Hey everyone, I had a little problem earlier today, and had some questions about it. First, I will give you my background....

I have both 15mg Adderall XR and 20mg Adderall IR tablets, and I normally just take one XR in the mornings, and occasionally an IR if I need to study, etc. I have been taking these for about a month now for ADD. Today at work, I suddently felt what I would describe as an anxiety attack. I suddently felt very stressed and went to the back to sit down and relax, but I then felt very lightheaded and had blurred vision. I was attempting to count some money and I could not do it correctly, It was really making me worry.

If I had to describe my feeling, It honestly felt like I had been drugged. I started to feel a numbness/tingling in my hands and decided to call the emergency room. Well I decided against going to the hospital, but the confusion and blurred vision lasted the longest, probably close to an hour.

Here is what my schedule was: Took an XR15mg at 9am, no food, no drink. Had a couple breakfast tacos with a coffee about an hour later. (Just for the record, I hardly ever drink caffeine and I am extremely sensitive to coffee) Took another XR15mg around 12:30pm. Had a Burger and fries for lunch, no sodas, just water to drink.

This is what puzzles me. I took a multivitamin around 4pm or so, along with a banana and orange juice. Shortly after that is when It all happened.

The only thing I can think of is that the Vitamin C in the vitamin and orange juice cause the medicine to rapidly disburse and cause this? I cannot think of anything else, I am not on any other medicines, I do not have low blood pressure, nor have I ever felt this before.

I also notice that I feel much more tired than normal. I was ready to sleep by 9pm, which is not normal for me when I take a 15mg XR after noon.

Any Thoughts? I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

I'm a little confused about what's normal for you....you said that you normally take one XR in the morning, and then maybe an IR in the afternoon, but then you said that you got tired which is not normal for you when you take an XR in the afternoon. Did you mean when you take an IR?

Assuming that's the case, and taking two XR's is not normal for you, it sounds to me like you just got too much medicine at once. From what I've come to understand from these forums, the Adderall will kind of build up throughout the day (I've forgotten what the half-life is, but I think it's several hours). So by the time you had this incident, you had some portion of the first wave of the first pill still in your body, more of the second wave from the first pill, some portion of the first wave from the second pill, and the second wave from the second pill was just coming on. Add to that a not-normal-for-you dose of caffeine, and you probably got overstimulated.

I don't know what to make of the timing in relation to the OJ intake - I thought that if anything, OJ was supposed to neutralize the amphetamines, making it basically useless. Unless what you were feeling was not overstimulation, but rather a very quick comedown from what was an abnormal level of stimulant in your body?

Well, like I said, I have only been taking this for around a month or so, so Im not sure I have really established a "normal" dose, probably a bad choice of words on my part. Lately I have been taking only a 15mg XR in the mornings, and have taken an additional 20mg IR a few times for an added boost. This is the only time I have ever taken an XR in the morning and another XR in the afternoon.

After having the night to sleep on it, I dont think the orange juice or vitamin had much to do with it, possibly just a coincedence. I also think my time schedule I posted before was slightly off. I took the first XR in the morning around 8am, and the second one early afternoon around 1pm or so, but my "episode" didn't happen until right around 7pm. I previously said it was a little after 4pm, but I now realize that is waaay off.

If I had to guess, I would say it was just a bad side effect of the coming-down on the stimulants. It just really freaked me out because it hadn't happened before, so I think I might have made it worse than it actually was just by being so scared, does that make any sense?

Hey everyone, I had a little problem earlier today, and had some questions about it. First, I will give you my background....

I have both 15mg Adderall XR and 20mg Adderall IR tablets, and I normally just take one XR in the mornings, and occasionally an IR if I need to study, etc. I have been taking these for about a month now for ADD. Today at work, I suddently felt what I would describe as an anxiety attack. I suddently felt very stressed and went to the back to sit down and relax, but I then felt very lightheaded and had blurred vision. I was attempting to count some money and I could not do it correctly, It was really making me worry.

If I had to describe my feeling, It honestly felt like I had been drugged. I started to feel a numbness/tingling in my hands and decided to call the emergency room. Well I decided against going to the hospital, but the confusion and blurred vision lasted the longest, probably close to an hour.

Here is what my schedule was: Took an XR15mg at 9am, no food, no drink. Had a couple breakfast tacos with a coffee about an hour later. (Just for the record, I hardly ever drink caffeine and I am extremely sensitive to coffee) Took another XR15mg around 12:30pm. Had a Burger and fries for lunch, no sodas, just water to drink.

This is what puzzles me. I took a multivitamin around 4pm or so, along with a banana and orange juice. Shortly after that is when It all happened.

The only thing I can think of is that the Vitamin C in the vitamin and orange juice cause the medicine to rapidly disburse and cause this? I cannot think of anything else, I am not on any other medicines, I do not have low blood pressure, nor have I ever felt this before.

I also notice that I feel much more tired than normal. I was ready to sleep by 9pm, which is not normal for me when I take a 15mg XR after noon.

Any Thoughts? I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

Do you know which multivitamin you took? Also, acidic substances such as orange juice (which has Vitamin C and citric acid, both of which are acidic) don't potentiate stimulants, but rather antagonize them. Meaning acids make stimulants less effective. It couldn't have caused your symptoms, though. Did you eat enough before the incident happened? The symptoms you're describing: confusion, dizziness, blurry vision, are classic of a sudden drop in blood pressure (acute hypotension). Usually it happens when you stand up, rather than sit down, though.

Having an acute anxiety attack while on a stimulant is usually due to your levels of norepinephrine being substantially increased beyond what they should be.

It's kind of hard for me to explain how I think this might have happened (with your coffee), but I'll try:
When drugs (caffeine is a drug, also a stimulant) are absorbed by the body, they're distributed around the body. After they're done distributing, some of the drug will store itself by binding to protein, while the rest of the drug will stay in the plasma in your blood (having a drug substance in your plasma means it is 'active', it is the only way the drug can work. You can't feel the effects of the drugs bound to protein).

After the levels of the drug in your plasma decrease (this is called clearing), the drug bound to protein detach themselves and take the place of the now-absent drug in the plasma. The problem that I think might have happened, however, happens when there aren't enough protein receptors (which are what the stored drug binds to) to complement all of the drug you injested.

Adderall XR is kind of complicated to explain, but when you take one capsule, about 3/4 of it is stored, and 1/4 of it is active in the plasma. This is because inside one capsule of Adderall XR there is actually two dosages: one that activates right away, and another that stores itself for around 4 hours (it's based on the pH content of which it is located). So, in one capsule, the immediate release dosage is half stored, and half active, while the time delayed dosage is all stored. This is fine, and is how Adderall is supposed to work. If you take another XR before the second dose has fully cleared, however, there becomes an excess of the drug trying to be either active or bind itself to protein. This might not be a bad thing, but if you take an Adderall just as the first dose is releasing itself, and on top of that drink coffee (caffeine and amphetamines bind the same way; caffeine can block amphetamines from binding, and amphetamines can block caffeine from binding. Binding is essential because otherwise you'd be getting 2x the dose you're used to, and it won't last nearly as long due to it not being conserved).

What probably happened, then, is you ended up with a pretty high level of caffeine/amphetamines that couldn't find enough receptors to bind to, leading to more stimulation than you would want. Which means they increased your neurotransmitter levels more than what they usually do, esp. your norepinephrine, which is your "fight or flight" transmitter, and is usually to blame for anxiety attacks. This big jolt and kind of shock your body goes through can also lead to the sudden temporarily drop in blood pressure you experienced (confusion, dizziness, blurry vision).

Besides this, I don't know what else could have happened--unless one of the vitamins in your multivitamin reacted badly with the Adderall. It is always suggested to stay away from caffeine while taking ADHD stimulants, due to weird side effects like this potentially happening.

If you want to post the vitamins in your multivitamin, I'll check them for interactions for you..

Thanks for the help! Here is a link to the nutrition facts of the vitamin I took, It is a "One-A-Day Teen Advantage" vitamin, even though Im not a "teen", I've been taking these for a while now.

http://www.one-a-day.com/teen_advantage.html

Thanks for the help! Here is a link to the nutrition facts of the vitamin I took, It is a "One-A-Day Teen Advantage" vitamin, even though Im not a "teen", I've been taking these for a while now.

http://www.one-a-day.com/teen_advantage.html

Other than that it has Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), there's nothing in it that would effect you negatively as you described. The Vitamin C would lower it's effects, but not cause the episode you had.