Hello everyone. I just recently turned 21 and I got diagnosed with ADD 2 days ago due to my bad grades and reported restlessness and trouble focusing in class and when reading etc. I got a prescription for Adderal and opted for the Generic Corephorma 10mg since it was a lot cheaper.

My Experience: It was truly amazing. Emotionally I was so happy for the first time I was able to sit and pay attention to a 50 min lecture. My daydreaming in lecture was greatly reduced. I would say I lost maybe 30 seconds due to a couple thoughts here and there but overall I was very satisfied. The medication has not only boosted my performance but my confidence, and I can follow directions in lab without forgetting or messing up !!! :)

Concerns:
1) The 10mg doesn't last me very long. Roughly 3.5-4 hours I start feeling the "crash". I go back to my old self. Do you think I need my dosage increased/need to take it more often ?? Maybe keep the dosage but take it 3x instead of 2 ?
2) Over time will the medication help me less because I develop a tolerance ?
3) How bout the crashes can you develop a tolerance for those ?
4) Just on the first day of taking the medication I've seen my productivity multiply by GOOGLE !!!!. Is this something I can take into graduate school or even after that ? I really need to get my grades up If i want to have any chance of getting into medical school. Which I will apply to in roughly 4-5 years down the road. I feel like if I ever stop it I would just be cheating myself. I'm kinda worried about this most actually. But then I think why worry about it something could come down the road that could help you. Especially when I'm off the medication and I notice my sluggishness I can't help not to think about it.

Thanks, God Bless.

1. You could take it 3x if this doesn't cause problems with sleep. Generally the dosage is increased to get more therapeutic effect, but not for extending it.

2. It probably will at your current dosage, and you may need to raise it. Adderall may remain effective for treating ADHD symptoms long term after initial dosage adjustments, but might not provide as much motivation or mood lift. And, now that you know you have ADHD, there are other treatment options if Adderall looses effectiveness. There are also new drugs being investigated constantly which might provide more effective future treatment.

3. You might not experience as hard of a crash after a while.

4. I look at it as a useful tool, like a more powerful cup of coffee. A good analogy I hear is that it's like wearing glasses. But it is not a simple issue, and does raise a lot of philosophical questions. The best I can say is that it's an individual choice, and one that is best to continually evaluate much like any other decision in life. It is always possible to change ones habits with new insight or understanding. I think that one has to decide what's worth their effort and time in life. Like, you'll still have to work hard to get through medical school; the meds won't carry you through or anything like that. If one is still in control of their life, then the meds are just a tool.

As an afterthought, personally I would try taking half of your current dose and see how beneficial that is. It's just my opinion that it would be better to take as little as necessary to get a therapeutic effect. This is just an opinion though (and not well developed at that). It just seems that this is one strategy of people who use these stimulants for many years to keep them effective. Even though the traditional titration strategy of raising the dose until unwanted side effects occur to be sure of getting the maximum therapeutic effect is more common.

Thanks a lot for helping. Mystery.

My thought on the 4th question. I think I was a little mis interpreted.

To make a long story short, I have been going through a lot of medical procedures in College. My grades were just aweful. I thought I could maybe blame it on my health but deep down inside I didn't really see it as an excuse even though my psychiatrist did. I had my motivation questioned by my parents. I gave into that thought but I know I wanted to be a good student really badly. I have taken countless classes on getting grades up, time management, orgnaization. I've wasted my money on countless books. Nothing helped me.

Being a doctor isnt something I just randomly wanted to do. It was a dream, an obsession. I never thought of myself doing anything else.

After being on Remoron for two months, my true concerns (The ADD symptoms) did not get better. I've always suspected myself of having ADD but because of my ignorance & pride I never pushed hard enough to ask for testing.

After Celebrating my 21st birthday, I decided enough is enough. I left my pride at the door and I decided to and get tested. And remarkably I scored pretty high on the test.

As I said earlier the medication has truly helped.

HOWEVER... I know the meds don't make me any smarter, It wont clean my room, It wont study for me. Meds dont give effort.

I actually found out a good highshcool friend of mine had add and was taking medication for it. He has done nothing special in with his life. And he is okay with it. I asked him if he had any career aspirations he simply said, "Nope"

Effort is not a problem with me. And I am currently making the effort now to shore up my time managment skills and my organizational skills and I really think I'm making progress. Like you said the meds are a tool. But I feel they are going to be an extremely helpful tool for me to reach any kind of consistency in my life.

Sorry for the Novel !!! LOL

Being a doctor isnt something I just randomly wanted to do. It was a dream, an obsession. I never thought of myself doing anything else.
[...]
I've always suspected myself of having ADD but because of my ignorance & pride I never pushed hard enough to ask for testing.

After Celebrating my 21st birthday, I decided enough is enough. I left my pride at the door and I decided to and get tested. And remarkably I scored pretty high on the test.


That's exactly what I'm talking about in a way. I really want to go into some science, but it would be very tough getting through school and all of the math. I like math a lot, it's just difficult for my brain to process and learn the concepts quickly.

If meds can help me reach my goal, then it doesn't seem too different from using copious amounts of caffeine to study, doing lots of exercise to stay motivated, or using other strategies. I've not seen meds make different things more enjoyable for me. For example, they might augment my ability to play certain computer games, but it doesn't make those more enjoyable for that reason. I still prefer the same types of games (mostly RTS, waiting for Starcraft 2 :D). It's important to me that I'm still following my desired path in life, independent from anything but who I really am. If I find at some point meds are changing that, then I will have to weigh the consequences/benefit and decide from there. That's one reason why I like to use them selectively and in low doses.

BTW, it took me until 6 months after my 23rd birthday to finally say to hell with it, and inquire about diagnosis.