Ok, I've been on the adderal 20 mg 3x/day for over a month now and have noticed its benefits: improved concentration, focus, motivation and energy. However, the cons as I mentioned in the heading are becoming a problem. My partner and I are fighting a lot! My normal tendency is to avoid confrontations and work things out peacefully by talking them out. Yesterday I yelled for the first time in ages ;which in turn only made things more volatile. I haven't contacted my Doctor about this yet (hoping the s/e's would abate)as he is a new one and I don't want him to take me off the psycho stimulants. I'll try to hold out till my next appt if possible which is at the end of the month.
Tried ritalin, concerta and straterra: The ritalin even made me meaner and straterra had different side effects without any of the benefits.
All that's left in the stimulants are Cylert, Dexedrine and Desoxyn.
From all the drug trials many of you have experienced, will any of these three meds prevent the negative symptoms that I've been having? Lowering the adderal dose hasn't helped either. Please advise as I'm needing some guidance here. Thanks

By "shrinkage" do you mean the same thing as I refer to in my post (http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19105)?

from what I recently heard about Ritalin/Concerta
it seems to me that it should be pulled from the market.
As well I was told over the phone that you've been on
a powerful stimulant/did she say very powerful cause I forgot
then why would they even think of marketing Adderall.
Quite frankly I thought I was going to be on Adderall for life
but that simply wasn't the case and in the end I rather slowed
down it was fun at first and I actually learned but something's
the matter, I'll find out what's wrong with me cause I know, I feel
something is wrong with me. ~my head that is~...
I guess all we truly have if you know what I mean is Strattera...
I wish we had more options...

At the risk of being an ingnorant expert a la Tom Cruise, I would bet that the irritability is coming from the norepinepherine effect of Adderall and Ritalin. Wish there were something that just hightens dopamine,

This irritability thing is quite interesting. It may well be related to norepinepherine - I experienced in on Meridia (a diet drug originally developed as an anti-depressant), which works on norepinepherine. It was awful and I stopped the drug pretty quickly. However, I was on Strattera, which also works on norepinepherine, and didn't experience any irritability. I'm now on Adderall and I'm not experiencing any irritabiliy (quite the opposite; the drug makes me very cheerful), atlhough I'm on a low dose (10 mg XR). I'm thinking of upping the dose a bit, so it will be interesting to see if I get the irritability side effect on a higher dose. Believe it or not, I tried megadoses of fish oil and felt as irritable on that as I did on the Meridia. So "natural" solutions aren't always the answer either. Brain chemistry sure is an interesting thing - I wish they could figure it out with more precision and develop "smarter" drugs.