Just recently, my doctor upped my dosage of adderall from adderall XR 25 mg to adderall XR 30 mg. I always procrastinate until the last second to do any homework. So in an effort to get everything finished I take an adderall every 5 hours, because after 5 hours I feel like it stops working for me. I didn't seem to experience any problems when doing this with the regular adderall 20 mg or the adderall XR 25 mg, except that I would run out of them to quickly. However, with the adderall XR 30 mg I still feel like it wears off after 5 hours but it gives me unusual side affects when I take another pill. It's almost as if it makes me tired or something. My eyesight gets all blurry, I start to feel really dizzy, my eyes feel heavy and it is difficult to keep them open, but then when I turn out the lights and try to fall asleep I can't. It's almost like my brain just shuts down to the point where I cant even think about anything anymore.

Does anyone have any similar stories or suggestions?

I don't see how this translates to addiction? the fact that you're having side effects from the meds, and that they're not working as well as they should, means you should be talking to your doctor about it.

Do you feel the uncontrollable urge to double or triple your dosage for a "high"? Do you snort your adderal? I don't think you're addicted.

You might want to switch back to regular adderall. The xr only releases half of your dose at a time. 4 hours later, the other half is released. If you are taking 30 mg xr, you are getting 15 mg for the first 4 hours and another 15 for the next 4.

The lull you feel at the 4-5 hour mark is common. If you prefer the xr instead of the regular release, you might try a different approach. For me, I get great results if I take 10 or 15 mg xr at 7 or 8 am. Then, I take another 5 mg at 11:30 am. This evens out the rebound effect...(that tiredness you are feeling at 4-5 hours) and it also seems to kick up the early dosage (for some strange reason). I get a better effect taking it this way than taking an entire 20 or 30 mg in the am.

Either way, just know that the tired feeling is common and happens as the second dose is being released. If you'll wait about 30 minutes or so, it should pass. You feel like the xr has stopped working, but it hasn't. If you up your dose, on top of what you've already taken, you are going to get the blurry vision, rapid heart beat, shallow breathing and basic anxiety feeling too. The second dose will kick in, so be careful.

Remember with the xr, one half of the dose dissolves first. 4 hours later the second half dissolves. But....and very important...in the second 4 hours you still have the half life of the first 4.


So, it does build up and can be a bit tricky. Adderall has changed my life but I have found a very interesting thing....less is more.