I take 20mg of Adderall around 4 times per day (sometimes 5) 80-100mg. I am only supposed to take 60mg per day as prescribed by my doctor. I am concerned that I may have a problem but without the meds my performance at work suffers. Whenever I try to come off the meds for a day or two.....the crash is unbearable in that I feel as though I was hit by a truck and I could literally sleep for 3 days. Is the dosage too high? I am concerned that I may be damaging my health. Is dosage this high common?

If you are feeling like you are headed down a path that might not be wise, you probably are.

It might be wise to consult your doctor and use the medication as prescribed.

Have you had addictive habits before?

When my gut is giving me messages about what's right and wrong I'm grateful. I'm old enough to believe those instincts without too much question.

I don't know much about what dosages might be appropriate but I do know that the "feeling" that something might not be right with the routine is my wake up call to at least take stock of what's going on. Your question shows you are alive and well, now lets try and help keep it that way... < g >

I don't rely on my doctor for information about my medication. I do use my pharmacist extensively and he's been a terrific source of information.

There are a number of knowlegable people here on the forums too. You might want to post your dosage questions to the "adderall" section of the "medications" forum. I don't have any experience with adderall.

Keep in touch so we can learn from each other.
Cheers! Ian

no addictive habits ever .....never even tried marijuana. anxious to see what the pharmacist says.....thx pal. i appreciate you taking the time to respond...and thx for your comments.

Well that's good news that you haven't been into addictive patterns before. Not that you couldn't start...

I appreciate my pharmacist. He's not quite as "hip" as the Gregster around these parts but he's a fine resource regardless of his lack of kewlio.. < g >

It's no problem for me to respond to things I'm interested in.. heh I would love to know how things pan out..

Cheers! Ian.

Is that dosage normal...

Hi I am on 20mg every 5 hours while awake ( not to be confused with to keep me wake as Addreall doesn't. I can nap on 20mg). My days are normally 18 hours long with 12 hour work days ( even longer next week due to rain).

The advise to ask a pharmist is GOOD advice, they are chemical savay. Now for the big difference between you and I is my doctor had perscribed my dosage. I had an MD who was hestant to perscribe me 30mg daily, she had little experience with adults. I had to take the medication only at work, causing choas at home. When I decided to add school to the equasion I found another doctor who was more adult ADD savay! That is why my dosages are perscribed by hours as opposed to times per day.
Some days like today I am not working(work yard is swamp and fresh out of boats) I don't need to take four or five doses as I didn't wake up till 10:00am and will need to go to bed early ( swamps recend quickly around here) Also I have been on medications for eleven years and have experience in health care my doctor allows me to adjust my dosages with in reason. Example when I do crafts I only take half doses, I need enough meds to keep me on track but enough ADD to create. During monthly cycles I am allowed to increase my first dosage slightly ( until the water pill kicks in and dimishes my water weight)

Now to answer questions about health.. I have been on this dosage regiem for three or four years now with out problems. I can do things many people half my age are unable to. I lift 60-70lbs for hours at a time( I weigh 120lbs) I also used a 12lb nail gun for eight to ten hours daily in the heat. ( I'm 40ish and female)

Question for you times two and 1/2... What do you do when your medications run out early? If you are perscribed 60 mg daily that means you are given 90 pills to last a month!! You take 80-100mg that has you running out of medications about ten days too early.. then what? 80- 100mg daily dosage, that is using 120-150 pills a month
Question #2.. How long have you been on medications? How often are you adjusting your dose? Do you ever adjust it down? ( besides having to because you ran out or are running of medication)
Question 2 1/2; Has there been a change in your job or life that has required an increase in medications? When I went from working full time to working full time and going to school part time a dosage increase was needed because the hours I need to be able to focus increased with the addition of school.

The "crash" thing you mentioned does worry me as the only way I know my meds are no longer effective is I do lots of wandering with out any accomplishing..I don't "feel" the medications wear off in the way you describe. As a matter of fact it is the opposite for me I need to be in bed BEFORE my meds wear off or I have trouble sleeping. (rebound)

Tammy

hi, well this forum , im glad i found it. I thought i was taking like so much, but 90mg a day for me doesnt seem like much, adding im 235 lbs, I have a tolerance, and every 5 hrs it wears off (adderall 30mg), Now, i cannot feel the adderall. So i figured a week would help, well 1 week was like 1 yr. I slept all day, did noting but stare at the tv.
I also stay up like all night to like 8-9 am. but i sleep to 5pm. So im still gettting sleep, but due to my schedule, i do most of my work and social stuff at night. I can tell if i dont take my adderall in 6 hrs, i feel my self, slowing down, less motivation and start to just lay around feeling. So, I dont believe im addicted or getting addicted.
I dont mix meds. ALthough i used to use opiates, and that was 10x more euphoric and cause more problems than anything, plus it didn not benifit me at all. But in your mind you think it does. Now my doc perscribed me 60mg. I told him about it, he asked me about take adderall xr, 2x daily and i said my insurance wont pay. So he said well try to adjust your dose, ect, and see how it works by next visit. So can a doctor persribe 3 doses of 30mg?

If so, it wourl work out great., i would not run out like a week 10 days before and end up taking caffiene or epherine for 10 days.

Im going to post more as i brouse this board
geno

Ad i posted yester day, you said you get 60mg per day so thats 90 pillls a day. So you take 3 daily, which is 80mg daily. Why doesnt your doc just give you 30mg dose 2x daily. THis is what ime on but i know i need 3. ANdi ususally run out 10 day sbfore! But there are a few thinks to do if say you take 20 or 30mg more of a dose. RUnit by your doctor. Say,doc im up almost 18 hrs am sau from 8am untill like 2pm your wake. So you take 20mg (m good at figuring this out), at 8pm/ For me i need antoher 20mg at 3pm, then 8pm, then about 12pm. But 20mg for me, i dont feel jack. sp ;pweromg ot tp 20mg would only be sufficient if im reallly gonna run out

Iv tried taking cutting the dose in half 15 mg 4x daily, so would be 15 eveery 4 hrs, or 3.4, which really didn to much of naything but allow me to forgt what time i ast ale


Or, let see you have 20mg pill, take 40mg at a time, say you wake up at 8am, just drink coffee , or hope your not aleady/ but this is JMOPinon and taking double the dose is going the end r

There are many people that do take that high of a dosage. But, you really should be communitcating with your Doctor about this. He/she needs to know that th dosage that you have been prescribed does not work for you. Then the 2 of you can work together to find the right dosage.

Sorry to hear you feel so cruddy and miserable when you come down, that probably isn't good. And if you feel like you can't live with out it, that probably isn't good either. You really should tell you doctor all of this and tell them how crappy you feel and how hard you crash when you come down.

I have substance abuse tendancies but I haven't had the desire to abuse Adderall, but it has rather bad side effects for me so maybe that is why. (Also I tended to abuse weed, pain pills and alcohol, I never abused anything like coke, meth, X, etc. because I was always too afraid of things that elevate ones heart rate, intense fear of heart attacks etc.... also maybe why I get panic attacks on Adderall..... :rolleyes: )

Be careful and take care!
P.S. Anyone seen the True Life special on MTV... "I'm addicted to Adderall"?

when is that on mtv ?
thanks
brittany

I don't know when it will be on again, I only saw it one time. But when you look at the guide and you see "True Life Special Report" or something close to that on MTV, check out the info on it and it will tell you what the story will be about. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Your Avatar is wonderful by the way PrettyPerfect.

Loves it!

when is that on mtv ?
thanks
brittany

Hello there,

I decided to register for this forum and get an idea of other peoples experience with adderall. I have been a user since November 1997, starting from taking 15mg/day 3x 5mg tablets to 60mg/day 2x 20mg tablets over a five year periods without taking more than subscribed.

Somewhere in 2003 I started taking 100 mg/day 5 tablets, and was able to keep a ready supply because I saw my doctor once every three months and he gave me 3 prescriptions and then I started seeing him every two months and getting the same amount of prescriptions and occasionally claiming that my car was broken into and the medication amongst it. In other words I found ways of abusing it without running out before the next filler up.

well later that year i moved to new york and sought out another shrink who picked up where the other left off in prescribing me 90 pills a month 3x20mg tablets/day.

Well it gets worse, i continued to travel to maryland and get three presription from my former shrink/still current and fill them at differant pharmacies along side with the currents shrinks prescriptions. So got to using 12 tablets/20mg total 240mg of adderal a day. why i havn't overdosed is anyones guess.

This is the first time I've ever mentioned this to anyone, but I do want to stop this self destruction!!! My biggest motivation on this overextended use is the enhancement of my sexdrive, sustained errections, but other than that, i just feel agitated and stay up 4 or 5 days at time. Why i havent met my demise is a miracle but i dont see anyone even taking close to what i've taken so 240/mgs in one day, the highest i've seen on these posts is a 100mg and somepeople were outrages, read this one, and you'll probably im writing this from heaven/hell probably hell,

if you do respond just try to spare the preachiang and suggests things i could do, or in this case shouldnt do, it took a lot courage to write this, knowing that if i mention it to family they'll be an outrage

take care

george

George, sounds like a serious problem. Don't beat yourself up about it though, addiction is a behavior that can be changed. you've done the first right thing by admitting you have a problem. I congradulate you on that because I know thats a very hard thing to do.

See if there is a local Narcotics Anonymous group that you could go to. Addicts helping addicts is really the most effective way to get out of that kind of selfdestructive behavior. You'd be surprized who you will meet and how much they can relate to your problem. The program works if you work it and you die if you don't.

George,

I can appreciate the courage it took to write about your addiction. I'm a recovering vicodin addict. I was taking up to 25-30 7.5/750mg pills a day and like you, I have no ideal how I managed to not die of an overdose. I guess I built a huge tolerance to it. It sucks revolving your life around chasing and counting pills all the time. I was so ashamed of what I had become and felt so alone because I was afraid to tell anyone about it. The funny thing is everyone pretty much knew something was wrong, they just didn't know exactly what or if they knew they didn't know how much. Taking such large amounts of any medication changes who you are. So chances are people close to you may know something is wrong anyway. Have you tried to stop on your own? You mentioned your biggest reason for wanting to quit is sexual problems. Is that really your biggest reason? Why do you think you abuse Adderall? I started out using vicodin for physical pain and ended up abusing it to cover up my emotional pain.
I'm sure you have your reasons for not wanting to tell your family and I respect that but is there atleast one person you can trust to help you through it? I told my husband at first and then my therapist. Would you consider therapy? Anyway, I found a doctor that specializes in addiction (I've never told my family doctor) and made an appointment to see him. This doctor is has his regular office in the same place as his drug detox office and that worked out perfect because no one knew what I was there for. The doctor detoxed me using certain meds to help with the withdrawal symptoms. I've been off for two and a half months. I'm now taking a drug that would block any opiates and make me sick if I tried. I have accepted the fact that I will never be able to use narcotic pain meds ever again because my addiction is so strong and hard to control. So my suggestion would be to find an addiction doctor and go from there but be ready for the possibilty that you may never be able to take Adderall ever again.

It is funny how when we have a bad day we have the need to blame something we are doing or something someone is doing to us. I can feel a little down, and in 30 minutes question my whole life and the lives of everyone around me, then I figure out I was just hungry. It's never what I am doing, it is what I am thinking that puts me in doubt. Addiction isn't the problem, so if you let go of something in your life, you will certainly replace it with something else unless the problem is faced. People have the illusion that if they just stop doing something the problem will be solved, and if you believe the illusion you actually do feel better. But the problem is still there, and the problem will find a new outlet. You stop digging one grave, and begin a new hole elsewhere thinking, "boy, i'm so fortunate to have escaped that." Our society demonizes objects and behaviors, but this is the blame game that only perpetuates the problem, because the real problem is not identified. Even good old Bill W. who stayed depressed for 20 years after he sobered up realized "alcohol was just a symptom of alcholism." But, AA was also built on the faulty premise that alcoholism was a disease associated with the consumption of alcohol. We understand now that addiction is the same whether there is an intake of a chemical or whether it involves the release of a chemical in those with gambling addictions.

The problem has to do with what we believe, not what we do or what is done to us. Change what you believe and a change in your actions will be a certainty.

It is funny how when we have a bad day we have the need to blame something we are doing or something someone is doing to us. I can feel a little down, and in 30 minutes question my whole life and the lives of everyone around me, then I figure out I was just hungry. It's never what I am doing, it is what I am thinking that puts me in doubt. Addiction isn't the problem, so if you let go of something in your life, you will certainly replace it with something else unless the problem is faced. ...The problem has to do with what we believe, not what we do or what is done to us. Change what you believe and a change in your actions will be a certainty.
This is true. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy teaches some good princibles on which we can change our addictive thinking habits. the SMART recovery program (www.smartrecovery.org (http://www.smartrecovery.org)) teaches these ideas. maybe there is a meeting in your area? I just like the idea of support groups because:

a) They reassure you of the things that you are doing that are good and let you know the things you are doing that are not. When youre addicted to a drug its hard to judge what parts of your experience are you and what parts are the drug. When you come off of it you will need some help rebuilding your thinking.

b) You can easily replace friends you had that were just your friends because of drugs. I guess thats not so much an issue with adderall.

c) you know you aren't alone. All kinds of people from all walks of life have addictions. A recovered addict is an excellent resource.

From what I've read here and elsewhere, it is common for someone who has taken Adderall or its generic equivalent for a long time to build up a tolerance. This happened to me after four years of taking Adderall. I started taking up to 180mg per day.

If you feel that 60mg per day is not affecting you the way it used to, the way you need it to, there is little choice but to change to a different medication. Taking too much over a prolonged period of time can cause serious health problems.

I told my psychiatrist about the problem I was having and how much I was taking per day. I am now trying alternative medications (of which there are many) until I find one that works the way I need it to.

Adderall is not the "end-all be-all" for treatment of ADD/ADHD.

If you are taking the meds to get "high" then it probably leans towards addiction.

I take 90mg per day, 3-30mg XR's per day as prescribed by my p-doc and my regular doc who is an internal specialist has also written my script when my other doc was out ill.

This has worked well for me and I do have days when I forget to take a dose so I usually end up with a few extra when it is time for a refill. I have had days that were very long work days and I took a fourth in the evening and That's not an issue as long as I don't run out prior to the new refill.

It may be that you need this higher dose as I did to get the relief that you need but only you and your doc can determine that.

I have said this before and it sounds simple but if the medication helps you and makes your life better, great.

If it does the opposite, then stay away from it and try other options.

It's also wise to get a complete physical regularly to make sure that you have no health issues that can be effected by the meds.

My doc see's me once a month for my refills as he does all of his patients.

I am sure after doing this for 30 years that he can sense by appearance and answers to questions if someone is abusing their meds and your doc can probably do the same as they are highly in tune with this.

Just be honest with yourself and your doc and I am sure that you will get an answer.