Adderall (amphetamine mixed salts)

[crayzyMed]

Originally Posted by oity

As others have reported, adderall is an interesting drug, but it doesn't seem to be a very practical treatment for social anxiety. First off, tolerance to its pro-social effects builds rapidly, so it can really only be taken a few times a week. And even if you manage to avoid tolerance, its effectiveness seems to be incredibly transient--in my case, I will get about a two hour window of effectiveness, even if I haven't taken a pill in weeks. What's worse, the come down tends to heighten anxiety and make things even worse than they were before. Not too fun.

All that said, when adderall is actually working, it's fscking brilliant. For just a short span of time, it dramatically transforms me. I suddenly become supremely confident, totally comfortable and at ease, and best of all, genuinely enthusiastic about stuff. So enthusiastic, in fact, that if I think of something to say, I find myself desperately wanting to say it to somebody! This is great for an extremely introverted person--it demolishes apprehension, hesitation, and apathy. It also helps for a freakishly weird person like me to open up and unveil my real personality. Adderall doesn't ever completely eliminate my social anxiety, but at the height of its effectiveness it comes pretty darn close.

If it could work all the time, I'd easily give adderall 5 stars. But, since it can't come anywhere close to working all the time, I give it 2.

Tolerance can be avoided nearly completely with NMDA antagonists like memantine.

[Cydnie]

Adderall has worked wonders for me and I've been able to do so much more, and it has helped me change my negative thinking to much less critical, and motivate me to do an immense amount more with my life, with focus, motivation, and actually feeling good while doing it. I was doing well for so long, and my doctor actually uses memantine with his patients and loves it, but it never worked for me. I've just started to have these terrible rebound/crashes, and my doctor is away for a week. He also has suggested supplements that I use, but was hoping to find out anything about anything anyone does for rebounds or crashes since memantine didn't work for that or preventing tolerance. My doctor really believes in it, but says everyone's chemistry is different and that he needs to think on it to figure out something else. He is open when I ask about something, but I'm at a loss of what I could try (he wrote a book on alternatives, and does like huperzine as a cognitive enhancer). I would love any suggestions that anyone might have to prevent rebounds/crashes and reduce or prevent tolerance that I can then ask my doctor about when he returns next week, which seems like such a long week. These crashes are so terrible. He also prescribes remeron (22.5mg a night) and has me taking supplements, rhodiola rosea, and maca (everything is legal, everything prescribed or legally bought OTC supplements), and he thought they would improve my mood, but nothing yet. He went down on the dose of remeron because he thought I was better on a smaller dose, and it seemed to work so well with the adderall (or worked together to cause a greater tolerance and started rebounds?) Does anyone have any thoughts? I'm a Mom and have to keep up with my little boy, and it's so hard when I'm so depressed, and socially anxious (as you all know). Thanks, I hope to hear anyone's suggestions, or you can PM me!!

[MojoCrunch]

Adderall screwed up my life.....

[cemartin]

For me it worked amazingly for the first 3 hours or so, but then it would send me plunging into a world of unpleasant side effects, including:

-crazy talk
-painful teeth grinding
-total loss of appetite
-sweating and shaking from head to toe
-suddenly becoming convinced that the world is coming to an end

[locoamerica]

Adderal messed my life up I think I got social anxiety from taking Adderal it sucks I used to be out going but now I can never find the words to say or I don't want to go out and talk to people even though Im bored I stopped taking it once but I started back up cuz work but I wanna stop again and stay off it

[spacey82]

Adderall really helped me a lot with being social. It gave me a lot of energy and just made me feel good. It also helped me take of weight that I had gained from other drugs such as antidepressants and mood stabilizers. I am not suggesting taking this for weight loss however. That is just a nice side effect if you are taking it anyway. For some people though, especially people with anxiety including SA, adderall may be too stimulating and may make anxiety worse. I don't take it anymore because I don't have insurance and it is really expensive.

[egb18c]

I have have had social anxiety, and depression since i was 15. (now 25) i have been on Paxil for 9 years. it helps my depression alot. 8/10 and helped my SA i little bit 3/10

I started Adderal for school 4 months ago. Expecting nothing more from this drug than to help me stay focused.
come to find out Adderal is a happy pill! it put me in the best mood, i wasn't scared to talk, and wasn't scared of imbarresing myself, or acting silly. i felt like a normal person for once. kind of has the same effect as alcahol, as far as not being scared to be social, and out going. the social anxiety dissapears completely..

However.. unfortionately there is a side effect it only lasts about 4 hours. and then instead of returning to normal, i will be below where i started, and be worse off than if i hadn't taken it.. so now i prefer not to take it, which is sad.. but there is no way i could do school without it, so i will continue to take it 3 times a week. (1 x20mg)

[jaxen]

From my experience, this stuff doesn't actually decrease the anxiety part of being social, it just allows me to be more social in general...if that makes any sense. I have no social inhibition on this stuff. Basically, whatever comes to my mind I have to say. There is no filter. However, at the same time I experience an uneasy rushed feeling of anxiety for being social. Its very hard to explain in words. Overall, I don't like this stuff. It makes me feel like Loopy Looperton.

[Mike1994]

I am very interested in getting my hands on some of this Adderall and taking it with memantine to hold off tolerance even though I don't have any ADD that I am aware of. This sounds like what I may need because I don't have a lot of drive to talk to ppl in the first place. I do have anxiety but I wouldn't I have as much anxiety as others do. I mean I really don't know. But I definitely don't wanna get on benzos, they just seem like a ticking time bomb until you develop tolerance and then they become useless.

[Andre]

I guess it could work for SA but I'd only take it if you have Extreme ADHD which I do.

[Mike1994]

Originally Posted by Andre

I guess it could work for SA but I'd only take it if you have Extreme ADHD which I do.

Other ppl have said that this is probably the best drug you can take for SA and I'm very interested on what I've read from them. Do you take this for ADHD? what is your experience? btw can I Have ur msn

[Purplepoodle]

Wow just wow.

[Mike1994]

Originally Posted by Purplepoodle

Wow just wow.

??? Whats so wow?

[Xande]

Originally Posted by Mike1994

Other ppl have said that this is probably the best drug you can take for SA and I'm very interested on what I've read from them. Do you take this for ADHD? what is your experience? btw can I Have ur msn

People claim it's very helpful for SA, but the problem with adderall is that tolerance usually builds up very quickly to what people consider helpful, which is the euphoria feeling.

When you first take adderall, you'll get a euphoria/wired up "I can take on the world" feeling, but this is merely a side effect that goes away pretty quickly (lasts a few days to a few weeks at most).

People then think that this is always how they should feel if adderall is working, but that's not the case. Adderall is meant to help with concentration and focus, not give you euphoria.

People then chase this feeling and get dosages increased higher and higher, only to find out the euphoria will only last for a short while when you initially up your dosage.

So unless you have something to prevent tolerance, like Mematime (assuming you can get this and then as long as you can put up with potential side effects), I personally wouldn't suggest Adderall for SA, unless it's going to be a once in a while thing.

Adderall helps people who have a hard time concentrate to actually be able to sit down and focus on something, instead of getting up every few minutes or getting distracted very easily (like me lol). Overall I think it's great for ADD and even makes me feel a bit better about myself (not euphoria though).

[Mike1994]

Originally Posted by Xande

People claim it's very helpful for SA, but the problem with adderall is that tolerance usually builds up very quickly to what people consider helpful, which is the euphoria feeling.

When you first take adderall, you'll get a euphoria/wired up "I can take on the world" feeling, but this is merely a side effect that goes away pretty quickly (lasts a few days to a few weeks at most).

People then think that this is always how they should feel if adderall is working, but that's not the case. Adderall is meant to help with concentration and focus, not give you euphoria.

People then chase this feeling and get dosages increased higher and higher, only to find out the euphoria will only last for a short while when you initially up your dosage.

So unless you have something to prevent tolerance, like Mematime (assuming you can get this and then as long as you can put up with potential side effects), I personally wouldn't suggest Adderall for SA, unless it's going to be a once in a while thing.

Adderall helps people who have a hard time concentrate to actually be able to sit down and focus on something, instead of getting up every few minutes or getting distracted very easily (like me lol). Overall I think it's great for ADD and even makes me feel a bit better about myself (not euphoria though).

Honestly, I would never have considered taking Adderall without Memantine to prevent tolerance and also I would take breaks on the weekends or vacations to prevent tolerance. So assuming I use memantine and breaks, this definitely sounds like a miracle drug that I am very much interested in. When I see my psychiatrist< i'll try to convince him that I have some ADD symptoms mixed with SA which both can be combatted with Adderall. So we'll see. What do you think Xande?

[Xande]

I would suggest starting with a low dosage, my pdoc wanted to start me on 10mg twice daily, but suggested I start on 5mg, so that's what I do and have been doing lol. Of course if they prescribe you a 20mg XR dose, you might not be able to split the dose.

This way if tolerance somehow does build up, have more space to work with, (ie. I can increase to 10mg twice a day, instead of having to increase to 20mg twice I day if I had been taking the 10mg twice daily). Plus some people find that if the dosage is too high, they'll suffer side effects like increased anxiety & depression, I think it's better to see how your body reacts to small dosages first.

But if you do somehow get both Memantine and Adderall, be sure to keep us updated through a thread or blog so we can know helpful it is. Note that some people have found that Memantine had some side effects they didn't think was worth it or didn't find it helping with stimulant tolerance.

Also, if Memantine does help you with tolerance, not sure if it keeps the euphoria feeling for everyone, I think some people aren't seeking this feeling and are just taking it to keep on a lower dose of adderall and to stop increasing constantly to be able to focus & concentrate.

But like said above, please keep us updated on your progress!

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and am stating the above with information I have from personal experience and what I have read from others' personal experiences.

[john kimble]

Its just like ecstacy. If anyone has take ecstacy (really depends which you take or if were talking about just MDMA) you know you could probably relate.

[bjg]

I've only taken Adderall recreationally. I loved it. It caused me to be talkative, positive, and very interested in what other people had to say. It reminded me of coke, but much better. I enjoyed it so much that I kept taking more and more in one day. After a few days like that, it was gone and I've never had it since. I would say it was the best drug I've ever tried.

[john kimble]

Originally Posted by bjg

I've only taken Adderall recreationally. I loved it. It caused me to be talkative, positive, and very interested in what other people had to say. It reminded me of coke, but much better. I enjoyed it so much that I kept taking more and more in one day. After a few days like that, it was gone and I've never had it since. I would say it was the best drug I've ever tried.

Nice! Hope you dont abuse it doe :/

[bjg]

Originally Posted by john kimble

Nice! Hope you dont abuse it doe :/

Nope, it's been years. I don't have access to it and I'd like to think I know better now.