Stimulant Prescription Drugs

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Has anyone used Concerta or stimulant drugs such as Aderall to treat executive function deficits in adulthood? I got tested for ADHD a while ago and these were recommended as a possible treatment, although I did not receive the diagnosis as I did not present ADHD symptoms in childhood.

I'm trying to try them. Was told no last time I saw a psychiatrist and a psychologist, in an infuriating meeting. I did not meet criteria, but half the questions were about my childhood, which I not only do not remember very well (no on does, not accurately), but I didn't have serious issues then either, quite possibly because I'd been in a gluten fog since childhood and/or because the only remotely interesting thing to me in class -was- the lesson. I'm also really bad at gauging one state of mind of mine to the next, to the point of not remembering things accurately or at all, much less accurately knowing perceptions. Like, when I'm 'up' (not super up, just not down or tired or any other negative thing), I do not perceive that my problems, when I am down, are nearly as bad as they are.
(And it is perceptions; if I perceive that I am not focussing, that is actually quite different than if I am actually not focussing, but all that one ever has is the perception.)

Next month hopefully I'll have prescription that I can try for a week to see if I like them.

Coffee for me for now, or tea. Neither are ideal for numerous reasons. Rooibus tea seems like the wisest choice, no xanthines in it but activates the xanthines that are already in your body somehow...she says as she pours herself more coffee...

I seem to be one of those highly sensitive to caffeine people, if that means anything.

I have trouble analysing my moods from day to day as well. If I'm feeling down one day, it feels like I've always been in this same state. It's quite frustrating because it makes it much harder to work out if a medication is working or if I should go see a doctor.

I have problems with concentration. It's really bad and seems to be getting gradually worse since my ealry twenties. I hope to try stimulants soon. Once these new pills the doctor has me on have run out, I plant to make an appointment to switch to Concerta initially, then maybe Ritalin or something like that.

I'm really sensitive to caffeine too. I can't drink tea or coffee or I get really bad nausea. For some reason drinking cokes not as bad, though I do get palpitations when I drink a lot. I tend to focus a little better when I drink caffeine, I think.

Do you live in the UK? I couldn't convince my psychiatrist either about having ADHD in childhood, despite having my Mam present to answer questions and bringing my school records as they requested.

Canada. I am getting my SO to come in with me this time around.

The problem is that stimulants can be easily abused. Like, take too many or powder them up they're, well, like street drugs. And for me I guess I have some anxiety (although really, meltdowns is probably a better word for those moments), and stimulants make anxiety worse. I stim more with caffeine. So they are seemingly leery to hand them out without a proper adhd diagnosis. Seems stupid to me. Am I not on caffeine already? Can you not just give me like, 3 pills to try them out? Unlike things like antipsychotics, antidepressants, even some antianxiety meds, they work right away. Like, you'll know after even a day how they'll affect you, largely. That's pretty amazing for medication.

For awhile I was smartly having a quarter cup of weakly brewed tea a morning, enough to boost, not enough to jitter. Stomach's usually fine but I will get heart racing or skips with too much.

I would re-request to try low dose of some sort of stimulant. I fail to see a reason why you need to have had the issue since childhood if the drugs will help right now anyways. I mean, if it's something else, then sure, treat that instead, because drugs are just bandaids. But man, sometimes you really need a bandaid.

I think it's outdated the way many health organisations think of ADHD, in the UK at least. IN the NICE guidlines which provides guidance to NHS in the UK and which the NHS is supposed to follow, it states that psychiatrists can diagnose ADHD in adulthood, even if no hyperactivity was evident in childhood, just concentration problems. Yet, in my local NHS service, it states on their website that they will only test Adults for ADHD if they were diagnosed with ADHD in childhood.

It is stupid that you need to have a recognised diagnosis like ADHD to treat executive functioning deficits. The way I look at it severe lack of concentration is a lot more concrete diagnosis than ADHD with consists of many symptoms.

I'm also concerned about the negative effects of stimulant drugs but I want to give it a try. Plenty of people have used it since childhood into adulthood in the US with no ill effect. If it was that dangerous, I doubt they would prescribe it so readily, and you would hear about it in the news or on documentaries if it was that bad.

Also, there's the thing with how it will effect anxiety. My health care workers told me it could exacerbate problems but I think it could go either way. They prescribe stimulants to calm down hyperactive kids after all, lol. Which makes not sense if you think about it but its obviously worked for a plenty of people.

Adderall seems to be very helpful for focus. You can get used to it however and require it to function.

I took Dexedrine for a few years as an adult. In the beginning it was very helpful - life changing. But even though I kept my dose minimal and took a day or two off from them every week or so, they were still detrimental in the long run. I believe they helped fuel my gut dysbiosis by fuelling bad bacteria/yeast/fungus overgrowth. Also, I've read that they deplete magnesium & sulphur from your body - which are required to detox various chemicals from your body, including salicylate acids. I became hypersensitive to SA's and their levels increased in my body and wreaked all sorts of mental/neurological havoc.. until I figured out that I was accidentally poisoning myself with SA's and how to detox them with epsom salts etc etc.

I don't regret taking Dexedrine as it gave me focus, clarity, strength/endurance, motivation etc etc that I so desperately needed at the time. Also, if I didn't take it I wouldn't have created the perfect storm of biochemistry to exacerbate my symptoms to such extremes that they eventually led me to figuring out the causes & how to effectively treat them. However, I haven't taken any for about 2 years or so now, and no longer need them for any of the things I used them for before, and will never take them again now that I know just how damaging they can be in the long run.

FYI: Dexedrine (Dextroamphetamine) is made up of the 2 D-amphetamines that are 1/2 of Adderall, which has a couple L-amphetamines in it, too. The L's apparently add more physical strength and stamina, but come with an increased risk of heart damage that I wasn't willing to accept - especially since I found that Dexedrine provided plenty of physical strength & stamina, even at the 5-10mg doses of IR I took.

But yeeeeeeeah, you're still pretty much doing low therapeutic dose meth.. which has it's short term pros, but long term cons.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd skip right to figuring out the digestive causes of everything and how to treat them and skip ever taking Dexedrine along the way. It was sort of a necessary path to figuring it out, so I don't regret taking it.. but I'd have been healthier, sooner, and wouldn't have gone through the living hell that I did if I was able to skip right to the solution w/o having to go through the step by step learning process.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

My doctor recommended stimulant drugs to help with structure and organisation, which are the areas in which I have the most trouble. I haven't tried any yet, am unsure whether I will, but apparently, that's a common recommendation.

Goldfish believes dexedrine made their gut dysbiosis worse, years after having started dexedrine. I fail to see the connection, at all. You also probably took a trip once before you had figured out your gut dysbiosis, therefore wherever you went on that trip probably made your gut worse. Because that's your logic. The only thing you mentioned that has any sort of relevancy was that your magnesium and sulphur were probably depleted; nothing else was anything but your beliefs.

I would gather that taking supplements is important. And yeah, actually, when I don't have the motivation to crawl out of bed so that I can make money to live, there's no fracking way I would be able to follow through with even the basics of what you went through goldfish. I am gluten free, that's hard enough. And sadly plenty of coffee and tea potentially has enough gluten cross-contaminated in them for me to still get mild glutening symptoms, depending on how sensitive my immune system is to gluten. Even though the drugs also probably have gluten cross contamination, a single pill is tiny, a glass of liquid is not. For me it's not a matter of 'figuring it out', it's a matter of knowing I need to change and knowing that I do not have the ability to with what I am doing.

I'm don't know why you both are getting so worked up about the side effects. Every drugs effect everyone differently. Some side effects are more common than others and just because one drug affects one person negatively doesn't mean everyone will experience the same negative effects.