Adderall dosage and side effects.

[asdfdoc]

I am 27 yo male.

I was diagnosed for ADHD about 1 month ago. I was initially prescribed provigil for focus. I was told to take 100mg and up to 200mg in the morning after a week and see the doc in 2 weeks.

With 100mg provigil (modafinil), I felt VERY alert, actually, first day, I couldn't sleep. I slept at 4am and woke up at 9am. This caused me a big problem. I am a doc myself and I was 30 minutes late to my first patient appointment. This event gave me a spike of adrenalin rush as soon as I woke up, I got dressed and ran to hospital in 5 minutes and saw the patient. The problem was that this was the most intense adrenalin sympathetic rush I have ever felt in my life. It came with tremors, stuttering (couldn't even communicate well), bloodshot eyes and sweats. This effect continued until 3PM. It eventually got better and I continued dosing for a week and I upped to 200mg. At 100mg, in the beginning I felt slight euphoria or uplifting feeling and it subsidized as time went by. Sleep problems also eventually got better as well. At 200mg, I felt more euphoria and more alertness. Another general side effect I had was that I had problem seeing patterns especially black and white patterns. My eyes were so sensitive to black and white patterns I couldn't stare at them. I also never felt like I needed to do something, it never improved my focus and it never felt speedy. However, I started getting really bad headaches around 8PM and when I wake up in the morning so I stopped the medication.

My psych doc and I discussed and changed to adderall. I wasn't able to get brand, so I opted with generic brand barr. We discussed and started low. I was on 5mg bid for about a week, and I felt nothing. I told my doc and we switched to 10mg bid. I have been on 10mg bid for about 4 days. With 10mg bid, I definitely feel something, feels euphoric, more euphoric than provigil but not as much as street drugs, and also alert but not as alert as provigil, and not speedy. I still don't feel like what my college friends w/o ADHD for study purpose used to describe with 5mg adderall: I don't feel like "I gotta do something, need to clean or organize" or able to focus/concentrate on what I am doing. My mind is still cloudy. I can up the dosage, but the big problem is that I feel too euphoric/uplifting right now with 10mg bid. This euphoria is not necessarily comfortable maybe because I don't want to feel euphoric when I am working? First 2 days, my heart was racing around 5PM and I knew I was getting overstimulated. That's gotten better. Good thing is that I don't get headaches with adderall. But the problem is I still CANNOT concentrate. I am still having hard time reading books or writing. Other side effects I am experiencing include increased anxiety and nervousness.

Will this euphoric effect go away? I've been searching on forums for other people's experience and some say its the generic brand of amphetamine. I am seeing my psychiatrist in about a week and a half. What are you guys input? I am debating if I should switch meds to something else like ritalin or try different brand of adderall or up the dosage. I am really confused.

[sarahsweets]

The euphoria will go away but symptom control can remain as long as you are at the right dose.l

[EnergizerJen]

I agree with sarahsweets. The euphoria will go away and the symptom control levels out. The biggest thing (I think) is to focus on the symptom control.
The euphoric feeling commonly gets associated with symptom control and then the chase starts.

Switching meds brings new side effects and new euphorias (depending on which med), but trying to stay with one med and move up the dose slowly will help minimize those feelings.

After a period of time, most of the side effects usually disappear.
IE: euphoria, appetite suppression, head aches, heart racing.

I think it's your body's adjustment period.