Just curious about everyone's thoughts on holidays.

-Do you take them?
-why/why not?
-How often?
-For how long at a time?
-Do you feel it helps from your body building a tolerance?
-Do you feel better results after the holiday?

Currently I have been taking Sundays off, but I cant tell if it is or isnt making a difference. I am still on a lower dose and I also started Lamictal 2 weeks ago so I cant tell which is doing what to me. I am not going to up my dose of Adderall until I stabilize on the Lamictal and know how that is working for me. I have thought about stopping the Adderall for now (with my Pdoc's permission of course) so I can feel out the Lamictal, but I dont know it I want to. It has really helped with my motivation. I also considered just taking longer holidays or taking it prn.

LOL! I saw this title and immediately thought, no haven't taken a holiday in quite some time. . . maybe after I finish my thesis. Then I noticed that this was in the Adderall forum, and you're talking about drug holidays.

I'm not on Adderall anymore (sorta took an extended drug holiday after figuring out that it was making me grind my teeth down to just about nothing, and haven't gotten around to going back to the Dr. to talk about it), but I did used to take weekends off. It made me somewhat sleepy the first week. I'd say that I did feel the drug's effect a little more on Monday as well. When I stopped taking the Adderall, I did pop an occasional pill prn while I was still getting used to getting by without it, and it wasn't that bad to do so, although I was used to the XR rather than the IR so things were a little uneven.

Are you taking Lamictal for a mood stabiliser? If so, if I were in your situation I'd agree that it seems to be better to get a feel for how it's affecting you before adding the Adderall back in (but what do I know, I've never taken anything but the Adderall).

I had a feeling people were going to think I was talking about an actual holiday at first, hehe.

Yes, I also have BPII (the less severe but more depressive type of BP). I am only hypomanic (I dont get extreme highs but I do have spurts of energy and thinking I can conquer anything). My Pdoc is actually wondering now if what we thought was ADD is actually my hynomanic episodes, but I dont think so. I always have "foggy brain" and cant concentrate to save my life!! I wouldn't say Adderall totally helped with that, but it did give me motivation and I was getting things done. I also (on the days it worked good) could hold conversations and actually LISTEN to the person talking to me! She said the lamictal just may be enough for me, but you have to titrate so slow with Lamictal (6-8 weeks) and I dont know that I want to give up the Adderall for that long. I think I am mostly leaning towards taking it prn on the "bad" days!

I generally won't take it when I don't have to go to work/school. So that rules out the weekends.

Just curious about everyone's thoughts on holidays.

-Do you take them?
-why/why not?
-How often?
-For how long at a time?
-Do you feel it helps from your body building a tolerance?
-Do you feel better results after the holiday?

Currently I have been taking Sundays off, but I cant tell if it is or isnt making a difference. I am still on a lower dose and I also started Lamictal 2 weeks ago so I cant tell which is doing what to me. I am not going to up my dose of Adderall until I stabilize on the Lamictal and know how that is working for me. I have thought about stopping the Adderall for now (with my Pdoc's permission of course) so I can feel out the Lamictal, but I dont know it I want to. It has really helped with my motivation. I also considered just taking longer holidays or taking it prn.

I take them often. I build up a tolerance almost immediately.
I hardly ever take meds on the weekend, unless i'm working or researching
it definately helps
The results are much more noticeable after the holiday, for me.

I take dex and my doctor says not to take drug hollidays. Although If I think my tolerance is building up I'll take 20 mg unstead of 40 mg of dexadrine for a day or two and then it works great again . With adderall witch I took for because I coundnt get dex I found I needed about 3 days or more to get a noticeable effect from a holliday.

I don't take meds at the moment but when I start I'm planning on taking a 'drug holiday' every weekend so my tolerance doesn't get out of control.

I don't take planned holiday but I do frequently forget to take my medications - does that count?

I have been on Adderall for years although I do not feel them any more they still work because every one else notices the trail of mess following me every where I go when my medication wears off. I notice when I can no longer mentally keep track an accurate idea of the pasage of time.

Heh, well this past weekend I forgot to take my medication and boy was that a eye opening experience. I don't think a "holiday" is a good idea, for me at least. Since the medication is helping me, I would not want to stop taking it as I would feel awful and return to my old angry negative self :)

I would like to take my meds daily but they've pooped out, so I think a holiday is inevitable. I'm going to aim for two weeks and hope that it helps.

I wish I could take more drug holidays, but I can't since school is in session. I actually NEED it everyday. Since even on the weekends I gotta study, study, study. :(

In my experience with drug holidays... I found that the longer the holiday, the better the drug works when I resume taking it. A couple of days without my meds, or even just reducing my dosage here and there doesn't really do too much. However, if I go about a week completely drug free... The meds definitely feel more "potent." Anyone who has taken holidays like this knows what I mean. :)

I'm not recommending anyone do this, of course. This is just my personal experience. My doc knows that I take drug holidays and he is totally fine with it. :)

Are you sure the drug "works" better or are you just noticing it more?

Imagine that you live next door to a three ring circus. With all the noise and lights, elephants, clowns, high wire acts, and cannon firing going on all the time, you could hardly hear yourself think!

And then one day, the circus packed up and left.

Peace! Quiet! Hearing your own thoughts! The new quiet would be so noticeable that you could hardly stop talking about it.

But, after a while, you wouldn't notice that you are not noticing the absence of the circus anymore.

Isn't that what taking ADHD meds is like? At first, the difference is really noticeable, but after awhile, the difference becomes the normal and you don't really pay attention to it anymore. Does that mean the difference isn't there anymore? Does not commenting about how quiet it's been since the circus left mean that it is no longer quiet?

How long would you recommend to take off the meds? Would there really be a big difference between taking one week off and taking two weeks off? Or even a few days vs. a week? Anyone have any experience with varying times?

Are you sure the drug "works" better or are you just noticing it more?

Imagine that you live next door to a three ring circus. With all the noise and lights, elephants, clowns, high wire acts, and cannon firing going on all the time, you could hardly hear yourself think!

And then one day, the circus packed up and left.

Peace! Quiet! Hearing your own thoughts! The new quiet would be so noticeable that you could hardly stop talking about it.

But, after a while, you wouldn't notice that you are not noticing the absence of the circus anymore.

Isn't that what taking ADHD meds is like? At first, the difference is really noticeable, but after awhile, the difference becomes the normal and you don't really pay attention to it anymore. Does that mean the difference isn't there anymore? Does not commenting about how quiet it's been since the circus left mean that it is no longer quiet?
Nope the meds lose their effectiveness over time for many people, it's not getting used to the state of being 'normal'.

Are you sure the drug "works" better or are you just noticing it more?Well, like I said, it was just my own personal experience. I do feel though that I (and maybe some others?) build up a tolerance to the meds.

I feel that taking holidays helps to control the build up of my "tolerance" to my meds. But, again, this is just my experience. :)

I generally won't take it when I don't have to go to work/school. So that rules out the weekends.
yup same here...

I usually take a break from my medication on the weekends, or whenever I don't need the medication for school or work.

Holidays are a great cycle for me if I will make myself take them. Originally I took them because taking adderall non-stop would cause me to feel wierd. Taking weekends off seemed to help and the drug kept a longer efficacy. Adderall also affects deep sleep cycles, and holidays are a great way to catch up on sleep if you are feeling drained. When I take a holiday, I can sleep all day long, only getting up long enough to eat something. This is normal because your body is catching up on sleep. It will pass in a few days and when you start taking adderall again, it's like SPRING all over again.

Nope the meds lose their effectiveness over time for many people, it's not getting used to the state of being 'normal'.


For some people maybe. But I think a lot of people doubt the efficacy of their meds just because they don't "feel" different when maybe how they "feel" isn't really the true barometer of how well their meds are working. For example, I don't "feel' my meds wearing off. But my behavior changes anyway.

Yeah that's part of it too I bet. I'm just aware that the brain compensates for the increase of dopamine and other chemicals(?) after being on stims a while. I'm not sure how much of a part dopamine and the other brain chemicals effect ADD but I believe they do something and this action could probably explain why meds 'poop out' on people. I think so anyway, I'm far from a scientist.

When I was taking stimulants, I didn't take holidays but then again I wasn't taking it long enough to be a problem.

Yeah that's part of it too I bet. I'm just aware that the brain compensates for the increase of dopamine and other chemicals(?) after being on stims a while. I'm not sure how much of a part dopamine and the other brain chemicals effect ADD but I believe they do something and this action could probably explain why meds 'poop out' on people. I think so anyway, I'm far from a scientist.
It does - and it will try to reduce the levels when the stimulants make them too high.

That's why you see tweakers always doing so much meth - they have to up the dose to keep their brain from lowering the dopamine levels - in essence, they're so high, that if they 'crash' it could be catostrophic.:eek:

I don't take my Adderall on the weekends. I can tell a difference, but I figure why waste it when I only need it for work.