Adderall and what it did to me...

by Chris Seymour
(Dallas, Texas)

I have been taking adderall (or some other form of ADD medicine) since I was seven years old. I am now 20 years of age and have recently (last week) finally stopped taking adderall. I imagine I will have to take it for when I go back to school and I am just dreading that day.

I personally believe adderall should be banned for use on kids under the age of 13. At a young age, when given adderall, I would have stomach aches that landed me in the fetal position. It happened everyday. This was only followed by bowel movements that would rival world records.

At a later age I was forced to increase the medication due to my tolerence to adderall. This is when things got ugly. The effects on the person taking it are great... for the first 2 hours. Afterwards I had no personality. No, I'm not exagerating, I HAD NO PERSONALITY. Even so much as talking to someone or responding to what they said seemed like and overwhelming and daunting task. I started skipping class. Alot of kids do this on adderall. You might ask why this would be a side effect of a medicine. Well just stop to think about it. Your giving a person large amounts of amphetamines (speed) and telling them to sit still and pay attention in class. The last thing I wanted to do was go to class Honestly I didnt go to class and with the energy I got from adderall I went and studied or actively did something. I would also suffer from a SEVERE depression, everyday from about 4 o'clock to 8 o'clock. During this time one feels bored. By this I mean you would rather stare at a wall and watch paint dry than do anything else. This period was plagued by chronic headaches. These came from low blood sugar I assume because I was not able to eat. I average maybe one meal a day on adderall. All of this doesn't mention the extreme dry mouth and jitter like you wont believe. I got so bad I found myself rubbing my tongue raw on the inside of my mouth UNTILL IT WOULD BLEED because I was so figity.

People often forget this is speed. In effect when it "kicks in" it burns through all of your bodily processes at a rapid rate burning up all food and nutrients for the energy it needs. This also included burning muscle. Go ahead and try using adderall and lifting. You won't get any where. In fact many doctors use it as an "off the label" way to counter unnatural muscle growth in humans who are forced to take steriods. After its done burning, during the depression or as I refer to it as the "comedown phase" you are totally drained of energy as your body went through about a 24 hour periods worth of work in approximately 10 hours.

SO HOW MUCH DOES IT EFFECT YOU???
My friends could tell within 5 seconds whether or not I was on the medicine. It gets bad enough to where people close to you can easily identify what "phase" you are in. They knew when they could talk to me or when they couldn't.

BETTER WAYS TO DEAL WITH ADD???
Alot of people don't notice that hyperglycemia and ADD go hand in hand for alot of people diagnosed with severe ADD. Hyperglycemia is a body's inability to properly digest sugars (like glucose). What has worked for me is a high fat, very high protien, high carb, and very low sugar diet. I know what you're saying: high carb and low sugar are contradictions. Not really, add into your diet such things as brown rice or black eyed peas which are high in dietary fiber (aka carbs) but have virtually no sugars. In addition to this, the best possible advice I can give is USE FISHOIL SUPPLEMENTS. Fish oil metarphorically speaking acts as a lubricant for you're brain. GEE DOESN'T THAT SOUND LIKE A USEFUL THING FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE TROUBLE FOCUSING???