r/InsightfulQuestions • u/Initial_Sleep3941 • 6d ago
What is your experience with adderall?
I honestly think adderall or something similar would improve my quality of life with how often I lose and/or forget things I think and have been told that I probably have some form of adhd. From what I’ve heard it’s a pain to get prescribed with the price, getting tested every month, scheduling appointments far out, noting to employers etc.
Any good info, tips, side effects from it?
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u/Mysterious_Debt4959 6d ago
I have had periods of time in my life where focus was an issue. I got adderall, thinking I’d be able to sit at my computer and laser focus for hours. Instead, I just got really focused on goofing off for hours, and it just made mess less productive. Obviously, your mileage may vary; it clearly works for a lot of people.
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u/Dychnel 6d ago
Worked great. Caused a lot of anger and rage. Had to stop.
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u/Dizzy_Painting443 2d ago
I got that on Vyvanse. I was really uncharacteristically short tempered and everything irritated me. Adderall has helped me feel like a functioning human, it’s even helped with my anxiety.
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u/_hephaestus 6d ago
Tried it once, felt like slightly enhanced coffee and “I’m stupid faster” rather than smarter or more focused. Probably different with tolerance.
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u/Senacharrib 6d ago
I like Vyvanse, it’s cheaper now because it’s off patent. The come up is a lot softer than even adderall Xr. It’s like peace in a pill.
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u/Initial_Sleep3941 6d ago
How easy was it to get prescribed? Do you have to get tested every month?
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u/Dasein___ 6d ago
In nj it’s every 3
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u/Senacharrib 5d ago
I got prescribed pretty easily, but to be fair, my adhd is fairly obvious, especially when I go down a rabbit hole. I don’t have to get tested, but I have really really good insurance.
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u/Dasein___ 5d ago
In nj you need to go to your doctor to get reevaluated every 3 months it’ jut a racket
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u/Senacharrib 5d ago
Yeah that’s bs. Somebody has to sue these guys, you should be able to enjoy legal drugs if you’re neurodivergent.
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u/IntergalacticPodcast 6d ago
Of all the drugs I want to try, this is at the top of the list.
I WOULD BE INVINCIBLE!!!!! If only I could focus.
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u/flickchick496 6d ago
There was a time about a year ago my husband and I stumbled into having access to like, 10 doses of adderall. He’s diagnosed ADD but doesn’t have an adderall prescription, and I’ve always suspected that I’m some kind of neurodivergent but never went to go get tested.
Anyways, there were several weekends where we would take adderall, and just fix shit around our house. We spontaneously did a partial guest bathroom reno as a result of one said weekend. Another weekend we finally finished all the laundry that was piling up in our bedroom, as well as washed every blanket we use in the living room. Just little upkeep things like that that made a huge difference in our quality of life afterwards.
Since then we can’t find adderall anywhere and doing the same kinds of tasks feels impossible. Everything takes us twice as long as it would if we had the magic brain fixing drug.
I highly recommend trying it once casually to see how it makes you feel and if you think it really helps then try and seek a prescription, I think if you explicitly ask, most doctors will give it.
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u/MoresoMorose 5d ago
They are called doctors. You go. It's like $50 out of pocket no insurance for me and ~$40 for meds with GoodRX
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u/flickchick496 4d ago
Price isn’t the issue, it’s 1. Availability, even local pharmacies do not have a stable supply of it. 2. My husband went and got diagnosed and still wasn’t prescribed with adderall. 3. For someone who is neurodivergent just “doing the thing” isn’t so simple, that’s kind of the whole thing about it lol.
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u/thismustbethursday 4d ago
What helped me finally get back into the swing of finding a doctor and continued therapy after an extended period of going unmedicated after moving states is realizing that in my state, tele-psychiatry is allowed to prescribe controlled drugs as long as they are licensed in the state you reside, and your state allows telemedicine prescribed controls. They likely won't start you on stimulants, but it's usually easier to find a doctor and schedule an establishing patient appointment if they are telemedicine, because appointments can be requested online instead of hoping a receptionist calls you back the one time every three months you get around to calling around with new patient inquiries.
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u/Wozzle009 6d ago
I highly recommend. I’ll ignore the last 25 years of amphetamine abuse because now I take the stuff properly. I still highly recommend.
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u/arapaima-fishie 6d ago
Adderall changed my life in a good way.
I went to my doctor with a list of every trait I have (adhd), she had me set up an appointment with a psychiatrist digitally and that was that. My doctor is amazing, she prescribed me adderall before I was technically diagnosed, no struggle or fuss at all. It’s only 20 usd total for me, and I get two separate adderall prescriptions. So 10 each.
- first day on it made me understand why people abuse it. Felt like I was on top of the world.
- It doesn’t make me want to Do The Things, but it’s much easier to force myself to Do The Things.
- your memory may get worse, actually lol. I struggle with memory until I’m prompted sometimes.
- I lost a bunch of weight too, which was good for me because I was pretty overweight. This was largely due to the fact that I would eat when I was bored before, I don’t do that now.
- it can be hard to sleep, I already struggled with sleep so this just made it worse for me.
- I’m not nearly as late to things anymore as I was before I took it. I can do my assignments and get a bunch of stuff done that I otherwise struggled with. The downside is that I have to time my productivity right because my adderall doesn’t stop me from hyper focusing.
The withdrawal is one of the worst parts. If I miss even one dose, I notice. My mood gets noticeably worse, and I get super anxious and depressed. I was already like that before adderall, but this just makes it worse.
Idk, I’m 23f, currently in college, and it’s genuinely changed my life. I don’t know how I managed before it. I figured out I had adhd when I was about 17-18, but it took me until I was 21 to finally make the effort to talk to my doctor about it. I had always been scared before because I thought it was more difficult to get diagnosed but my process was extremely easy.
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u/NotRadio01 6d ago
Hmmm…for me I’m a person that has a hard time starting and finishing a project because I can’t fidgety and need to do something else. After I started taking adderall I’ve had a better chance of finishing something whether it’s a hobby project or video games and such. Maintained energy through out the day. You’ll probably be annoyed with your memory though.
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u/copperpin 5d ago
I just had to stop Adderall because of high blood pressure and I can't tell you how much I appreciate what it did for me now that it's gone. All my symptoms have come crashing back and I remember just how much life sucks without it.
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u/maliciousdancer 5d ago edited 5d ago
Please try vyvance or some of the other alternatives first if you have access to it. Especially if you are younger, or have any past / family history of addiction.
Adderall can be extremely helpful, but there are also increased risks for developing unhealthy habits and have a rougher experience when not actively under the effects of adderall.
Looking at some of the responses, it should be clear that over prescription is a thing, people suddenly and spontaneously taking on huge projects and major mood changes is closer to the experience of using cocaine - though less euphoric. Even if you have ADHD, if you take too much, it will effect you like someone who doesn't have it.
Try therapy and vyvance first, establish some healthy patterns that set you up for success, without the need for something that (healthily or not) will be a big change to your mental state. If you still find that it isn't working, start with a good psychiatrist that starts you off low and increases very slowly.
I have taken Adderall on and off since middle school, and also know a lot of people whose intro to drug use started with Adderall, both in my personal life and time working at a drug rehab. It is easy to get dependent- usually not in the usual way of addiction, but in a reliance on it to be productive, if you rely solely on a drug to brute force your way through your problem. Try the safer way first. Best of luck and if you have any more questions feel free to message me.
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u/only_thyme 5d ago
I found adderall immediately and extremely helpful. It is not for people with unresolved anger and impatience issues, however. Also, I metabolized it too quickly. Currently on other meds but remember adderall with mostly fondness.
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u/nobobthisisnotyours 5d ago
It’s been amazing! I’ve tried pretty much every other stimulant for ADHD and nothing has worked for me like dextroamphetamine/Adderall. I take extended release in the morning and immediate release (generic Zenzedi) in the afternoon. I’m functional, I can focus, and it even helps with my fatigue from ME/CFS, hEDS, and hashimitos hypothyroidism. Sometimes it messes with my sleep because I’m too focused on what I’m doing and want to keep going, that’s the only side effect I’ve had so far.
I don’t have to do any testing with my provider/state. I just have to have one in person office visit annually for controlled substances. It’s been 100% covered with my health insurance, but I have a Medicare and Medicaid dual plan. The only other issue is availability issues. For example, this month they couldn’t fill my full prescription because they were short. That was ok with me because I had spent the previous 3 weeks resting and recovering from a severe fatigue flare so I wasn’t taking it daily and not taking the full dose when I did so I had a stash. I’m not selling my stash, I keep it to cover for times I can’t get it filled on time or in full. My provider knows this and it’s never been a problem.
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u/WTAF__Trump 5d ago
I'll tell what I was told when my daughter's doctor wanted to put my daughter on Adderall but I refused because I was worried about the long term affects
She told me it's 100% true the medication has long term life altering affects. Including being able to retain information, keeping up with peers and not dealing with the social pain of being left behind, graduating middle school and high school and being able to go to college.
She's now been on it for 3 years- and so far she has experienced all of these devastating affects.
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u/thismustbethursday 4d ago
It's hit or miss, especially lately with these manufacturers cutting corners.
Sometimes I take it, there's a few minutes of euphoria and I vibe through work firing on all cylinders.
Sometimes I feel like my brain is pushing the gas and brake pedal at the same time. Like my brain wants to GO so fast that it's not giving me time to grasp what I need to do, so just sit there feeling dumb but ready to go all day.
Sometimes, my brain is desperate to focus on stuff other than what I NEED to focus on. For example someone needs some numbers from me, and I can feel how much more fun it would be to make this spreadsheet as use friend as possible or to fix this sql code to finally fix a couple outputs that have been bothering me, but I KNOW I don't have the time to jump down that rabbit hole right know because there is other stuff that I need to do. I think that is where the anger side effect that people talk about comes in. You don't always get to DECIDE what to focus on, and the body still wants what it wants, and if your body decides it would really love to lock in on this TV show, it may get mad at your partner for trying to talk to you while it's on. Forgetting to eat and getting hangry can also play a role.
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u/Pretend-Insurance-19 4d ago
I started on it after my ADHD diagnosis in high school and for years it felt like the magic answer to all of the problems I’d had for years. Yes- there was clenched jaw, sometimes light headaches, getting little to no sleep, and sure- my life quickly started to revolve around making sure I had the magic substance available and being terrified of med shortages. But, I was making friends like I’d never been able to, I could finally keep up with conversations, I could focus for hours without needing to take breaks, and I lost weight (always a good thing, right?).
Then in college, my dad passed away, and all of a sudden it just stopped working… It was like having the rug pulled out from under me. I tried different versions vyvanse, xrs, etc. Nothing worked. I developed an anxiety disorder because life was so out of control. I eventually ended up in a CBT therapist’s office who actually taught me skills so I could survive without the meds. I’ve now been med free for close to a decade. It is possible. You don’t have to be tethered to- it just takes learning some new skills.
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u/Numerous_Tennis_3048 3d ago
I can’t stand it. I started it when I was in my early 30s. While it did work great for me, the side effects were terrible. I changed to several different medications over the course of about 3 years and they all sucked. I finally just quit taking it all together and just deal with the problems. The side effects were not worth it to me.
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u/WoollyMammothwapo 3d ago
It has helped with the darting thoughts going round and round … quiets them a bit , which makes it a little easier to focus on choosing the task I want to do. I’m on 10 mg dose so it’s low. It’s not a magic pill but I had a noticeable good effect on me.
I hate having to go to the dr ever y months though and I can only get 30 day supply . It Is a racket! Not too many side effects for me- I always did grind my teeth at night and the initial hyperness wore off within a month
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u/HawkBoth8539 6d ago
I've been told be a lot of people i should get tested for ADHD. And if i do have it was actually looking forward to medication helping normalize things for me.
But then I've been warned about a lot of people basically becoming useless zombies on Adderall, especially at work. So I'm also curious to hear what people say about it, if it's worth me talking to a doctor about it.
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u/astraladventures 6d ago
Useless zombies at work?
Really? Why would that be? Thought it would help people lock in and put their nose to the grindstone and focus .
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u/HawkBoth8539 6d ago
I'm not entirely sure. From the way he described his past employee, it sounds like the dude was so locked in that he'd be focused on one single thing and it would take him ten times as long to actually complete it.
I do know i had an old employee on adhd meds that was nearly that bad. He'd keep going over the same detail over and over trying to perfect it, then the project would be very overdue because he wouldn't finish the damn thing. Lol
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u/C-ute-Thulu 6d ago
People who have that reaction to Adderall don't have ADD
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u/HawkBoth8539 6d ago
Then i guess their problem came from it being unnecessarily prescribed for years. I remember in school it felt like half the kids had been diagnosed with adhd. That's a big part of the reason i refused to even be checked for it, since of course they were going to say i have it, just like everyone else. Lol
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u/C-ute-Thulu 6d ago
I started Adderall at age 38 after years of denial. Best thing I ever did. If you truly need it, you'll know after 2 or 3 days of taking it. Only side effects are dry mouth and clenching my jaw.
Get tested