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by juiceandjuice 4849 days ago
You need to qualify your question a bit more. People with ADHD experience it differently than people without ADHD generally.

For me, withdrawals after long term use (continuously taking it for 2-3 weeks or more) are generally over a three day period. The end of the first day you really start feeling it. The second day you will be dragging, all day. The third day is similar to the first. After that, you're back to yourself, more or less.

Short term (day to day) withdrawals are a bit different. The "zombie" effect doesn't really occur until later in the day. It goes down with long term use. Often times, the zombie effect is actually due to a bad sleep schedule versus the drug, at least in my experience. Short term withdrawals are more pronounced in the first 2-3 weeks of taking it.

The apetite thing is true and false. Long term, it goes away a bit. I lost weight the first 5 months, gained it back slowly. It took about a year and a bit of consciousness to normalize.

Withdrawal symptoms are similar if using Adderall XR, except they are over a longer period of time. Adderall XR is much harder to dose right, and leads to much worse sleeping habits IMO.

For it to be effective with my ADHD, I had to take large doses. 40mg/day (instant release) was the minimum, 60 mg the usual. I've taken over 160mg in a two day period more than a few times.

Adderrall gave me headaches though at useful dosages. At first, I realized part of this was because of a decreased apetite, but even after mitigation of that (remembering to eat), I still had them.

I took Adderall over a 4 year period. Experiments with purely non-stimulant medicinces was over about 6 months. The latest combination I've been using for about a year.

2 comments

"People with ADHD experience it differently than people without ADHD generally."

I generally disagree with this statement. I don't think that the subjective experience of low-dose stimulants is terribly different between people with and without ADHD. I think that those with ADHD are unable or unlikely to reach a similar state of concentration without low-dose stimulants, however.

Yes...I know the "do you really have ADHD?" question is not an easy or clear one. I was more interested in the side effects of continual use of the drug...Nearly all of the media mentions of the drug deal with people who use it periodically or who are prescribed the drug during a significant volatile period in their life (i.e. college).

Of course, selection bias would also indicate that media mentions of Adderall would come from people who've faced drastic side effects. But I've rarely read from people who've taken the drug 20+ years. And I'm interested in not just what happens if you decide to quit...but if you haven't ever quit, what side effects you tolerate day-to-day?