Hello all today is my 2nd day on Adderall XR. I dont know how I should feel. Tell you the truth I'm scared. I was just told I have ADD. Always thought I had some form of it but never was tested. So I went to the doctors to get tested for it. BLAM you have ADD!! Truth, dont really know what that means. I just know how I feel. Well sorry for the rant. The doctor placed me on Adderall XR 10. I dont know how I should feel on it or if it's even working. I know its only been 2 days!!! I can feel something in my body, but really not giving me the focus feeling that other people talk about. I've had a lot of stress in my life this year and dont know if that made my ADD worse or not. I'm forgetting things at work and making stupid mistakes that I never made a year ago.

jhensy

You have a lot of very real and important questions. They are not simple ones however but you need some answers now and they need to be accurate ones.

Instead of going over all this, I am going to suggest some research.

I would start with these people to get some good information fast. There stuff is accurate and well organized.

The National Resource Center on AD/HD: http://www.help4adhd.org/

Funded through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control, this is extremely useful as a central place to start your education on ADHD. The information given is up to date and very reliable. You can ask questions and someone will get back to you. I tested the email service with a fairly technical diagnosis question and they came back with a good solid accurate answer.

Next I would read the transcript of a workshop by Russell Barkley. Barkley is the top person in the field. It is dated 2000 but most of the data is still basically pretty good and a number of people have told me that it has given them a lot of insight into ADHD. I do warn however that Barkley is information dense and can be a bit of a struggle to work though. It is assessable to non professionals and is well worth it in my opinion.

http://www.schwablearning.org/pdfs/2200_7-barktran.pdf?date=4-12-05

I cannot understand physicians that tell you the diagnosis, hand you some pills and tell you nothing of what you are dealing with. Unforgivable in my opinion.

Good luck. Though not always easy, ADHD can be dealt with.

Dizfriz

You are wise to be concerned with the effects of your CNS and each and every other psychotropic medication that may come your way through your doctors "experimentation" with the formulation of a med routine. If you can maintain an informed scepticism it can protect you from possible irreversible harm from some of the insidious side effects of these powerful drugs.

If you are not working in a partnership with your psychiatrist you should also be concerned. Don't accept the face value or authenticity in the language but step up and balance the equation with the same indifferent object analyse the shrink is using to control you. Don't assume that he is there to make you well but the motive behind your treatment could be to tag you and place you most efficiently into his concept of "care".

Sorry for the negative tone. I can go on and on with imaginative conflict theories about behavorial health. All I wish to convey is that you can get hurt if you don't control the direction you feel the meds are taking you. Stop taking it. Tell the doctor you don't want to become dependent on something you have valid concerns about. Most likely the shrink will make you feel like that skeptical outlook and disobiedense will be the cause of his treatments failure. It is a type of disclaimer to shift a lack of ability on his part to actually provide healing care to the patient.

Anyway be careful and if your doing OK without the involement of mental health people run away. It is not a scientific or proven method. It is all based on a "soft science" founded upon expert opinion. You should be scared. Good luck.

Did you ensure you knew all the facts before you went for your diagnosis?
If not, do so now. There are many sources of info about, among others this very forum.
These days, questioning and second guessing the professionals has become almost a way of life. If you have your own facts straight, it will surely pay big dividends. It will at the very least allow you to weed out the crap.

As for the effects of Adderall I can only refer you to the appropriate section on this forum, as I am not familiar with it myself.

10mg seems a pretty low dose for an adult considering you only get half of it initially and the other half 4 hours later.

I know everyone is different, it takes 20mg of Immediate Release to ramp me up. I wouldn't even get out of bed on what you're on.

10mg of Adderall, while mildly effective, had very little lasting impact with regards to procrastination, memory and organization. I did, however, notice an inclination to engage in conversations I may not have otherwise. So from a social standpoint, I felt the effects within the first couple days.

In retrospect, this initial stage had slowly begun to shed the many layers of low self-esteem that had become so extensive (See this thread (http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57802) for a more detailed explanation).

One month later, I was increased to 20mg. At this point, I began to notice a profound clarity and discernment. I had inundated my myself with research on the condition and, as a result, could see the correlation between my many shortcomings and how meandering through life, undiagnosed with severe ADD, had played an immense role in these perceived failures.

Even thought I could step back and see these correlations, with relative ease, there were still gaps that needed to be bridged...from clarity to strategies to execution. Two months later, with a moderate amount of overall progress, I was prescribed 30mg of Adderall. This, without a doubt, was the magic number and is the same dosage I'm on today...one year later...light years away from the failures: the inattention, the daily procrastination, the disorganization, the low self-esteem, the on and on and on.

I believe it's also worth reiterating that this transformation has manifested itself during, by far, the most difficult time of my life...an extremely tenuous separation (and soon to be divorce).

I have invariably separated myself from this former life, however, vowing never to return. I'm moving forward with a genuine sense of accomplishment and worth, an insatiable desire to remain open-minded and a willingness to empathize with, and to provide insight for others.

Blessings,
D

I know how you feel. I took my first aderol yesterday. I was very excited after leaving the docotors office to finally have a reprieve from my Lazy, do nothing, ecentric persona. Of course this little beleif that meds would just fix me like a magic bullet didn't pan out.

Oh yeah, dstewart21 self esteem is a huge part of my issue from this and my first day I noticed I felt really good about myself. Every time I come across a tiny comment like that on this forum I feel so much better to hear I am not the only one. thanks

the meds..

I felt high. My whole body felt like it was experiencing a mild orgasm. then my muscles hurt. I was more focused on my screwing around avoidance habits. I am assuming ADD'ers all have that. I can focus on surfing the internet quite well, especially when I need to do something else, but trying to do what I need to do takes so much effort just to get involved in it. when my high wore off I studied a little bit and it was Fun.

I am supposed to take my meds again, but I am sort of scared of them. I have class this morning. I don't know how much I want to go to class overly high and overly social. I think I will wait till after class to take the first one.

I do feel different. I feel confident about life. After 45 years of being frightened of life and all the overwhelming things it offers me, it's a huge change.

I'm sort of worried about the effects of my meds. I have an aversion to meds. Yet I am seeing some benefits. The reality is I seem to be better with them even though I do not like being high on drugs.

You should be able to notice the effects of the drug within the first week, if it doesn't occur right away thats still okay. Some doctors say it may take up to 30 days for it to be fully in your system to know whether or not that specific drug is right for you. There are like 9 or 10 drugs that can be prescribed for ADD/ADHD so far that i know of and many other homeopathic medications that supposedly have the same results. But i think the most important thing to remember is that everyone is different and so one drug that may work great for someone else might not be that same drug that will work well for you. Ummmm..... i think thats about it, and if you start feeling weird like thinking strange thoughts about death or wanting to commit suicide or whatever you should stop taking it altogether and tell the doc and see about trying another one out =P

Does your weight effect your dosage on taking most of these ADHD drugs?