My Neg. Effects Of Adderall...anyone Get These?

[seriousperson]

tony, you may not notice it yourself, but that was a very focused post!

[Jennita]

Originally Posted by seriousperson

Jennita, what a simple, clear explanation of the side effect & brain reaction! It made sense to me.

I always have side effects to everything; drugs never work the same for me as others. It's like my brain has its own anxiety attack when I take something that alters its chemistry.

KawaiiGal, I've had ADD, OCD, depression and anxiety all my life, with text-book examples of each. In addition to Adderall, I'm taking other medications, both to deal with my other problems, as well as to counteract the side effects. For instance, I'm taking Requip to tone down jitters and eliminate painful muscle spasms (which does concern me--that I am taking something to cover up a side effect to a drug I don't like having to take).
For *anxiety* I am taking small doses of risperdal, which, in larger doses, is used for schizophrenia. I am definitely less anxious now than I was before I took the Adderall, which I'm still taking, though in low doses.
I'm also taking Zoloft (for depression) and Trazadone at night, but not because its an anti-depressant, but to off-set the Adderall so I can sleep before 4:30am (not too happy with the idea of that anti-side effect either).
Sometimes I take a 5mg of Ritalin around 2pm, which helps me focus in the afternoon at work, but also makes it hard for me to go to sleep at night.

KawaiiiGal, Your description of symptoms and side effects are very similar to what I've heard/read elsewhere. I'm a little different than most, in that I'm still only taking 10mg of Adderall after about 6 months.

Thanks for the compliment. It's a shame you have to take all those pills but at least you are sticking to low dosages. Basically though, the docs have you on uppers and downers. From what I've read, this is the stuff that can later on get you a bi-polar diagnosis, if you don't already have one. It's those high/low brain chemicals that are symptoms of that disease and almost everyone with it has had some history of drugs, either legal or illegal, or even alcohol and cigarettes since both effect brain chemistry too.

I do believe that perhaps a person can be born with bi-polar, but I doubt many really are as I'm very suspicious that chemicals themselves actually cause real chemical imbalances, whether it be by accident, prescription or abuse. So it's no surprise to me they find brain damage in such people in pet or MRI scans since chemicals are capable of doing this.

The brain scans of ADD kids is questionable since usually they have already taken ADD drugs..in other studies, sometimes the brain size differences or usage of glucose in the frontal lobes could be because of the non-ADD control kids being alot younger than the ADD kids in the studies, in other words, sometimes studies paid for by drug companies can be manipulated to produce positive results. As we've seen in recent accusations of hidden negative result clinical trials of AD's when a certain NY district attorney started investigating company records.

What I really don't like is that they cannot tell by any biological test for any one patient if their neurotransmitters are really that low/high or not and they have no standard measures to determine it. It's all based on "drug effects" and theory. They really can't prove any biological disease in these things, especially when most people diagnoised with a mental disorder pass all physicals and biological tests.

This is unlike diabetes, where there are diagnostic tests to determine blood sugar levels consistancy and also home kits for patients so they know when and how much insulin they do really need. IMHO, it's dangerous to play around guessing about brain chemicals since brain chemicals not only control emotions and impulses, sleep, etc. but also our hormone and nervous system functions.

Anyway, just be careful like you are being with your meds, if you can't stop taking them. Beware of tolerance and the need for higher dosage in the future because that's what may cause some problems for you later. Good luck.

[StitchCarver]

I would think that people who abuse drugs are self medicating and that the cause of chemical imbalances isn't the actual abuse. The abuse only perpetuates a problem that is already there. Just my opinion.

[Jennita]

Originally Posted by StitchCarver

I would think that people who abuse drugs are self medicating and that the cause of chemical imbalances isn't the actual abuse. The abuse only perpetuates a problem that is already there. Just my opinion.

Yes, that's the theory of the medical community, like what came first, the chicken or the egg; really, we'll never know, but the medical community are bold enough to say they know it's absolutely the egg.....although they have no real proof of that.

You are entitled to your opinion. Here's mine...it isn't chemical imbalance that causes one to self-medicate. To me it seems most people with troubled lives. horrible lives, go looking for relief sometimes. Relief can come in a bottle, pill or needle. Sometimes it can happen just when someone is attempting to bond with others, to be part of something. Peer pressure, family pressure, life pressure....drugs just will take it all away.

Of course, then once a person is into it, the brain does crave it or needs it to feel normal or good since it starts to depend on the drug for that; at the same time, it tries to build tolerance by setting up opposing neurotransmitters... there's the real chemical imbalance.

Then there is the issue of "accidental addiction". Some pharmaceuticals can cause physical dependancy, tolerance and tolerance withdrawals. Those things can lead to higher need of the brain to have the drugs in order to function since the brain gets used to the chemical doing all the work so now it can't. Plus the brain still tries to build tolerance as self-defense, creating opposing neuros to combat the drug and maintain homostatis. But again, this is not normal and the balance of proper neuros is out of sorts as a result.

Anyway, "downregulation" of receptors is known to happen when the brain receptors are continually exposed to a drug. Downregulation is a desensitizing of receptors or a sort of dying off of them. This would seem to be a form of functional brain damage.

So drugs themselves, for whatever reason one is on them or starts them, can cause changes in the brain. Other psychoactive substances are also culprits such as alcohol and cigarettes.

Chicken or the egg? I don't claim to really, absolutely know but it does seem that most mentally ill people, I'm talking the truly ill ones...not ones with shyness or PMS....have a history of drugs/chemicals in one form or another so with that consistancy I would be highly suspect of the drugs since drugs do, in time, show considerable ability to damage normal brain functions.

I've read that, with drug-free time, the brain can recover from downregulation. But it could take months/years for complete recovery in some people and that's where sometimes people just cannot do it or are mistakenly told they'll never be able to do without some sort of drug so that fear keeps them on something.

But of course, I'm not saying every single case of mental illness is created ONLY by drugs or alcohol....that would be like saying there is only one cause of cancer.

But, drugs seem to be in the top catagory of suspects.

[StitchCarver]

It doesn't make sense to me. If what you're sayiung is true, then all mental illness is caused purely by your enviroment. It would also state, that all medications for mental illnesses actually cause chemical imbalances. And because many medications actually work for people, like SSRI's and Stimulants for example, and because according to your theory, they cause chemical imbalances, then to help many mental illnesses meanss giving someone a chemical imbalance?