Adderall XR... any thoughts??

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Just started my son on Adderall XR, he's 11 and started with 5mg per day. He has ASD, a language delay, and many many sensory issues. He also has classic ADHD symptoms, so we are treating those now. So he's always been a very stimmy kiddo... He's only taken two doses, but I don't think this med takes as long as SSRI's to enter the body and take effect, but dunno.... He seems much more stimmy today and yesterday, but happy. The teacher noticed the same thing... Curious if this will pass after a few days, any thoughts? The dr said to keep on the 5mg for two weeks, then up to 10 mg if it seems like he needs more. We go back to dr in 4 weeks to follow up....

I took ADDerall XR, and had a very serious, and yet very rare reaction to it.

Let him stay on the same dosage until you go to the doctor, and see what the doc thinks of the upped need to stim, because that is concerning.

adderall is a stimulant

He may be stimming more to regulate his nervous system which is getting stimulated. Once he is used to the meds, things should get better for him. If he is feeling "speedy" after a week his dosage may need to be adjusted (I know it's already low but I've heard of kids on 2.5mg). HTH

I wouldn't imagine that an increase in stimming would be hugely unusual for a kid who is taking what amounts to prescribed amphetamine. I used to abuse amphetamine and I would be bouncing off the walls. Of course I'm no doctor and of course I realise that the doses used to treat ADHD are much lower than the recreational doses that I used to take (probably a couple hundred mg as opposed to the 5mg your son is prescribed). As long as he is happy and the drug isn't causing any side effects more menacing than the increased stimming then I wouldn't worry too much and would just stick with your doctor's advice. If you're *really* worried then maybe just stick to the 5mg until you see the doc again?

I was on it as an adult and loved it. It took me from a poor student to a good one and want to be put on it again when I go back to school this spring. As far as my Dx goes, I am Dx'd ADHD as a child but suspect AS is a better fit for some of my issues. However, I have never been assessed for ASD so I am uncertain if my issues are clinically significant enough for a formal diagnosis at this time.

I took Adderall XR in particular when I was 15 to when I was 21. I had to stop because it was no longer effective for me in a focus sense (because your body gets used to it), but I was getting side effects quite bad from having the dosage upped further trying to get it to be effective for me again. My skin felt tickly like bugs were crawling on it, I had no appetite that, even if I focused on doing something, I'd look up at the clock 14 hours later and still not be hungry at all (I also developed anorexia so that didn't help my cause either). Before then I was prescribed Ritalin when I was 10 until then with similar effects.

In the end my brain feels more fried than it was before I was even medicated to begin with. I feel bad for saying this, but this makes me kinda cringe when I hear a parent talk about "our kid is prescribed stimulants and suddenly they transformed like a miracle". You might not be saying the same thing when it stops working for them and the side effects get too severe. I mean, hell, it's an amphetamine of all things. And too, I remember as a kid, being unable to really explain how the medicine made me feel. I think people think a lot about the short term without thinking long term.

I really think there should be more followup studies (other than just the one I found in 2006) on those of us who had the medicine thrown at us when we were younger, but if they actually bothered to follow us into adulthood to see if it's actually a good thing to do to a human body for a long term (as I was on stimulant ADHD medicine for 10 years between the two medicines) and even what the effects were on bodies that were still growing (the study I saw also emphasized how a lot of the kids were chronically behind their peers on the growth curve, which would be in line with me, not so much just in weight, but height, as I ended up being shorter and built smaller than both of my parents and my 3 sisters). And too, to see, who is still medicated, who is not percentage-wise, and why they stopped.

I feel I should add the negative effects I experienced since I just remembered them. I deliver pizza for a living, and on the Adderall I drove 5-10 mph faster than I normally would have. Not only that, but I tended to be more aggressive and short tempered on it than off it (I am normally quite subdued).

Thats kind of where I am at too. I was diagnosed ADD as a child(Back when ADD and ADHD were labeled as such, not as now ADHD-Primarily Hyperactive or ADHD-Primarily Inattentive) but I feel like I have some symptoms of ADD and some of Aspergers, not sure which is more likely or if I just have both to some degree. I do definitely have an attention problem at times, which has caused issues with school, but there are times I find myself capable of devoting hours straight to the same thing. I am currently on an antidepressant, but I want to talk to my doctor this week of possibly getting some kind of medication for ADD which I have not taken anything for since I was a kid, because I have had some stress and anxiety with trying to balance assignments and deadlines with multiple college courses and not able to focus on either. I do fine during the short semesters(Winter and Summer semesters are like 6 weeks) and only take one class, its when I take a full 12 units during the Fall or Spring that I have issues.

As for Adderall, that I haven't actually tried, but I am curious if it would help me.

I do not have ADHD, but I took adderall one and it just made me really wired. Didn't help at all.

Just because you can devote hours of time to one thing does not mean you don't have a problem. Both AS and ADHD people can focus on things that are interesting to them. It's being able to choose what to focus on that they have issues with. A person with Aspergers might be in a class and instead of focusing on what the instructor is teaching, might get distracted by the pattern in a girl's dress that sits in front of them, for example. The pattern would distract them from important facts on, say the French Revolution. They could also be thinking about something they like and wind up in their own inner world. I used to do both of these examples all the time and it is hard to say if it was due to an ASD or due to ADHD PI (what I would be classified as now).

Huh.
I was tried on Strattera, Concerta, Focalin, Vyvanse, and Intuniv(guanfacine). All except the last one before I was 12. I did hear of one kid at my school for whom ADHD medications never worked, just made him twitchy. Something other than Adderall might be better, keep in mind that not all drugs work the same on all people.

Only worked for eight hours. It helped me go from a D-average to a B-average during my middle and high school years.

I currently take adderall xr 10mg. I am supposed to take it every day but it makes me feel nauseated in the evenings so I usually only take it if I have to focus on something that day. it does wonders for my ADD but also exacerbates my stimming a fair bit. it also makes me want to move around a lot, so I end up pacing, tapping my feet, flexing my muscles in patterns, etc. a lot more.

in response to eelektrik being able to devote hours of time to one thing, that can also be a symptom of ADD/ADHD. it seems counterintuitive, but ADD/ADHD can also include "hyperfocus", where you become so intently focused on one thing it's difficult to snap out of it and sometimes the rest of the world seems to blur away. AS would also explain the hyperfocus if it pertains to a special interest.

Here are my adderall xr thoughts - it works for me fairly well. I take Adderall currently for ADHD xr 40 mg daily. As a kid I was on cylert from preteens to mid twenties, and then quit. It was s**t and damages the liver. Anyhow, the gift of ADHD just does not stop giving to me in adulthood, although I wish it would. I spent twenty years unmedicated and struggling, anxious, angry, impatient, frustrated, etc. I function better with Adderall. I can think and work, am more patient, tolerant of interruptions, less frustrated with bosses, colleagues and employees, better at listening, not overwhelmed by my own internal dialogue and sensorium. Don't like the more rapid heart rate and metalic mouth taste or forgetting to eat all day. It does not make me feel like a zombie, but then I am used to massive amounts of caffeine from my self medication days, so I get no euphoria feeling others find so attractive. I don't drink as much coffee in the day and cut back on alcohol at night, which never did a good job of quieting down my mind. On it is starkly different from when it has worn off - back to being easily irritated, distracted, etc. Without it I am prone to space off while driving or become aggressive and too fast, but with it I drive the speed limit and can actually focus. And, I can sleep a little better. Still chewing my fingernails to the quick, pacing, not a social butterfly, aloof, etc. More benefit than detriment.