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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 m

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 3y 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 3y 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.
sph 3y ago
> I'm friendlier, my thought process is more clear and less scattered What the actual fuck. If you are friendlier off amphetamine, either you don't have ADHD or you're taking way too much, dude. If you have scattered thoughts on amphetamine, either you don't have ADHD or you're taking way too much, dude. -- Comments like this makes me furious. Because of misdiagnosis, or inept psychiatrists, y'all keep making the life of actual people with correctly dosed ADHD medication hell with your abuse or repeating the same story that it makes you robotic and makes you jump of the wall. I have been 35 years unmedicated, I am on the same dosage for a year, with routine 2 or 3 days long breaks. On days off, I am perhaps a little more lazy, but as scatter brained, as slow, as tired and as unmotivated as I have been my entire life. When I am medicated, on the least effective dose, because that is how titration should work, my mind is silent. I am more attentive to people, more patient, there is space to think and to plan. When I am medicated, I go to bed proud of what I have accomplished today. This small thing has turned my bloody life and mental health the right side up. Jesus, every time there is an ADHD post on this forum the misinformation and ignorance around a very well researched medication abounds. It has taken me 35 years to know there was a solution to the mismatch between what I thought I could do and what I did, because of posts like this, saying ADHD meds makes you scatter brained, it is very addictive, it is hard to quit, it is ineffective, etc.
- SeanAnderson 3y ago
  I'm sorry that me sharing my experience left you feeling furious. It was not my intent. I did not claim to have an ADHD diagnosis. I stated I was taking off-prescription and shared the dosage - well below a typical adult prescription amount. It's entirely possible I do not have ADHD, but I did see significant benefits, the ones you describe like a silent mind, attentiveness, patience, for a period of time. Then those things faded away, I stopped taking, and experienced side-effects as my body normalized to not taking. Is there a way I could've shared my story that would've been less upsetting?
  - karpierz 3y ago
    > I did see significant benefits, the ones you describe like a silent mind, attentiveness, patience, for a period of time. Then those things faded away, I stopped taking, and experienced side-effects as my body normalized to not taking. This is exactly how someone without ADHD is affected by Adderall. The medication has two functions: increased alertness and focus, which you build a tolerance to, and improved executive control, which is only relevant for folks with ADHD, and your body generally doesn't build a tolerance to.
vasco 3y ago
I've never taken it but from what I read about recommended doses, 1-5mg per day for an adult is basically placebo effect. I'm not saying you didn't feel all those things, but this seems too low for it to cause you any effects such as these, moreover after months of usage.
TeMPOraL 3y ago
> 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. No offense, but alternative read of this is: you're probably spending a huge part of your life on coping mechanisms for a problem that can be better corrected with a pill. It's either that, or you're one of those legendary superhumans I keep hearing about on the Internet, who can simultaneously run, hike, hit the gym every other day, home-cook meals or otherwise obsess about "healthy eating" and fitness, and then also hold a full-time job, have a spouse and children, run a side hustle, volunteer in the community, drive kids to soccer matches and still sleep 8 hours a day.

akiselev 3y 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 3y 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.

sph 3y ago

> I'm friendlier, my thought process is more clear and less scattered What the actual fuck. If you are friendlier off amphetamine, either you don't have ADHD or you're taking way too much, dude. If you have scattered thoughts on amphetamine, either you don't have ADHD or you're taking way too much, dude. -- Comments like this makes me furious. Because of misdiagnosis, or inept psychiatrists, y'all keep making the life of actual people with correctly dosed ADHD medication hell with your abuse or repeating the same story that it makes you robotic and makes you jump of the wall. I have been 35 years unmedicated, I am on the same dosage for a year, with routine 2 or 3 days long breaks. On days off, I am perhaps a little more lazy, but as scatter brained, as slow, as tired and as unmotivated as I have been my entire life. When I am medicated, on the least effective dose, because that is how titration should work, my mind is silent. I am more attentive to people, more patient, there is space to think and to plan. When I am medicated, I go to bed proud of what I have accomplished today. This small thing has turned my bloody life and mental health the right side up. Jesus, every time there is an ADHD post on this forum the misinformation and ignorance around a very well researched medication abounds. It has taken me 35 years to know there was a solution to the mismatch between what I thought I could do and what I did, because of posts like this, saying ADHD meds makes you scatter brained, it is very addictive, it is hard to quit, it is ineffective, etc.

SeanAnderson 3y ago
I'm sorry that me sharing my experience left you feeling furious. It was not my intent. I did not claim to have an ADHD diagnosis. I stated I was taking off-prescription and shared the dosage - well below a typical adult prescription amount. It's entirely possible I do not have ADHD, but I did see significant benefits, the ones you describe like a silent mind, attentiveness, patience, for a period of time. Then those things faded away, I stopped taking, and experienced side-effects as my body normalized to not taking. Is there a way I could've shared my story that would've been less upsetting?
- karpierz 3y ago
  > I did see significant benefits, the ones you describe like a silent mind, attentiveness, patience, for a period of time. Then those things faded away, I stopped taking, and experienced side-effects as my body normalized to not taking. This is exactly how someone without ADHD is affected by Adderall. The medication has two functions: increased alertness and focus, which you build a tolerance to, and improved executive control, which is only relevant for folks with ADHD, and your body generally doesn't build a tolerance to.

vasco 3y ago

I've never taken it but from what I read about recommended doses, 1-5mg per day for an adult is basically placebo effect. I'm not saying you didn't feel all those things, but this seems too low for it to cause you any effects such as these, moreover after months of usage.

TeMPOraL 3y ago

> 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. No offense, but alternative read of this is: you're probably spending a huge part of your life on coping mechanisms for a problem that can be better corrected with a pill. It's either that, or you're one of those legendary superhumans I keep hearing about on the Internet, who can simultaneously run, hike, hit the gym every other day, home-cook meals or otherwise obsess about "healthy eating" and fitness, and then also hold a full-time job, have a spouse and children, run a side hustle, volunteer in the community, drive kids to soccer matches and still sleep 8 hours a day.