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07-30-09, 02:12 PM
Hi all,
First time poster here; found this board while looking for info on my problems. I'm 25, male, and I was diagnosed with moderate inattentive-type ADD a little less than a year ago. Since then, I've been taking Adderall XR 20mg once daily. I'm hoping the expertise of this board can help me figure out an issue I'm facing with my medication.
When I started taking Adderall, the difference was night and day. I finally started making headway at my job, I was able to help out more at home, and I started doing things I'd wanted to do, but had never been able to follow through on before (financial tracking, music, work certifications... just to name a few).
The biggest issue surrounds the effect when it wears off in the evening. During the week, I'll typically take the Adderall between 7 and 8 am. I generally have very productive mornings, peaking at around 11 or 12, and I start feeling it wear off a little throughout the afternoon. By the time I get home at 6 or 7, the effect is completely gone and I start feeling hazy. As a result, I'm a little more irritable at home, mostly getting angry as a result of my own mistakes.
By midnight, I'm often in what I can best describe as a stupor. I still feel like there's so much time left in the day and like I'd be throwing away valuable waking hours by going to sleep. It almost feels like I dread the next day's arrival. This is very odd, because I don't hate my job; in fact, once I'm awake in the morning, I'm happy about the commute and breakfast and such, and it's even better on the weekends. But late in the evening, my usual teeth-gnashing and cheek-chewing habits tend to get a lot worse.
Now the fun part. If I get myself into the bathroom to get ready for bed at some reasonable time, something worse sets in: I grab a pair of tweezers and start picking at random facial hairs around my mouth. Without tweezers, I either use my fingers or my teeth. I've read up on this and it looks like a close match to trichotillomania, where you have a compulsion to pluck at your own body hair. Thing is, I'll do it unconsciously some days, but it's relatively infrequent and pretty mindless... at night, it happens nearly every time I try to go to sleep before 2am. I've lost hours to it before, and have left the corners of my mouth bloody from picking at an ingrown hair for so long. I also have other pre-sleep compulsions, such as checking the door locks, checking my alarm clock on the order of 5-10 times, finding both of my cats a few times, etc. Some classic signs of OCD, from what I can tell, but I've not looked into it too much because I've heard a LOT of conflicting opinions on what constitutes ADD vs. OCD, and also that trichotillomania may not be related to either. Naturally, I'm a bit confused.
Looks like I'm writing a novel, lol. Let me summarize:
I've got some strange hybrid of insomnia/ADD/OCD/trichotillomania symptoms that kicks into high gear late at night and prevents me from going to sleep. I'm currently taking Adderall XR 20mg, once daily in the morning, and by the time I get home it's just about worn off. I don't really have a "crash" per se, but I do notice a gradual clouding of my mind as it wears off.
Now for the main question:
Obviously, Adderall is a stimulant and is easy to link to insomnia. But this insomnia seems to have been present for a long time. Could the Adderall be causing this, even if its effects have worn off by that time? Or after being on meds all day, they wear off at the same time that I start to get tired and the compounding effect is making my existing symptoms worse?
I'm going to the doctor and getting my prescription checked/adjusted later today. Would it be wise to try to adjust my dosage to last through the evening? If my version of the "evening crash" is causing all of these issues, that could help greatly. However, if the Adderall is somehow causing the insomnia, this could make it worse, and worse would basically mean all-nighters at this point.
Sorry if some of that was rambling. I'd be happy to hear opinions on any or all of these issues, but primarily I'd like to know if anything jumps out that I should bring up to my doctor today.
Thanks for any input :)
First time poster here; found this board while looking for info on my problems. I'm 25, male, and I was diagnosed with moderate inattentive-type ADD a little less than a year ago. Since then, I've been taking Adderall XR 20mg once daily. I'm hoping the expertise of this board can help me figure out an issue I'm facing with my medication.
When I started taking Adderall, the difference was night and day. I finally started making headway at my job, I was able to help out more at home, and I started doing things I'd wanted to do, but had never been able to follow through on before (financial tracking, music, work certifications... just to name a few).
The biggest issue surrounds the effect when it wears off in the evening. During the week, I'll typically take the Adderall between 7 and 8 am. I generally have very productive mornings, peaking at around 11 or 12, and I start feeling it wear off a little throughout the afternoon. By the time I get home at 6 or 7, the effect is completely gone and I start feeling hazy. As a result, I'm a little more irritable at home, mostly getting angry as a result of my own mistakes.
By midnight, I'm often in what I can best describe as a stupor. I still feel like there's so much time left in the day and like I'd be throwing away valuable waking hours by going to sleep. It almost feels like I dread the next day's arrival. This is very odd, because I don't hate my job; in fact, once I'm awake in the morning, I'm happy about the commute and breakfast and such, and it's even better on the weekends. But late in the evening, my usual teeth-gnashing and cheek-chewing habits tend to get a lot worse.
Now the fun part. If I get myself into the bathroom to get ready for bed at some reasonable time, something worse sets in: I grab a pair of tweezers and start picking at random facial hairs around my mouth. Without tweezers, I either use my fingers or my teeth. I've read up on this and it looks like a close match to trichotillomania, where you have a compulsion to pluck at your own body hair. Thing is, I'll do it unconsciously some days, but it's relatively infrequent and pretty mindless... at night, it happens nearly every time I try to go to sleep before 2am. I've lost hours to it before, and have left the corners of my mouth bloody from picking at an ingrown hair for so long. I also have other pre-sleep compulsions, such as checking the door locks, checking my alarm clock on the order of 5-10 times, finding both of my cats a few times, etc. Some classic signs of OCD, from what I can tell, but I've not looked into it too much because I've heard a LOT of conflicting opinions on what constitutes ADD vs. OCD, and also that trichotillomania may not be related to either. Naturally, I'm a bit confused.
Looks like I'm writing a novel, lol. Let me summarize:
I've got some strange hybrid of insomnia/ADD/OCD/trichotillomania symptoms that kicks into high gear late at night and prevents me from going to sleep. I'm currently taking Adderall XR 20mg, once daily in the morning, and by the time I get home it's just about worn off. I don't really have a "crash" per se, but I do notice a gradual clouding of my mind as it wears off.
Now for the main question:
Obviously, Adderall is a stimulant and is easy to link to insomnia. But this insomnia seems to have been present for a long time. Could the Adderall be causing this, even if its effects have worn off by that time? Or after being on meds all day, they wear off at the same time that I start to get tired and the compounding effect is making my existing symptoms worse?
I'm going to the doctor and getting my prescription checked/adjusted later today. Would it be wise to try to adjust my dosage to last through the evening? If my version of the "evening crash" is causing all of these issues, that could help greatly. However, if the Adderall is somehow causing the insomnia, this could make it worse, and worse would basically mean all-nighters at this point.
Sorry if some of that was rambling. I'd be happy to hear opinions on any or all of these issues, but primarily I'd like to know if anything jumps out that I should bring up to my doctor today.
Thanks for any input :)