HOW to stop taking adderall without WEIGHT GAIN??

I am now 21 and just recently got back on adderall I don't claim that this drug is miraculous it either helps you or hinders you I first started taking adderall when I was in the third grade all the way up until I was 19 then I stopped I gained 65 lbs do to impulsive eating I also i forgot all sorts of stuff all the time it really began to affect my life with work I was unorganised fat and scatter brained so I went. Ack on it I have dropped 25 lbs in 3 weeks because adderall makes me into a gym freak and I keep my diet perfectly calculated my room is no longer a mess and I don't procrastinate anymore the only thing I notice is that I don't joke around as much which is probably a good thing because I was doing that to a fault before like I said it helps me but then again I have ADHD

My skin went crazy when I got off adderall too...... I also gained about 15 pounds. and It sucks. However I'm so much better off and my boyfriend love my body now. my skin is back to normal as well

I'm glad i found this forum I just wanted to say i stop my adderall meds cold turkey.1. I notice my hands and feet would be so cold which is called (vascular constriction) its one of the side affects of meds. 2. I had dry mouth there is a high change of other bodily fluids are decreased i notice with me personally mouth dry,face and whole body skin ect, dry, hair and va jajay dry as well. I started to notice lines in my face aging lines .3. less sociable 4.felt like i was losing myself 5. This stuff will age you if you stay on it especially if you are 30 or older it does contain amphetamine. .... The side effects didn't happen all at once it took a little time for me to notice. My doctor told me the main thing to worry about was dry mouth because that happens to everyone which i notice right away as time went on i notice the other dry areas mention above. I decided to do research myself and do my own treatment plan. No im not a doctor but i read plenty of clinical studies and results and I had to find out what is exactly is wrong with me and how I can fix me without me losing me which is the worst thing a person can do in my opinion. I also wanted to say to people debating to stay on or stop adderall for weight loss purpose this not a medication for weight loss and should not be used as such if you are have add or adhd you must keep healthy diet and lifestyle more superior than others to be honest. If you owned something that was worth 6 million dollars wouldn't take care of it well according to science the human anatomy and body make up is worth 6 million dollars yes we are all rich. LOL The only recommendation the doctor has given me is another fda approved add/adhd medication with similar side effects. Anyways i just want to share what has help me. I don't sell or endorse any products these are i just the things i purchased with my money to help me. We must stick together and share things that are helpful and working for us to help one another. I change my diet i eat only organic. Cheap organic things to have quiona rice and black rice are great because they contain lots on minerals also make sure you do eat egg yolk it also has great nutritional benefits no more than 1 per day fyi. I also starting taking supplements nordic naturals dha extra Total omega 1160mg, epa 190mg ,& 900mg dha 80mg omega .......1st 2 weeks 2 pills per day ,3rd and 4th weeks 3 pills every other day and after a month everyday i take 3 pills. I use Vitamineral green powder daily , earth by healthforce daily, macco root powder, and ginkgo biloba daily. My energy is through the roof and i feel great Im on 10 all day sometimes i work out 2x a day and the best of all I got ME BACK and I LUV IT!!! My concentration level is not where it was with medication but way better than what it was before meds. I'm still on my journey and it feel good. I don't want any medication taking me away from me. Let help each other and beat this.

At first I wrote STOP the pills, then I thought about it and I am going to revise my suggestion especially since I do not know any of you personally and I am not a doctor. All I can do is warn anyone that these pills are highly addictive and VERY dangerous long term for one's heart and over all health. Especially if you think about your heart and body. For women too, def stop well before thinking of having a baby!!
i have been on ADD meds my whole life (since I was 6 years old) and I am 30 years old now.. If there is ever anyone who understands the battle with these pills, it is me! I will say that the pills DID help me a lot for getting through high school and college and then even my early 20's in a job. However, my "dependence" on these pills and my phsycological understanding that I "needed" these medications… "Medications" I'm talking Vyvanse, Adderall, concerta, dexadrine, ritalin, (any of the stimulants) became more of an addiction and I couldn't function without them. I stopped taking the pills because I was taking way too much, my script would run out, I was always so nervous about the last week of having to "do life" without the pills and it was easy to see that while this drug was helping me get more accomplished, control my eating, control my impulses, better employee, ect. , when I wasn't on it for even 2 days, it was HURTING me cuz I couldn't function.. I Stopped taking it and I am telling you- hardest most uncomfortable thing ever.. I want to tell you that it was easy and life it so much better now but I just stopped cold turkey 23 days ago so hasn't even been a month yet.. I tried for a few months to quit and I would go back after a few weeks when I couldn't handle the feeling. I tried weening off and I would just end up doubling up the script after a few weeks with that too.
I am eating a lot! I have gained about 8 lbs in 3 weeks and I work out and try to eat healthy but it's just that my body isn;t burning the fat from the insane speed feeling and I am feel like I want to eat all the time cuz I have suppressed my appetite my whole life with these pills. However, I have read a ton of stuff on these pills and apparently your body will balance out after a few months so I am hoping to drop the weight and the binge eating soon! My suggestion is to stop the pills (if you are through with school or something that is time sensitive and depends on a grade) Adderall is great for short term but if you are taking it to "get your laundry done, go to the bank, cook dinner for your family, organize closets, unload dishwasher, drive car pool or whatever basically if you are taking it to do mundane tasks because you are lazy and don't want to do them and to stop eating, I suggest you find another solution bc these pills will def help you with that but how long do you want to keep using them? How many more days are you gonna put an amphetamine in your system which affects your heart and over all health? That's what you gotta ask yourself and the longer you take it the harder it is to get off.. trust me I've been on this since a kid- my brain wasn't even fully developed and I am doing ok without them "ok, meaning it is not IDEAL but i am functioning and I am proud of myself that I can do life as a real human and not synthetically charged on speed… I mean it's hard and not fun but I am doing it.. so you can too!
I'm not gonna lie though, looking in the mirror or getting on a scale is hard b/c as I have said I am a 30 yr old female and yes my vanity is important to me. I have even thought "maybe I'll get back on them," then I realize that's crazy cuz I'll just be doing this dance with stimulants for the rest of my life and I do not want my happiness and life to be dependent on some pill. ANyway, I hope this helps and remember you CAN stop taking stimulants and have a good life you just have to ask yourself if you WILL do it. So next time you find yourself saying "I want to stop taking the pills but I just can't." Change that to I want to stop but I just won't stop. It is possible but not enjoyable! Have a great DAY everyone :)

unfortunately people say eat right and exercise as if there isn't something biologically abnormal going on. The weight gain after add meds seems to transcend the traditional understanding of metabolism. Something genuinely happens to your metabolism, I'm convinced of this, and since everyone is committed to the hypnotic generic message to "eat less and exercise more" mantra, no one is bothering to look into the possible pathology involved. To add insult to injury, no one believes you when you say you DO eat considerably less than you ever have in your life, and you're exercising like the dickens, ONLY TO KEEP GAINING WEIGHT. It's demoralizing and discouraging in itself.

Completely agree! I am going off Adderall because I discovered low fat raw veganism. Okay, my diet is only 2/3 to 3/4 raw, but its high fruit during the day (sugar=energy) with large salad and little bit of rice at night. I'm counting calories, yes, but fruit/veg tend to be low calorie per bite. I've gained so much health through this diet the year I've been on it, feel focused and energized with less adderall. Im excited to be completely off and done with withdrawals soon. The key is to eat LOW FAT so the sugars get digested properly. Its when you eat fat (with said sugars) you get fat. Its not sugar that makes you fat its how much fat you eat with sugar that makes you fat. Look up Fullyraw Kristina on youtube, and similar channels. DO calorie restrict say, 1600 calories per day...at least for now. Im supplementing with Indium drops, and L-Phenylanine. So far so good. I too, wanted advice how to deal with low metabolism/thyroid function and shot adrenals...but I guess my input is better than anything posted already. Will report back with updates. Hang in there! <3 Tania

I'm 25 and have been taking 70mg of concerta and later switched to vyvanse, since I was 13. Every year I would take a full work week off my meds so I knew I could function without them. This year, the day I started back on my meds, I ended up in tears after a miserable, stressful, jaw- clenching day, and decided I was done. I quit cold turkey the next day. Is work more difficult? Absolutely. Why? Because meds give you an unnatural ability to crunch numbers for eight hours a day, and now I have to function like a normal person, and learn new methods to concentrate. Am I gaining weight? Yes. But it's also the first time I've had the energy to workout, the motivation to cook (best add task, ever), the personality to date... I'm confident that I can teach myself to live with ( and love!) my add self, and that the habits I'm starting now will get me much farther in life than an amphetamine habit ever could. If you hate your meds... Be strong, know that it will take time, and start making the changes you want to see in your life.

I have Been quit for a month now . If you GENTLY exercise and eat well you'll feel wonderfull.

I really enjoyed reading all of these posts. I have been on adderal for the past 6 months now, and I have a love hate relationship with it. I absolutely love that I can concentrate and actually comprehend stuff! I have never been able to really do that my whole life because my family was always against me being on the medication. My teachers told my mom from the time I was 5 that I needed it. I was always the social butterfly because I never understood my assignments. That being said I did horrible in school. It has also helped with my anxiety in some aspects. I still have issues with it but it is not nealry as bad as it was before I started taking it. My hair has been falling out so bad since I started taking it :( Like to the point where I hate wearing my hair down because it just goes everywhere. I color my hair a lot and it used to take my hair stylist 2 bottles to fully saturate my head and now it takes a little over half of one bottle!

So what are you recommending? Take the med or else you'll blow up and there will be NOTHING you can do about it?

I took adderall from October 2010 to January 2013. I went from 185 lbs to about 140 at my lowest and then slowly back up to 160. I quit cold turkey and didn't gain any weight. I didn't think too much about it at the time; but I also switched to a vegan diet in February 2013....I kept the weight off for all of 2013 and in 2014 I had actually lost weight from veganism and was down to about 145 which was healthy for my size (I am about 5'8 male) I slowly started eating dairy in June of that year (I gained about 5 lbs) fish in June (saw another 5 lb gain) and meat in November of 2014. By June 2015 I was back up to 185. I started taking adderall again for grad school in October 2015 and I decided to go Vegetarian and I am down to 168. I am not trying to preach the vegan or vegetarian diet; but this is just what I observed. Meat/Cheese are high in calorie content. When I was a vegan I mainly ate rice,beans, and vegetables, in fact i ate more than I do now....Just my personal experience, I wish I never broke my veganism but it was only in retrospect that I have a slower metabolism and my body is clearly sensitive to meat/dairy. I plan to go on a little adderall break for a few weeks after finals and I am going to go back to veganism and see what happens.

Hope this helps. Nothing worse than when I was skinner and looked better on adderall and people go "you look so good, you were kinda chubby before" only to go back to that chubbier weight :-/

I definitely relate to the last post. I am 34, for the last 12 years I've been on adderall xr 30mg in the a.m. + 20 mg adderall at noon + 10 mg adderall at 4pm. Plus I'm taking a low dose of welbutrin in the a.m. I also feel like a drone more than a human being sometimes, experience anxiety in speaking situations, and I am actually literally afraid to quit taking addreall. That said, having a family w/ my husband is imminent and I need to wean myself off these drugs before getting pregnant. The last post was very encouraging. I want to quit and feel more clear headed and more human in a week. I am also afraid of the weight gain but I will work out 5 days a week too, if it helps gets me through the typical weight gain and the massive energy level/focus slump i expect to feel while I'm going thru withdrawal. Thank you to the last poster. What you explained was exactly what I needed to hear to help me take at least a long hiatus from Adderall so I can have a family. Maybe vigarous exercise during the withdrawal is one of the keys to feeling good after quitting.

I have reached the halfway point of weaning myself off of my medication. This took about a year to accomplish. I didn't want it to interfere with my career so I am taking it slow. Ever since I started this incremental decrease I have experienced irritability, mood swings, increased hunger, weight gain, anxiety, trouble sleeping, lack of drive, loss of focus, brain fog and depression. I tried my best to compose myself at work and crashed as soon as I got home. I was miserable and I was angry.

I had been told by a few people about a product line called Plexus. I was a little reserved about it but once I researched the product and found that the ingredients were not harmful and were all natural I decided to give it a try. I just wanted to feel alive again.

A week later I received my products in the mail. I followed the directions and Oh My Gosh, they worked! By the second day, I felt amazing! The brain fog was gone! My depression was gone! My anxiety and mood swings were gone! I feel more alive today than I have felt in over a year.

I am currently taking the TriPlex combo which is the most popular (Plexus Slim packet in the morning, BioCleanse capsules during the day, and my probiotic at bedtime). These products work together to regulate blood sugar levels and maintain a healthy gut which in turn maximizes quality of life. The slim was crucial in helping me control the overeating and cravings. If you would like to know more about these products I would be happy to share with you. They have helped me so much. I now have hope and I no longer dread what life will be like without Adderall!

*curbs your appetite, not "curves your appetite..."

Adderall is one of the most addicting drugs you can put your hands on and if you're seriously saying that you are so ignorant that is unbelievable. It says it when you actually get your prescription of Adderall that it is addictive. I can't believe that you would actually put your device on the Internet because you just need to shut your mouth. I'm actually trying to get off of it as well and have been on it for 15 years and so the things that you're saying are absolutely false.