I am on my 4th day of Adderall XR, 15mg x 1 daily which was prescribed by my G.P. vs. a psychiatrist over a year ago. I am on the same bottle and this is my third attempt of trying this medication. I take my (1) dose early in the morning and 30 minuites after I take it I am lifted out of my ADD pit (as I call it) and I am enhanced to the "functional mind" that we all dream that we could have naturally. I have innattentive type ADD (in the heavy) and I find that this medication temporarily alleviates 80% of my symptoms for roughly 10 hours after taking it. The downside however is that as the medication wears off I become haunted with what I can only describe as a strange feeling of uneasyness; perhaps anxiety. I do not get a "smooth" transition as I come off the dose and it last rougly 6-8 hours. I just try to ignore these feelings and continue with my day. Unfortunately I only last (on average) a week on the medication because by the 7th day I get tired of the uneasy and unnatural feelings and stop taking the meds altogether. I am of course greatly relieved when I no longer suffer these feelings but overtime I fall back to being severly disenfranchised by my inability to acchieve much with goals and task. Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated? I plan to ask my doctor for Dex on my next visit and give it a try, I've read that many consider it to be smoother.

I am new to ADHD and don't have any personal experiences. But somwhere in this forum I have read about people taking a different medication (don't recall what of course) in the evening to help with some of the "rebound" effects. Maybe you could talk to your doctor about adding something that will help with anxiety before you switch to a new medicine. It sounds like it is working so well during the day that you'd hate to switch completely if there is an option to help you deal with the anxiety.

I am currently trying Ritalin and am having a hard time with rebound myself. I am cranky and tired and have a pounding headache. I am going to talk to my doctor on Thursday and if she is helpful I will let you know what she suggests. We are taking different medications, though, so it may not be advisable to do the same things. Again, this is all just my opinion and I do not have an MD (or anything even close :)). As it is often said in this forum "talk to your doctor" :D Good luck. And let us know how it turns out.

Thanks for your reply lilyfrog. I will do the same for you after I visit my doctor. After re-reading my post I realized (I often overexplain myself) I should be asking everyone if they feel the "rebound" feelings would subside over time if I continue taking the drug beyond a week? I rarely have any problems with anxiety except when I take medications for my ADD. Even the non-stimulant versions (norpramine, zoloft, welbutrin) caused me to feel very uncomfortable. I alway "Casper and milktoast" within a week and stop taking them. Perhaps I'm just not giving the meds enough time to fully take hold. Maybe the uneasyness would subside after a month or so.

Without medicating, I still can sustain a fairly happy existance but limited one. I do enough to get bye and thats all. I have to settle for less which is unfortunate because I've always been an ambitious spirit with many asperations and ideas. Asperations that never materialize much beyond good intentions and rare (somewhat insignificant) achievements. Instead I exile myself from the mainstream and live a life of disarray and sloth only to dream about all of the things I would like to be and become in life...yet never getting there.

Your description of yourself unmedicated matches me so closely! One thing I want to say, though, is not to minimize any accomplishment! This is something I am struggling with as well, but try to focus on the positives instead of what you didn't get done.
"I exile myself from the mainstream and live a life of disarray and sloth only to dream about all of the things I would like to be and become in life...yet never getting there."

This is sooooo me.

A question for you: You said that this is the same bottle that you got from a prescription from a year ago. Have you not seen this doctor in a year? No accusations, just curious. Maybe your anxiety is coming from your perception of all your failures and losses in life. Maybe some sort of counseling could help you work out your self esteem issues and get you some skills to help you achieve some of your aspirations. I realize that this "uneasyness" you describe only happens when you are taking the med, but maybe somehow it is bringing those feelings to the surface. Like when your not medicated you are just in survival mode and don't pay attention to all of your emotions, then when you take them you start to see life as it could be and those feelings of inadequecy (sp?) surface. Just a thought. If you have been seeing a doctor regularly and this is not the case, then just ignore me. :)

If you haven't been seeing your doc regularly, I think it will be very important for you to this time, not only for the emotional aspect, but so that he/she can fiddle with the doseage or decide that something else would be better. I'm sure you know this but no one pill works magically for anyone (this is something I am struggling to come to terms with....You mean I have to work at getting better?? This cute little pill won't fix it all?) :) And it may take some time to find a good dose for you. Is this the first drug and dose you've tried? On some other post I mentioned the use of beta blockers for ADD (I'm not positive on this one, so don't quote me) and it's use for anxiety. Maybe this is an option to add to your "daily concoction." Anyway, I look forward to hearing about your appointment! Good luck!

You bring up some very good points lily and much to think about. There are a lot of fears that do seem to surface when I start taking meds. A fear of losing myself to the medication and not being able to come back if things don't go well. A fear of addiction to amphetamines and becomming flakey should the medicine ever stop working. A fear about having to take something to help my mind work when no one else in my family seems to have to. In addition feeling like a failure for not being able to do things naturally or by sheer will. ( As you can see I sort of become my worst enemy when I start thinking too much.) Perhaps denial plays a big role in this.

I need to think about forcing myself in following thorugh treatment in full before making any judgements.

I would try adding a dose of IR (5-7.5mg) at the end of the day as long as it doesn't affect your sleep. In my experience dex made me too tired during the day and the come down was worse... but thats me. Other things to try would be a dose of short acting welbutrin or even kolonapin... but your doctor may have "issues" perscribing a benzo. I also highly recomend DL-phenylalanine (500-1000mg) with a dose of B Complex at the end of the day.... works wonders for me. Basicly helps your brain restore the dopamine used up by the adderall during the day and it's also a mild antidepressant. Perhaps even 50-100mg 5-htp. Both of these are over the counter and easy to find.