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It took me 6 months to get back to a decent baseline after quitting Adderall cold turkey but I am really glad I did. I hate being dependent on a drug with limit

It took me 6 months to get back to a decent baseline after quitting Adderall cold turkey but I am really glad I did. I hate being dependent on a drug with limited access for survival. In all honesty it is truly no different than being an alcoholic or a crack addict. Virtually every interaction you ever have with a psychiatrist or pharmacist surrounding these meds is fraught with bullshit. It is easier, less stressful and arguably more dignified buy illegal drugs on the black market. Covid was a sobering event for me and it made me realize just how fragile our global economy / supply chain are. I want to be able to exist and survive even in a total collapse (which, tinfoil hat be damned is becoming a more and more realistic possibility). Step 1 was giving up the amphetamine salts.

soderfoo 4y ago
I have been plagued by issue after issue with getting my prescription filled correctly (dosage, timing, and shortages). I would prefer to come off of it completely, but my doctor has even managed to make that difficult. Any tips for just going cold turkey? I can't wait any longer for my psychiatrist to prescribe an alternative.
- TechBro8615 4y ago
  Not cold turkey, but if you can, taper off it. Then just be prepared to deal with groggy, slow, angry mood for three weeks.
  - chasd00 4y ago
    If you’re talking about adhd drugs like adderall then how do you deal with untreated adhd? It’s absolutely exhausting to me and maddening to everyone around me when I have to go without for whatever reason.
    - TechBro8615 4y ago
      I don't, that's why I keep taking them... but I've had periods of time where I lived abroad or didn't have easy access to the medication, so I had to taper off it. It definitely sucks, and especially after you stop using it, you'll feel especially slow and groggy. You'll also gain a lot of weight. But after a few months you'll feel pretty "normal," at the cost of having all your ADHD symptoms return.
    - rolenthedeep 4y ago
      There is no good answer. Adderall is a miracle drug for people like us. To get by without, you have two options: incredible discipline and force of will, and overcompensating with other stimulants. Meditate, exercise, do anything it takes to force yourself into whatever structure fits your life. I'm talking to-do lists for your to-do lists and scheduling your daily time down to brushing your teeth. You have to force structure onto your life to contain your attention and energy. You have to make some truly profound changes in your life. Or drink way too much caffeine, smoke too many cigarettes and try very hard to not think about the damage you're doing. The only shortcut I know of is to get enough black market adderall for a couple of months and use that to keep yourself functional long enough to build the systems and habits that can keep you going without. See the Getting Things Done method, pomodoro, and find a good task management system. Write everything down, find a system for keeping notes. Also try keeping a diary. Also try to reduce your phone and computer usage. If your phone supports it, use monochrome mode. Push yourself to read more books instead of watching videos or playing games.
      - LoganDark 4y ago
        > Meditate, exercise, do anything it takes to force yourself into whatever structure fits your life. I'm talking to-do lists for your to-do lists and scheduling your daily time down to brushing your teeth. You have to force structure onto your life to contain your attention and energy. You have to make some truly profound changes in your life. This doesn't help when I try to get out of bed in the morning and my body does not move. Does not move. I can't do it. Happens with basically everything.
        rolenthedeep 3y ago
        I understand, and I empathize. I'm not going to tell you that happy thoughts and a motivational poster will fix you. I will say that once you get past the stage you're in and have the ability to make those big life changes, this part will happen less often and you'll find it easier to break through. When you're generally healthy, it's easier to recover when you're sick. Applies just the same to mental illness as it does to an infection. Unfortunately, you're in the hardest part. Or at least it feels that way in the moment. I don't have any good advice other than to seek help and do whatever gets you to the next day. Try your best to make small improvements when you can. It is okay to not make progress every day, but you also have to not let that be an excuse. You really have to push yourself. It might be the hardest thing you'll ever do, but you aren't the first to have done it. Sorry all I have is the same pithy nonsense you get on Facebook. At the core, it's good advice, but you have to know the limits. There are some battles you can't fight. Sometimes you are in a truly impossible situation. No internet comment can help you with that, but you can find help if you can bring yourself to ask for it. Good luck
  - soderfoo 4y ago
    Ughh... It's all too familiar unfortunately. I've gone without my meds for a week or two on occasion over the past year. I was hoping for "this one weird trick" life hack silver bullet to save the day. My wife and I are expecting our first child later this year. It's becoming apparent the only way to minimize my reliance on a capricious and inconstant system is to pull off the bandaid now and chart my path out of these woods.
  - LoganDark 4y ago
    Just curious, is there a risk associated to stopping cold turkey? Every time I stop stimulants cold turkey I just sleep for 15 hours or so and then I'm fine. Maybe there are side effects I just don't get.
- whalesalad 4y ago
  Only tip is that it will be hard and you must persevere. No one in this life is coming to save you - you must do it yourself.
- tstrimple 4y ago
  I went cold turkey after a couple years of consist medication because I missed an appointment due to being sick and wasn’t able to get it rescheduled until I was unmedicated again. By that point I was back in the rut of useless executive function. Surprisingly I had zero issues just stopping taking it. Obviously the executive dysfunction came back quickly but I had zero withdrawal symptoms dropping 30mg XR. Maybe I was just lucky.
smittywerben 4y ago
> It is easier, less stressful and arguably more dignified buy illegal drugs on the black market. LOL I can only dream of ordering my meds to my door from a site that looks like Amazon.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- LoganDark 4y ago
  Actually, the drug markets look more like eBay. But yes, that's literally how it goes. I've ordered LSD before and it's basically just crypto eBay.
- whalesalad 4y ago
  RIP Silk Road :(
  - swores 4y ago
    Many, many alternatives have existed, and still do, since Silk Road.
01100011 4y ago
What about non-stimulant drugs? Are they as difficult to get? I'm bipolar, so stimulant drugs are not a great idea for me, but I'd still like to get some help. My experience has shown it's not something I can meditate/diet/exercise my way out of.
- bsagdiyev 4y ago
  Straterra is an option but I believe works like an anti-depressant. My experience wasn't great with it, but who knows? If it works for you that's great!
  - LoganDark 4y ago
    Be careful with SSRIs, they can be neurotoxic over the long term (as in 2+ years). I can't find a good paper from a quick Google search, but if you use SSRIs for long enough they can start to damage serotonin receptors, and you might develop a permanent tolerance to serotonin. Somewhat similar to meth's neurotoxicity to dopamine receptors.
    - 01100011 4y ago
      It's an SNRI(norepinephrine) not an SSRI.
      - LoganDark 4y ago
        Oh, whoops. I probably skimmed the page too fast or something. Not aware of anything bad with norepinephrine, although my specific case of ADHD gets much worse with SNRIs or levoamphetamine so obviously YMMV.
      - Llamamoe 4y ago
        SNRIs are even worse. I've by random chance met two people who got permanent movement disorders from Venlafaxine, and one who developed seizures. My own experience was extremely abysmal too. All of the side effects of stimulants ramped up to 11 with none of the benefits.
brigadier132 4y ago
Im 7 months in to taking vyvanse and my life couldnt be better
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Baeocystin 4y ago
  Are you coming across any habituation issues? I've been taking ritalin for a while (and it has made a huge difference in my life) but it does concern me that my dosage has been slowly increasing.
  - LoganDark 4y ago
    I take dexedrine (which is basically just what vyvanse turns into once you take it), and I have some tolerance after just 3 months. Which is incredibly unfortunate, because my prescription started at 30mg/day because my body is just resistant to stimulants for some reason. Going any higher causes a hypertensive crisis, but tolerance is evil. Why does homeostasis want me to have ADHD again? Wish someone could find the genetic crap that controls this and fix it.
    - Baeocystin 4y ago
      Bummer. Thanks for letting me know, though.
      - LoganDark 4y ago
        I've started taking it only once every few days. The 15-hour sleep I get after it wears off is always pretty nice.
        galangalalgol 4y ago
        My doc told me that the stimulant amd appetite suppressant properties would attenuate quickly, and they did, but that the effect on dopamine and epinephrine reuptake don't show the same down regulation over time. It seems like ahe was righ, a year and a half later I can't tell I'm on the atuff except I can start tasks I find boring. And remember meetings.
version_five 4y ago
> It is easier, less stressful and arguably more dignified buy illegal drugs on the black market. I'd say that's a pretty clear sign they "fragile" supply chains is not the root cause. Somehow you can easily buy something that's had to be smuggled into the country in who knows what way, but not a legally manufactured product.
- AndrewKemendo 4y ago
  Any analysis of a Supply chain includes political and logistical constraints, of which regulations and corporate operating procedures are included.
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    It is important to note that we're choosing to have drug shortages. There are no physical constraints.
    - AndrewKemendo 4y ago
      No doubt. Like every product, production targets are based on profit for capital chasing margins, nothing else matters.
- jjeaff 4y ago
  Smuggled drugs don't have to go through the byzantine bureaucracy of the DEA and myriad of other organizations. But that also means they don't have to go through any of those controls that actually ensure quality. As poorly as some of those controls seem to function, they are better than nothing.
  - gaadd33 4y ago
    What part of the DEA ensures drug quality? I thought that was in the realm of the FDA?
  - version_five 4y ago
    I still think it's ironic that it's easier to get illegal drugs past an apparatus designed to stop block them, than to deliver legal drugs - that effectively the FDA is better at stopping drug trade than the DEA.
Fr0styMatt88 4y ago
Your dependency isn’t the problem if you have ADHD and the medication helps you. The actual problem is all the bullshit around getting the drug and the bullshit stigma around it. The fact the system treats you like a ‘crack addict’ is the problem. Could you imagine how absurd it would be if say, type 1 diabetics got treated like addicts because they depended on insulin? The system around ADHD drugs is just fucked and needs to change.
- LoganDark 4y ago
  The problem is that ADHD medications actually work. They work so well that they are abused by people who don't actually have ADHD. Resulting in more restrictions, even for people who do have ADHD and actually need the drug. Insulin can't be abused in this way, which probably explains why you can just go and buy it at walmart.
  - ClumsyPilot 4y ago
    Insulin can be used to murder someone, and if the body is not discovered quickly, without leaving a trace
    - LoganDark 4y ago
      A lot of things can be used to murder someone. People are encouraged not to do that, though.
  - rottencupcakes 4y ago
    What would be the worst thing that happened to society if we just manufactured adderall and sold it OTC? Maybe some elevated cardiovascular problems across society as a whole? Maybe some psychosis in serious chronic abusers? Why don't we just do this?
    - Spooky23 4y ago
      It was widely available from ~1930 until 1970. JFK was regularly using meth. It created a lot of problems.
dumpsterlid 4y ago
> In all honesty it is truly no different than being an alcoholic or a crack addict. This is an awful thing to casually throw out there in the faces of people who rely on ADHD medication to manage their ADHD.
- whalesalad 4y ago
  No it’s not. It’s the truth. If you can’t exist without a substance that is being controlled by an elaborate chain of pharmaceutical companies, federal drug enforcement regulations and highly expensive doctors that is being up shit creek without a paddle. What would you do if something like WWIII started and all non-vital drug manufacturing stopped? Or any conceivable scenario where suddenly these meds are not available. Everything is more fragile than you realize. Look at baby formula or other products that are produced by literally one single supplier. The system works until it doesn’t. So let’s pretend adhd meds cease to exist. What will you do? Give up on life and cry about it? You need to be prepared for any circumstance. Don’t get me wrong I’m struggling and I miss it constantly but I’ve also had to reset my mindset and expectations. People tend to adopt adhd as an identity but it’s not something that should be done. We all struggle to varying degrees with executive dysfunction and it’s silly to hide behind this crutch. Outside this high paced world people with adhd are just fine. But in this environment they are “disabled”
  - LoganDark 4y ago
    Holy shit that was brutal, more brutal than it had any right to be. No, it's not fair to equate people treating their ADHD to crack addicts. Because treating ADHD and being addicted to crack are two different things. People treating their ADHD have an actual physical deficiency in their brain that takes away capacity to function, and this is a disability, no matter what term you do or do not use for it in "this high paced world". Usage of ADHD medication to address that deficiency is not at all the same as crack addiction. Because crack addiction is not addressing a deficiency, it's trying to add recreational pleasure to a perfectly normal and functional brain. ADHD medication is trying to avoid the executive dysfunction that ADHD causes. Which no, is not something that "we all struggle to varying degrees" with; ADHD is worse. For example my body literally will not move if I try to do something that I don't want to do. Even if it's something that I need to do, or something that will have dire consequences if I don't. I won't be able to move, even if I try. The signals just do not reach the rest of my brain. People with ADHD cannot just suck it up. They can't. You are being incredibly disrespectful and undermining a legitimate disability by acting like being dependent on ADHD medication is anything like being addicted to crack. If you can suck it up and live without it, fine, good for you. If you can just change your lifestyle to work around your ADHD, fine. But not everybody can do this. And it's not their fault if they can't. It's not their fault that they were born with a brain that is not working as it should. And it's not their fault for wanting to fix it. People who treat their ADHD don't want euphoria or pleasure or a fun time. They just want to live their fucking life without suffering from boredom and executive dysfunction and all the involuntary coping mechanisms that ADHD promotes. Keep your incredibly insulting views to yourself. Comments like this help no one.
SeanAnderson 4y ago
I quit taking non-prescrip Adderall at the start of the year after having taken it for ~7 months and am so happy I did! I'm friendlier, my thought process is more clear and less scattered, I don't surprise people with chatty behavior some of the day and then ghost them other times of the day, and I'm more aware of my overall health and energy levels. If I stop running, lifting weights, eating a really clean diet, sleeping restfully, or start smoking/drinking - I feel it now and there's no hiding from it. While on Adderall, all of my bad health habits were just a slight adjustment to a dosage away from being a non-issue for another month, but the downward health spiral from ignoring all the extra care I could be doing for myself really started adding up. Looking back at that time, I really thought I was being hyper productive while on it, but I think it was more like I was spinning my wheels really fast, not going very far, and feeling unreasonably good about the progress I was making because all my brain's reward centers were constantly firing. I could do an endless amount of simple work, and actively sought out that type of work, but the real deep critical thinking stuff I started to balk at and look for ways to justify avoiding - usually by doing double or triple the amount of simple stuff. It's odd that it made me feel so dang confident in my abilities. No hate to those who have ADHD and take it, but, for me who was taking it illicitly at low dosages (1mg-5mg), all the negative side-effects drastically outweighed the benefits and I only really saw that once I found it inside me to stop. Definitely sucks having to re-train my willpower though. It was just so damn easy to delegate all of that to the drug. It took a few months before I felt I could really convince my brain to work hard on its own, but now I'm back! Good luck and best wishes to all those out there that see a bit of themselves in this post :)
- akiselev 4y ago
  One of the worst parts of the experience is no one can quite put a finger on what's changed. With Ritalin and several other psychiatric drug, people can tell when someone is turning into a zombie and their feedback can help auto correct. With adderall, that doesn't really happen until one is downright manic.
  - SeanAnderson 4y ago
    Yup! At the start everyone just thought I was slaying the game, then everyone just thought I was really busy, then everyone just thought I was getting stressed out from how busy I was, and only after all of that did people start casually bringing up the word Adderall in conversations and let me come to my own realizations that my behavioral changes were more apparent than I'd realized. Nice to have friends willing to take that step, though.
heavyset_go 4y ago
> In all honesty it is truly no different than being an alcoholic or a crack addict. It's different because you aren't going to end up incarcerated and made a felon with drug convictions on your record for taking your medicine. Your dose is theoretically metered so that you can't exactly abuse it to the point where you're shooting it or taking absurd psychosis triggering doses. Theoretically, your doctor will prevent you from taking higher doses just to get high as your tolerance to it builds up over time. It has the potential to be a much less life ruining/ending situation.
- Paul-Craft 4y ago
  Exactly. My dosage is 25mg of Adderall XR per day. Not only can you not shoot up with it, the fact that it's extended release really puts a damper on how high you can get on it. I honestly doubt an addict would get much out of taking my entire month's prescription all at once. If it was the instant release pills instead of extended release capsules, then, maybe they could get a couple good highs out of it. But the point is that you're right: I'm not prescribed enough to even get addicted, much less sustain an addiction.
  - pcthrowaway 3y ago
    If someone took your entire month's prescription at once, they'd likely overdose (though you said addict, and it's likely they'd have a much higher tolerance) IIRC you can crush up the adderall XR and insufflate it, so I imagine you could shoot it as well
    - heavyset_go 3y ago
      > IIRC you can crush up the adderall XR and insufflate it, so I imagine you could shoot it as well You can shoot anything, but unless you're really careful and spend the time with "proper" technique, filters, etc, shooting pill binders is the fast lane to serious heart damage. If you're at the point where you're considering shooting pills, you are also probably making other desperate decisions that don't involve proper technique, filters, etc. The real proper technique is never injecting pills in the first place.

soderfoo 4y ago

I have been plagued by issue after issue with getting my prescription filled correctly (dosage, timing, and shortages). I would prefer to come off of it completely, but my doctor has even managed to make that difficult. Any tips for just going cold turkey? I can't wait any longer for my psychiatrist to prescribe an alternative.

TechBro8615 4y ago
Not cold turkey, but if you can, taper off it. Then just be prepared to deal with groggy, slow, angry mood for three weeks.
- chasd00 4y ago
  If you’re talking about adhd drugs like adderall then how do you deal with untreated adhd? It’s absolutely exhausting to me and maddening to everyone around me when I have to go without for whatever reason.
  - TechBro8615 4y ago
    I don't, that's why I keep taking them... but I've had periods of time where I lived abroad or didn't have easy access to the medication, so I had to taper off it. It definitely sucks, and especially after you stop using it, you'll feel especially slow and groggy. You'll also gain a lot of weight. But after a few months you'll feel pretty "normal," at the cost of having all your ADHD symptoms return.
  - rolenthedeep 4y ago
    There is no good answer. Adderall is a miracle drug for people like us. To get by without, you have two options: incredible discipline and force of will, and overcompensating with other stimulants. Meditate, exercise, do anything it takes to force yourself into whatever structure fits your life. I'm talking to-do lists for your to-do lists and scheduling your daily time down to brushing your teeth. You have to force structure onto your life to contain your attention and energy. You have to make some truly profound changes in your life. Or drink way too much caffeine, smoke too many cigarettes and try very hard to not think about the damage you're doing. The only shortcut I know of is to get enough black market adderall for a couple of months and use that to keep yourself functional long enough to build the systems and habits that can keep you going without. See the Getting Things Done method, pomodoro, and find a good task management system. Write everything down, find a system for keeping notes. Also try keeping a diary. Also try to reduce your phone and computer usage. If your phone supports it, use monochrome mode. Push yourself to read more books instead of watching videos or playing games.
    - LoganDark 4y ago
      > Meditate, exercise, do anything it takes to force yourself into whatever structure fits your life. I'm talking to-do lists for your to-do lists and scheduling your daily time down to brushing your teeth. You have to force structure onto your life to contain your attention and energy. You have to make some truly profound changes in your life. This doesn't help when I try to get out of bed in the morning and my body does not move. Does not move. I can't do it. Happens with basically everything.
      - rolenthedeep 3y ago
        I understand, and I empathize. I'm not going to tell you that happy thoughts and a motivational poster will fix you. I will say that once you get past the stage you're in and have the ability to make those big life changes, this part will happen less often and you'll find it easier to break through. When you're generally healthy, it's easier to recover when you're sick. Applies just the same to mental illness as it does to an infection. Unfortunately, you're in the hardest part. Or at least it feels that way in the moment. I don't have any good advice other than to seek help and do whatever gets you to the next day. Try your best to make small improvements when you can. It is okay to not make progress every day, but you also have to not let that be an excuse. You really have to push yourself. It might be the hardest thing you'll ever do, but you aren't the first to have done it. Sorry all I have is the same pithy nonsense you get on Facebook. At the core, it's good advice, but you have to know the limits. There are some battles you can't fight. Sometimes you are in a truly impossible situation. No internet comment can help you with that, but you can find help if you can bring yourself to ask for it. Good luck
- soderfoo 4y ago
  Ughh... It's all too familiar unfortunately. I've gone without my meds for a week or two on occasion over the past year. I was hoping for "this one weird trick" life hack silver bullet to save the day. My wife and I are expecting our first child later this year. It's becoming apparent the only way to minimize my reliance on a capricious and inconstant system is to pull off the bandaid now and chart my path out of these woods.
- LoganDark 4y ago
  Just curious, is there a risk associated to stopping cold turkey? Every time I stop stimulants cold turkey I just sleep for 15 hours or so and then I'm fine. Maybe there are side effects I just don't get.
whalesalad 4y ago
Only tip is that it will be hard and you must persevere. No one in this life is coming to save you - you must do it yourself.
tstrimple 4y ago
I went cold turkey after a couple years of consist medication because I missed an appointment due to being sick and wasn’t able to get it rescheduled until I was unmedicated again. By that point I was back in the rut of useless executive function. Surprisingly I had zero issues just stopping taking it. Obviously the executive dysfunction came back quickly but I had zero withdrawal symptoms dropping 30mg XR. Maybe I was just lucky.

smittywerben 4y ago

> It is easier, less stressful and arguably more dignified buy illegal drugs on the black market. LOL I can only dream of ordering my meds to my door from a site that looks like Amazon.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
LoganDark 4y ago
Actually, the drug markets look more like eBay. But yes, that's literally how it goes. I've ordered LSD before and it's basically just crypto eBay.
whalesalad 4y ago
RIP Silk Road :(
- swores 4y ago
  Many, many alternatives have existed, and still do, since Silk Road.

01100011 4y ago

What about non-stimulant drugs? Are they as difficult to get? I'm bipolar, so stimulant drugs are not a great idea for me, but I'd still like to get some help. My experience has shown it's not something I can meditate/diet/exercise my way out of.

bsagdiyev 4y ago
Straterra is an option but I believe works like an anti-depressant. My experience wasn't great with it, but who knows? If it works for you that's great!
- LoganDark 4y ago
  Be careful with SSRIs, they can be neurotoxic over the long term (as in 2+ years). I can't find a good paper from a quick Google search, but if you use SSRIs for long enough they can start to damage serotonin receptors, and you might develop a permanent tolerance to serotonin. Somewhat similar to meth's neurotoxicity to dopamine receptors.
  - 01100011 4y ago
    It's an SNRI(norepinephrine) not an SSRI.
    - LoganDark 4y ago
      Oh, whoops. I probably skimmed the page too fast or something. Not aware of anything bad with norepinephrine, although my specific case of ADHD gets much worse with SNRIs or levoamphetamine so obviously YMMV.
    - Llamamoe 4y ago
      SNRIs are even worse. I've by random chance met two people who got permanent movement disorders from Venlafaxine, and one who developed seizures. My own experience was extremely abysmal too. All of the side effects of stimulants ramped up to 11 with none of the benefits.

brigadier132 4y ago

Im 7 months in to taking vyvanse and my life couldnt be better

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Baeocystin 4y ago
Are you coming across any habituation issues? I've been taking ritalin for a while (and it has made a huge difference in my life) but it does concern me that my dosage has been slowly increasing.
- LoganDark 4y ago
  I take dexedrine (which is basically just what vyvanse turns into once you take it), and I have some tolerance after just 3 months. Which is incredibly unfortunate, because my prescription started at 30mg/day because my body is just resistant to stimulants for some reason. Going any higher causes a hypertensive crisis, but tolerance is evil. Why does homeostasis want me to have ADHD again? Wish someone could find the genetic crap that controls this and fix it.
  - Baeocystin 4y ago
    Bummer. Thanks for letting me know, though.
    - LoganDark 4y ago
      I've started taking it only once every few days. The 15-hour sleep I get after it wears off is always pretty nice.
      - galangalalgol 4y ago
        My doc told me that the stimulant amd appetite suppressant properties would attenuate quickly, and they did, but that the effect on dopamine and epinephrine reuptake don't show the same down regulation over time. It seems like ahe was righ, a year and a half later I can't tell I'm on the atuff except I can start tasks I find boring. And remember meetings.

version_five 4y ago

> It is easier, less stressful and arguably more dignified buy illegal drugs on the black market. I'd say that's a pretty clear sign they "fragile" supply chains is not the root cause. Somehow you can easily buy something that's had to be smuggled into the country in who knows what way, but not a legally manufactured product.

AndrewKemendo 4y ago
Any analysis of a Supply chain includes political and logistical constraints, of which regulations and corporate operating procedures are included.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  It is important to note that we're choosing to have drug shortages. There are no physical constraints.
  - AndrewKemendo 4y ago
    No doubt. Like every product, production targets are based on profit for capital chasing margins, nothing else matters.
jjeaff 4y ago
Smuggled drugs don't have to go through the byzantine bureaucracy of the DEA and myriad of other organizations. But that also means they don't have to go through any of those controls that actually ensure quality. As poorly as some of those controls seem to function, they are better than nothing.
- gaadd33 4y ago
  What part of the DEA ensures drug quality? I thought that was in the realm of the FDA?
- version_five 4y ago
  I still think it's ironic that it's easier to get illegal drugs past an apparatus designed to stop block them, than to deliver legal drugs - that effectively the FDA is better at stopping drug trade than the DEA.

Fr0styMatt88 4y ago

Your dependency isn’t the problem if you have ADHD and the medication helps you. The actual problem is all the bullshit around getting the drug and the bullshit stigma around it. The fact the system treats you like a ‘crack addict’ is the problem. Could you imagine how absurd it would be if say, type 1 diabetics got treated like addicts because they depended on insulin? The system around ADHD drugs is just fucked and needs to change.

LoganDark 4y ago
The problem is that ADHD medications actually work. They work so well that they are abused by people who don't actually have ADHD. Resulting in more restrictions, even for people who do have ADHD and actually need the drug. Insulin can't be abused in this way, which probably explains why you can just go and buy it at walmart.
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago
  Insulin can be used to murder someone, and if the body is not discovered quickly, without leaving a trace
  - LoganDark 4y ago
    A lot of things can be used to murder someone. People are encouraged not to do that, though.
- rottencupcakes 4y ago
  What would be the worst thing that happened to society if we just manufactured adderall and sold it OTC? Maybe some elevated cardiovascular problems across society as a whole? Maybe some psychosis in serious chronic abusers? Why don't we just do this?
  - Spooky23 4y ago
    It was widely available from ~1930 until 1970. JFK was regularly using meth. It created a lot of problems.

dumpsterlid 4y ago

> In all honesty it is truly no different than being an alcoholic or a crack addict. This is an awful thing to casually throw out there in the faces of people who rely on ADHD medication to manage their ADHD.

whalesalad 4y ago
No it’s not. It’s the truth. If you can’t exist without a substance that is being controlled by an elaborate chain of pharmaceutical companies, federal drug enforcement regulations and highly expensive doctors that is being up shit creek without a paddle. What would you do if something like WWIII started and all non-vital drug manufacturing stopped? Or any conceivable scenario where suddenly these meds are not available. Everything is more fragile than you realize. Look at baby formula or other products that are produced by literally one single supplier. The system works until it doesn’t. So let’s pretend adhd meds cease to exist. What will you do? Give up on life and cry about it? You need to be prepared for any circumstance. Don’t get me wrong I’m struggling and I miss it constantly but I’ve also had to reset my mindset and expectations. People tend to adopt adhd as an identity but it’s not something that should be done. We all struggle to varying degrees with executive dysfunction and it’s silly to hide behind this crutch. Outside this high paced world people with adhd are just fine. But in this environment they are “disabled”
- LoganDark 4y ago
  Holy shit that was brutal, more brutal than it had any right to be. No, it's not fair to equate people treating their ADHD to crack addicts. Because treating ADHD and being addicted to crack are two different things. People treating their ADHD have an actual physical deficiency in their brain that takes away capacity to function, and this is a disability, no matter what term you do or do not use for it in "this high paced world". Usage of ADHD medication to address that deficiency is not at all the same as crack addiction. Because crack addiction is not addressing a deficiency, it's trying to add recreational pleasure to a perfectly normal and functional brain. ADHD medication is trying to avoid the executive dysfunction that ADHD causes. Which no, is not something that "we all struggle to varying degrees" with; ADHD is worse. For example my body literally will not move if I try to do something that I don't want to do. Even if it's something that I need to do, or something that will have dire consequences if I don't. I won't be able to move, even if I try. The signals just do not reach the rest of my brain. People with ADHD cannot just suck it up. They can't. You are being incredibly disrespectful and undermining a legitimate disability by acting like being dependent on ADHD medication is anything like being addicted to crack. If you can suck it up and live without it, fine, good for you. If you can just change your lifestyle to work around your ADHD, fine. But not everybody can do this. And it's not their fault if they can't. It's not their fault that they were born with a brain that is not working as it should. And it's not their fault for wanting to fix it. People who treat their ADHD don't want euphoria or pleasure or a fun time. They just want to live their fucking life without suffering from boredom and executive dysfunction and all the involuntary coping mechanisms that ADHD promotes. Keep your incredibly insulting views to yourself. Comments like this help no one.

SeanAnderson 4y ago

I quit taking non-prescrip Adderall at the start of the year after having taken it for ~7 months and am so happy I did! I'm friendlier, my thought process is more clear and less scattered, I don't surprise people with chatty behavior some of the day and then ghost them other times of the day, and I'm more aware of my overall health and energy levels. If I stop running, lifting weights, eating a really clean diet, sleeping restfully, or start smoking/drinking - I feel it now and there's no hiding from it. While on Adderall, all of my bad health habits were just a slight adjustment to a dosage away from being a non-issue for another month, but the downward health spiral from ignoring all the extra care I could be doing for myself really started adding up. Looking back at that time, I really thought I was being hyper productive while on it, but I think it was more like I was spinning my wheels really fast, not going very far, and feeling unreasonably good about the progress I was making because all my brain's reward centers were constantly firing. I could do an endless amount of simple work, and actively sought out that type of work, but the real deep critical thinking stuff I started to balk at and look for ways to justify avoiding - usually by doing double or triple the amount of simple stuff. It's odd that it made me feel so dang confident in my abilities. No hate to those who have ADHD and take it, but, for me who was taking it illicitly at low dosages (1mg-5mg), all the negative side-effects drastically outweighed the benefits and I only really saw that once I found it inside me to stop. Definitely sucks having to re-train my willpower though. It was just so damn easy to delegate all of that to the drug. It took a few months before I felt I could really convince my brain to work hard on its own, but now I'm back! Good luck and best wishes to all those out there that see a bit of themselves in this post :)

akiselev 4y ago
One of the worst parts of the experience is no one can quite put a finger on what's changed. With Ritalin and several other psychiatric drug, people can tell when someone is turning into a zombie and their feedback can help auto correct. With adderall, that doesn't really happen until one is downright manic.
- SeanAnderson 4y ago
  Yup! At the start everyone just thought I was slaying the game, then everyone just thought I was really busy, then everyone just thought I was getting stressed out from how busy I was, and only after all of that did people start casually bringing up the word Adderall in conversations and let me come to my own realizations that my behavioral changes were more apparent than I'd realized. Nice to have friends willing to take that step, though.

heavyset_go 4y ago

> In all honesty it is truly no different than being an alcoholic or a crack addict. It's different because you aren't going to end up incarcerated and made a felon with drug convictions on your record for taking your medicine. Your dose is theoretically metered so that you can't exactly abuse it to the point where you're shooting it or taking absurd psychosis triggering doses. Theoretically, your doctor will prevent you from taking higher doses just to get high as your tolerance to it builds up over time. It has the potential to be a much less life ruining/ending situation.

Paul-Craft 4y ago
Exactly. My dosage is 25mg of Adderall XR per day. Not only can you not shoot up with it, the fact that it's extended release really puts a damper on how high you can get on it. I honestly doubt an addict would get much out of taking my entire month's prescription all at once. If it was the instant release pills instead of extended release capsules, then, maybe they could get a couple good highs out of it. But the point is that you're right: I'm not prescribed enough to even get addicted, much less sustain an addiction.
- pcthrowaway 3y ago
  If someone took your entire month's prescription at once, they'd likely overdose (though you said addict, and it's likely they'd have a much higher tolerance) IIRC you can crush up the adderall XR and insufflate it, so I imagine you could shoot it as well
  - heavyset_go 3y ago
    > IIRC you can crush up the adderall XR and insufflate it, so I imagine you could shoot it as well You can shoot anything, but unless you're really careful and spend the time with "proper" technique, filters, etc, shooting pill binders is the fast lane to serious heart damage. If you're at the point where you're considering shooting pills, you are also probably making other desperate decisions that don't involve proper technique, filters, etc. The real proper technique is never injecting pills in the first place.