I just got switched to generic adderall from generic ritalin (10-15 mg). The ritalin made me very serious, grumpy and with horrible headaches, but it did help me focus ,.... just in a hazy way.

I got prescribed adderall yesterday to start on 5 mg, and work my way to 10 mg twice a day. I usually have horrible luck with side effects from meds so I needed to work up very slowly. My doc also said to make sure that I eat a regular breakfast (bowl of cereal versus a glass of OJ) because different amounts of food will affect it.


I usually have a big glass of milk and a granola bar every morning.
I took 5 mg and nothing. Then I took another 5mg and nothing. So today, I only drank the milk and took 10mg (even tho its only been one day!), and I felt very SLIGHTLY motivated and it left me in about an hour. So then later I took another 10 mg and I still didn't notice much improvement in my focus.

Am I just metabolizing it too quickly or is it possible that adderall just doesn't work for some people?

everybody is different you may need 15 or 20mg (dont take that until you talk to your dr), i was on ritalin for a short while but i had to stop taking it because while i was slightly motivated, it made reading, writing, and talking extremely difficult. I got moved to adderall with much different results, 5mg did nothing for me, 10 seemed to work, and 15 works great but makes me a jerk. This is my first experience with ADD meds and I can assure you that my experience with adderall is nothing like what I was expecting. Its much more subtle than I thought it would be, I heard stories of people becoming hyper focused and being able to study for hours on end but I had no idea what that would be like. I started out on 5mg x2 a day for a week which seemed to do nothing, and then moved up to 10mg x2 a day. At 10mg I didnt feel any different and I wasnt sure it was working, but after a few days I started to notice that I got more stuff done, I was able to stay on task, and I could do work for more than 20min without getting physically uncomfortable like a I used to. At 15mg I can definately feel when it kicks in, and it works VERY well, but judging by the side effects i'm having i suspect that the dose is too high. If you think about it, you really shouldnt feel any different when you take it, you should just be able to get stuff done, having that speedy feeling may be a sign that the dose is too high. Its also important to note that adderall never instantly made me want to do school work, it just helped me stay on task once I started it. If i'm messing around on the internet and the med starts to kick in i'm not going to suddenly get the urge to go write up an english paper, or read 3 chapters of a comp sci book, but if i sit somewhere quiet and start working I can get a lot done. A single pill is not going to instanly make you a striaght A student, you still have to work for it. In all honesty then thing that gets me motivated the most to do work when i take adderall is I know how long it lasts, and I know what I'm like when i dont take it. The notion that if i dont get to work i'll have wasted the med helps me get started more than anything.

Try the 10mg for at least a week and see if you notice things becoming easier, these meds may work instantly but it may take you a couple days to recognize what there effects are.

I just got switched to generic adderall from generic ritalin (10-15 mg). The ritalin made me very serious, grumpy and with horrible headaches, but it did help me focus ,.... just in a hazy way.

I got prescribed adderall yesterday to start on 5 mg, and work my way to 10 mg twice a day. I usually have horrible luck with side effects from meds so I needed to work up very slowly. My doc also said to make sure that I eat a regular breakfast (bowl of cereal versus a glass of OJ) because different amounts of food will affect it.


I usually have a big glass of milk and a granola bar every morning.
I took 5 mg and nothing. Then I took another 5mg and nothing. So today, I only drank the milk and took 10mg (even tho its only been one day!), and I felt very SLIGHTLY motivated and it left me in about an hour. So then later I took another 10 mg and I still didn't notice much improvement in my focus.

Am I just metabolizing it too quickly or is it possible that adderall just doesn't work for some people?

Been there. Adderall xr is what I am currently on and I didn't notice any difference until I increased my dose. Now even that isn't cutting it. I would suggest increasing your dose. Some people claim adderall is very very strong but I have never felt that at all.

Try the 10mg for at least a week and see if you notice things becoming easier, these meds may work instantly but it may take you a couple days to recognize what there effects are.

The ritalin was like that for me, I had terrible jaw clenching and heachaches and I was a huge b***h. until after a week passed by... then I just didn't feel like talking to anyone and my focus was zombie like and hazy.

It is hard for me to tell what is too much or too little because I usually get every side effect at first no matter what the dose, and this is the first medication I have ever tried where I didn't have side effects (other than drowsiness). I just know that it is supposed to make me more focused and attentive and I didn't feel that way in school today so I felt a little discouraged. I definitely don't want to increase my dose too much right away.

I know that on ritalin, they say it takes 2 weeks for it to work to its full potential.
Is Adderall like that?

Well thanks for the advice, I will try to be patient!

The ritalin was like that for me, I had terrible jaw clenching and heachaches and I was a huge b***h. until after a week passed by... then I just didn't feel like talking to anyone and my focus was zombie like and hazy.

It is hard for me to tell what is too much or too little because I usually get every side effect at first no matter what the dose, and this is the first medication I have ever tried where I didn't have side effects (other than drowsiness). I just know that it is supposed to make me more focused and attentive and I didn't feel that way in school today so I felt a little discouraged. I definitely don't want to increase my dose too much right away.

I know that on ritalin, they say it takes 2 weeks for it to work to its full potential.
Is Adderall like that?

Well thanks for the advice, I will try to be patient!

when i first started taking the 5mg it made me very tired for like a week or so. After about 2 weeks at 10mg I was able to notice a difference, and I could tell when it stopped working. The 15 is different story however because i can feel it working, which along with the irritability is one reason why i think my dose is a bit high. In all honesty i'd call your dr and ask how long they think you should stay at a particular dose before bumping it up another five. With the exception of the 5mg pill my doc has always had me stay on a med for a month to see how things worked before adjusting a dose. Obviously if i had bad side effects in that time we'd change things sooner, but the it took me about that long to really identify the areas it was helping and notice the 15mg making me a jerk.

I agree with somuchbetter. Many stimulant meds can take up to 2-3 weeks, since certain levels of the drugs need to accumulate and build up in the blood (although for Vyvanse, it's usually a bit quicker, often within about 5 days or so).

You may be a fast but inefficient metabolizer, in that the enzymes of your system may clear (excrete) the drug at a relatively faster rate than do the transporter enzymes (these are the ones which shuttle brain chemicals in and out of neuronal cells, these transporter enzymes are often the targets of stimulant meds). If this is the case, it could put you more in the "3-week" category for adderall.

Of course, your dosage could simply be too low. Even with all the breakthroughs and advances in pharmacology, titrating (adjusting dosage levels) is still a highly variable and inexact science, so a lot of physicians often take a cautious/conservative approach to upping dosage levels. I know it's tough, but try to be patient and give it a few weeks before looking to up the dosage. Remember, that effects for these ADHD stimulant meds are often cummulative.

I would have to disagree on the comment about stimulants not working until 2-3 weeks later. When I first started on Adderall the effects were instantaneous 45 minutes after ingestion. I realized diet didn't matter. I do know that it is not recommended to drink OJ with your Adderall because it ascorbic acid (Vit C) diminishes the effects of the drug. It may be that you probably have Bipolar Disorder I. 10mg of IR Adderall is a child's dose to tell you the truth. I was first started on 20 mg twice a day. I noticed the effects wore off months later so my doc increased it to 30 mg of Adderall XR twice a day. That definitely worked out to my benefit. It's all about titration, working upwards to find a suitable dose for you. Don't give up on Adderall so soon. I would suggest telling your doctor to increase the dosage. If you reach the maximum dosage and the effects are still not evident then stimulants may not be the answer for you. It may be that you have some mood disorder like Bipolar disorder. Bring that up to you pdoc.

hannielaggie

bi polar disorder? Are you kidding me ? Did you just run to borders and pick up a copy of diagnostic and psychiatric disorders because we basically have heard nothing about the op's moods and yet your telling the poster that they may or may not have bipolar I? Man, not to mention that bipoloar disorder has started to become a buzzword lately but just because they are trialing a medication with limited results and feeling drowsy this has nothing to do with a possible mood disorder. For starters, they have been on ritalin and the meds work completey different. It may take weeks before dose titration and body start to have a positive reaction to adderall. Hint, when your used to one medication your body looks for the same results when trialing another. Adderall works differently , I'd say for the poster to titrate up the dose smoothly and give it a month or so and then after trialing a significant dosage amount and after being on the medication more than 4-5 weeks then you can at that point make valid and accurate judgments instead of jumping ship and saying it's an extraneous variable like bipoloar disorder. Honestly, it's just silly to jump in and say that when we don't know the parameters or history of the op-

Hollywood

I agree with you in regards to titrating upward in smooth, gradual process. It's vital to look at every aspect including mood disorders and considering them as a possible Axis I comorbidity (may or may not). Bipolar disorder has been a controversy for decades and it's not until now that clinicians are considering BD as a replacement diagnosis or a comorbidity for ADHD. In regards to Ritalin and Adderall, they both work on the same biochemical mechanism but Adderall inhibits the reuptake of seritonin to a greater extent that Ritalin as well as it does on dopamine. Ritalin and Adderall work on these certain catecholamines on a different level of inhibitory reuptake. There has been a recent study done called the " Quotient ADHD system" that has been fabricated to screen children for ADHD. So far it's been quite successful. More studies need to be done in order to measure its efficacy.

I was started on a high dose because I needed immediate relief of my ADHD symptoms for school and work. The same applied to my other psychotropic medications. Some psychiatrists make that jump of a judgement so my suggestion holds some validity. Because ADHD and BD shadow similar symptoms, such an extraneous variable like BD does merit some consideration.

Well, it seems like you guys do know your stuff!

My psychiatrist and psychologist (who actually work in the same office) have been on the lookout for bipolar disorder, because usually those who do not respond to anti depressants (or adversely) can be bipolar. I was on anti-depressants for anxiety. Anti depressants never worked for me, they made me absolutely crazy and I got every side effect listed. The only one (out of 6) that worked for me was Effexor but I had awful headaches and klonopin (which knocks me right out).

I am on a low dose because of the side effects I usually experience, and the fact that I am a petite 105 lbs (so I guess you could say I am child sized ;) ). My psychiatrist said that he considers the therapy to be medication enough for my anxiety, and he also believes that a lot of my anxiety will diminish once I tackle the ADHD. I've never had any problems with depression so I think I'm okay on the BD thing. :)

I'm going to stick with 10 mg twice a day and see how that goes for a few weeks. Maybe I'm just not used to not having any side effects :p

hannielaggie

it's been awhile since grad school, "masters in cognitive psych" but I have my own theory on the situation. Adhd symptoms do seem similar to many bipolar I symptoms that I agree. I even had a theory about untreated adhd leads to bipolar disorder in adults....The carrover effect would start out something like this ( untreated adhd , frustration, then social withdrawal, social isolation, mild feeling of isolation due to poor performance in social systems and low academic performance, mild depression in teenage years , and then from adulthood could range from antisocial personality disorder to a host of a broad spectrum of other mood disorders, it all depends on the environment and support systems albeit... Yet the determinant seems to be that not all those with cognition problems and developmental disorders seem to share the same subgroup of rapid cycling depressions followed my elated moods and grandiose thoughts... For that matter and it's all subjective I do believe that the two disorders can occur together but I also believe the two to be inherently different.