hi everyone, i'm new here, i'm glad i found this board. ok i know i should have read through all the previous posts, but well.. this is an ADD board and well.. you know how it is.

so i have a few questions if you guys and girls wouldn't mind answering them for me since you have more experience with this sort of thing:

i'm taking 20mg generic immediate release adderall 1x a day. that is, when i wake up. i take it around 9am (when i'm still asleep) and the wonderful part is at 10am i wake up on my own and am up-and-at-'em. i used to have terrible hypersomnia (sleep too much).

i notice when i wake up i feel really good like.. i guess you could describe it as a mild euphoria. nothing like a real drug high, but it is pleasant. i notice it quickly fades though. i have also heard this feeling only happens your first few days on the adderall. is this feeling really going to go away? i have lived my life in a very "blah" mood, and it is nice to feel "good" for a change.. but it is kind of depressing to know this will go away. SSRI antidepressants have not worked for me in the past to make me happy.

also i notice after a few hours it basically stops working. i realize this is immediate release and should be dosed probably twice a day. my doctor did not specify this though, he said 20mg once a day. should i start doing 10mg for 2x a day instead of this once a day dosing? next time i see him, i will ask about adding a dose in the early evening after lunch.

which leads me to my third question.. will it be as effective if i take 10mgx2 a day? it seems to me instead of it working really good for a few hours, it will work "just ok" all day.

my final question to you (sorry for taking so much time) is this.. which effects of the drug fade away within days or weeks? i've heard that the antidepressant (euphoria) fades in a week or so. i have also heard the appetite suppressant effect fades in time (or at least partially). from what i understand the only effects that don't fade are the alertness (anti-fatigue/sleep) and the attention/concentration helping.

sorry, thought of one more. if and when i decide to go off of this drug, will it be really bad? i am scared of what i have heard of the rebound when you go off of it you sleep 24/7 and you get really depressed. this kind of scares me because i am already prone to depression and i am worried a drug "withdrawal" or whatever might be really bad to go through mentally.

thank you so much for any help you guys can give me!! it is very appreciated!

Everyone is different and I deffinately would not take 2 doses without asking your Doctor. I took 2 - 20mg doses in the day and I had a very bad panic attack it was awful. I just followed the doctors orders and apparently it did not work well with me. You may want to take the 10mg 2x's a day and see if that makes a difference. The side effects of stopping abruptly would not be very good. Once your body is used to the medication it will have to readapt all over again. Some people find that a lower dose 2x's a day works better for them than 1 dose in the morning. I have not taken Adderall since my expereince but I may give it another try this weekend only with much less and only 1x in the morning. I am now on ritalin la and it works well until it wears off. That is my problem now. When I took the Adderall in the morning I noticed it worked great but when I took the second dose it just was way too much!

yeah i read about your experience in another thread. sorry that happened to you.

i am very tolerant of medications in general. my body has had a lot of experience with drugs. also i used to be a heavy user of crystal meth and cocaine, so stimulants don't do as much to me as the general population.

the other day i tried taking 20mg twice a day and it just wore off again. then i tried 20mg three times a day, still no change..

so then the past few days i tried 10mg x 3 a day. i feel so much better on the lower dose 2x-3x a day. the higher doses (40mg-60mg) a day actually had the opposite effect on me and made me a) very moody b) very rollercoaster like with my energy levels c) had a much worse "crash"

i didn't have any physical negative effects from 20mg x 3 a day, but i know my body and what i can handle.

all in all, it seems that "less is more" when it comes to this type of medication. so i think i will stick with 10mg x 3 a day which seems like a very reasonable dosage.

btw, 2x a day is not enough. the medication only lasts in my body about 3-4 hours, and i get up around 7am (or, i would like to). i take a dose a little before i get out of bed to get me "up and going" and then it wears off around 11am-12pm. then i take a second dose. that dose wears off by 4-5pm. by 6pm i am dead tired and can't function. i usually don't go to bed until midnight or later, so two doses simply does not last long enough.

see, there is an obvious comedown after 4 hours. i can tell because i get really quiet, i don't want to talk, i get very sleepy feeling, fatigued, etc. lose all the positive effects of the medication.

anyways, i'm glad that the lower dose works better. although i mentioned i am an ex-drug user, i am older now and i'm not interested in taking drugs to get high anymore. when i mention the drug gave me "euphoria", i don't mean like a cocaine high or something, i mean it just gave me a sense of well-being which i liked.

so i forgot to ask.. can anyone know the reason why this medication seems to work better at the lower dosages? my doctors in the past have always drilled into my head "if it doesn't work, we'll increase the dosage". maybe this has been the problem in the past, doctors putting me on too much.

i am even curious cutting the dose in half and taking 5mgx2 a day. not sure if that would be enough, but i'd be curious to try and see my results with it. after all, with this type of drug, you want to be on as little as possible of course.

I think that lower dose work better than higher dosages for some because like alchohol or any other drug if you take way too much you lose the positive effects and then it defeats the purpose. If any of you have had a night of drinking you would know that after your first drink you feel mellow and decent... but that is not enough...

Then you drink a couple more becuase your trying to reach a plateu of good intoxication and then once you have reached that level...

You want to stay there so you drink even more. Eventually the stuff overloads in your blood streem and you can't even see straight... You feel nothing but DRUNK!

So I think it is a matter of finding a good level and maintaining it at the most minimal amount needed.

On the part about it wearing off... I hear that stimulants are designed not to have a steady release because it is more effective this way. I am not sure how that works but there is a half life in your blood streem where 50% is released then the other 50% is released later. The later time depends on the individual's metabolism and such. With Adderall the medication has 4 amphetamine salts that are sapposed to metabolise at different rates so you don't lose any effectiveness.

I may try the Adderall again at a very low dose and see if it works. I really hate to try in in the week becuase I have to go to work. So I think I will wait until the weekend again.

The dose response curve for stimulants with regards to focus and attention is shaped like a bell - past a certain point increases in doseage decrease focus and attention. More is not better. The trick is in finding just the right dosage for maximum benefit.
Regards,
Greg

5mg - 2xs a day appears to be working quite well for me at this point. I do notice after 4 hours it seems to be gone but the lower dose for me is good for now. When I take it in the morning - it takes a little longer to take effect than when I take my second dose... however as they days go on it appears that the medicine is taking effect earlier and earlier. I have read that it can take a while for some people to get adjusted to the medication. It's as if - when I first took it - my body really did not know what to do with it... but once it adjusts and I found my comfort level of timing and dosage - Bang that was it. I will never take Ritalin again. Adderall is better for me because I don't have the crash or the feeling of being forced to get things done and forced to focus. It just seems to flow better and no dramatic drop offs. Of course I am not taking that much either and we are all different. Have you tried the lower dose yet ?

i'm glad to hear you're doing better with the lower dosage! i hope you do well with it.

i have seemed to settle on the 10mg, 3 times a day routine. well i have noticed this:

basically i use my first dose to get me out of bed. i always have had a terrible time getting up in the morning. i set my alarm clock for 1 hour before i actually want to get up and take my 10mg dose. i end up waking up naturally around 30 minutes to an hour later. i find 10mg is right there on the edge. it doesn't have me hopping out of bed ready to go, but i CAN get out of bed, which is a good thing. if i take 20mg it makes me actually get out of bed ready to get things done, but i feel that's a big dose, i don't want to push it i guess.

i was thinking about this, maybe i could take a larger dose in the morning (when i need it most) and take smaller maintenance doses during the day to keep me going.

about the ritalin thing, i have never taken ritalin myself, so i can't imagine the dropoff of it, but i do notice a dropoff with adderall. particulary at night. i take my final dose about 6pm. when about 10pm rolls around, i start feeling tired like i want to lay down and i get quiet and less social, my girlfriend can instantly notice when it drops off. she asks me if i'm ok or tired and i say yeah the stuff just seemed to have worn off.

i'm still trying to find a right schedule for me to keep me at a good level. it's hard every 4 hours because i really need 4 doses a day, but i don't really want to do that. i think i'll stick to 3 a day.

i see my doctor a week from now and i'll discuss it with him and see what he says about it all.

one last thing to Gregster if you read this post again.. do you have a reference or a site that talks about that? i tried to do a search real quick but didn't turn up anything. but i am also on dialup right now and it frustrates me when i actually have to do anything online!

P.S. -- i went without taking any adderall after taking it for about 3 days in a row. it was strange. the first day off of it i felt like i was on it still, the second day i felt "normal" and the third day off of it (yesterday) i felt very tired all day and SUPER hungry. i was eating like every 30 minutes. i guess it's my body rebounding from the stimulant obviously. maybe it's good to take a break every few days or something to keep it working right? do you know how often you are supposed to take a "holiday"?

I think the holiday thing is done for people who have a hard time eating. My sons doctor wants to put him on ADD meds but he is so skinny - only 6 - so I have waited due to his weight. But his doctor said that kids who don't eat well don't take med's durring school vacations so they can get "fattened up". That did not sound very good to me. (A part of me wants to wait for him to make a decision if he wants to take the medication or not. I don't want to force him to take medication if he does not want to. Plus I hate the process I have had to go through- finding the med and dose. That would be awful for him at 6 and in school. Summer would be a better adjustment period to try it. ) I wonder if it is healthy to take the holidays? I know some people do it and say it works much better for them because they don't build up a tolerance.

On the part where you said you felt like you were still on it - like the next day. I felt that same way when I had taken 2 20mg doses. I did not sleep until 4 am and that whole next day I felt like it was still working - some. Very strange but I can relate. I have not skipped a day since I started on the 5 and 5 doses.
I have read some people get bad rebounds at higher doses or both Ritalin and Adderall. The thing is what ever medicine you end up taking can't fix everything it can help a great deal but you have to give it some time and practice self control as well.

On taking a higher dose in the morning and a lower dose later in the day. Well my doctor said I could do that if it worked he said to play around with the timing and dosing (not exceeding over 40mg per day) and see what works for me. He said the 20mg last from 4-6 hours and that I could take 20 in the am and 10 in the afternoon (4-6 hours later) if needed. He also said that Adderall goes up and reaches a level in your bloodstreem and then it goes back down and to find the point where it is starting to go down is key because that is when I would need to take my next dose. He said that eliminates the crash. Some people take a small dose in the evening and they say it helps them sleep. So this is the trial and error time for you and it will all be worth it when you find what works for you. Be positive because it is going to work out. I am praying for you and when you see your doctor be sure to tell him all your concerns. I wish you the best.

about the eating thing.. i have noticed that it diminishes with time. when i first started taking it, i didn't want to eat at all, and i would even like feel sick at the thought of eating. i was never hungry.

now that my body has been getting used to it, i can actually eat lunch sometimes, and maybe even supper. granted they are not huge portions, but 2 small meals a day is better than not eating at all.

my mother last night pointed out that i am losing a lot of weight and she is concerned that i am not eating. (she doesn't know that i take the stuff). my friends also think it's bad and they try to make me eat.

but.. as the days go by i am being able to eat more and more often. i don't think i'll ever be hungry 3 times a day, but maybe i can get myself to eat 3 moderate meals a day or something.

on a side note, the insomnia that i had when first starting has begun to fade some. i am now able to go to sleep much earlier (2am-3am) versus what i was doing (7am-8am, sunrise).

i think it's the fact that for a couple nights i didn't fall asleep until the sun came up, but i got myself out of bed at 9am-10am anyways. i guess after you start getting sleep deprived your body will shut itself down to sleep no matter what.

all in all, i am feeling better and doing better. i try to keep it to three 10mg doses a day, but some days i take 4 because i start getting really pooped out and quiet around 9pm or 10pm. not good if i'm out in a social situation or not at home. i wish this stuff lasted longer.

most people would say "well take the XR version".. but if you read the prescribing information it says XR is basically equivalent to two of the instant release doses, 4 hours apart. (e.g. if you take a 20mg XR, it releases 10mg instantly, and another 10mg after 4 hours).

so it's basically just 2 doses.

it's hard to guage from day to day. some days i can really feel it kick in and do something, and other doses they seem to never kick in at all. it makes me very concerned about what i'm taking it with. i'm scared to take it with sodas or anything that may be acidic, since that prevents absorption. i usually take it just with water on an empty stomach because i'm paranoid it won't get absorbed. then if it doesn't work i wonder if my stomach is too acidic because i haven't eaten.

i hate that fact. do you know how much acid will affect the absporption?

and is it just strong citric acids like grapefruit juice or is it even stuff like cokes or other weak acids in foods? i'm freakin out man.

It's grapefruit juice you have to worry about when taking any drug. It's not the acidity, it's something specific about grapefruit juice - one or more of the natural organic chemicals in the juice surpresses the metabolism of certain drugs, greatly increasing their concentration in the blood. I don't think it actually effects Adderall, but it's best not to risk it.
Regards,
Greg

Any citrus is supposed to cancel out the stimulants also. I think the acidity is just a matter of stomach upset.

If you go to this site... and type in Adderal... it will tell you what foods, drinks and other medications that interact with Adderall. You can always call the pharmacist if you need more information. It is their job to tell you all about the medication you take.

http://www.drugstore.com/pharmacy/drugchecker/

ADDERALL (DEXTROAMPHETAMINE SULFATE) and FOOD (ACIDIC FOODS)
Severity: Minor

Description: Taking DEXTROAMPHETAMINE with ACIDIC FOOD may change the amount of dextroamphetamine in your blood.

Dextroamphetamine may interact with certain foods. These acidic foods include but are not limited to citrus fruits and juices (such as orange juice and grapefruit juice). It is recommended to avoid acidic foods at the same time as taking dextroamphetamine.

On another note you must get sleep!!! You must eat! Try not to take your last dose after 7pm. My doctor said that a larger dose taken at once lasts longer than taking more smaller doses. For example may be you should talk to your doctor about 20mg in the morning and 10mg mid day. Then you should not have any problems sleeping, The medication will poop out but that is going to happen so you can go to sleep. I would talk to your doctor about this. On eating... you have to eat something so you don't get sick. I am able to eat a small lunch and a big dinner but then again I take my last dose at noon.