371–380 of 455 posts
Somewhat unrelated - I tried both adderall and ritalin. While these certainly help with my attention/focus issues, I often get a weird side-effect - it makes me sleepy. My doc is completely puzzled by it. Nor I see much of such mentions in internet. I wonder if any1 else here had such effect from stimulants? (it is not lack of sleep - I get 7+ hours at night and occasional hour during the day).
You people are all nuts. It's amphetamine and you're getting high, and it's great isn't it? Really I've never seen so much nonsense in one place... congratulations though on finding a steady supply of a drug that you like, just don't pretend you're any different from the rest of us junkies.
Getting chemically treated for ADHD is one of the life-changing moments for me. I spent most of my teen years learning "good habits" thru counseling and all that jazz. It wasn't until I started Vyvanse that all those "good habits" that was taught to me actually made sense. All the meditation practice actually got put to good use when it comes to controlling anger. I do wish I hadn't waited 15+ years between diagnosis…
It's really hard to make people understand what the effect is, because everyone says "yeah I am distracted often too when I work", but it's not that you get distracted, but the intensity of distraction.
I usually describe it like: You have thought A and thought B. And between there is a lot of noise like "AFEWFVWRGBWIHGiwgbsigbeiscgedhtbvhrbdrtbhvdbhktvrbre". And with my medication it's like "rgerbdjtfkvsg".
It's a game changer.
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A pharmacist does not equal a neuroscientist studying effects of long-term stimulant use on developing early onset neurodegenerative disease in any way, shape, or form. Sorry but you need to look at meta-analyses on on the topic and use that as a reference to prove anything to HN crowd at a minimum when making these bold unsubstantiated fear-mongering claims.
Yes but they interact with the same customers over long periods of time. I hate to tell you, but people can come to conclusions about the world. Its not a walled garden. I can see with my own two eyes what happens. Go ahead and take legal cocaine though, hope your post helps you sleep at night
I get a new pharmacist every time I fill a script and I never share one iota of my diagnoses with them, they just fill the Rx and advise on contraindications and unusual doses they see.
Can you see into a person's brain with your own 'two eyes' as well? A neuroscientist can actually see our neural activity with fMRI and other tools to study brain science unlike your pharmacist buddies and yourself talking to random customers for 5 minutes in a grocery store.
A lot of comments here are warning about the addictive properties of stimulant medications. For folks without ADHD, you should know that stimulants, like Ritalin and Adderall, do not usually cause the same response as in non-ADHD people. I've spoken with many people on stimulants, and none of them enjoy taking the medication, beyond what it has done to improve their lives. Furthermore, most ADHD people develop tolera…
My girlfriend is on a slow release ADHD medication, once a day; for her, it has to be a daily thing because else it just stops working. Is adderall a slow release one? May be more beneficial.
That said, what effect are you expecting? She describes the main effect of her medication to be a mood stabilizer.
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But most of the import places you have to visit stops during weekends. Edit: For example, when I was a kid I spent most of my time at home playing with toys during weekends. I don't see why that would be a bad life for a kid. When they get older to 8-10 they can get around on their own so no need to baby sit them any longer, at least if you live in an European city.
Most people on Earth don't live in European cities. I grew up in the suburbs I couldn't go anywhere myself. Public transportation just isn't a thing around me. Not to mention all the stuff that has to be done around the house. As for parenthood its not just about bringing your kids places. They want to play, they need to eat, they need diaper changes. Kids are a ton of work I love every minute of it, but man is it di…
> Minimizing menial tasks. Menial tasks really suck. I know everyone must hate doing these, but to put it into perspective, I would rather do 20 hours of really really hard work on a tough project than do 5 hours of menial tasks Interesting. I have ADHD (inattentive subtype) and am quite the opposite. My apartment is never cleaner than when I have an extremely important, open-ended project with multiple stakeholders…
The pop-science definition of ADHD has started to stray very far from the science. There’s a growing tendency for newly diagnosed ADHD patients to try to explain all of their mental habits and preferences through the lens of ADHD. Some times they have helpful feedback for other people with similar habits, but other times they just paint ADHD with an overly broad brush. They often have unrealistically lofty ideals of…
A lot of conditions are normal human traits, but amplified / exaggerated. This makes them understandable to neurotypical people, but also easily trivialized and misunderstood.
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I got diagnosed as an adult and it was life changing for me, has been on them for 5 years. Here are some tips: 1. Never take stimulants to have fun, just take them to do tasks to progress your life. ADHD doesn't prevent you from having fun, and having fun with stimulants is what makes them addictive. 2. Take regular breaks from the medication. You wont get much done the first day or two after, so don't plan on doing…
> Take regular breaks from the medication [...] Sometimes try to do tasks without medication I can't and won't speak to your experience or your medical advice, but from my experience this is advice I would strongly advise considering your own experience before taking . My experience is that if I miss a dose I'll find myself, hours later, with my brain catastrophically grinding gears and in tears from a panic attack.…
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How is Lisdex for you? I've recently been considering asking my doc if I can try it out. I'm currently on a rather high daily dosage of Medikinet CR (2x30mg + another 1x20mg on long days if anyone's curious). It works but too inconsistently. It's also rather expensive here in the Netherlands.
I started with 50 mg, and I experienced a heavy effect for first couple weeks: very calm and clear thinking, but the focus was too heavy - I often fell into “deep thinking / introspection sessions” with my body frozen and an unfocussed stare. It could happen in the middle of a conversation. I thought I would need a lower dosage, but this initial heavy effect was gone soon, and the focus became milder. Now I am on 50…
With regards to the effects this particular type of medication has on your behaviour, you have essentially described me - but on Medikinet, on those odd days when it decides to just work that way.
In the Netherlands we have a specialised ADHD treatment centre called ADHD-Centraal. I've been extremely impressed with their methods, their high level of competence, and with their care and involvement. The fact that they really know what they're doing also shows in the tiny practical adjustments they've made to their workflows to accommodate or even compensate for "the likes of us"!. I'll gladly provide you with direct contact details for you to pass on to your doc or call directly if you believe there's something to be gained in that.
Unfortunately, as you mention, the medication options are limited and at some point you're going to run out of things to try.
The main reason I'm not on Dextroamphetamine is that it registers on the quick saliva drug test that the Dutch police carries. It is amphetamine after all. When that happens, you'll get fined for driving under influence, and won't be allowed to drive for a few hours which is very annoying. The bigger problem is that if you're ever involved in an accident and the presence of amphetamines in your system was registered, you might even get a criminal record plus the insurance might decide not to pay out. Impractical to say the least...
Long acting or slow release Methylphenidate medication - such as the Medikinet I'm on, is only partially covered by Dutch health insurance. Legislators have decided that the short acting variants are identical and that anything else is essentially a luxury. They would quickly change their minds if you'd lock them in a room with me when I'm suffering from disastrous rebounds every hour on short acting Ritalin :)
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I got diagnosed as an adult and it was life changing for me, has been on them for 5 years. Here are some tips: 1. Never take stimulants to have fun, just take them to do tasks to progress your life. ADHD doesn't prevent you from having fun, and having fun with stimulants is what makes them addictive. 2. Take regular breaks from the medication. You wont get much done the first day or two after, so don't plan on doing…
> Take regular breaks from the medication As others have said, this is definitely something you must discuss with your personal brain care specialist first. What others have not suggested, and again this is something I have been able to arrange in conjunction with my shrink, is medication switching. Since each has slightly different benefits, I use a different medication on a workday than at the weekend or holiday/so…