Hey citruscat ,
Since Adderall , my brain seems to be able to pause long enough to think about what is the best order to do a project in ..
I do not know if this is a side effect of me not being bored and now I am not rushing through everything or if it is my brain slowing down long enough to think about things ..

Prior to meds , I could not even finish painting a room , there were a couple of reasons for this .
1. I would lose interest shortly after starting and it would become a major push to finish which was painful ...

2. I wasn't getting satisfaction out of what I was completing , so the motivation to keep going sizzled ..
3. I did not go about with proper preperation prior to starting the job , forethought was not there and this caused frustrations such as not having certain tools with me , having to go hunt for them .. loosing the tape for taping off .. Taping off I did very quickly and sloppy because I just was not into doing it at all ..
This was my problem , things needed to be done and I just had no incentive past 15 minutes or so ...
What I did do gave me no reward either .. I think this is important to keep one going to finish the job and do a nice job ..

4. Tools in my house were all over the house , we have 3 tape measures , but try finding just one ... We have 5 sissors but try finding just one pair when you need them ..
We have several rolls of tape , again I have to go on a hunt , this caused me a great deal of frustration ..
For me I put things down where ever because I never had the tenaciousness to organise anything .. it was too tedious and if I even tried I would get lost in something else and forget all about what I was doing prior .. Classic ADD stuff ..


Since Adderall Xr , forethought is there , I gather all my tools I need for the job first , I survey the room , see what needs done first .. Taping off is still a bummer but it is not Painful ! In fact I take my time and do it right and this gives me a sense of accomplishment that was missing before ..
I can pay attention when I start painting and while it is still a chore , it is not a push and I actually get satisfaction with what I have done so far .. With that feeling it is much easier to finish the job and not get distracted with something else .. In fact I take great joy in finishing the job ..
The room that I painted when I started ADDERALL XR was my bedroom which needed it very badly , I not only painted it , but I also did a technique called ragging which takes longer because it is 3 steps .. The whole process was rewarding instead of a PUSH !
Am I making sense to you ???

Adderall Xr is the slow release and I am currently on 20 mgs 2 times a day .. I take 30 mgs in the morning at times and 10 in the afternoon .. I open the capsule to do this ..
Sometimes I take 20 mg in the morning , then 20 mgs afternoon ..

I take Adderall everyday , if I did not I would be back in what I call my grey cage .....
The world seems to have color when I take adderall to use a metaphor ..
Adderall Xr is smooth in that it takes you up easy and lets down easy .. At least that is my expierience .. When I first started my body had to adjust , but after that I did not get jittery , my mouth still gets dry at times , but I drink water or chew gum ..
My appetite at first was diminished and this worried me some , but after about 3 months appetite came back to where I could eat healthy ..
What I did in the begining is made sure I had yogart , a piece of fruit , anything small to eat as long as I ate ...
I take vitamins ,

While taking adderall they say to watch ingesting citrus acidic things such as orange juice after taking a dose because this will impede absorbtion ..

Sometimes I will feel the adderalls effects more on some days than others , my husband and son both get this as well , I think it has to do with hormones ..
Sometimes you can get anxious as well and for that I take klonipin but for me I do not need it often at all ..

Basically I do not even know I am on the med , except for the fact I can do things like I always wanted to and I get satisfaction from it .. I even took up sewing and bought a sewing machine ..
Before meds I would have never done this , I would say it was boring .. cause it would have been boring for me before meds ..

I still get bored sometimes but now I think it is like everyone else's bored ... My bored was emotionally painful for me .. and it was constant .. so I fell asleep alot despite my hyperness ..
I started at 20 mgs at 6:30 in the morning , and I noticed I lost steam at around 1:00 pm , so I asked if I could up the dose and that was a year ago , and this dose seems to be fine ,, 20 mgs 2 x a day ..
Tolerance has not developed and this was one of my other fears , but so far so good ....

Hi There -- I'm so impressed that you rag painted a room -- I guess that's the kind of focus I'd like to have. I really love it when things are well organized, but I can't seem to get them that way unaided.
I don't know yet what meds I'll be on, but I'm trying to get an idea of how they work.
You've cleared some things up for me -- thanks so much.

I recently started taking adderall xr 20mg and was told to take it as soon as I get up in the am or it would cause sleeping problems. Do you have any problems sleeping since you are taking a second pill later in the day? I have a fast dip in energy about 3pm and have no energy to do anything at all at home in the eves after working all day long. :confused:

everyone is different with the sleep stuff. for me, adderall actually is sedating enough that i can take it at bedtime and go right to sleep. for other people, though, it can cause insomnia. one other reason for taking it first thing in the morning is that it seems to help people the most when done that way. you avoid dealing with peaks and valleys because the onset becomes part of the waking cycle.

Tammy-

I came across the exact same problem!! I wondered why I was irritable around three everyday. So I started experimenting and now I take one in the early morning (8ish) and another around 1, both xr's. This gets me through the afternoon and evening...no probs sleeping...except if you wait until 2:30 like I did the other day and drink green tea at 10 pm:) some people like to take the shorter acting in the afternoon but I can't stand how those make me feel. Let me know how it goes.