bring it in, but cannot call it in, due to the schedule 2 guidelines. I am telling him, That, My Add effects have come back, and dont feel that well as i did on adderall, being, that My body may not respond well to Long acting Spanuals Or just Adderall was the Most responsive drug afterall, and I wanted to switch to a long acting med because of the effects wearing off, but, Id much rather go back to 30mg of Adderall, than what im taking now.
I honestly could take 2 at a time, or 4 daily, and still not feel much, I could fall asleep which I have done. I mean during the day, or anytime, like maybe the mental effects are even making me think its doing more than it may actually be doing, which is not much at all. Its more like im taking 10mg of adderall. But, the main thing is , the medication is not working well at all, and Iv talked to the Pharmacist and she advised me that the XR version of adderall is not covered by insurance and you would have to submit forms on why i need xr, so to make it easier, I would have no problem if you would put me back on the Adderall asap. I gave it a week, and still nothing at all, and its effecting my daily routines, also my cravings for opiates have come back some, and cannot perform 1/2 as much as i did. Well have to work on the dose issue.
My Pharmacist said he could perscribe up to 90 pills of 30mg a month, even though 60mg is top dose, so, even if he would add another 15-20mg , would be great, and would take it in the evening, so it would not be as potent for sleeping.
I thought wrong , and expected alot better performance from this drug, and maybe the reg. Dex would do alot better, but I would not risk it, because if he did switch me to that, and It didnt work, then, again Id be switching. SO, to be safe and not be to fussy, im going to try and get the adderall tommorrow, and will not take any dex from tonight on.
Just one more thing. I can almost bet on it, when I take that first dose of adderall, if he does switch me, I will feel 80 percent better 2 hrs after. Im going to talk to him about either adding another dose, making it 3 doses, or adding another stimulant, like welbutrin. I dont really see any other dopamenergic medication besides Antiparkinsons drugs , but I do have a list that are a bit more potent that welbutrin , but not a MAO, or another amphetamine.
Heck, has anyone ever tried taking say meridia, or didrex, which are wieght loss drugs, and out of all those meds, Meridia (subutrimine), is used for obesity, but on the psych drug sheet, it also states depression. The drug also suprisingly is a Triple Neurotransmitter Reuptake. Serotonin, Dopamine, and Norepinephrine. The binding ability is slightly less for dopamine, but still seems not too strong if you were going to take it with amphetamine. There are a handfull of dopamine meds i could post , im actually checking out this chart , and its very interesting.

Mindresearch

Hello my name is andocrates (well, not really) You seem like a sharp guy MR and I plan on reading your posts. But it sounds like classic amphetamine tolerance, which means you need a drug holiday. I wish I could sit around and write a long informative message but I have to work. I will tell you what has worked for me.

Baking soda and water taken before and during adderall. (don't overdo this, about 1/4 teaspoon before and during.) help make the drug work better.
I cut the 30mg adderall in half and build up the dose through the day.

Now for the cleansing.
Exercise (but not while you are using adderall) I'm talking jogging, aerobics, push-ups. Something that makes you break a sweat. In my case there are many days I shake so much adderall lose from my system that I don't need any medicine that day.

Sweating in a sauna or steam bath.

Cranberry juice (the 27% lite stuff)
Of course lots of water.

Food cleansing. Just quit eating junk food for a few days and switch to only vegetables and fruit and nuts for protein.

Your body cleans itself from these areas.
Liver (water and vegetables)
Kidneys (water, cranberry juice)
Sweating
Bowels (removes the waste products from your body so you might need to resort to a laxative.

Bummer geno. Did you try taking extra spasules to see if the dex even works at another dosage? Adding wellbutrin or strattera sounds a reasonable option. I don't know how you've done on SSRI's but Zoloft actually has a lot of dopamine effect. It's supposed to be very powerful, too powerful for many people & makes people jittery. If you are the overfocused type ADDer, the SSRI's are supposed to help.

The baking soda thing does work, but it is really not healthy. I did a cut and paste from another site that explains how the baking soda thing works:

The absorption & effects of Amphetamines are also dependent on the ph of the stomach & the urine. An alkaline agent such as Baking Soda (dissolved in water) increases the absorption of amphetamines in the stomach, and baking soda in higher doses makes the urine alkaline, greatly slowing the elimination & thus prolonging the duration & effects of amphetamines (although taking baking soda for this effect is supposed to be pretty bad for your health- Your body constantly tries to find a ph equilibrium, in both the stomach & especially in the blood which is neutral in ph except with severe dehydration or serious health problems). Acidic agents/food/drinks such as certain fruit juices decrease the duration & effect of amphetamines (thus it is better to drink water with Adderall/Dexedrine instead of fruit juice or Colas

Hope this helps.
Dragonfly125

We already beat this topic to death :-) Baking soda doesn't just make your PH alkaline, it also makes alkaline PH neutral. But aderall already has an agent in it to raise PH so it's rather pointless.

I tried using 1/4 teaspoon of Baking Soda with the Adderall that I was taking(I also read this on another website about Dexidrine) and I was surprised at how more potent the Adderall is. I'm going to always take a drug holliday once a week. I was starting to have dobts about Adderall & I was thinking of going to reg. release Dexedrine,but as I've read & as my Dr. has told me: So many people have a harder time adjusting to reg. release Dexedrine because how fast the drug wears off. The Adderall is smoother & gradually wears off having less rebound than Dexedrine does.

I tried using 1/4 teaspoon of Baking Soda with the Adderall that I was taking(I also read this on another website about Dexidrine) and I was surprised at how more potent the Adderall is. I'm going to always take a drug holliday once a week. I was starting to have dobts about Adderall & I was thinking of going to reg. release Dexedrine,but as I've read & as my Dr. has told me: So many people have a harder time adjusting to reg. release Dexedrine because how fast the drug wears off. The Adderall is smoother & gradually wears off having less rebound than Dexedrine does.

Really? Is this true? Can anybody confirm this? From what I've heard, most people think that dex is smoother than adderall, although perhaps less potent.

As I've said in a lot of other threads (I wonder if it's getting annoying), it's hard to make generalizations about Dexedrine v. Adderall.

Adderall is the left-handed (l-amphetamine) and right-handed (d-amphetamine) versions of amphetamine together.
Dexedrine is the right-handed only. (Don't quote me on this but I think that's where the name "Dexedrine" comes from -- dextroamphetamine.)

[To explain the left/right-handed thing, the amphetamine molecule is a 2D shape except for this one methyl group, which can be on the left or right side. This can actually make a huge difference to your body. This concept took forever to make sense to me in chemistry... I was like can't you just turn the molecule around? But it's like how you can never make your hands overlay if the palms are facing the same way. They're mirror images of each other. A more extreme example is ibuprofen. One of the mirrors of it is completely biologically inactive. Your body is unable to use it.]

So really, it's going to vary from person to person, as different people will have different affinities in their brain for the left and right handed.

Dex could seem smoother to a lot of people because the left-handed amphetamine molecule tends to act more potently on your norepinephrine system. So with it eliminated, it could leave a lot of people with a smoother effect, because right-handed amphetamine tends to stick with the dopamine system only.

However, it could also seem less potent, because Dexedrine isn't going to kick like Adderall does because Adderall has that left-handed adrenaline effect, which would give a harder kick power to it.

But, all in all, this is a generalization -- many people have different reactions to them, for example I have heard a few people who just don't have good effects from Dexedrine because for them the adrenaline action is a positive thing and helpful to them.

In addition, as above, it also depends on configuration of your receptors and such.

Taking baking soda or antacids will cause your tolerance to get higher faster. It basically potentiates the meds, so if you're concerned about tolerance this would not be the way to go. Not to mention that they could cause toxic buildup of amphetamine if a certain amount is taken, or they could block prevent the breakdown of the pill effectively.

Amantadine is a dopaminergic drug. They aren't sure exactly how it works, but it is similar to amphetamine. It has been used off label to treat ADHD and also as an adjunct to an anti-depressant for refractory depression.

It also is an NDMA antagonist, a weak calcium channel blocker, and some people have tried taking a combination of Adderall and Amantadine. This can cause too much stimulation for some people. But the theory is the amantadine actually prevents tolerance to amphetamine. It also competes with amphetamine for dopamine receptors and so can cause a blunted effect of the Adderall. But ironically, the less exposure to Adderall, the less and more slowly the tolerance rises.

I actually was on Amantadine plus Adderall for about a month, my doctor prescribed it for "anhedonia". Well it didn't work, just made me nervous, too much stimulation. I didn't take it long enough to notice it affecting the Adderall at all though.