Adderall XR

[guy93]

I visited my doctor today and while explaining another symptom, I just started talking to him about some other things, such as how I feel like I lose focus many times, mostly during sitting in lecture, writing a paper, driving once in a while. I get distracted. I googled these symptoms and both google and my doctor ultimately reached the ADD diagnosis, although my case is very small.

He prescribed me 20mg of Adderall XR, once per day. I can still do everything fine, I have been for the past 21 years(I am 21 years old), but my question is, would this make things better overall? Better lifestyle? I only ask this because I am worried about the long term effects of taking an amphetamine.


Thank You

 

[Kaido]

From my experience, lifestyle changes provide the most benefits. The drugs will work short-term, but you'll have to keep upping the dose as your body adapts until they no longer work anymore. Properly used, ADHD is an amazing thing (hyperfocus etc.), but if you don't have a good system, then life will continue to be harder than it should be.

The primary thing I've seen help is buckling down on going to bed early. People with ADD typically seem very sensitive to going to bed early & getting sufficient hours of sleep, and typically stay up late & do not get enough sleep, which screws up your neurotransmitter levels & causes your focus to drift more. A lot of people have no desire to fix their sleep habits either, so that's step one: be willing to give it a try for a few weeks. It's not easy, especially with the distractions of the Internet, television, mobile devices, etc.

The second thing that helps is having good systems for everything. You need to have a procedure to follow in all of the repetitive situations you face. What is your procedure for writing a paper? What is your procedure for taking notes in class? Even with something like driving, the procedure can include having an interesting audiobook or podcast (TED Talks are great). Basically, you need to create ways to stack your routines in your favor so that you meet your goals of paying attention instead of drifting.

If you're tired all the time, your focus will drift really bad. If you don't have systems for dealing with different situations, your brain will get bored & go into auto-drift mode because it doesn't have anything to actually DO. So the first two things you can try are going to bed early & making little routine checklists to follow for the things you struggle with - both of which will be a challenge to actually implement if you're struggling with ADD.

 

[Kaido]

Also, one other thing - I drone on & on about food allergies, but identifying a gluten allergy solved most of my ADHD issues. Do you have any other symptoms other than focus drift? Tired all the time? Brain fog? Anything like that?

 

[guy93]

I feel like I have slight difficulties organizing my thoughts, mostly during school and writing papers, but that could be a result of lack of preparation. I eat a lot of rice, although I don't know if that would have anything to do with it.

I do stay up very late and almost never sleep on time unless I am super tired from work. My doctor is known to mess up medications though..haha.

I also talked to a relative of mine who works as an RN, and she said she doesn't recommend taking it unless a psychiatrist evaluated me, and even then, I was not diagnosed with anything at a younger age. Just an odd situation. I do not think I will take them, at the end of the day, they are narcotics and if I don't need it, then why bother put it into my body on a daily basis.

 

[Nebor]

I used to take adderall in college and grad school. It'll do amazing things for your dink. And it'll help you pay attention, stay up all night studying and generally just be superhuman.

 

[Kaido]

Let me put that into perspective for you:

I do stay up very late and almost never sleep on time

...

I feel like I have slight difficulties organizing my thoughts, mostly during school and writing papers

So...you're constantly tired & thus can't focus in school? :awe:

I'm not going to link to the zillions of articles about why sleep deficiency is a major issue for both your body & your mind, suffice it to say that if you want to get serious about solving your problems, you need to alter your sleep hygiene. Go to bed early & get enough hours of sleep. Simple, but not easy. The first step is wanting to do it, or rather, actually being willing to do it. Most people can't get past that initial barrier. It's really, really hard to have a desire to go to bed early haha.

It's difficult because it's a soft problem. It's not like you're bleeding from a wound...you just get a little fuzzy around homework & classes. Since it's a mental thing, that tones down the importance of it & makes it easy to brush off getting proper sleep because hey, staying up late & enjoying your free time vs. "being able to focus better" isn't much of a challenge when the evening rolls around & the Internet, television, video games, etc. are calling your name.

Basically, you first just have to decide how much your ability to focus is worth to you. And it's not like it's a death sentence...a lot of people successfully split their time up where they go to bed at a reasonable hour during the school week, and then party on the weekends. That way you still get a break for Friday & Saturday night, but you're prepared for your main job the rest of the week at school.

 

[blackdogdeek]

Personally, I would exhaust all lifestyle changes (diet, sleep, exercise) before resorting to meds.

 

[guy93]

I stay up late but I still manage to get at least 6-8 hours of sleep depending on the schedule. But yeah, it's probably better to focus on lifestyle changes first.