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peepsalot posted:I recently got diagnosed with ADHD at 35, and my psychiatrist has started me on adderall IR 5mg, 2x a day. Seems a tad low to me, but starting low and gradually working your way up is absolutely the right way to do things for someone starting stims, particularly if they have a history of high blood pressure. Dosage is VERY dependent on the person, and you're looking for a sweet spot that minimizes the ADHD symptoms while keeping the stimulant side effects minimal. For the record, I'm similar to you (mid 30s, male, 200ish pounds and don't tolerate Stratera very well) and my most effective dose is in the 10mg to 15mg range. In my experience, the active time for a dose is 4 or 5 hours. The "crash" you're describing is very common with Adderall. I had a similar problem when I was on IR, but switching to the extended release has made it much less noticeable. The extended release caps are basically two IR pills put together that trigger at different times and there's kind of a ramp up and ramp down that mellows the crash a bit. So if you normally take 10mg IR, you take a 20mg ER when you get up in the morning and you're usually set until the evening.
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Nov 17, 2016 23:11
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 19:04 |
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With regards to breaks, I've found what works best for me is a fairly strict pomodoro type thing where I keep a timer and switch between defined work intervals and rest intervals until a thing gets done. This is entirely down to my tendency to just sort of go with the flow of what I'm doing provided it's relatively low intensity -- if I'm not disciplined about my rest period I'll just gently caress off for an extended period of time and then it's really hard to get started on what I was working on again (starting is the hardest thing for me usually). The trick is getting the interval right. If the rest period is too short it doesn't work as a rest period, but if it's too long I run into the same problem of "starting inertia" I normally have. Similarly, if the work period is too long I find my concentration drifting and I get off task anyway, and if it's too short I can't get into the flow state where I'm doing my best work. For me, this works out to 20 minutes on, 10 minutes off. Sometimes 5 minutes off if what I'm doing is really engaging or I'm feeling particularly focused. I can normally keep going on something for a few hours with that schedule. It's also usually more productive than if I just sort of futz around with what I'm working on with no structure, because I can usually be really "on" for the 20 minute work period and if I stick to the schedule I'm working twice as much as I'm slacking off. Now the trouble is really getting started, because once I'm going I can usually finish stuff in a reasonable amount of time with this technique.
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Nov 22, 2016 00:15
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Don't take Adderall on an empty stomach. This goes for most stimulants.
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Dec 15, 2016 20:15
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If you don't have insurance, you can buy generic and shop around -- pricing is in no way consistent. But it's probably going to be at least 100 bucks. If you've got good insurance, it's not too bad. I pay $10 for a 30 day supply of generic, a little bit more if I want name brand.
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Dec 17, 2016 03:14
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When I got diagnosed again most recently. I took an attention test that was basically clicking a button when certain shapes popped up on screen for 15 minutes while a camera monitored my head movements. I failed this miserably. There was also the normal 1-5 scale test on how often certain things caused me trouble. There was a small fee -- I think it cost about $50 more than a normal office visit. My first diagnosis as a child was a bit different -- I actually had to have a bunch of electrodes attached to my head to read my brainwaves while I slept. My understanding is they don't do this one anymore because they've since found that it doesn't actually measure anything. The 80s were a dark time for neuroscience.
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Dec 21, 2016 20:32
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Delivery mechanisms differ greatly when it comes to generics, too.
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Dec 23, 2016 07:33
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Yes, to the point that I was put in speech therapy when I was a child. I didn't really stutter in the theatrical sense, but I did exhibit a choppy speech pattern with a lot of stops and starts. Now I mostly have a handle on it, but sometimes when I'm tired or excited I lose the train of my sentence and just kind of stop while my brain recollects itself.
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Dec 28, 2016 21:07
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I'm not super productive when I'm not taking Adderall but that probably has more to do with the fact that I have loving ADHD than withdrawals. It felt like I was floating in a big demotivational fog most of the time before I started taking it, too, and it just seems worse because I have another state to compare it to in more recent memory.
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Apr 6, 2017 02:24
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 19:04 |
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I hate exercise so much.
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May 4, 2017 00:49
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