Adderall and ADD productivity
 

Well, it finally happened. I was diagnosed ADD and prescribed Adderall last week. Since then I have been able to stay focused on the days project while still dealing with email and IMs. I've got a ton more energy as well. I can see why this stuff is addictive.

However, I have learned that Adderall helps with focus, it doesn't fix lack of organization. I still need to work on that.

I know there have been some ADD threads here before. But does anyone have experience with how to organize yourself with all this new found focus? It's pretty shocking. I no longer get sidetracked by listening to the conversations of others in the office. I no longer forget what I was working on. I do however focus so much on one particular project that I will work on it all day, and forget about the 10 other small projects/things I was hoping to get done during the day.

Hey buddy

...give me a call!

:-)

there's not an organization pill too?

Organization must be learned. There are a million books on it. Hit Amazon.

make a list and focus on it the adderall will get u through it

Thanks for the advice!


I agree. I have been reading up on organization for years. I have paid thousands of dollars for people to organize me and set up systems, only to use them for a month and then just not follow through. I'm guessing with my new found focus this will be a little easier to follow through with, though still a struggle

Thats exactly what Brad suggested.
Have you heard of GTD (Getting things Done)? A while ago I was turned onto it and the Things App for Mac/iPhone/iPad but I never could get myself to follow through with it. It operates off the same principle as GTD, but I found if the program wasn't always open, I would forget about it.



haha. I hate taking pills for anything. I forget to take my daily vitamins all the time. I never take pain meds, and anti-biotics have to be forced down my throat. So far this stuff has made such a difference in my focus, that I haven't forgotten to take it yet. lol

is this something you will take for the rest of your life?

Buddy,

I was diagnosed with ADHD all most a year ago and I am on Vyvanse which is like Adderall. I wish they found out about my ADHD 20 years ago

Their are a lot of ways to getting organized plus I also work with a consultant (kind of like a shrink) and she keeps me on track. EMail me and I will send you some info.

Jay

Adderall is a motherfucking wonder drug.

I just read about ADD, what was your symptoms?

I have problems focusing on something as well.

Thanks, will do my friend.

It seems so. lol

ADD is a fake disease to sell addictive drugs that make drug companies billions in profit :2 cents:

it is a slippery slope to get on to become reliant on altering your brain chemistry with a drug :2 cents:

I'd like to know this too?

Or can you take it when you need to buckle down?

And you're an idiot. That's my 2 cents.

i needz me suma dat!

thank you, i love you too :winkwink:

my dad is a pharmacist and i used to always hear him talk about ADD being over prescribed as an excuse for kids acting up. i used to believe it was a fake disease as well.

in '97 i started college. in '02 i stopped going to college. i had ~9-12 hours (depending on grades) that needed to be done.

my wife is a 1st grade teacher and we talked about ADHD all the time (ADD isn't a proper term anymore). she would always tell me how i'm worse than some of her kids with how little i can focus. so i went to my dr.

there is an organizational pill. not exactly, but it's one of the major functions. straterra is for ADHD and it's not a barbiturate. i tend to 'like' things and was really concerned with narcotics and getting addicted, so i started with straterra. you have to build up to the dose. after 3 weeks, my office was spotless. everything was in it's place and my life had changed. only problem, it made me sick as shit. back to dr.

vyvanse (someone mentioned above) is far and away the best drug for ADHD on the market right now. it's powerful and long lasting (almost too long). i started on that and loved it. then i changed ins and it wasn't covered. 165 a month is too much. i'm on adderall now and take it twice a day. my organization sucks but i've never gotten so much done. i started all this last january and spent most of 2010 taking classes.

one class was a psychology class regarding adolescents and behavior. ADHD was a major section and i learned a ton. it's easy for people without ADHD to call it shit, and that's fine. but consider yourself lucky. i'm mad i didn't pursue this course earlier in life. i'm 33 and just graduated college. going back to school with my new friend (adderall) was a completely different experience. i made better grades and found participating in class was easier because i knew what was going on. while most people grow out of ADHD, ~15% don't.

congrats sharky on finding this out. it's a life changing event. *ADHD is over-prescribed. i will not discount that at all. but it's a real issue and people dealing with it aren't always bad kids.

Reminds me of the movie Limitless he sure had a lot of focus when he took that pill that looks like a contact lens :)

You didn't get the pills from a long lost brother in law you ran into on the street, did you?

There we go ...

you don't have to take it all the time. no need to take it on the weekends unless your doing something. and if you need to 'buckle down', you can take one or a half of one and get to work

what am i, chopped liver? :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

the fact remains that you are altering your brain chemistry to fit your goal of "productivity", and the changes in brain chemistry are long lasting and persistent, for better and worse perhaps


I wouldn't want to date and enter into a long term relationship with anyone that is taking these kinds of drugs :2 cents:

lots of research suggesting ADD is over-diagnosed.

pseudo-ADD
http://www.google.com/search?q=pseud...ient=firefox-a

i don't think anyone would say it isn't. i think it was something around 5-7 times over prescribed.

these drugs alter the activity in the frontostriatal region of the brain affecting dopamine in the region. the stimulants are fast acting and short lived, so they're not 'long lasting' and it's not persistent. if you take the drugs today, you get the effect. if you don't take them tomorrow, you wouldn't feel or act any different b/c you took them the day before. there's no crashing or detox

I think that amphetamine is unhealthy but good luck.
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:warning This is sig area! :warning

Ah. I don't like the idea of people taking medicine anymore than they have to. But disregarding someone else's illness simply because you can't "see" it is incredibly naïve and ignorant.

better living through chemistry...what a joke.

i think most people could be diagnosed for ADHD at various points in their life.

I have high level ADD, I remember they gave me a test once of 15 things that people with ADD experience, and if you had like 5 or 6 of them you probably had it.. I was 12/15.

There's lots of advantages and disadvantages. I haven't medicated it since I was younger, but I did try many times.. Imipramine, ritalin (gave me hives), bunch of others.. Adderall worked okay for me, I should try it again really. I had to order it specially from the US because it's not available in Canada, or wasn't at the time.

Nothing like taking your methamphetamines in the morning...

The other medications just "normalized" me. They take away your highs and your lows.. I'm not willing to live my life like that. Like copywrite said "Hope the sober pills don't coma-kill you"

Here's what you should do to keep on track, taught to me in an article about some oldschool famous rich guy.

When you're ready to start working, write down the 3 most important things that you could do for your company, the 3 most pressing issues.

Then start working on the hardest one first. If you get the hardest one done, then you can move on. If you don't, you'll continue it the next day when you write down your 3 things again.

If there are more than 3 things you need to do, you can keep them in a for later file, just don't work on them until they become pressing or important, or if you need a break from the hard things.

Also use the few minutes rule, that if something can be accomplished within a few minutes, don't write it down at all, just get it done now while you're thinking about it.

"if you don't take them tomorrow, you wouldn't feel or act any different b/c you took them the day before. there's no crashing or detox"

I don't buy that, any time you play around with the dopamine serotonin and other brain chemical balance you are making changes in the brain, maybe subtle and unnoticeable, but the longer you do it I believe the greater the chance for permanent changes in the brain chemistry

I agree with you that it is unlikely that there would be issues if it is a drug that is taken on rare occasion, but any drug that is taken daily for a prolonged period is something that is likely to have longer term or perhaps lifetime effects and should not be taken lightly

Are you planning on dating Sharky?

focus on answering my ICQ! :winkwink:

I'm no expert, but I was under the impression that with these drugs there is usually one path... all is great at first, but then your body gets used to it, so you need to take higher and higher doses to get the same effects, and before you know it you are hopelessly addicted... :2 cents:

Congratulations. You are now high on speed.

wow, adderall is methamphetamine? we're prescribing our children meth? had no idea.

amphetamine, but close enough, basically same thing as meth...

well, not as bad as meth eh, but still. 5-7x over-prescribed amphetamines to children is outrageous.

I need to try that one day..

Make a To Do List everyday and check off as you finish each task.

y'all don't already make to-do lists? well, start, 1st on the list- make a fucking to-do list.

daily life is not that complicated.