3 ms·

I can't speak for your source, but as somehow that was on adderall through much of my middle and high school life I can speak from experience. Amphetamines do a

I can't speak for your source, but as somehow that was on adderall through much of my middle and high school life I can speak from experience. Amphetamines do a great job in the short term, but most people do find that after a couple of years the benefits recede and the side effects kick up in intensity. I finally had to go off adderall while I was in college because I got to a point where I was only sleeping a couple of hours a night and I was having mood swings that resembled manic depression. It sucks because I'm certainly not as productive as I was back then, but I'm generally a much happier person all the same.

Mz 16y ago
I have two ASD kids and a serious medical condition. I took a lot of medication for a few years and ultimately concluded that the drug side effects were more impairing than my illness. I've worked extremely hard to get off the drugs. I resisted suggestions to put my oldest on Ritalin (by a teacher, who apparently just didn't want to deal with my highly energetic, inquisitive kid and wasn't qualified to diagnose anything). Stuff I have seen suggests that nutritional supplements generally work better and without the drug side effects. Having gotten off of a bunch of medication, I have found that my need for nutritional supplements has gone down. It is well documented that some drugs cause deficiencies of specific nutrients. I sort of suspect that part of the way these drugs get the initial positive impact is by squeezing the body for use of these nutrients, thereby giving a short-term boost but, in the long term, using them up and resulting in worse problems. If that suspicion is at all accurate, finding the right nutritional supplements should be generally more effective -- and, in fact, for me and my sons, that has proven to be true. (Deeper still is finding the roots of such issues and addressing those, but probably not really within the scope of this discussion. :-))

Mz 16y ago

I have two ASD kids and a serious medical condition. I took a lot of medication for a few years and ultimately concluded that the drug side effects were more impairing than my illness. I've worked extremely hard to get off the drugs. I resisted suggestions to put my oldest on Ritalin (by a teacher, who apparently just didn't want to deal with my highly energetic, inquisitive kid and wasn't qualified to diagnose anything). Stuff I have seen suggests that nutritional supplements generally work better and without the drug side effects. Having gotten off of a bunch of medication, I have found that my need for nutritional supplements has gone down. It is well documented that some drugs cause deficiencies of specific nutrients. I sort of suspect that part of the way these drugs get the initial positive impact is by squeezing the body for use of these nutrients, thereby giving a short-term boost but, in the long term, using them up and resulting in worse problems. If that suspicion is at all accurate, finding the right nutritional supplements should be generally more effective -- and, in fact, for me and my sons, that has proven to be true. (Deeper still is finding the roots of such issues and addressing those, but probably not really within the scope of this discussion. :-))