I know there are a lot of posts of this nature, but i recently started drug therapy for ADD and have some questions. Mainly, how many of my negative side effects can i expect to go away in time. I'm on 10 mg of adderall twice a day, at 8:30 and at 1:00.

If i take it later in the day, i cannot sleep, but taking it when i do, the effects wear off by 8:00pm and I cannot get anything done, i feel a little dizzy and disassociated, occasionally i have a headache. Mind you, i've only been on the drug for five days.

Will these effects go away anytime soon?

I do not think i even felt dizzy or disassociated on Adderall or after it wore off - I did have a bigger problem with the return of ADD symptoms when my medications wore off in the evening. I used to get head ache on Ritalin when the medication first took effect which is why I switched to Adderall.

An even bigger problem that i am dealing with is insomnia, last night i lay myself to rest at 10:00pm and could not sleep until 1:00, it was horrible. I read that melatonin can help, has anyone tried this, or dealt with insomnia in another way?

If you're just starting the Adderall be patient the first couple of weeks. If you stick to the same dosage on the same timing cycle, your body should adjust to the new chemicals functioning in your brain (yeah, you have to think about what's going on in your body, it's freaked out right now). For myself, I've started adderall multiple times now and it always takes me about a month to adjust to the dosage and then I start sleeping pretty regularly. It's important just to relax and let sleep come by itself rather than try to force yourself to go to sleep, especially in the beginning. If you start developing an anxiety about insomnia now it could create a bigger problem later even after your body has a chance to adjust to the medication. Just try to relax and if you lay in bed for 30 mins or so and don't feel tired, get up, leave the bed, and go read a book or something for awhile until you get tired. The more relaxed you are about it the sooner you'll be back to sleeping regularly. Bear in mind, some people never sleep the same on while taking stimulants as they did before. My personal experience is that with no medication I generally sleep around 8-10 hours a night and feel groggy in the morning. While taking adderall (last dose between 1-3 PM) I rarely sleep more than 6-8 hours but I do feel better in the morning and during the day than I did before. These are all just personal opinions based on my experiences so see a doctor if you're really feeling bad or having serious anxiety about the sleeping problems.

Also, with the rebound effects, I've found that those lessen with time as well. The best advice I've seen and practiced is to make sure that you're drinking plenty of water and eating enough during the afternoon. If you have no fuel in your body than when the medication wears off you'll be "running on empty" which is going to make you feel much worse. I try to drink about a gallon of water a day, which is probably excessive, but I also do lot of exercise. I generally find that the more water I drink the better I feel at night...just a thought.

Ive also found that if Im tired and avoid sleep by starting to play xbox or whatever and i miss that window of opportunity, after a game or 12 Im jacked up and cant go down. Its like your brain gets stimulated and it takes forever for it to slow down again. Could just be me though.