Not sure if this is normal. I was just diagnosed with ADD about 2 months ago and am taking 30mg of Adderall. It has really changed my life for the better. I am just having problems speaking in front of other people and it is causing me to isolate myself. Not in front of my family, just everybody else. I have always spoke very very fast and the Adderal has slowed me down and I realize that. But I can't seem to get the thoughts from my mind to my mouth and it is very frustrating. The thoughts and conversations are there but it just isn't getting out. Anybody have any suggestions. I think my husband kinda enjoys the peace and quite.

I have trouble shutting up..:rolleyes:

......do you get quiet? withdrawn? ....or studder?

what do you mean?

At first I stuttered then after about 2wks I stopped. Was talking to my husband about it and he thinks I'm thinking too much and should just talk. I have put my foot in my mouth so many times (for some reason people don't have same sense of humor as me) and am really trying to make better sense to other people. Esp to my kids teachers. I am having my daughter tested for Add and was trying to speak with her teacher and I just kinda stood there. My husband had gone over an email from last year that I had sent to her previous teacher and I was embarrassed. I didn't mean to sound as mean as he had pointed out to me. Just 38 years of offending people. Or just being different. What was I talking about? Maybe it just takes time. I'm used to having 6 conversations in one sentence.

I had the exact same problem a couple of years ago and it started when my dose was upped to 30mg XR.

I felt great and got tons of work finished. However I began to notice whenever I would have a conversation sometimes I would just stop and my mind would be completely blank. This would frustrate me and I would just end the conversation and leave to do something else.

After a while I started to realize it wasn't me but the Adderall. I just wasn't myself whenever I took the medication. There wasn't a problem with short conversations where I could predict the length (like chatting during a smoke break or in the coffee room). But longer conversations would throw me off because:

1. I felt like it was a waste of my time.
2. I didn't want anyone to notice I was different and find out I was on meds.
3. I was afraid I might say something stupid because I felt like I was having to force out words and thoughts.

I ended up changing my dose down to 25mg XR (I think 25, maybe it was 20, this was a couple of years ago.), and felt much better.

So anyway, if I were in your shoes I would change your dose down enough to notice a difference. Go into it knowing you will not get the same effects from 20mg xr as you would with 30mg xr. But if taking 20mg xr allows you to focus and maintain healthy relationships then stick with it. If you need more of a boost in the evening then also consider a 5-10mg IR after the XR.

Best of luck and always remember your not alone!

Is it interfering with your sleep?

I ask only because I have seen that in a few friends who had issues sleeping on that medicine and they reduced it and slept better and the problem stopped.

Not sure if this is normal. I was just diagnosed with ADD about 2 months ago and am taking 30mg of Adderall. It has really changed my life for the better. I am just having problems speaking in front of other people and it is causing me to isolate myself. Not in front of my family, just everybody else. I have always spoke very very fast and the Adderal has slowed me down and I realize that. But I can't seem to get the thoughts from my mind to my mouth and it is very frustrating. The thoughts and conversations are there but it just isn't getting out. Anybody have any suggestions. I think my husband kinda enjoys the peace and quite.

Reduced impulsivity and increased anxiety.

1: Psychiatry Res. 2008 Jan 15;157(1-3):201-9. Epub 2007 Nov 19.
Links
Nature of anxiety comorbid with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children from a pediatric primary care setting.
Bowen R, Chavira DA, Bailey K, Stein MT, Stein MB.

Department of Psychiatry, University of Saskatchewan, 103 Hospital Drive, Saskatoon, SK, Canada. bowen@duke.usask.ca

The clinical characteristics of children with comorbid anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD were examined. A sample of children from a pediatric primary care practice was assessed for anxiety disorders and ADHD. We defined four groups of children: (1) anxiety disorders only with no ADHD (n=54); (2) ADHD-only with no anxiety disorder (n=15); (3) neither ADHD nor an anxiety disorder (n=107); and (4) comorbid ADHD and anxiety disorder (n=14). Approximately 50% of children with ADHD had a comorbid anxiety disorder, and approximately 20% of children with an anxiety disorder had comorbid ADHD. The presence of comorbid ADHD and anxiety was associated with more attentional problems, school fears, and mood disorders and lower levels of social competence compared to children who had either ADHD-only or anxiety-only. Children with comorbid anxiety disorders and ADHD have more severe symptoms and are more impaired than children with either condition alone. Interventions need to be tailored to address the complexity of these comorbid conditions and their associated sequelae.

PMID: 18023880 [PubMed - in process]

Anxiety is common with ADHD.

I think this is what happens to me as well. I will be talking with someone and cannot remember what I was going to say or I just cannot find the right word for something. Or my son will ask me what something means and for the life of me, I can't put it in words.

I don't think it is anxiety. I think it is more of a dosage thing or related to when I took my meds and the current time. I notice it more later in the day.

HTH

I will be talking with someone and cannot remember what I was going to say or I just cannot find the right word for something. Or my son will ask me what something means and for the life of me, I can't put it in words.


Its hard for us to be objective and really answers this dilemma. No question I've heard often from ADHDers that they have lost some rapid wit on meds.

We had a thread on the forum in which I brought up the notion that meds might reduce creativity. It was hotly contested and personally I think the creativity reduction (now that I've used stimulants) is low to none. Someone
(crazylady moderator I think ) made a good point that it was reduce impulsiveness that likely explains a persons "lost of wit".

We would need a study to know for sure but it could be that information that
is impulsively generated has a lower value. No question it might be funny. The right words at the right time. But is that real insight into a complex problems people face?

So my point is the noise ratio of impulsive speech compared to speech that requires alot of thought maybe so high as to render that speech close to useless. So those old words we so easily said may have been mostly garbage
anyway.

Theta - your post is very interesting and hits home... Now that I think of it, it seems that it is just "chatter" where I have issues.... I am no longer able to really keep up chit-chat with the other moms when I pick my son up from school. Not that it is a bad thing! ;) I was able to keep my mouth shut the other day when some moms were talking about political issues and had views opposing mine. Not only that, but I was able to control any visible sign that I may be listening at all. That is totally abnormal for me.

Oh, and I've noticed that when I am talking with clients (I am an accountant) I am right there with them actively participating in the conversation until they get off topic and talk about things other than work. I just zone completely out until a pause in their speech and then, since I have no idea what they were saying, I just bring the conversation back to pre-tangent topic. I am sure this comes off as rude, but not sure how else to approach it....

I wonder if this is how people without ADHD felt while talking to me before meds??!!!! :eek:

Oh, and I've noticed that when I am talking with clients (I am an accountant) I am right there with them actively participating in the conversation until they get off topic and talk about things other than work. I just zone completely out until a pause in their speech and then, since I have no idea what they were saying, I just bring the conversation back to pre-tangent topic.

That sounds like inattention. Perhaps the meds are reducing impulsivity more than the inattention.

I've never noticed inattention in me. I was diagnosed with hyperactivity which the adderall works really well on. That was many years ago though and I am not sure, but I don't remember them making any distinction other than w/hyperactivity and without. I don't recall "combined" or any other sort of diagnosis. I do remember them telling me that I was hyperactive and that is/was rare for women. I did go through quite a bit of testing - being read lists of numbers and having to recite them back in reverse order, etc. Lots of questionnaires to people who have known me for 15+ years and so on. I scored perfectly on the number portions of the testing and was told that I had a photographic memory with numbers. However, the speech/listening portion was a disaster. I couldn't relate the definitions of words that I know or remember the stories I read in the order things happened. It was horrid. I guess that is why I just accept some degree of "lost wits".

Since the inattention seems to be only in things that don't particularly interest me, I can live with it. For me, it beats impulsivity. I am sure that with less impulsivity I would have "lost" far fewer jobs and friendships.

Of course, the grass is always greener....

Sorry to hijack the thread.... :rolleyes:

Staticbrain, I experienced something similar when I began my Adderol, then it was pointed out that my thinking was slowed down on the medication and I realized that, for me, that was the "problem" speaking. I was used to rattling off in a stream of consciousness fashion and now I wasn't able to do that.

In essence, I think the adderol can slow down our thought process (which is what, I'm told, it's supposed to do) and it's a matter of adjusting to communicating in a slightly different mode. I find I have to take time to formulate what I'm going to say, and that takes a bit more time, but what I say seems more exact.

Slowing down has also been good for me in those chatty/small talk moments because I now don't feel the urge to "have" to talk. It's like I can "hear" what I would say and choose to not say it. Since I've always been prone to rather awkwardly rambling on, this isn't a bad thing in my case.

To sum up, I think when stim-meds work, they can slow our thinking down and that may take some getting used to, especially when it comes to talking.

:)

Peace

i occasionally have this problem, too.

it happens a *LOT* more frequently in the morning. usually only after i "rush" to get ready to go somewhere ... like the workout in the shower and getting dressed and brushing teeth and sometimes being late all at the same time gets my blood pumping and gets me all flustered and frazzled. :eek:

sometimes it even happens if i simply can't get my hair looking proper, or if i wake up and have to deal with an unsightly zit (or anything else that affects my already-unstable physical self-confidence).

if i take it easy and lounge when i get ready, i can usually avoid the speech problems. but sometimes it happens regardless, like when i am trying to explain something that is really important to me ... it is really hard for me to articulate the thoughts or feelings i am trying to communicate. i think it might be a result of so many years of people not taking me seriously or completely misunderstanding me that i am destructively over-thinking to try to communicate my real feelings without misinterpretation.

being misunderstood or mistaken has been a very prominent and detrimental aspect of my psychological development ... so it is often a priority to consciously do everything i can to help others get the actual message i'm really trying to say. in effect, though, i think my overcompensation in careful thought makes me look like i'm trying to "pull one over" on whoever i am trying to communicate with.

but ya, this is definitely an issue for me too. as per the drugs being a cause, i do believe they contribute to the problem, but only because they help refrain me from just "speaking my mind" without any thought as to what i'm saying. you know? like, the drugs help me really watch the words that are coming out of my mouth so that i don't say offensive things or stupid things that only make my life harder.

it kinda seems that i have one miscommunication problem or another that happens on or off medication. :(

so, i don't know. i'm an advocate of using body language (or telepathy? ;)) as a primary form of communication, with verbal speech being secondary ... due to the high rate of liars and manipulators i have had to deal with over the years. :confused:

depending on the people that i am with, if i really trust them, then i usually have no problem with communication, regardless. but those people are very few and far between (i am still working on trust issues with my family even).

i hope some of what i've said might help you find the answer to your reasons why. good luck. :)

~laz

I feel like I seek people out to talk to, like I have a message I need to tell. I have even had slighty slurred speech from talking so fast.

i'm much too lazy to read all those posts but here's my gist on it

that's exactly how i was before i started adderall
i stuttered and talked insanely fast (brain worked too fast for my speech to spit it out really bloody annoying i ended up just not talking to people through the awkward middle school years) and i would blank out during the middle of sentences. the thought wouldn't drift away it would just suddenly disappear and then i'd be left feeling stupid in the middle of a really cool story or something lol...well not so much lol it sorta sucked.

i could never do any form of small talk before, i would completely zone and it was like i had two brains. one in my own world and one sortof listening and usually catching barely enough to comment...which is probably why it took me so long to get diagnosed and why a few in my fam were so skeptical. but i think i could now (havn't tried yet it's my first week)

anyways it sounds exactly like what you're going through i even isolated myself until i learned to cope and just do short comments on what ppl were saying (it apparently makes you look cool). allows you too look witty yet not say anything that could allow a rebuttal so you have an almost 0% of looking bad :)

im inattentive btw