Hello,

This is a great website! I have been reading it for the past couple of months and it is good to see advice from many people who are dealing with the same thing that I am.


Anyway, I was diagnosed with ADD (inattentive type) last Friday and started 10mg of Adderall XR the next day. The first 3 days I felt more alert (not hyper or overly alert, just more alert than before) and got quite a bit accomplished at home and at work. However, for the past 3 days I have started to drift back into procrastinating, low motivation and being unfocused and tired.

How long did it take for you all to build a tolerance to your initial dosage of Adderall? And did you quickly build a tolerance to each increased dosage?

Thanks,
zz123zz

I don't think it's as much of a tolerance, but maybe your body getting adjusted to the medication.

A 10mg XR will only deliver around 5mg twice a day. You will need to discuss this with your doctor. See if it would be OK to take two 10mg or a 10mg in the morning and a 10mg around 4 to 6 hours later.

Welcome to the forums.

Timh, thanks for your reply.

I would like to follow-up on my original post. This is my 14th day of taking 10mg of XR (my next doctor's appt is in 2 weeks). As I described before, I still feel like I have reverted back to the way I was before Adderall - my mind wanders, I'm not accomplishing much at work, etc.

I take the medication at about 5:00 each morning. I really can't tell any difference in my ability to focus at any time of the day - basically, I feel the same at 7:00pm as I do at 7:00am.

I have read several posts on this forum from people who are taking over 60 mg of XR per day. For anyone who is taking a high dosage, were your experiences with Adderall XR similar to the ones that I have described? Also, how quickly did your doctor increase your dosage?

Thank you all in advance!

My son is 17, started Adderall XR 3 weeks ago. He started with 20mg a day. Takes it every morning. He goes back in on Jan. 27. I think he is doing ok, except for the getting up part. He will probably get a higher dose. If it isn't helping you anymore, call your doctor. He may just tell you to take 2 pills at one time to make it 20mg. Good luck

Every doctor has a different strategy, but 10mg is pretty low and I'm sure your doc will keep making adjustments until you've got an optimal dose.

My doctor started me on 15mg and raised my dose 5mg a month. I'm hoping he'll bump it up 10 or 15 on my next appointment, because I believe my optimal dose will be around 35-40mg (I'm on 25mg now), but I'm fully expecting only a 5mg increase.

My son's doctor started DS out at 5, and had me adjust it every week. DS, who started Adderall XR a month after me, found his optimal dose 2 weeks ago.

It sounds like your doc will be a little more like mine, but rest assured you'll get it eventually. The good news is that it seems to work for you and you're tolerating it, so you can expect dose adjustment to result in improvements.

BTW, most doctors follow the following procedure in adjusting meds:

1) initial dose relatively low
2) dosage increases at intervals (1 week, 1 month, these vary by doc)
3) increases continue until the patient either A) no longer experiences improvements or B) begins to have negative side effects.
4) sometimes, docs will also slightly decrease the dose once this ceiling has been hit.

The goal is to give the lowest possible dose that provides the maximum benefit.

The majority of adults, according to the literature, have an optimal dose of between 20mg and 40mg.

Hope that helps!!

I've been on 20 mg per day and I have the same thing happening with me. I've been on it for about 2+ weeks and it seems like no effect.