I am hoping someone can help me figure something out with my dosage. Firstly I already know my body has built up a tolerance to Adderall.

Currently I'm taking 50mg IR. When I first started taking the medication I took 10mg XR, but I worked in an office with no hard physical labor.

Now, I'm cleaning houses for the past year and I keep having to have my dose increased because I don't have the energy to get throught an 8 hour day.

I don't want to take way to much, but for my height and weight what would be the most I could take without killing myself or liver?

I'm 5'7" and weight 132 pounds.

First I tried splitting the Adderall in quarters. I took the first quarter in the morning, the second quarter two hours later third quarter after I ate lunch and 4th quarter 2 hours later and this worked great for awhile.

Then after I ate lunch and took the 3rd quarter I wanted to go home and go to bed and actually have done that twice. Yes, I can sleep after taking 37mg of Adderall.

So I tried this: Taking 25mg in the morning and cleaning the first house which takes about 4 hours. Then I eat lunch and go to the next house and take the other half of 25mg. This worked for about 3 months. Now I want to go home one hour after I take the second 25mg and can barely finish the first job before I get to take my second dose.

I don't know what to do and my doctor is getting mad about me asking for increases constantly. He thinks I'm trying to abuse it, and trust me I don't want to be taking this much because I think it's toxic in the long run not to mention it irritates my stomach and causes Acid Reflux.

I can't go back to working in an office because I make too many mistakes even with the medication and it makes my co-workers mad at me. The only thing I can do is clean houses or mow lawns, work in a garden etc.... It seems like hard physical labor is all I can do.

Any suggestions about jobs that I can do where I'm not around too many people and isn't hard labor? Also, how much Adderall can I take with my stats.

Sorry to be long winded but if I give the full details maybe someone can help me figure this out or has been through it.

Thanks in advance!

Well, you are not taking it for physical energy, but for focus. At any rate that's why your dr is prescribing it. If you try to use it for 'energy' like that you will be in a losing battle because your tolerance will build up too much and then you won't get any effect from it any more without a dose that gives massive side effects....and it also dramatically tires you out.

Of course at this point you can't just go down to 10mg again cold turkey or you will collapse.

The max recommended dose is 1.5mg per kilogram per day so that comes out to about 70mg, but you probably don't need that much.

Thanks!

I know exactly how you feel sometimes, about the hard labor stuff! I don't mean to be one of those "The Little Engine That Could" people, but I just wanted to say that if you really do want to do something, you should work very hard to find the proper setting and, possibly, medication balance for you!

On to the question!

I think taking any Amphetamine for it's stimulant properties themselves is a terrible idea. Perhaps if someone took one extra Adderall IR to get some studying done or something.

In any event you'll definitely wear yourself down, not to mention build up a tolerance very fast!

We accumulate a 'sleep debt' sort of, where our bodies know we aren't 'quite' rested. So even if you happen to sleep eight hours one night, if you only slept two the night before, you didn't get enough sleep because your body had to 'repair' more then the eight hours could give!

Now, I'm all over the place with this response, so I'm going to post it, read your post again, and edit it!

Edit:
If you're having a hard time concentrating on work/staying awake during work, I would talk to my doctor about either switching medications or looking at why my medication wasn't doing what I wanted. Instead of asking for an increase.

As for your stats, I too am 5'7" but I weigh 115, and took 40mg XR for a few days. It didn't 'kill' me, but it did make me rather... difficult. I became somewhat OCD, and intensely drowsy at the same time. It turns out that Adderall 'calms' me so much that I can sleep, so my body tells me too. Unfortunately that's a bit counter-productive, so we lowered the dose to 20mgXR/day and I'm much better off now!

I'm trying to find a job that doesn't require a lot of hard labor and attention to detail. I can't do anything correct when it comes to using numbers. I transpose them everytime.

I have arthritus and this hard labor and lack of energy is wearing me down.

I agree with the previous posters, and wanted to add my opinion, too. Too high a dose of Adderall XR caused more problems than it solved for me. I went to 40mg XR but then decreased to 30mg XR. At 30mg XR I saw fewer side effects, but in the end Adderall wasn't the best drug for me.

So ask your doc if maybe you need to try something different. Have you tried anything else over a trial period?

Yeah, and if the buzz is your reason for increasing the dose I'm sorry to say that you'll probably be fighting a losing battle. As I recall it decreased over time (thankfully in my case bc I hate it). Anyway, keep us posted bc we're rooting for you. I know your struggle and it's a long hard road. Best of luck.

Stimulants effect two systems in the brain. Dopamine and noradrenaline. Dopamine increases with dosage. However noradrenaline increases at lower dosages, but switches over and begins to decreases due to a feedback mechinism at higher dosages.

Noradrenaline is more closely related to a feeling of energy, enhanced mood, and improved perception.

Dopamine below normal decreases attention/focus. Dopamine above normal makes the everyday suddenly interesting. Further beyond normal people will begin to take things in a more personal nature ie begin to be more paranoid.

At some point Increasing the dosage of adderall will trigger a more fatigued state, but with higher dopamine levels.

Its important to figure out where you are presently in relation to the dosage. Reducing your dosage may give you more energy if the dosage is too high.

BobC

I agree with bob.

If you really want to have more physical stamina, wellbutrin and nicotine patches work very well.

Amphetamine causes me extreme sedation randomly.

For example, friday and saturday I took two doses each day, no sedation at all. Today, no sedation after my first dose. Half an hour after my second dose, I was feeling sleepy. Another half hour later, I was in my bed unable to get up for the next 2 hours!

Since all of advice given her makes a lot of sense I am just going to look for a different job instead of having my dosage increased. (Not that my doc will do it anyway)

He did increase my dosage last time to give me more energy (not focus) but he is concerned about the tolerence build up. IDK?

Thanks for the replies

Wtf mate? They make 50mg IR Adderall? I thought 30mg was the highest they made in IR and XR form.

Hmm a very informative post. I posted today about how I have developed a tolerance for it. I definitely think it's because I've been using it as a stimulant. Like it or not, it is extremely effective at making you stay up all night. My last semester in school I was actually having trouble getting up in the morning. I started setting my alarm early and taking an adderall in the morning, then going back to bed. I would be woken up within 30 minutes. However, that wore off really quickly and now I have the strange ability to be able to take two 10 mg adderall and still fall asleep. On a side note, how long would I have to stop taking adderall for my tolerance to be brought back down again? I hate taking it in large quantities because I know it's unhealthy, but its the only way I can get it to work for me anymore.