I suffer from Hypersomnia. I am given stimulants as given to those with ADHD which is why I am writing. I was taking Adderall 5 days a week. I can not take it continuously because I develop a quick tolerance. The side effects, especially when coming down are difficult. Anxiety, jaw hurting, bloating, dry mouth, shortness of breath. My neurologist just switched me to dexotrol. My side effects seem to be the same, and I don't feel it is as effective as the Adderall was. I was taking 2 10's of both up to 3 times a day. I started the dex on Sat. On Sunday I took 4 pills and felt like it was too much. Today I have taken 6 and am having hardly any luck with being alert however I am still having the side effects of it supposedly wearing off. Do any of you have an opinion as to whether I should just go back to the Adderall, or should I give this more time? I am paranoid because I go back to work tomorrow and I am worried it is going to be difficult. Thank you for any advice you can offer!

I don't understand how people are being thrown these amounts in dosages...

It is simple, you start out low and work your way up. My doc said that Hypersomnia is very hard to treat and not many people get relief from stimulants. It is more intense then Narcolepsy. No matter what I do, I never feel right. I have to choose between feeling exhausted with major mental fog and loss of independence for driving myself around and socializing, as apposed to being awake with mental alertness that comes and goes and then the after math of the drug wearing off and me having difficult symptoms that make me look like a crack head and feel like crap. My doctor told me regardless of what I do, I will never feel "normal" per say. Sometimes it is hard having to pick my poison.
What are you on? How are you taking it? Does it help? Do you have bad side effects?

Why don't you get Provigil like all those adorable little narcoleptics

I did. It did absolutely nothing. I have tried Ritilin, Welbutrin, Dexetrine, Adderall, Cymbalta, and Prozac. I seem to get the most results ( good and bad ) from Adderall.

P.S. thank you, I know Pink Floyd is adorable~

Maybe you could get a script for Desoxyn. Methamphetamine is much stronger than Dex.

Hello. I was just wondering if you might be willing to share your personal opinion on the various medications you have tried (particularly Dex, Adderall, and Ritalin). I am currently on Adderall XR 60mg/day and it doesn't even phase me half of the time. I develop a really high tolerance to it really quickly too, and yet I still find myself stuck in the same medication rut becuase this is the med that I have had the best (as well as the worst) luck with. What problems/symptoms does adderall control for you better/worse than other medicatioins? Any info would be greatly appreciated!
-ash

ps.
I am sure you have already considered this, but have you considered anything in your diet that might be interfering with your medications? Citric Acid? Caffeine? Calcium? Antacids? Vitamin/Supplements?

Pink and Laura!!!!

I am so happy I ran into this post.
I think I am having the same problems as you! Adderall worked for me the first few days at 10mg, then20XR then I became immune until I upped my dose to 60mgXR.(at once) I thought that was the solution...I just needed to find my dose. After that one great day at 30 I was out of meds for a week, saw my Dr as prescibed the 60mgXR which worked approx 3 days with each day being less less effective.

Is this what happens to you??? I am currently switching Drs so I dont really have a Dr to call. I am worried about what to tell the new Dr. Worried that if I just say exactly whats going on he will tell me there is nothing he can do. I am really dpressed over this....It is really the LAST thing I ever suspected.

I have scoured these boards and the web looking for answers but have only found one reference to this. A add specialists site mentions that some peoples tolerance will always jump and it will happen no matter what med they are on and there is nothing he can do for them. YIKES.

Im sorry to highjack this thread, I would just really like to understand what is happening to me!

Hey people, thanks for responding. Since my last post I have seen my Neurologist again. She is amazed at my quick tolerance for meds. Anyhow, I am now taking 2 5mg of Desoxyn in the AM. It really helps me to wake up smoothly. I have been on it for almost 2 weeks. I have no side effects. WOOHOO!!!!!! However.... if I take more in the afternoon, they do not seem to work. So, if I have to drive, I try to do it early. There are still situations I have a struggle with such as driving or trying to relax, but at least I am able to stay awake thru my work day, and don't have the horrible side effects I was having on Dex & Adderall. Desoxyn's forum is not very active. Also, it is very hard to get! I live in Washington and had to call several pharmacies. I am having luck getting it thru Rite Aid but they even have to order the stuff so it is a process trying to get it. I am just hoping it keeps working because so far I have been taking it 7 days a week. My doc thought my down time was too harsh because I was giving myself a two day break, but again, I was trying to avoid building a tolerance. Hope this helps you guys.

Why Do People Keep Saying "developing Tolerance"? What Does That Mean? I Have Taken 15mg Adderall Xr Almost Daily For Like 5 Years Straight.. I Mean I Have Gone Up To 20mg Before, But It's Not All The Time.. And I Dont Feel Like I Have A Tolerance? I Just Dont Get All Euphoric Feeling Like I Used To, But Technically If You Have Add/adhd Your Not Suppose To Feel Euphoric Or Feel Anything.. Just The Ability To Focus And Some Side Effects. I Think People Are Getting Lazy On Their Meds.. I Know I Have.. Tolerance? What The Hell Is Tolerance? Do You Really Think Its Safe To Keep Upping Your Dosage?? Nooooooo... Because When You Finally Get Health Problems From The Drug You'll Have To Get Off It Completely.. And The Higher The Dose The Harder It Is To Come Off The Med.. So, Think Logically, People..

Why Do You Capitalize Every Word As If It Were The Beginning Of A Sentence?

I Dont, I Was Typing In All Caps On Accident And The Computer Or Website Automatically Makes The First Letter Of Every Word Like Tall And The Rest Of The Letters Short. Doopie Doo. Are You That Worried About It?

The conventions of standard punctuation and capitalisation make it easier to read. It's much more fatiguing to read UPPERCASE ALL THE TIME (FOR EXAMPLE) than lowercase. It's really just good etiquette to make things easier on your readers.

BTW, "tall" letters are normally referred to as uppercase, and "short" as lowercase. In case any of this is unclear...

So, yes, etiquette (good manners) matters, IMHO. I'm much more inclined to bother replying and try to help someone who doesn't have an attitude about such simple things. once when i asked someone who wrote a long post with absolutely no punctuation or sentence/paragraph structure at all like this but only worse because it went on and on for about half a page and the spelling was atrocious as well so it took me like about fifteen minutes to figure out what the questions actually were anyway i asked him if he could please attend to making his posts a bit easier to read by putting in some basic punctutation and he said he was too busy to bother with puctuation lol so i said i was too busy to try and decipher what he was asking lol so i guess it sort of worked out in the end sort of

First off I want to say that I love how this forum turned into a grammer lesson! Too funny! As far as building a tolerance to drugs, you may want to try getting two prescriptions. One should be for something stronger like dexedrine/dextrostat and the other for provigil. Provigil is not the same compound as dexedrine or adderall so you should take the dexedrine on the days you really need that "upper" effect. A couple/few days a week when you do not have much to get done you should take the provigil. You can take more than just the standard of 200mg a day for provigil and this will help prevent your body from building a tolerance to the dexedrine. Alternating the drugs is a good way to continue getting the beneficial effects of the dexedrine.

What is tolerance?

Mostly its down-regulation of the dopaminergic receptors.


Downregulation: An decrease in the number of receptors on the surface of target cells, making the cells less sensitive to a hormone or another agent. Some receptors can be rapidly down regulated.