I was diagnosed a year ago at age 20 and subsequently put on 5mg Adderal 2x daily. The effects for the first few months were miraculous, I went from failing out of college to straight A's with professors suggesting that I submit my work to scholarly journals...My pet name for my Adderal became my 'super genius pills.' My tolerance slowly increased to the point where after 8 months a 20 mg dose would do little more than calm me down a bit. My doc switched me to extended release ritalin, and even though the side effects weren't so hot, I regained that ability to focus....for two days.
Before pursuing the tricyclic antidepressants I want to exhaust all the other possibilities. At this point the only way I'm getting results is by dissolving 15-20 mg Adderal under my tongue. While it's the best I can do for now, it is nowhere near what the meds did for me when I first went on them. How have others out of you dealt with building tolerances to your meds? I'm pretty desperate as I'm in the position where my meds are the only thing that's going to get me through college as the university refuses to recognize my disorder because it was diagnosed by a neurologist and not a general physician or psychiatrist who would accompany the diagnosis with a full evaluation.

not sure if it's tolerance per say, but regardless, i've been afflicted with the same problem. Had an amazing ride with ritalin for about a year, then started having problems. For a while, it would only work in the late afternoons/evenings, even though i would start taking it at 6am. Then, it stopped working altogether. I tried switching to Adderal, Cylert, Dexedrine, etc, and found that they only worked for a week or so, then pooped out for good.

Nobody has any idea why this happens--but it's not as uncommon as you might think. For some reason, my brain is no longer receptive to stimulants. In my case, it kind of feels like i've become sensitized to it.

One thing i'm trying right now, is phentermine. It's actually working better than the prescribed stuff listed above, but i'm worried it wont last. Might want to give it a shot, if you get into a jam.

let me know if you have any ideas to share...thx, good luck.

If all the stimulants have stopped working for you, why not try a Non-Stiumlant like Wellbutrin or Strattera?

Just my $.02 :)

Andrew:

I've tried just about every non-stimulant option out there, including Wellbutrin and Straterra. In my experience, they dont even come close to stimulants--really wish they did.

I'm sorry you find yourself in this predicament.

Perhaps its time to try some herbal remedies?

Have you tried combining strattera and a stimulant?

or any other combinations?

:bowl:

Ifso --

Dealing with a similar mess. The phentermine might help for a while, but depending on how much you weigh (I think it has something to do with metabolism rates) you may develop a tolerance to it too.

Here's what I do:
Omega 3 essential fatty acids
ALTERNATE BETWEEN 1500mg Arginine and 1500mg Tyrosine in the AM (two weeks on one, two weeks on another - doesn't help avoid the tolerance issue; does help minimize it)

Look into the nootropics (so-called "smart drugs" - you can Google it on the web and see what you can find to dea with your specific symptoms) - I don't know where you are in school in Boston but I've heard they are a pretty well-kept secret at places like MIT (where success is everything)

Ccan you send your neurologist's evaluation to a psychiatrist you trust, who can then forward it to the school's psychiatrist? Sounds like they're being awfully narrowminded about this. Also, I don't know which administrator you've seen, but when my Dean of Students used to ignore me I would march right into the "Big" Dean's office.

Best of luck