I was diagnosed with ADD after years of thinking I just couldn't do certain things...basically things that are important to surviving in society. I was eventually prescribed Adderall.

Adderall works for me, and yes, I do get that Euphoric feeling. It feels good, I said it. Now was that so hard?

It just sounds like some of you feel guilty for enjoying that feeling, or look down on others for actually enjoying the euphoric side effect of Adderall. Some people think that if you're getting the euphoric feeling....and god forbid enjoying it, there must be something wrong. Get over it.

I'd still take Adderall if I didn't get that feeling. It's helped me immensely with school, work, and relationships. I can actually hold a conversation without interupting a person.

It works for me and it feels good too.....I guess that makes me a bad person.

Personally, I don't feel like there is anything wrong with the initial euphoria that Adderall usually provides, however, if one is going to chase that "initial euphoria" by constantly letting that feeling be the direct influence of how the drug is working then that's another story. In my opinion, since you stated that you'll still use it even if the euphoria doesn't exist leads me to think your okay. I'm not one of those people that DOES give my opinion about one who does want to chase that feeling but I do think people get that feeling mixed up with the purposful therapeutic effects of the drug. SO in my opinion, enjoy the euphoria and you seem knowledgable enough to know that it's not something to continue to seek or should I say chase by constantly increasing the prescribed dose(like some others I read about).:)

No, feeling euphoria doesn't make you a bad person.

I think the problem is that you can set yourself up for dependency if you keep going after the euphoria, because it will almost certainly go away unless you up the dose ... and up it ... and so on ... Not good stuff.

If you just go with the euphoria, and hold onto the focus after it leaves, I think it should be fine. If you feel worried, I'd recommend talking with your doctor.

That said, I take Ritalin and not Adderall, but I will honestly say that Ritalin did not give me any euphoria, not even the first time. Maybe that makes it safer for people at risk of substance use disorder...

I just don't like the word euphoric because of it's associations with drug abuse. If it gives you a "lift" or a little "zing", then all the power to you. This will disappear.

How long have you been on Adderall? I've heard that the euphoria goes away after a few months for most people.

I took strattera before adderall, which also is supposed to have an initial euphoria and didn't get it from that, either. It sounds kind of nice, actually, if it doesn't interfere with your daily tasks, but I'm probably just nostalgic for the days when I could drink.

I've been on Adderall for almost 4 months now. I'm prescribed 10mg 3 times daily, but I usually take 10mg twice a day. I use instant release generic. That lil "zing" is still there as much as it was when I first started the med.

The Euphoria or "zing" usually lasts for 20 or 30 minutes....it's not like I'm floating through clouds or anything and seeing pink elephants.....it's just that "ahhh" chill, focused feeling. Maybe what some described as "euphoria", is just the focus that it brings to me.

I'm not worred in the least about addiction because for one, I don't have an addictive personality. I don't "need" that nice little feeling at all. I'm just saying that it's there, and it feels kinda nice. I'm not after the feeling, nor do I crave it.

I don't think it's a bad thing either, I just don't get why the "feeling" is stigmatized on this message board, even if "euphoria" could be equated with addiction. I just see it as a side effect, along with the focus and ability to work up to the potential that I've always known that I've had, but never really been capable to bring to the surface due to my thoughts always being "scattered".

I wonder if there's a difference between instant release and the long lasting kind (which I take). I've never taken instant release.

I'm glad you brought up this topic, because I think your observation is correct, and it forces me to examine my own thoughts about it. I think the feeling is stigmatized because Adderall is also a party drug for non-ADD people, and those of us who take it because we need it feel defensive when we're accused of just taking it because we like being on speed just like everyone else. I think there might be an overcompensation effect where we try to distance ourselves from those who take it for fun.

I don't know... I feel like my life was so bad before my diagnosis and treatment. I was barely functioning, hated myself for being such an underachiever, had no future I felt I could attain (a job that required grad school? yeah, right!). Adderall has changed that for me completely. It's given me the opportunity to change my life and do all the things I felt were out of reach before. So, I do feel belittled and frustrated when someone dismisses my medication as a drug that just makes everyone feel good. I've never gotten the euphoria, but I have to admit that if I did, I think I would downplay it, too, so that people didn't think I was taking Adderall to get a little boost for fun. I agree that it's silly, but that's my guess for why that stigma is there, based on my own emotions.

I think you absolutely shouldn't feel any more guilt for a good side effect like euphoria than you do for a bad side effect like tooth grinding- or for other good side effects like weight loss (well, at least for those of us who could stand to lose a few pounds) and increased libido. The side effects are totally beside the point of why you take the medication.

The quotes below comes from Baughman's ritalindeath website and The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) - the mouth piece of Scientology. In both cases they posted info from the FDA. There are many such websites that try to equate the therapeutic use stimulants and meth abuse. They often use some fact to create fiction. It's the way in which they frame the information or that they use information that is out of date. They will also use info outside of it's proper context to jump to groundless conclusions. It doesn't matter to them, as long of the message of fear has registered on unsuspecting parents.

They always fail to mention that the dosage and delivery system is completely different with the addict either injecting or snorting the drug. By using these methods the euphoria and crash cycle of drug dependency is established. There is no mention that stimulants act very differently when ingested. This sort of site always come from the Antipsychs or Scientology, fearmongering is typical. We see a thread a week that tries to make this link.

So now you know why the term "euphoric" is frowned upon. It's not an accurate description and it's key part of the message of the antipsychs and scientologists.

Prescribing Kiddy Cocaine to our Children From the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) 1995 Report on Methylphenidate

Like other schedule II stimulants, abuse of methylphenidate, the stimulant most prescribed for ADHD¨ can lead to tolerance and severe psychological dependence. The literature indicates that the addiction produced by methylphenidate abuse is neither benign nor rare in occurrence, and methylphenidate is more accurately described as producing severe dependence. In clinical studies methylphenidate is self-administered by humans and produces patterns of reinforcing and subjective effects similar to d-amphetamine. Methylphenidate and d-amphetamine produce similar patterns of subjective effects, including increases in rating of euphoria and drug liking. In a study of the incidence of cocaine use and abuse in adult subjects exposed to methylphenidate as children, medicated ADHD subjects who tried cocaine reported higher levels of drug dependence than non-medicated ADHD subjects and controls. Recent data suggests that pre-exposure to stimulants, including methylphenidate, in childhood, may predispose these same individuals to the reinforcing effects of cocaine. ADHD adults have a high incidence of substance abuse disorders. With three to five percent or more of today's youth being administered methylphenidate on a chronic basis, these are issues of concern. Typical of other CNS stimulants, high doses of methylphenidate often produce agitation, tremors, euphoria, tachycardia, palpitations and hypertension. Psychotic episodes, paranoid delusions and bizarre behavior characteristic of amphetamine-like psychomotor stimulant toxicity have all been associated with methylphenidate abuse. Severe medical consequences, including death have been reported. Case reports document that methylphenidate abuse can lead to marked tolerance and psychic dependence in children and adults. Psychotic episodes, violent behavior and bizarre mannerisms have been reported. A significant body of literature is available that describes the actual abuse of methylphenidate and consequences associated with that abuse. Some of the earliest reported abuse cases came out of Sweden where the widespread abuse of methylphenidate led to its withdrawal from the Swedish market in 1968.

FDA Alert On Violence- and Suicide-Inducing Stimulants

June 28, 2005: The Food and Drug Administration says that “ADHD” stimulants cause visual hallucinations, aggression, violent and suicidal behavior….

Since the 1980s, Citizens Commission on Human Rights has exposed the dangers of stimulants such as Ritalin prescribed for the psychiatric invention, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). For years psychiatry has promoted the notion of a “chemical imbalance” to prescribe psychiatric drugs to over eight million schoolchildren - a $1 billion dollar a year industry - despite the fact that no medical or scientific test has ever validated psychiatry’s theories about chemical imbalances. Medical experts say there is no evidence that ADHD exists as a physical, neurobiological disease and that prescribing cocaine-like stimulants for something that cannot be physically diagnosed is child abuse.

On June 28, 2005, The FDA finally ordered labeling changes to methylphenidate [Ritalin] products, including Concerta to warn that these drugs can cause “psychiatric events.” These are described as “visual hallucinations, suicidal ideation, psychotic behavior, as well as aggression or violent behavior.” Click HERE to read the article.

Bruce Wiseman, president of CCHR in the U.S., says, “Parents have been denied information on these dangerous suicide and violence-inducing drug side effects for years, unwittingly placing their children at risk. The public awareness raised in the media recently about these and other psychiatric drugs and Congressional Hearings into why such information has been withheld, may finally mean that parents will be able to make truly informed decisions about protecting their children's health, instead of being further victimized by psychiatry's smoke-and-mirrors history of fraud and deceit."

More on Scientology here -> http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18118
More on Baughman here ->http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27237&highlight=baughman

I don't feel euphoric but I remember the first time I took adderall it was like I could see the world like I was meant to see it and participate in it. I was a total space shot before adderall. It's hard to think about how that was because for so long it hasn't been.

I think it's a sujective thing. From my experience, and from what I've read from most people here, there's a definite relaxation and stress relief, plus feeling like you're finally "free" from your disorganization. It's euphoric in the sense of "thank G_d, I'm finally in control of my life."

From what I understand from drug abusers, illicit use of the drug is much different. The euphoria for them is sometimes described as "orgasmic," and use is not only compulsive, but there is also a continuous desire to use more and more. Where an ADD patient will have a month's supply in a bottle and take one dose at a time over the course of the month, a meth addict in such a situation would use up the bottle as fast as possible, taking more and more pills each day. This is different from some ADD patients who will need a dosage increase, where they take 10mg for a month, find that it's not helping much, and the doc increases it to 20 for the next month and they stay at that dose. With an addict, the usage could increase tenfold over the course of a month or even a week.

With ADD patients, the drug often frees them to focus on important things in their life, like school or work or household chores. Addicts, on the other hand, find their focus riveted on finding more of the drug, because when they have it, they use it all.

While ADD patients will experience mild euphoria, mostly psychological in nature (which is why it persists...a tolerance would develop far more quickly if it were pharmacological), it is different both in quality and quantity to that found in those who use or abuse the drug illicity. This is why we don't like to talk about it as "euphoria," because it is too easy for the term to be misunderstood, as Scuro said, and for people to inaccurately believe that it is similar to the effects seen in illicit use.

I don't feel euphoric but I remember the first time I took adderall it was like I could see the world like I was meant to see it and participate in it. I was a total space shot before adderall. It's hard to think about how that was because for so long it hasn't been.I know exactly what you mean, although the effect wasn't quite as immediate for me, where all of a sudden the world has a continuous plot instead of just eing a series of confusing and unrelated events.

Excellent post Hyperion. I think you said it all.

always come from the Antipsychs or Scientology, fearmongering is typical.I am neither an "Antipsychs or Scientolologist" but I would have to say from personal experiece that Ridlin gave me the exact same "eurphoria and crash" that I got from meth I tried in the 80s. I do not know anything about Adderal nor am I against any of the ADD meds, this is just a fact based personal observation FYI.

How many pounds of Ritalin did you take in order to obtain the same "euphoric" affects of meth...........?

Well for me the euphoric feeling comes back every monday as I usually don't take my pills over the weekend. I guess the feeling is diminishing but oh well, I can do without it

How many pounds of Ritalin did you take in order to obtain the same "euphoric" affects of meth...........?
1 pill a day and I was flying high as a kite. I forgot the MG but I stoped it because I didnt like feeling like that all the time and it was hard to sleep.