Adderall not working

[kisseslauren89]

I have had ADD my whole life but lately its been bad so I decided to ask my doc about it. I was prescribed 15 mg of XR. I took it for a few days and felt literally nothing. No focus, normal appetite, normal sleep. I am out of the state of my doctor right now so I can't go back to change my dose for a few weeks. I really needed to get things done on my day off the other day, like run errands and clean. So I took 2 tablets. I seem to have some effects now. It did effect my appetite and sleep, gave me cottony feeling in mouth, fluttery feeling in chest. I still don't really feel like I can focus. I feel like it helped a little but I am not sure if my little bit of focus is real or a placebo effect. Did anyone else experience this? How do you deal with the side effects?

[sarahsweets]

Were you diagnosed and treated when you were younger? If so which med did you take? If not and this is your first time taking adderall then it could be a dose issue. 15mg is not that high and many people have to take more. It could be your dosing schedule as well. I take 60mg and i take it 2 times a day at 20mg each.

[cillianred]

There are lots of threads on this throughout the forums. Your doctor should be able to discuss dosing issues over the phone; please don't double dose w/o his or her permission, it'll be better for you both in the long run.

You mentioned normal appetite and normal sleep, but those descriptors are very broad. I've taken Adderall for about 15 years and two key factors have kept the medication working effectively:

• 7-8 hours of quality sleep per night
• A very nutritious diet that helps replace liver and muscle glycogens. Adderall will cause your body to release these for energy, so they need to be restored. Milk was a great source of these for me until I became mildly lactose intolerant (I can eat ice cream, cheese, I just can't drink a full glass of milk anymore). I now drink weight gain shakes to help in this area and whenever I think Adderall isn't "working" it's usually related to this specific issue.

This is what's worked for me. It could be different for you, so talk to your doctor about any diet strategies.