Any adults on Adderall XR out there?

If you are a woman that weighed 175lbs and are now down to 155lbs, that's a good thing.... unless you're over 6' tall. Were you not warned of the side effects when you were prescribed this medicine? That's what is concerning to me. Weight loss and loss of appetite (aka anorexia-- NO, not anorexia nervosa, just "anorexia" (look it up)) are the most basic side-effects of the medication.



Adderall is a controlled substance for a reason and that reason is partially because many people abuse it as a means of losing weight. The other reason is because it when taken by someone without ADHD, the drug has a ridiculous stimulant effect, similar to cocaine (I think, I don't know street drugs very well). In college, I had to hide the fact that I had a prescription for Adderall because people that found out kept was trying to buy it from me! Once, when my mom tried to mail me my refill, I received the envelope with a slit in it that had been taped up. Someone in the post office had actually sliced open my package and taken the pills out! My mom had to bury it in a box afterward so no one would suspect she was mailing me my medicine!

I am currently taking 40 mg which is not quite working but 60 mg is too high (found that out real quick), so I am going to be put on 50mg to try in about a week. As for the eating, it helps if you have structured eating times and or routines. My family is BIG about sitting at the table to eat meals. So I eat breakfast and dinner at home with the family. At work I eat with other teachers in the lounge so it forces me to sit and eat even if I don't feel like I am hungry. I do eat smaller portion sizes now and I don't snack constantly because I am bored or forgot that I just ate 10 minutes ago... I notice that on days when I break my routine and promise that I will eat when on the go, it doesn't happen. So structure I think is the key.

Hello I've just started using adderral xr, first at 10mg then 20 and now 2 months later I'm taking 40, 2 in the morning and 2 in late morning. I find it helps, but I feel I could do better, is anyone taking more then 40 mg? And the only side effect I was hoping for was weight loss and no such luck

In response to your post... I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and severe PTSD. I was on risperdal injections and a ton of ther antipsychotic medications. I was told that I woolen never function in society. I never finished college classes because I couple bear to sit there. I was a creative and amazing speaker, but I couldnt organize my thoughts well enough to do this on a regular basis. I changed my diet and became vegan, I started meditating, and got off all antipsychotics.I improved greatly, but still could not organize my thoughts. My doctor put me on Adderall XR, and I went back to school and am now a university student with a 3.9 GPA. When people have deficiencies in minerals or chemical imbalances it's not "cheating" to give your body what it needs to function normally. Studies show that people who have schizophrenia and ADHD also have high levels of intelligence. The problem is the inability to organize. Adderall isn't making you creative or intelligent... Rather it's giving you the ability to materialize your pre-existing gifts into a functional capacity.

I am 21 and I have been on adderall since I was 8. In the beginning I lost weight and my appetite. After a few years my weight leveled out and I started gaining weight. Because of depression and things now I'm about 20 pounds over weight. My doctor wants me to lower my dose of medicine to see if I can come off of it. 50% of people once they are grown no longer need the medicine and 50% still do. She said that she really thinks that I am in the 50% that still needs it. One reason is because when I am on it there is such a profound difference in many things that I have problems with stuttering, dyslexia, mood swings, concentrating, and many more things. Hell even my driving is different or so best friend and my mother tells me. But despite all of that she thinks that it is a good idea for me to at least give it a try to see if I can get off of it or even just a lower my dose. I’ve been on 50mg instead of 60mg for a little over 2 weeks and it’s not going good. My hands have started shacking, which I know that because the higher amount of medicine is worked out of my body and now my body is just adjusting to the change. I’ve started stuttering more and the mood swings are worse. My best friend told me yesterday that she can see a lot of differences, the way I form my sentences and some of my mannerisms are different. In her words not mine “and they aren’t different in a good way.” I have always had a very very hard time reading even on my medicine because I am dyslexic. For some reason after I got out of high school i picked up a book and I have been reading like crazy ever since. I takes me a LOT longer than most to read a book but I haven't been able to stop reading book after book. Now since she has lowered my dose it has been total hell to finish a page and have any idea what I’ve read. But hey I am giving it a month what can it hurt.
Right now one of the things that is driving me crazy is my biological clock and now I haven't even found my prince charming yet but my clock is still ticking away. I'm going crazy just with my dose lowered by 10mg. And I know when I get pregnant and while I'm breast feeding I can't take adderall. Number one they haven't even tested on humans to know what it will do, number two I don't want to take any chances but I don't know if I can take being off my meds for the 9 months of pregnancy then however long I breast feed. Does anyone know of an addhd or add medicine that has been tested and is safe to take while pregnant and breast feeding? Please I really need help here... :-)

I'm a college student who has taken her sweet time getting back to it.  I have always had concentration issues and a good friend told me that she took Adderall when she was in college and recommended I find a doc to prescribe it to me to see if it could help me.  Well it was amazing.  I wish I'd learned about these things earlier.  I got all the positive things about it, including the weight loss, but I didn't realize how much weight I had actuallly lost.  Once people began to comment on how good I looked and weight I'd lost, etc, I weighed myself and was happily surprised to see I was back to my high school weight (let me just say that I am only 28 now and was 26 when I started taking it).  After some thinking, however, it began to scare me a little as well, so I completely understand.  Being a health sciences major I understood the damage I was doing to my body.  I don't know if maybe you're the same as I was, but I realized that it was just easy for me to forget to eat.  I could concentrate on homework, cleaning, and other things so well that when I realized I was hungry, I would simply dismiss it and tell myself I would eat after I was finished xyz...except I never finished finding tasks to do.  Short story long, I just have to make myself eat when I realize that I'm hungry.  I appreciate my suppressed appetite, but if I actually remind myself that I need to eat right then and there, I will not only get the nutrients in me, but thanks to Adderall XR (25mg) I won't eat as much and so my healthy weight is maintained.  I wish I could stay on it forever but I know that's not healthy.  I graduate in just over one semester and I already miss it, lol.

Hope that helps!

I have been diagnosed as schizoaffective disorder and adhd. my psychologist and psychiatirst both agree on that. anyways beyond labels:

I have been truly suffering from poor attention, agitation, depression, anxiety, and voices most my life. I am 24 now and just now getting it together. I take 10mg/day on Adderall XR with effexor xr, abilify, and lamictal. Sounds like alot but half of what my old psychiatrist did. literally half! This combination helps balance my moods lift my depressed moods and stops the auditory halucinations. :)

My question is this: What would be best for me (in regards to adderall xr) 20mg/day morn and afternoon? That is what I think but I want to give the 10mg/day a good run. However, i am starting school again in the fall, (all over again ugh) because my gpa sucked before when i was... not well.

anyways any help muchly appreicatedly.

You just need to remember and eat! EAT! Having healthy gym routine also helps! A great side effect of adderal is you can get absolutely cut up and ripped. Remember to get your yearly physical and EKG. Good luck.

im gonna start taking it im nrevous

 

aderall makes me feel good but bad too in an odd way.  I do want to take it very badly. 

I very very very much agree with you about Strattera. I started out on Adderall Xr 20mg and I would actually go days without eating, and not intentionally, I just wouldn't remember to eat because I always forgot. Now with Strattera I eat like a normal person would, and I actually maintain my weight. I don't overeat like I did before adderall, and I don't undereat like I did with adderall. It's very balanced.

Me too... I'm nervous. Do you have any updates on your progress?

Please please see a psych doctor. I know EXACTLY how you are feeling. You're a victim to your own brain and that's no way to live. A Psychologist along with your doctor can prescribe a series of medications that will sort out the way your brain works. A chemical imbalance paired with self medicating can lead to more serious problems. I have ADD, anxiety , depression and several other psych problems but just 2 drugs helped everything. Adderall and wellbutrin. Adderall made me focus and get my sh*t done so I was a lot less depressed. It also helped me lose weight so I felt better about my appearance. Because I could focus, I went back to school and feel professional which also brings up your self esteem. Wellbutrin is an enxiety med but it isn't harsh. I suggest talking to your doctor. Xanax is terrible. Valium and klonopins are bad too. These meds mixed are just going to hurt you. Seriously, speak with ur doctor and if u have a drug happy doctor then get a second opinion. Good luck and best wishes.

I'm 57 and have been taking Adderall (XR or a generic) for adult ADD for the last 12 years.  I was taking a generic 30mg tab split (half upon waking and the other half at lunch).  During the recent generic shortage, the 30mg generic was not available, so my doctor switched my to 30mg XR. I had taken XR in the past and now was reminded why I switched back to non-XR, it was taking to long to be sufficiently out of my system to left me really get a good night sleep. I believe that many extended release formulations are targeted for a specific age group, in this case adolescent to young adults who have a much higher digestive acidity then those of us in the AARP demographic.  I had my Dr. switch me back to the generic, but 30mg was not availble, but 10mg were.  I now take 2x 10mg when I wake and another 10mg at lunch,  which seems to work for me.  It also allow me some ability to skip the lunch time tablet, or just take a 10mg in the morning and a second 10mg in the afternoon  if I want to sleep late.  

Talk to your Dr. about options.  

The last few sentences from "I used to be an early person,,,,,,,to "I cannot focus" and "constantly have to go back and re-check" and "I am in pain 24/7 for 25 years", sounds like the condition I came down with in 1992. I eventually went on disability in 1994, when a doctor finally diagnosed me with chronic fatigue & fibromyalgia. I feel like you do, taking up space, and have episodes of depression where I just want to stay in my safe place, my bedroom! I've been battling this ever since and life doesn't get any better, I just have to ride out the bad times. I started taking Adderall XR (generic) almost a year ago, and I use it off and on when I need to focus my mind and get things done, but when my body tells me it's not going to do anymore because it is too tired (actually the word "fatigued" is more appropriate) I don't take the Adderall, I rest. Just saying, life as it used to be before 1992, is no more.:(