Health - Does SWIM have ADD?

[napoleon in rags]

For most of swim's adult life, he has suspected that he has ADD. This speculation stems from his childhood, as swim exhibited all of the "typical" ADD symptoms. Now, as an adult, the symptoms still plague swim's every day life. He was recently given a prescription for 20mg of Adderall XR daily, and the initial results were astonishing. For the first week of treatment, the "fog" was gone, he had lost all of my fidgety ADD tendencies and instead sat in his (college) classes perfectly still, mind working slowly but more effectively. He was a bit more talkative than normal, but abstract things (like his philosophy class) made more sense all of the sudden. It was like his internal "motor" had been switched from his gut to his head. He finally had control. It was very enlightening for him. However, after the second week of treatment, the positive effects wore off, and were replaced by an overall feeling of confusion, restlessness, and agitation. He just started to feel "not right". SWIM continued treatment for another week, hoping that these were temporary side effects. Instead, they continued and he cut off treatment immediately. Could it be possible that he doesn't have ADD? If his dosage were increased, would it "level off" at a point where his symptoms disappear for good, or would it just drop to the point of agitation again?


SWIM has abused stimulants once or twice in the past, but doesn't have any plan to abuse his Adderall. He wants something that will genuinely help him function at school and in society. Based on what swim explained above, would you recommend swim's doctor upping his dosage, or just dropping it all together?


swim would love the input of some people who have tried taking adderall daily; both people with ADD and people without.


Thanks.

[hamsterdam]

the change in effects could very well be a buildup of tolerance to the drug. I'm not a doctor, so I can't tell you what the change in results means, but it's likely due to tolerance.

If you're 100% legit here, you should tell your doc exactly what doesn't "feel right", and you shouldn't suddenly stop taking it w/o talking to your doc about it.

[napoleon in rags]

Originally Posted by hamsterdam

the change in effects could very well be a buildup of tolerance to the drug. I'm not a doctor, so I can't tell you what the change in results means, but it's likely due to tolerance.

If you're 100% legit here, you should tell your doc exactly what doesn't "feel right", and you shouldn't suddenly stop taking it w/o talking to your doc about it.

Regarding stopping treatment, I would generally agree with you. I just felt way too shitty to keep taking them, though.

[hamsterdam]

oh well, I don't think speed has WDs that bad after you crash, so it's not as big of a deal as suddenly cutting off painkillers.

You should still talk to your doc about it though as soon as possible