I started taking Adderall XR 5mg yesterday. I tend to be very sensitive to medications, and usually respond at very low doses.

Yesterday, about an hour after taking my first dose, I felt calm... I had to park my car on a side street, and I just sat there for an hour, so calm and relaxed it was crazy! That faded a little, and I didn't feel quite like that for the rest of the day, but I still felt the stuff was calming me down somewhat, and making my mind a little quieter.

Now today, I took my 5mg dose at 8:30 this morning. As the morning has gone on, I have found myself increasingly more wired, hyper, and scattered - the total opposite to what I experienced yesterday. My mind is going 2,000,000 miles per hour (as opposed to my usual 1,000,000 miles per hour) and it is very distressing.

How can this change so much from one day to another?

I'm scared because I'm running out of options here (even my pdoc says that - which is not helpful!:mad: ). I had a miraculous response to Strattera, but it pooped out on me a few months later. I tried Ritalin last week, but had a horrible (scary) response to it, and will not try it again if I can in any way avoid it. I can't tolerate many of the AD's used to treat ADD - Wellbutrin makes me extremely angry and dysphoric, Cymbalta makes me almost suicidal, Effexor makes me very depressed at the higher doses (when the norepinephrine is kicking in), and the anticholinergic effects of desipramine were too strong for me.

I REALLY REALLY need this Adderall to work, as it seems close to my last option. Could this change in the way I'm responding indicate that I need a higher dose? Is this just my body getting used to the drug? Could this 'raciness' perhaps dissipate with time? I'm feeling really scared.

a. try a higher dose.

b. add another medication? there are several people on here who take more than 1 med - crazy feet, your turn ;)

I find that too sometimes though - some days i feel like i just want to go to sleep all day, and other days i feel wired. then i realize I'm like that anyway (at least the hyper part)! so maybe you are just over-analyzing. i tend to do that as well. when i 1st started adderall i spent 1/2 the day trying to decide if it was helping.
another thing - AVOID all caffeine, even chocolate. i find that has a very negative effect on me.
another thing i find is that when i start doing something, whatever it is, i often dont want to stop. whether it's cleaning up, exercising, reading, computer stuff, really anything. which is a little disconcerting.

In response to the first post of the person who just started taking adderall, I went through basically the exact same thing. I've been on Adderall 10 mg twice daily for almost 2 weeks now. I experienced the calm feeling like you did and also experienced the thing about feeling like your mind is going faster than it was before you started treatment.

Well, I do believe that this is just how a person's body responds to something that is new or considered foreign to it.I do feel that eventually some of the horrid side effects that may go along with adderall will eventually diminish once your body is used to it. Think about it, its affecting how our brain works, and our brains basically control everything we say and do. So its only natural that anyone having adhd would experience some terrible things in the beginning but that eventually it will start to even itself out. So, don't be scared, at least thats what I keep telling myself and also just keep in mind that you just started it. Your dose can increase at least up to 40 mg to 60/mg per day.

Since you do feel like adderall is one of the last options that you might have, I say don't get discouraged about it taking along time to give you the benefits you need.

If it makes you feel better, I am going through kind of the same thing you are. I understand where your coming from in the arena of having to try so many medications to help ease some of the most bothersome symptoms surrounding adhd. So I'm just going to pray that Adderall will work for both of us and give us the help that we so desperately need.Because I do believe that if you feel positive about what will happen eventually as far as treatment goes and try as hard as you can to not think about the negative then it will be easier for you to deal with.

Hopefully this helps a bit!!

Yolanda

Yolanda;

Thank you so much for your encouragement! I, too, hope that the Adderall will work for both of us!

I guess the thing I hate about all of this is the waiting and wondering and worrying...will this work?? when will it work? If not, what do I do? etc....

You are so right about the positive thinking! I guess after all the medication failures I've had, I didn't realize how negative my thinking had become. Thanks for reminding me :).

Here's to hanging in there! ARGH!
Cheers
addinbc.

Jeez! 5mg XR and you felt that way! Consider yourself very, very lucky! Anything under 25 - 30 XR has no impact on me whatsoever. When I first started taking adderall, it made me feel the same way you've described above. Very calm and focused. I also felt that one of the best comparisons I've heard was to a radio; normally i was in between stations, but on adderall, everything was perfectly clear.

Still, at 5mg XR (I don't mean any offense) there' s good chance this is in your head. I didn't even know they made pills that small.