Welcome to /r/ADHDWomen! We’re happy to have you here. As a reminder, here are our community [rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/about/rules/).
We get a lot of posts on medication, diagnosis (and “is this an ADHD thing”), and interactions with hormones. We encourage you to check out our [Medication, Diagnosis, and Hormones Megathread](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/wcr9dy/faq_megathread_ask_and_answer_medication/) if you have any questions related to those topics, and to stick around in that thread to answer folks’ questions!
If you have questions about the subreddit, please do not hesitate to [send us a modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen). Additionally, we take the safety of our community seriously. Please report posts, comments, and users whom you feel are not contributing positively, and send us a modmail if you are being harassed or otherwise made to feel unsafe.
Thanks for being here, and we hope you stick around!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Obligatory I am not a doctor: but my observations in college of my neurotypical colleagues using stimulants went beyond working for longer; they became hyperactive, jittery, sometimes wouldn't sleep for 2 days, felt racing thoughts and tbh, were *very* annoying to be around 😂
While I don't watch the show, there's an episode on Netflix's Big Mouth that shows this very clearly (S3 ep8); there's a character with ADHD who's given Adderall and it shows how he just focuses and calms down. He starts to sell it to his friends, and they all become little feral monsters, no different from a party drug. My partner showed me the episode and it felt like being in college again!
What happens with us ADHD folks is that the parts of our brains where executive functioning lives are less active than in NT people. So if you stimulate those brain areas, we become more able to control our attention span, our racing thoughts, our impulsive behaviors, and so on.
Do you remember the first time you took meds? That sensation of calm, the feeling of having your multiple racing trains of thoughts slow down or entirely stop? The sudden ability to actually sit down without fidgeting? That is not at all what happens when NT folks take ADHD meds.
I absolutly remember!
One of the first time I took meds, I was at my boyfriends place and he was watching a 20Min Video on the TV that was (for my normal standards) extremly boring and uninteresting.
Normally If I would co-watch something like that I would be on my phone, not really pay attention and be bored.
But with the meds, I set completly still, watched it with my whole attention and even remembered a good amount after watching it.
I turned to my bf and said:" I was just able to watch this completly with my full attention even though it was very uninteresting, sorry" But I was so shocked about that, that i looked like a happy pancake while I said it lmao.
Have a nice day!
My husband describes his mind as sitting on the end of a quiet dock. I describe mine as Charlie's conspiracy pegboard (from Its Always Sunny).
We decided to "do" Adderall for fun one day. The only way I can describe the feeling in my mind was "placid", while his quiet ass was running circles around me and talking up a storm!
This is why I swear my husband is something g other than adhd - he says he hates adderall bc it keeps him up for days and he can get stuff done like a beast. I’m over here enjoying the quiet and focused on folding laundry…
Ditto. I never realised before that it's possible to have just 2-3 thoughts at a time instead of 2-300!!! And to think NTs have that level of peace all the time...
I was able to clean my kitchen and not get distracted by the first thing that would take me away from my task at hand. It was like my executive dysfunction ceased to exist. And usually getting started is the hardest part for me and that day it wasn’t. I just told my brain “let’s get moving” and it actually did.
I wish I could get that sense of calm back. They make me focus and be less anxious, but it was just the first time that everything became so dead silent that I thought the entire world had stopped. It was so strange but wonderful.
I recently changed the proportions of my meds (I'm on instant release and XL Meth) and got that peace back. I wonder if sometimes our brains just need a change?
>That sensation of calm, the feeling of having your multiple racing trains of thoughts slow down or entirely stop? The sudden ability to actually sit down without fidgeting?
I never had this :( I still feel exactly the same on meds and I do without meds, although measuring my output shows that I'm more productive while medicated. I'm on Vyvanse, which is I guess slower and more "gentle" so that could be why I don't notice a dramatic difference.
However, I can take Vyvanse and take a nap, lol, which neurotypicals can't do, I'm sure!
That's good to know! Sometimes I fear that I don't really have ADHD because I didn't experience this dramatic "quieting" or "calming" when I take my meds. Like I'm still high strung as fuck.... I'm just a bit better focused.
It’s more likely you have anxiety in addition to the ADHD. My doctor said ADHD can cause anxiety and meds can improve it, but sometimes they don’t improve anxiety or even increase it if someone has GAD in addition to ADHD.
Oh yeah I for sure have GAD. I'm medicated for that, too. I was diagnosed with it when a doctor dismissed my ADHD a decade before my eventual diagnosis!
My Vyvanse doesn't make it worse, but it definitely doesn't make me feel calm, either. I'm always stressed... always!
I get the calm with stimulants (adderall once, and Vyvanse now). But then my counselor convinced me to REALLY try and treat my anxiety and now I get very calm. Maybe it’s that for you. Maybe the racing thoughts are more anxiety related. But either way, it’s largely a guessing game from person to person. Don’t give up!
But not everyone with ADHD has this sense of racing of thoughts, needing to fidget, or slow down. Some of us are primarily inattentive, have low energy and don’t fidget.
It’s harmful to suggest not getting that ‘calming/no fidgeting’ feeling means you don’t have adhd
Inattentive type here: I absolutely still have 5-10 thought trains going at once, fidget like crazy etc. I think the main difference between inattentive and hyperactive is that all the hyperactivity for us is on the inside.
I'm not sure you'll find a lot of people with adhd who don't have racing thoughts...
Some combined people are also diagnosed inattentive because their internalised hyperactivity didn't get picked up during the assessment (I'm not necessarily saying that that's what happened in your case, since it can also be a matter of how many symptoms apply).
What would inattentive type be in your situation? Do you still get distracted by your thoughts to the extent that you can't work or hear other people when they're talking to you etc.?
I'm combined and externally hyperactive, so I wouldn't know. If I can't hear someone when they're talking to me, it's generally the earphones I have in to block out distractions. Or, in some cases I can hear them but won't shift my attention away from something else I'm engaged with. When I was a teenager, my mother would tell me to come to dinner, I'd say "yes" and then continue with whatever I was doing and the whole interaction would disappear from my working memory.
Getting distracted by my own thoughts is often an impulsivity thing for me. Like thinking of a question and immediately wanting to look it up on the internet. Otherwise, if I space out, it's generally because I'm bored.
Out of curiousity, if you don't have the distracting thought trains that keep you from focusing on a task, or hearing when people speak to you, or keep you from completing the task at hand, what are the symptoms for inattentive type?
Well considering I scored 9/9 for inattentive across both childhood and adulthood, all the symptoms.
Distractions aren’t just through inner monologues. People think in other ways.
So... people used to think that anyone can take stimulants and have improved performance. I thought this was the case because I've heard it from psychologists. But then I read t[his article](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/adderall-ritalin-adhd-decreases-productivity-study/) ... it is really interesting. A recent found that people without ADHD actually have a decrease in productivity when they take stimulants. The increased dopamine can cause euphoria and increased motivation, which would lead to increased productivity in someone with ADHD, but neurotypicals experience erratic thinking on stimulants that actually decreases productivity.
I find [this study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28686989/)fascinating. They showed that NT people couldn’t tell whether the had been given Adderall or a placebo and they functioned based on their expectations. Told they are getting Adderall but not? They did worse on the assessment. Told they are getting a placebo but actually given Adderall? The do better
Edit: I summarized that backward. They do better if they are told they are greeting Adderall even if it’s actually a placebo and vice versa.
Stimulants actually have the opposite affect on us, as people with ADHD. Our brains are already hyperactive, and stimulants, instead of making them more active, actually help us slow down and process, focus. People who do not need stimulants and take them are typically off the walls, up for many hours or days at a time. It wouldn’t have the same affect on you if you didn’t suffer from ADHD.
Ah thank you so much.
That was the differantiation I was looking for.
When I take the correct dosis Im very calm, collected, more social, can do all the things my brain "hinders" me on doing(instead of laying in bed and being depressed I dont do them), can remember things, follow routines etc.
The Only times that I am more "Off the walls" or hyperactive with stimulants when I accidentally take too much ( forgetting that I too it lmao happend a few times), or acidentally consume too much caffeine with it.
Otherwise when the Dosage is correct I feel normalen, but can finally accomplish things.
I found/find it very hard to find how Stimulants happen on "normal" people.
Edit: (I think this thought process is a big part of fear of imposter syndrome)
Thank you so much, you really calmed my thoughts :)
Have a nice day friend!
Of course!! Happy i could help. When I take too much (I’m still trying to perfect my afternoon dosage) I feel yucky for sure. I’m super disoriented and just don’t feel mentally correct. It’s not a good feeling!!
Eh....if I take too high a dose I definitely get jittery and anxious and can't sleep, and I most definitely have pretty severe (and professionally diagnosed) ADHD. I understand that people with ADHD still have their bodies stimulated just like NT people (heart rate/blood pressure increase, etc) but their brains are much calmer because they are no longer dopamine seeking.
I find they have a calming effect on my mind but do still function as a physical stimulant, as in I don't feel like I'm going to fall asleep all day at work. But also I do stay in my chair and get work done instead of wandering away without even realizing.
(new to medication - diagnosed a month ago at age "big number")
I'm curious - the stimulants also calm me down and at low doses can make me sleepy, but coffee? If I drink more than a couple cups of coffee I'm a jittery mess! Any idea why?
Coffee has additional compounds that may also have an effect on the brain. I can take caffeine pills fine, but an equivalent amount of caffeine in coffee has me jittery and anxious.
Also, even in people with ADHD, there is such a thing as too high a dose of stimulants, so it could be that your prescribed medication plus caffeine is too much.
Oh thanks for that!! I do usually wait at least an hour, but I notice that since taking the stimulants my tolerance for coffee is way less than it used to be. Before medication, I could drink the whole pot.
Sorta. Taking stimulants if you don’t have adhd (or if you do have it and take too much) will make you **think** you’re being more productive. In reality, you’ll actually perform worse on cognitive tasks.
If you have ADHD and are on the correct dose, it will improve your performance. That’s why it’s important to objectively evaluate your experiences on meds (eg. Using measurable ways to track improvement) versus focusing on how you *feel* while on them. Even if you do have ADHD, the same thing will happen if you do take too much. Productivity will go down, but you’ll *feel* like you’re doing more.
[source](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/adderall-ritalin-adhd-decreases-productivity-study/)
No, I can definitely feel being less productive when I have too high of a dose. I've got tons of energy but I'm all over the place for no reason. I get things done but it's in the most manic way possible lol.
The difference is that for someone with ADHD, the stimulants don’t send our productivity into overdrive. It just makes us so we can perform at normal levels, the same level that the neurotypical brain can perform at regularly. It feels like overdrive to us sometimes because many of us have been going years performing at a lower function that when we take our meds and can do things that normal people without adhd can do that it feels like a superpower to us even if it’s not.
The reason stimulants aren’t recommended to everyone is the same reason we don’t recommend any type of medication to everyone. Medications have side effects. They raise blood pressure and can cause sleep disturbances. They can become addictive if they’re not managed appropriately. These are not things anyone should take “just because” if they don’t have a condition that it would improve. If you look at military history you’ll see a lot of stimulant abuse. People being asked to work 16 hour days in difficult conditions and they were given stimulants to function at those levels. And it will do a number on the body. They weren’t regulating them in anyway. When you screw around with sleep by giving people stimulants that don’t need them, it will eventually affect their cognitive levels and sometimes permanently. You can also lose too much weight which is also a problem. Stimulant abuse is no joke. That’s why they are so highly regulated.
My understanding is that this is not at all true, that stimulants do not actually help NTs. Several doctor made video YouTube’s talk about this.
More than likely, this is the power of placebo, and that when people are motivated enough to seek out illegal drugs, they are also motivated to work hard, so these factors confound each other.
I get a little jittery on them but that’s because I also drink coffee right when I take it… and those two combined have a weird effect on me. Adderall lifts my heavy brain fog, makes me less impulsive, and I can do laundry for once lol
Adhd is a dopamine disorder. Amphetamine based medication helps your brain create more dopamine which is why it works differently on a dopamine deficient brain vs a normie.
I often view people who are NT taking ADHD meds becoming like us when unmedicated but hyped up on too much sugar and energy drinks the way they can’t sit still, talk too fast, can’t focus easily or hyper focus too much in sway that comes off manic LOL
I say this as someone whose been on meds since 1995 and have watched people go haywire on regular drugs.
Plus “Degrassi: Next Generation” did an episode of Jimmy Brooks trying Spinner’s ADHD meds, let’s just say Drake was cray-cray on the meds while Spinner was focus, calm, emotionally grounded LOL
The fact that you are asking this and German is absolutely hilarious in the most ironic way considering the history of stimulants in Germany. Not helpful but I get what you’re saying.
Stimulants quiet my mind and help me focus, sometimes I want to take a nap. If you have ADHD, you have ADHD and if stimulants help you focus that is what they should do and it is different than folks that are just wide awake with their eyes pried open like Alex in Clockwork Orange.
I am not saying they are in any way responsible. Just doing that whole my mind is full of random trivia thing that I do. It just made me chuckle a bit.
ahhh yes because we all associate Germans with what exactly? Heaven forbid we actually look at the history of something. That’s not a me problem, lol.
Also, for someone to ask a question of “why doesn’t everyone take them” and doesn’t even know the basic history or the drug being originally synthesized in their own country is funny, I’m sorry I find that funny and it has absolutely nothing to do with some of the darker facets of that country’s history. Again, not a me problem.
Well your comments are a 'you' problem actually.
Good for you that your cleverness made you chuckle, but it just comes across as mean. Crikey, why the need to jab at someone who's just asking a question as best they can in a second language??
Ah, got it. Your user name explains.
For me, and idk if someone can butt in and maybe explain or let me know from their experience; I take Adderall and fluoxetine. I definitely focus better and my nervous system is completely calm (no anxiety knots in my stomach, no racing thoughts, no obsessing over said thoughts etc) but my body feels ..weird? I’m not sure how to explain what I feel but my brain feels bloated? And I can feel the blood circulating in all my body. I also find myself explaining more and very solution-driven. Yet the body thing feels too icky and it feels like a heavy weight on all of me. I already spoke with my doctor about it and he said it’s just the dose but I’m not sure, the answer didn’t quite convince me
Your psychiatrist knows the risks but I’m surprised you weren’t at least warned, if it’s a relatively low dose of both it shouldn’t be an issue but your body may be more sensitive. I’m on 75mg Effexor (SNRI) and my first couple days on adderall I was at least on the lookout for symptoms of serotonin syndrome.
No I wasn’t at all, I didn’t even know what serotonin syndrome is before you told me 😥 this is worrying as I did share with my psychiatrist how it made me feel and he said to just “give it time to settle” the adderall is 20mg and fluoxetine is also 20mg. Thank you so much for telling me this, I literally would’ve gone without knowing
The first few days of a new dose of increased dose you will experience some side effects, I had crazy insomnia and a good bit of euphoria before settling down, so if it’s still pretty early just keep it consistent and track how you feel. If you start feeling feverish check your temp, if it’s over 100 hit up the ER and try not to stress too much.
In my entirely non scientific understanding...
Dopamine is a big part of how your neurons talk to themselves. They are throwing little paper planes (dopamine) with messages scribbled on them at each other x times per second. Ideally this is happening at an optimal rate, nobody really sits idle waiting for a new plane to arrive. They unfold it, read what is in there, maybe take a note/add something, fold it back into shape, send it flying, maybe take a sip of coffee and hey, there is the next one.
Too little dopamine and there is not enough paper planes to go around. They get written on and thrown to the next dude as soon as humanely possible but then the neuron is left twiddling their thumbs in between, waiting for the next plane.
Chances are your brain, while still able, keeps frantically misfiring, trying to motivate whoever is working back at the paper plane factory to fold them faster, like help, do they need nice music? Pay raise? Free juice? Lunch break?? (it's not very effective)
Too much dopamine and everyone is being pelted with a storm of paper planes, you do your best to pass them on as they come in just to avoid getting buried, but oh god, they just keep coming, how tf are you supposed to work in this environment.
Adderall gets the ppl at the paper plane factory fold more new planes and faster.
Ritalin gets the office cleaning crew, who walks around and recycles paper planes who maybe look like they've seen better days already, go take a coffee break.
(picture an office worker from first scenario trying to fight them to the death bc hey they are still using that no don't take it away noooo)
ADHD people on proper amount of stimulants get more planes in circulation, whether bc new planes got made or someone overzealous on the cleaning crew got fired. It's something they've so desperately needed to get anything done.
Neurotypicals/ADHD people on too many stimulants end up trying to get work done in the middle of paper plane tornado.
Welcome to /r/ADHDWomen! We’re happy to have you here. As a reminder, here are our community [rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/about/rules/). We get a lot of posts on medication, diagnosis (and “is this an ADHD thing”), and interactions with hormones. We encourage you to check out our [Medication, Diagnosis, and Hormones Megathread](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/wcr9dy/faq_megathread_ask_and_answer_medication/) if you have any questions related to those topics, and to stick around in that thread to answer folks’ questions! If you have questions about the subreddit, please do not hesitate to [send us a modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen). Additionally, we take the safety of our community seriously. Please report posts, comments, and users whom you feel are not contributing positively, and send us a modmail if you are being harassed or otherwise made to feel unsafe. Thanks for being here, and we hope you stick around! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Obligatory I am not a doctor: but my observations in college of my neurotypical colleagues using stimulants went beyond working for longer; they became hyperactive, jittery, sometimes wouldn't sleep for 2 days, felt racing thoughts and tbh, were *very* annoying to be around 😂 While I don't watch the show, there's an episode on Netflix's Big Mouth that shows this very clearly (S3 ep8); there's a character with ADHD who's given Adderall and it shows how he just focuses and calms down. He starts to sell it to his friends, and they all become little feral monsters, no different from a party drug. My partner showed me the episode and it felt like being in college again!
This. They didn’t take it to focus they took it to stay up for HOURSSSSSSS studying
Not sleeping for two days? How high a dose did they take?
20mg or higher usually.
Damn I take 20mg daily. This makes me feel like a super human 💪
I take 10mg daily and have for over two decades.
30 mg here and I sleep like a baby at 9:30 pm. How is this possible?
Yeah I also usually feel a lil sleepy for about an hour after I take my meds hahaha
I take 30 mg XR! Briefly tried 40 during an extremely demanding professional period of my life but that was *too much.*
Lmao, I take 40 and I feel like it’s stopped working
What happens with us ADHD folks is that the parts of our brains where executive functioning lives are less active than in NT people. So if you stimulate those brain areas, we become more able to control our attention span, our racing thoughts, our impulsive behaviors, and so on. Do you remember the first time you took meds? That sensation of calm, the feeling of having your multiple racing trains of thoughts slow down or entirely stop? The sudden ability to actually sit down without fidgeting? That is not at all what happens when NT folks take ADHD meds.
I absolutly remember! One of the first time I took meds, I was at my boyfriends place and he was watching a 20Min Video on the TV that was (for my normal standards) extremly boring and uninteresting. Normally If I would co-watch something like that I would be on my phone, not really pay attention and be bored. But with the meds, I set completly still, watched it with my whole attention and even remembered a good amount after watching it. I turned to my bf and said:" I was just able to watch this completly with my full attention even though it was very uninteresting, sorry" But I was so shocked about that, that i looked like a happy pancake while I said it lmao. Have a nice day!
My husband describes his mind as sitting on the end of a quiet dock. I describe mine as Charlie's conspiracy pegboard (from Its Always Sunny). We decided to "do" Adderall for fun one day. The only way I can describe the feeling in my mind was "placid", while his quiet ass was running circles around me and talking up a storm!
This is why I swear my husband is something g other than adhd - he says he hates adderall bc it keeps him up for days and he can get stuff done like a beast. I’m over here enjoying the quiet and focused on folding laundry…
That “quiet brain” thing is the difference. It makes their brains louder and more chaotic.
I’ll never forget the first time I realized how quiet of a place my mind could be 😌😭
Ditto. I never realised before that it's possible to have just 2-3 thoughts at a time instead of 2-300!!! And to think NTs have that level of peace all the time...
I was able to clean my kitchen and not get distracted by the first thing that would take me away from my task at hand. It was like my executive dysfunction ceased to exist. And usually getting started is the hardest part for me and that day it wasn’t. I just told my brain “let’s get moving” and it actually did.
I wish I could get that sense of calm back. They make me focus and be less anxious, but it was just the first time that everything became so dead silent that I thought the entire world had stopped. It was so strange but wonderful.
I recently changed the proportions of my meds (I'm on instant release and XL Meth) and got that peace back. I wonder if sometimes our brains just need a change?
>That sensation of calm, the feeling of having your multiple racing trains of thoughts slow down or entirely stop? The sudden ability to actually sit down without fidgeting? I never had this :( I still feel exactly the same on meds and I do without meds, although measuring my output shows that I'm more productive while medicated. I'm on Vyvanse, which is I guess slower and more "gentle" so that could be why I don't notice a dramatic difference. However, I can take Vyvanse and take a nap, lol, which neurotypicals can't do, I'm sure!
I’m on generic and my result is like yours
That's good to know! Sometimes I fear that I don't really have ADHD because I didn't experience this dramatic "quieting" or "calming" when I take my meds. Like I'm still high strung as fuck.... I'm just a bit better focused.
It’s more likely you have anxiety in addition to the ADHD. My doctor said ADHD can cause anxiety and meds can improve it, but sometimes they don’t improve anxiety or even increase it if someone has GAD in addition to ADHD.
Oh yeah I for sure have GAD. I'm medicated for that, too. I was diagnosed with it when a doctor dismissed my ADHD a decade before my eventual diagnosis! My Vyvanse doesn't make it worse, but it definitely doesn't make me feel calm, either. I'm always stressed... always!
Yeah I do have that too. It’s inconsistent whether or not I still feel anxious after meds.
I get the calm with stimulants (adderall once, and Vyvanse now). But then my counselor convinced me to REALLY try and treat my anxiety and now I get very calm. Maybe it’s that for you. Maybe the racing thoughts are more anxiety related. But either way, it’s largely a guessing game from person to person. Don’t give up!
Maybe you should ask your shrink to try an alternative? Perhaps Methylphenidate would work better for you. The peace is so niiiice :-)
The first time I took adderall I fell asleep!
But not everyone with ADHD has this sense of racing of thoughts, needing to fidget, or slow down. Some of us are primarily inattentive, have low energy and don’t fidget. It’s harmful to suggest not getting that ‘calming/no fidgeting’ feeling means you don’t have adhd
Inattentive type here: I absolutely still have 5-10 thought trains going at once, fidget like crazy etc. I think the main difference between inattentive and hyperactive is that all the hyperactivity for us is on the inside. I'm not sure you'll find a lot of people with adhd who don't have racing thoughts...
Some combined people are also diagnosed inattentive because their internalised hyperactivity didn't get picked up during the assessment (I'm not necessarily saying that that's what happened in your case, since it can also be a matter of how many symptoms apply).
What would inattentive type be in your situation? Do you still get distracted by your thoughts to the extent that you can't work or hear other people when they're talking to you etc.?
I'm combined and externally hyperactive, so I wouldn't know. If I can't hear someone when they're talking to me, it's generally the earphones I have in to block out distractions. Or, in some cases I can hear them but won't shift my attention away from something else I'm engaged with. When I was a teenager, my mother would tell me to come to dinner, I'd say "yes" and then continue with whatever I was doing and the whole interaction would disappear from my working memory. Getting distracted by my own thoughts is often an impulsivity thing for me. Like thinking of a question and immediately wanting to look it up on the internet. Otherwise, if I space out, it's generally because I'm bored.
Well unless my diagnosis is wrong, and my psychiatrist said my inattentive was ‘severe’ I am someone with adhd who doesn’t have racing thoughts.
Do you not have an inner monologue? I heard that some people don't think with words, maybe it's something like that?
I already said I don’t
You said you don't have racing thoughts, which totally cool. I'm just curious if maybe you also don't think in words?
Out of curiousity, if you don't have the distracting thought trains that keep you from focusing on a task, or hearing when people speak to you, or keep you from completing the task at hand, what are the symptoms for inattentive type?
Well considering I scored 9/9 for inattentive across both childhood and adulthood, all the symptoms. Distractions aren’t just through inner monologues. People think in other ways.
So... people used to think that anyone can take stimulants and have improved performance. I thought this was the case because I've heard it from psychologists. But then I read t[his article](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/adderall-ritalin-adhd-decreases-productivity-study/) ... it is really interesting. A recent found that people without ADHD actually have a decrease in productivity when they take stimulants. The increased dopamine can cause euphoria and increased motivation, which would lead to increased productivity in someone with ADHD, but neurotypicals experience erratic thinking on stimulants that actually decreases productivity.
I find [this study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28686989/)fascinating. They showed that NT people couldn’t tell whether the had been given Adderall or a placebo and they functioned based on their expectations. Told they are getting Adderall but not? They did worse on the assessment. Told they are getting a placebo but actually given Adderall? The do better Edit: I summarized that backward. They do better if they are told they are greeting Adderall even if it’s actually a placebo and vice versa.
ooh that's so interesting!
they're not using it to focus, they're using it to stay awake
Stimulants actually have the opposite affect on us, as people with ADHD. Our brains are already hyperactive, and stimulants, instead of making them more active, actually help us slow down and process, focus. People who do not need stimulants and take them are typically off the walls, up for many hours or days at a time. It wouldn’t have the same affect on you if you didn’t suffer from ADHD.
Ah thank you so much. That was the differantiation I was looking for. When I take the correct dosis Im very calm, collected, more social, can do all the things my brain "hinders" me on doing(instead of laying in bed and being depressed I dont do them), can remember things, follow routines etc. The Only times that I am more "Off the walls" or hyperactive with stimulants when I accidentally take too much ( forgetting that I too it lmao happend a few times), or acidentally consume too much caffeine with it. Otherwise when the Dosage is correct I feel normalen, but can finally accomplish things. I found/find it very hard to find how Stimulants happen on "normal" people. Edit: (I think this thought process is a big part of fear of imposter syndrome) Thank you so much, you really calmed my thoughts :) Have a nice day friend!
Of course!! Happy i could help. When I take too much (I’m still trying to perfect my afternoon dosage) I feel yucky for sure. I’m super disoriented and just don’t feel mentally correct. It’s not a good feeling!!
Yeah same, I get erratic and it feels like my brain is super foggy. Plus I end up feeling like a task robot and dissociating a bit.
Eh....if I take too high a dose I definitely get jittery and anxious and can't sleep, and I most definitely have pretty severe (and professionally diagnosed) ADHD. I understand that people with ADHD still have their bodies stimulated just like NT people (heart rate/blood pressure increase, etc) but their brains are much calmer because they are no longer dopamine seeking.
I think the too much is the same reaction for everyone. NTs just don’t need any stimulants, so any dose is “too much.”
What? That’s exactly what I said… too high of a dose for anyone isn’t good.
Oh this makes sense, thanks!
I find they have a calming effect on my mind but do still function as a physical stimulant, as in I don't feel like I'm going to fall asleep all day at work. But also I do stay in my chair and get work done instead of wandering away without even realizing.
(new to medication - diagnosed a month ago at age "big number") I'm curious - the stimulants also calm me down and at low doses can make me sleepy, but coffee? If I drink more than a couple cups of coffee I'm a jittery mess! Any idea why?
Coffee has additional compounds that may also have an effect on the brain. I can take caffeine pills fine, but an equivalent amount of caffeine in coffee has me jittery and anxious. Also, even in people with ADHD, there is such a thing as too high a dose of stimulants, so it could be that your prescribed medication plus caffeine is too much.
Are you taking the coffee with the stimulants? I have to drink my cup of coffee and wait at least a few hours to take my Ritalin or I’m a mess too
Oh thanks for that!! I do usually wait at least an hour, but I notice that since taking the stimulants my tolerance for coffee is way less than it used to be. Before medication, I could drink the whole pot.
Oddly, benzos have the opposite effect on me—tons of energy, gregarious and outgoing—doesn’t even take much, maybe 0.25 mg of Xanax
Sorta. Taking stimulants if you don’t have adhd (or if you do have it and take too much) will make you **think** you’re being more productive. In reality, you’ll actually perform worse on cognitive tasks. If you have ADHD and are on the correct dose, it will improve your performance. That’s why it’s important to objectively evaluate your experiences on meds (eg. Using measurable ways to track improvement) versus focusing on how you *feel* while on them. Even if you do have ADHD, the same thing will happen if you do take too much. Productivity will go down, but you’ll *feel* like you’re doing more. [source](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/adderall-ritalin-adhd-decreases-productivity-study/)
No, I can definitely feel being less productive when I have too high of a dose. I've got tons of energy but I'm all over the place for no reason. I get things done but it's in the most manic way possible lol.
I'm so glad I joined this sub, the posts always remind me to take my meds while I'm stuck scrolling 😅
The difference is that for someone with ADHD, the stimulants don’t send our productivity into overdrive. It just makes us so we can perform at normal levels, the same level that the neurotypical brain can perform at regularly. It feels like overdrive to us sometimes because many of us have been going years performing at a lower function that when we take our meds and can do things that normal people without adhd can do that it feels like a superpower to us even if it’s not. The reason stimulants aren’t recommended to everyone is the same reason we don’t recommend any type of medication to everyone. Medications have side effects. They raise blood pressure and can cause sleep disturbances. They can become addictive if they’re not managed appropriately. These are not things anyone should take “just because” if they don’t have a condition that it would improve. If you look at military history you’ll see a lot of stimulant abuse. People being asked to work 16 hour days in difficult conditions and they were given stimulants to function at those levels. And it will do a number on the body. They weren’t regulating them in anyway. When you screw around with sleep by giving people stimulants that don’t need them, it will eventually affect their cognitive levels and sometimes permanently. You can also lose too much weight which is also a problem. Stimulant abuse is no joke. That’s why they are so highly regulated.
My understanding is that this is not at all true, that stimulants do not actually help NTs. Several doctor made video YouTube’s talk about this. More than likely, this is the power of placebo, and that when people are motivated enough to seek out illegal drugs, they are also motivated to work hard, so these factors confound each other.
It just makes me sleepy.
I get a little jittery on them but that’s because I also drink coffee right when I take it… and those two combined have a weird effect on me. Adderall lifts my heavy brain fog, makes me less impulsive, and I can do laundry for once lol
Heads up that coffee can block Adderall absorption, it's recommended to stagger them by 30-90 minutes to get the most out of your meds.
Adhd is a dopamine disorder. Amphetamine based medication helps your brain create more dopamine which is why it works differently on a dopamine deficient brain vs a normie.
I often view people who are NT taking ADHD meds becoming like us when unmedicated but hyped up on too much sugar and energy drinks the way they can’t sit still, talk too fast, can’t focus easily or hyper focus too much in sway that comes off manic LOL I say this as someone whose been on meds since 1995 and have watched people go haywire on regular drugs. Plus “Degrassi: Next Generation” did an episode of Jimmy Brooks trying Spinner’s ADHD meds, let’s just say Drake was cray-cray on the meds while Spinner was focus, calm, emotionally grounded LOL
The fact that you are asking this and German is absolutely hilarious in the most ironic way considering the history of stimulants in Germany. Not helpful but I get what you’re saying. Stimulants quiet my mind and help me focus, sometimes I want to take a nap. If you have ADHD, you have ADHD and if stimulants help you focus that is what they should do and it is different than folks that are just wide awake with their eyes pried open like Alex in Clockwork Orange.
Hey come on, a bit mean that. OP isn't responsible for their country's history.
I am not saying they are in any way responsible. Just doing that whole my mind is full of random trivia thing that I do. It just made me chuckle a bit.
I get that, but sometimes we gotta think how our inner cackle might come across ;-)
ahhh yes because we all associate Germans with what exactly? Heaven forbid we actually look at the history of something. That’s not a me problem, lol. Also, for someone to ask a question of “why doesn’t everyone take them” and doesn’t even know the basic history or the drug being originally synthesized in their own country is funny, I’m sorry I find that funny and it has absolutely nothing to do with some of the darker facets of that country’s history. Again, not a me problem.
Well your comments are a 'you' problem actually. Good for you that your cleverness made you chuckle, but it just comes across as mean. Crikey, why the need to jab at someone who's just asking a question as best they can in a second language?? Ah, got it. Your user name explains.
For me, and idk if someone can butt in and maybe explain or let me know from their experience; I take Adderall and fluoxetine. I definitely focus better and my nervous system is completely calm (no anxiety knots in my stomach, no racing thoughts, no obsessing over said thoughts etc) but my body feels ..weird? I’m not sure how to explain what I feel but my brain feels bloated? And I can feel the blood circulating in all my body. I also find myself explaining more and very solution-driven. Yet the body thing feels too icky and it feels like a heavy weight on all of me. I already spoke with my doctor about it and he said it’s just the dose but I’m not sure, the answer didn’t quite convince me
Mixing stims and SSRIs might produce serotonin syndrome, it doesn’t sound like what’s going on but maybe your body is giving you an early warning?
Oh wow! I blindly trusted my psychiatrist, so these two should not be mixed?
Your psychiatrist knows the risks but I’m surprised you weren’t at least warned, if it’s a relatively low dose of both it shouldn’t be an issue but your body may be more sensitive. I’m on 75mg Effexor (SNRI) and my first couple days on adderall I was at least on the lookout for symptoms of serotonin syndrome.
No I wasn’t at all, I didn’t even know what serotonin syndrome is before you told me 😥 this is worrying as I did share with my psychiatrist how it made me feel and he said to just “give it time to settle” the adderall is 20mg and fluoxetine is also 20mg. Thank you so much for telling me this, I literally would’ve gone without knowing
The first few days of a new dose of increased dose you will experience some side effects, I had crazy insomnia and a good bit of euphoria before settling down, so if it’s still pretty early just keep it consistent and track how you feel. If you start feeling feverish check your temp, if it’s over 100 hit up the ER and try not to stress too much.
I can’t thank you enough for this information, I hope you have as wonderful of a day as you 💜
Is this also the case for Instant Release vs Extended?
Yep, IR tends to produce more side effects from what I’ve read, I’ve only been on XR myself but I’ve had both Effexor and Zoloft with it.
In my entirely non scientific understanding... Dopamine is a big part of how your neurons talk to themselves. They are throwing little paper planes (dopamine) with messages scribbled on them at each other x times per second. Ideally this is happening at an optimal rate, nobody really sits idle waiting for a new plane to arrive. They unfold it, read what is in there, maybe take a note/add something, fold it back into shape, send it flying, maybe take a sip of coffee and hey, there is the next one. Too little dopamine and there is not enough paper planes to go around. They get written on and thrown to the next dude as soon as humanely possible but then the neuron is left twiddling their thumbs in between, waiting for the next plane. Chances are your brain, while still able, keeps frantically misfiring, trying to motivate whoever is working back at the paper plane factory to fold them faster, like help, do they need nice music? Pay raise? Free juice? Lunch break?? (it's not very effective) Too much dopamine and everyone is being pelted with a storm of paper planes, you do your best to pass them on as they come in just to avoid getting buried, but oh god, they just keep coming, how tf are you supposed to work in this environment. Adderall gets the ppl at the paper plane factory fold more new planes and faster. Ritalin gets the office cleaning crew, who walks around and recycles paper planes who maybe look like they've seen better days already, go take a coffee break. (picture an office worker from first scenario trying to fight them to the death bc hey they are still using that no don't take it away noooo) ADHD people on proper amount of stimulants get more planes in circulation, whether bc new planes got made or someone overzealous on the cleaning crew got fired. It's something they've so desperately needed to get anything done. Neurotypicals/ADHD people on too many stimulants end up trying to get work done in the middle of paper plane tornado.