Ya.. I'm considering stopping Adderall altogether. I mean, it works *******' awesome but the whole 'coming down/rebound' part of it makes me feel depressed and withdrawn from everything and everyone from 4pm to like 730pm. I outweighed the pros and cons and I would much rather be back to my old ADHD self as long as I never have to experience this depression like stuff ever again.

I'm going to my doctors tomorrow and will explain it to him. And I dunno about the whole 'take a non-XR-pill so it lasts longer.' Cuz even if I do that, I'll still be coming down, just later on in the day. I was a incredibly happy kid before this, but this.. this is just NUTS. I have absolutely nothing to be depressed about yet I am depressed for that 3 hour period. It sucks but.. damn. You can reply ifany of you've experienced this also, and I'll post an update to my doctors visit tomorrow.

Doesn't drinking coke a few hours before coming down help with that?
I'm sorry you feel that way but maybe there are less drastic options, such as different dosages, i suppose you could switch medications, or maybe you can add something like prozac to help with the dep.

JDG1Wow, imagine that, someone else experiencing, yet again, the exact same symptoms I went through when I was on adderall, amazing.

JDG1, you're right, that is really difficult to get through. It's a total pain in keister and is one of the numerous reasons I stopped taking adderall altogether.

You show great wisdom in your thought process about adderall xr, it's still going to be the same, you are still going to have the down time, no way around it.

Others will say, well you have to take it for at least 3-4 months to really feel the affects of the medication - bs.

You will probably go through the 'withdrawn' symptoms for several days in a row, after about 2 weeks those symptoms are virtually gone. I have been off of adderall for 4 weeks now and it's been pretty tough.

But once you get through that 4 week period you should be like you always were before. Yeah, it lasts that long in the body.

If you have real difficulties I have found that SJW 300mg - 600mg at night helps with the social phobias, also GABA, L-Tyrosine, & Vit B100.

Good Luck

Scott

Yeah, I'm not too keen on the whole withdrawal symptoms. I've only been taking it since last Thursday, just less than a week. You think it'll be less intense because of that?

What do you mean by less intense, the withdrawal symptoms?? If so, it never how much or how little adderall I took, I always, without fail, like clock work, had those 'withdrawal' type symptoms.

Adderall is awesome for getting 'tasks' done. If you need to get alot of things done, and you really don't have to be social, adderall is the drug of choice.

However, as a sales guy, I can't afford those withdrawal feelings and had to quit it altogether.

Give the supplements a shot. I take St. John's Wort for about 4 days and then I stop for about 2-3 weeks. GABA is also really good especially if you have ring of fire add (see Dr. Amen's Healing ADD).

Illini: I was talking about the withdrawal symptoms from stopping taking Adderall altogether. I heard from some it was pretty intense (lots of lethargy, irritibility.) I have a feeling my doc will put me on a different med though, maybe a non-stimulant... see how that works.

You might consider sticking with adderall a bit longer - my initial side effects lasted about a week. I haven't had any side effects since.
I have stopped taking adderall for a few months at a time ("drug holiday") and have never had withdrawal symptoms, nor any side effects from resuming adderall.

Good luck!

Give it some time to work and for your body to get used to the dosage - perhaps you need a little less or a light afternoon dose to ease off the feeling you get when it wears off? Some people can sleep while taking Adderall and if you are one of them, you could take a later dose and be sleeping when you "crash". This side effect wanes in most people and it's probably made worse by some anxiety and expection of what the drug will do. I find the come down from amphetamines to be very easy - but that's me, I just have to be careful not to eat too much! And as for withdrawl, that's been way overblown - you won't get physical withdrawl from the amounts that your doctor prescribes - I've taken stimulants for a while now and when I skip a day I don't feel physical withdrawl - and neither do the kids that take the summers off, and all others that take drug holidays. And if there was physical withdrawl these people would not be doing this - or go on the drug again afterwards. Psychological withdrawl is a different matter - some people may find that they don't like going back to the way they were before meds, but I don't see what the problem is there - if the medication makes such a positive difference in a person's life, why wouldn't you want to take it? As far a suppliments go, these would only make a difference if the shortage of dopamine in your brain is due to a lack of chemical precursers that the suppliments then replace, but that would be too easy and isn't what is happening in the ADHD brain (I guess maybe in some sub-types?). Stimulants work by preventing the re-uptake of dopamine and noradrenaline at the synapses - where the action happens - and thereby make more available since it sticks around. To use a car as an analogy, it wouldn't matter how much gas you put in the tank if the spark plugs aren't getting a hot enough spark to ignite the fuel in the cylinder, it's not going to go anywhere unless you push it!
Talk to your doctor about your side effects and see what he says.
Good luck,
Greg

Here's the great thing about adderall, it's designed not to have any kind of 'physical' dependency. The real dependency or 'withdrawals' you will experience is that total clear headed thinking you get from adderall.

Adderall is great, but I, like alot of people, want to be 100% - 100% of the time with no downside or negative affects. Unfortunately for me with the adderall, the negative side affects always seem to happen at the worst times.

When the newest ADD drug Strattera came out, it was initially recommended to be accompanied by a stimulant to get full relief. Many docs dont do that now because of the stimulant PX difficulties. I started on Strattera and then added ADDeral xr and since the Strattera is a reuptake inhibitor, it covers me 24 hours and I dont get the dramatic come down affect from Adderral. This might be something to consider.

Thanks for all the replies. I went to the doctors today and he was suprised to hear that I exhibited such negative reactions after the Adderall was wearing off. He prescribed me 36mg of Concerta to take in the morning. I dunno how that'll work out.. guess I'll find out tomorrow and see. I do know that Concerta is the time-released version of Ritalin (I think?) So maybe I'll have a better reaction to it.. hopefully. Also, I found that smoking cigarettes when in the whole 'withdrawal' stage after the Adderall was running out helped for a bit. But anyway, I'll post back my results tomorrow. I really do hope this works out. These filling up prescription trips are killing me money wise.. and I just wanna start on one medication so I can used to it and get on with my life. Anyway, thanks again.. hopefully the results will be better. :cool: