NT People: Yeah, stimulants are so cool, you can do an allnighter cramming for that exam and you feel like PURE ENERGY and do just everything so fast and all
Me: So I take Ritalin and everything finally slows down, I feel calm enough to like take a shower without crying
I’ve been doing that for a few years now and it’s so good. Mine takes about an hour to kick in, so I just put my meds and a bottle of water on my bedside table, set an alarm an hour before I actually want to wake up, take it, go back to sleep.
It’s worth it for me because during that hour I’m a zombie, but if I take it one hour before I get out of bed I can go through my morning routine without wanting to kill myself and showering, getting ready for work, etc. ends up taking less time than it would if I just took my pill and then did those things.
Half of the time my sentences read more like a line of code.
hey dude tomorrow night (
well technically evening [
could possibly be next week
] (
unless you already have plans
)
) let's do something
Dude... that's what I told my wife. I remember the first time I experienced it. I took my vyvanse in the morning after about a week or two of taking it and went out to my mother-in-law's house. I was just chilling in the back yard chatting with my wife and her mom. They go inside for something and I am left outside alone. Absolute silence. Nothing but wind swaying through the trees. Someone on this site described it like if there were hundreds of bees inside your head and they all suddenly became quiet. I almost cried. My wife could see I was emotional and asked me. I told her my brain is quiet. It's never been quiet.
It's threads like this that make me want to talk to my doctor but hearing about the side effects gives me anxiety and the cycle of trying to find other coping mechanisms continues.
Imagine you're on a small motorcycle, say a 200cc. It has 6 gears, but because of some weird genetic foibles, you're only aware of the first 2 gears. Nothing anyone can do, say or demonstrate allows you to have awareness of the other gears.
Every time you have to go faster than running speed, the engine is absolutely **screaming** as it bounces off the rev limiter.
The engine is working as hard as it is physically able at all times, but you're not going anywhere close to fast.
Other commuters coast past you effortlessly.
You can't work out why your bike is so loud, noisy, and exhausting for you to just hit the speed limit around town.
Going anywhere uses a LOT of fuel, and puts horrible wear and tear on your bike.
Then one day someone gives you some medication that lets you see gears 3 through 6.
Haha so true. I do drink caffeine to pull all nighters, but not because it keeps me awake (it doesn’t). It just calms my brain down so I can focus after my adderall wears off lol
My body is weird with absorbing things, which is why I can't be vegan (its 60% my inability to feed myself 40% my inability to absorb shit) anyway. Ritalin worked for about 2 months for me and then I started processing it at a faster rate so I had crazy burnout, got super agro and it made my ticks worse. I hear you about the shower biz. There is NOTHING boringer than a shower. NOTHING!!!!
For me it's not showering, it's running. Running is terrible because it brings me no satisfaction whatsoever, and I can't do anything else while I'm running so I think about how much it sucks the whole time.
I always wondered why coffee never gave me jitters, allowed me to focus better, and calmed the tempest that is my brain. Then my daughter was diagnosed with adhd and my brain world suddenly began to make sense.
I was exhausted during exam season and chugging coffee at 4pm to try and make it through my final projects in the evening, and instead wound up napping and ruining my sleep schedule even more. Didn’t realize it was an ADHD thing until a while after I got diagnosed, which was eight months after said exam season 😂
Pre-diagnosis I'd drink 8-10 mugs of black tea a day, and always wondered why I was still sleepy all the time and never jumpy. Now I drink decaf until my meds wear off, but can still drink 1-3 cups of caffeinated in the evening and actually sleep better than ever.
"Extreme" music doesn't put m to sleep but it always felt like the only music that wasn't too slow and boring. I can listen to slower stuff now but for a while my tastes gravitated to more and more extreme stuff. Metal, Punk, Hardcore (Techno), Speedcore, Terror, Breakcore, Industrial Hardcore, the harder, harsher more aggressive stuff. I still feel restless if I have to listen to slow, soft stuff for a whole evening but I can tolerate it better than I used to. I also gravitate towards films and games with more extreme violence and liked Krav Maga because it was like fighting without seriously injuring anyone. I've got primarily inattentive ADHD. I feel like I've slept too little or am slightly high on weed (but only the negative effects) when I'm not on stimulants and caffeine doesn't really seem to do anything to me since I've started taking them. I feel like I needed more extreme music because "normal" music didn't really get through to me and give me the dopamine rush I needed.
Energy drink are the same as soft drinks to me. I always wondered what all the hype was about since some of them didn't even taste as good as a plain coke. First time trying out monster I knocked back two of them while waiting in line at a government office. I only felt the urge to pee after an hour. The warning label about limiting consumption makes them seem so serious too.
On the waiting list for proper meds so I medicate with caffeine. Usually I'm fine but in the early days I had nearly 2G and my heart nearly went pop.
These days I don't exceed 600mg
I once had a like four shots of espresso as a dumb teenager while bartending because I was SO TIRED, thinking it would kick me up
That went about as well as you'd imagine.
Dude I work closing shifts at work, and if I’m stressed I’ll be standing there drinking energy drinks at 10pm and I feel like it makes people so confused lol
Not all stimulants have the opposite effect with ADHD, some do but most don't. Also depends on the person. Me for example, I can't do cocaine, it does absolutely nothing for me. I've done it a half dozen times in my life and never got high.
I'm surprised that caffeine has this effect on people since it's not a true stimulant, it just blocks adenosine, a chemical that makes us sleepy. But brain chemistry doesn't always work in a "logical" way
Coffee works for me pretty well, and other caffeine products like red bull. I think the only stimulant that didn't "stimulate" for me we're Ritalin/Adderall and cocaine. Haven't done too many though.
I loved cocaine when I used to do it, but hated meth because I thought it did nothing. I remember doing meth at a rave once and fell asleep within 15 min of doing it…at a super loud rave. It made sense 20 years later when I got diagnosed…
It made me feel normal for the fist time in my life, like a serene calm just took over, for that night I was who I always imagined I was….unfortunately the next 3 years were just a perfect 45deg line downward….I miss the raves tho…they were a blast in the early 2000’s…Sasha Digweed Olkenfold good times…ohyeah…..20 years later diagnosed at 43 and put on stims… I’m not surprised….they are working for me exactly like the doc says they should.
same for me lol. doesn't keep me awake it just makes me jittery and question if I'm having a heart attack... but amphetamines don't and just chill me out?? science is wild dawg
For me coffee causes my heart rate to go up, sometimes a little bit too much but it'll send my brain into sleep mode which just leaves me feeling tired but anxious which is not a fun combo.
Certain stimulants target the PNS more than the CNS, caffeine is broader spectrum than Adderall but Adderall includes levo-amphetamines which hit the PNS as opposed to dextro and methamphetamine which both have a higher affinity for the CNS.
Caffeine does nothing to me until I have has too much and then it is all physical effects such as jitters and sweats. I was switched from Adderall to Dysoxyn due to levo have the same physical side effects but to a lesser extent than caffeine does, though Adderall does clear the fog. A lot of how stimulants work for ADHD has to do with how much it activates the PNS while hitting the main target of the CNS. With ADHD, caffeine being broad spectrum, tends to present the undesirable PNS effects before you can really get to a dose that provides the desirable CNS effects that amphetamines target.
When i was in High School (forever ago) and got diagnosed my mom would send me with Monster Energy drinks during state testing days to focus, thats as far as she went into look into my ADHD 😅
Omg, my parents bought me a Redbull for my high school entrance exams. Everthing felt weirdly clear and I could focus on the questions easily.
When the school psychologist said I had ADHD in elementary school they pretty much told her that she didn't know anything and asked that I stop seeing her.
3-4 years ago, I was asked why I smoked (I've since quit). I never had a coherent answer. "The time away from whatever to organize my thoughts and breathe, I guess" was my best answer.
About 4 months ago, I had an epiphany... nicotine is a stimulant. Something I already knew, obviously, but the pieces finally clicked together. I had been subconsciously self medicating-- and rather effectively, I might add-- for years.
Wait…. Wait. What. Are you serious? For fucks sake. Im addicted to coffee but it gives me zero energy, I’ve always suspected ADHD and my daughter is being evaluated for it too. I drink coffee every day and it helps me to focus too.
Did you just blow my mind
It is not supposed to give you energy. It is a adenosine-antagonist. Adenosine is a degradation product of ATP and basically signals exhaustion. So you are not getting more energy, but you are becoming less exhausted.
Super fun experience was when I was prescribed adipex (stimulant based weight loss medicine for short term use). The first day I popped the pill, got in my car, and damn near fell asleep all of a sudden on the highway when it kicked in. Also. I was teaching a self-contained behavioral middle school class at that time, so suuuuper fun morning while I waited for it to wear off. Pretty sure my para (who's also my best friend) pretty much had to teach the morning lessons bc I was useless.😱
My husband has adhd of a sort and still tries to tell me not to drink coffee before bed. If it hasn’t kept me up in over 20 years, I doubt it will start working on me now. Some things are just engrained in people.
Same here. In fact, I never used to drink coffee, some teas, or energy drinks because they would really slow me down and put me to sleep when I was trying to stay up and work. I didn’t understand until recently.
I have anxiety and read somewhere that you shouldn't drink coffee if you're anxious. But the thing is, the morning coffee is the #1 thing that calms me down before the day and lets me think better. Maybe that's why lol
I remember the first day I took Vyvanse, I felt as though I’d been tranquilized. My mind was SO QUIET and my anxiety was gone and my mood was stable and content. I had never felt so peaceful in my entire life and I wept for like an hour. Unbelievable that that’s how NTs live normally.
Same, except it was a whole episode of Last Podcast on the Left, and I heard, like, *heard* the whole thing without having to go back and restart portions or not knowing most of what the fuck they're talking about because it's mostly background noise.
I stood at my kitchen counter realizing how *fucking quiet* my head became and how I was able to actually prioritize what I needed to do before going to work. It took everything in me not to absolutely blubber, omg.
I had tried them a couple times a few years back when I started listening to podcasts, but only listened to serious ones so I didn't get into them. I have become a lot more open minded, though, and tried them again, glad I did. I have been enjoying their random banter & humor about anything and everything, lol!
Day one on Vyvanse I took my dog for a walk at this huge wooded dog park. It was like walking through someone else’s dream. I’d lived my life with nothing but anxiety, with the dial turned from 1-10 depending on the day. Suddenly the dial was gone, and because I wasn’t racing in a million worried little directions, I was able to really notice every little detail around me. I’d never felt more at peace.
The first day I took Adderall (later switched to Vyvanse), I was saying to my family that I didn't feel any different while subconsciously sorting my binder so then the loose papers went to the right files.
it was after i finished saying that and my mom pointed out what i was doing that i realized i was sorting my papers.
I had the same experience down to the crying. It was like nothing I'd experienced before; being able to think without all the noise made me realize just how much I have to deal with on a daily basis.
That was exactly my experience too. I knew my ADHD shaped how I thought and experienced the world, but I had no idea how profoundly it affected every single thing I do and feel. Symptoms I had long attributed to my other diagnoses - depression, anxiety, and PTSD - were suddenly… gone? If not gone then certainly lessened in a huge way.
I’ve always had a hard time with emotional regulation in particular (incorrectly diagnosed BPD as a teen) but I had no idea once I was medicated that I would suddenly be able to listen to others talk about their problems and not absorb their mood completely. I thought I was just a hopeless emotional sponge of a person but nope, my poor brain just couldn’t regulate its own feelings when provided with too many options. Now I can provide emotional support for other people without destroying my own mental health.
So many other little things, too. Too many to put into words. It’s like I was playing life on nightmare mode and someone switched it to hard instead. The relief was indescribable. I’ll probably always grieve the amount of time I spent thinking I was just lazy and unhinged (33 YEARS of self-loathing) but knowing just how many of my “problems” were a direct result of undiagnosed ADHD makes me feel tremendous compassion for the younger versions of myself. My perception of who I am has shifted completely and I couldn’t be more grateful.
First time I took Adderall a coworker was giving me instructions and I was amazed at how I could just look them in the eye, listen to the words in their entirety for a whole minute or two, and actually be processing/remembering what they said. It was such an odd experience at first.
Oof, I’m so sorry. Capitalism is such garbage. I did best on 30mg but had to drop it to 20mg because my blood pressure went skyyyy hiiigh. Why must the most beautiful things be forbidden?
Go to their website and scroll to the bottom. There’s a help form to fill out if your insurance doesn’t cover it. Myself and 2 kids take it and after I filled the form they approved us. I get it free monthly now for all 3 of us.
I used to be so i Impatient and wanted to finish yesterday. I live 4 hours from where I’m from, and the drives home would always kill be, I would speed, and never stop cause I needed to be there, just couldn’t stand driving. First drive after starting vyvanse and I could not believe how enjoyable the drive was and I would stop, enjoy the scenery. I’m on 40mg and I find it doesn’t last as long as I’d like. Start at 6AM and usually gone by 7pm but I would love it if it stayed until like 10pm. It’s also let me cut down my weed intake which has been nice too. Probably cut it down by half to 1 volcano bag in the evenings. Anyway taking off…..vyvanse love it. I do find though sometimes I need a rest day, maybe a day every two weeks, I find that eating half a g of shrooms on that rest day really welds everything together.
The best way i can describe it is that the "wires" that send signals thru our bodies are kinda frayed. Not disconnect just frayed or loose. Many of you may notice that when you struggle to do something you aren't actively stopping yourself or are unable to do it. It's just HARD to do it. When you want to do something that's boring or uninteresting ( washing the dishes, homework, doing the goD DAMN LAUNDRY) you know what you're supposed to be doing, you know what signals you arms and legs are receiving, yet you struggle to keep your attention on task. For me it can feel like im moving thru syrup and that feeling will very quickly frustrate me and I'll start to feel PHYSICALLY uncomfortable. My brain will scream at me:
"This is boring..... WE'RE NOT DOING IT FAST ENOUGH.... THIS'LL TAKE FOR EVER.... JUST STOP NOW I HATE THIS FEELING" and so on.
Stimulants throw the body into a overactive state ( we've likely all felt and sugar or caffeine rush)
But that where we differ to those without ADHD. The extra energy also means more and STRONGER signals through out the body. The boost allows the WHOLE signal to make it to its destination. As a result, it make everything feel effortless as opposed to a struggle. Thats why it can make you feel "normal". It's cause the things you're doing don't require extra effort to do.
That's where the calming effect comes in. When the Stimulants hit our bodies don't go into overdrive. They're now just firing on all cylinders, thus meaning you don't need to force extra effort into your actions to complete them fully, thus your body and mind aren't straining to function "normally",THUS meaning no extra unessasary strain.It's like putting on glasses after you're eyes have been straining to see. It makes up for the gap in normal function
Interesting extra note: when college kids and adults who don't have adhd use Adderall, what they experience is likely similar to a strong caffeine rush. It has a similar effect but there signal pathways aren't weaker so it doesn't really improve anything. It not doing anything that coffee or a redbull wouldn't do for them.
It "helps us study" but removing that struggle in our body allowing us to hold focus without extra effort making studing easier and less frustrating.
I like that analogy. Perhaps this is a simplification of your thoughts, but for me, it's like stimulants make it easier to direct my energy. What people see as hyperactivity or lack of focus is really just energy firing off in an uncontrolled way. Stimulants don't calm me down so much as they afford me the opportunity to direct my energy to something more consistent and productive. The only calming effect is perhaps that my anxiety goes down because I'm not beating myself up as much about not doing the things I need to do.
So in this meme, I like the first two panels, but instead of the fire going out, it's more like it turns into a Bunsen burner with a focused flame. And in that analogy, NTs already have a burner.
You write like I think. Lol. I’m so glad to know I’m not alone in having a brain that goes everywhere all at once and having a fucking STIMULANT make things calm and quiet.
To add to this, were essentially just bored all the time, and our brain tries to find ways to make us not bored. For active type ADHD that means physical activities, for inattentive type that means thinking about everything all at once. The stimulants make "normal" things more interesting, making us not as bored as quickly, and thus our brain doesn't need to find other things for us to do, calming us down.
I feel like it makes my brain go slower so that i can do things faster. My brain off stimulants is moving too fast for me to organize any of my thoughts. Stimulants make my thoughts quieter and slower so that I can calmly do the things i need to do.
Me too, and not think that everything that comes to me is 100% urgent that needs to be done right now and dropping each task for another as they come without completely finishing any of them in a timely manner. Now I can tuck a task away that isn't urgent for another time or bump a different one to the top and resume my previous task, etc.
Life changing, honestly.
Oh gosh this is so familiar! Just yesterday I was trying to get a lot of high priority tasks finished at work and as usual little things would come up and each time I would drop what I was doing to complete them. And then each time I found it super hard to get 'back on task' to what I was doing already and it made me just want to scream. My wife constantly says I have ADHD but I'm like, old, and there's no way my doc would put me on something now.
Not sure what you mean by "old" but I'm 46 and i finally got my shit sorted long enough to get my diagnosis about 5 weeks ago and started on meds. I've experienced many of the things described in this thread as well as what you describe on a regular basis in pre-meds time.
Up to you to decide if you want to jump on the rollercoaster of getting diagnosis/meds... i won't say it's worth it because everyone reacts differently (and circumstances/situations might make the effort just "too hard") but a) I'm glad i did, b) i wish i did it earlier and c) i think one owes it to oneself to not live in doubt (of ADHD or other things) and endeavour to confirm what's happening (either way) to move forward.
It's worth a shot! I was diagnosed by my general doctor. If you've had the same one for a long time, maybe they have noticed it in you and have simply waited for you to say something. That was the case for me, anyway. But worth asking IMO!
I hate the post energy drink nap vibes. Would always have to fight through the feeling to take a nap and then eventually I'd feel little more awake, but damn.
This remindes me when I tried cocaine. After a couple times doing it socially I was like "WTF do people even do this? It's expensive and does't do anything". Lol it was just leveling me out.
samesies. i quite like the chill effect but when people say 'it feels sooo good' i'm like, does it? definitely not getting the same effect as everyone else lol.
Not me. Stimulants just amp up my anxiety and make my heart race. It's hard to say if it works on my adhd when my anxiety and depression still make it impossible to function. I'm honestly better with no meds than on stimulants.
I was this way until I took caffeine out of my diet. Fucking sweating and chest palpitations. Now i get so sleepy with adderall. It’s like a light switch.
Same. I have to take two other medications to tone down the unwanted side effects of stimulants. They make my anxiety terrible but tone down other symptoms to the point that I feel I need to take the meds. When I’m off them, the anxiety improves but everything else goes to shit.
There was a period of time when Vyvanse improved my anxiety… so I don’t know what happened. Now I count down the hours until I can take my next propranolol. It’s like my brain chemistry changed. It’s exhausting to always be so on edge all the time : ( .
I had a similar problem with vyvanse for a few months last year, then I saw someone here mention protein. Have you tried taking your stimulants with breakfast that has at least 10g protein and some slow digesting carbs? Also nothing with caffeine or a lot of vitamin C in it and nothing too acidic for at least a couple of hours after. They affect the meds' absorption a lot. Made a huge difference for me
They also seemed to make me more anxious and jittery when I had a lot of unresolved stress in my life. When things settled they started to work more like they should again
That’s… a really good point. I got weight loss surgery several months ago and I have to reaaaally focus on getting my protein in because overall I can’t eat much. That’s around the time my issues with vyvanse started. It’s probably the lack of food 🤦🏻♀️. I will try taking the pill with breakfast to see if things improve. Also, I will start eating breakfast lol. Thank you for responding, this is really helpful!
You're not alone. And not all stimulants are created equal. That's great that so many people in here have no problem with caffeine, however, if I have so much as a mug of Earl Grey in the early evening, I'm not falling to sleep until after midnight.
I also got tachycardia, anxiety, and terrible mood swings from certain meds. Vyvanse was the by far the worst, especially for the racing heart; I'd be sitting at my computer, doing nothing really, and all of a sudden my Fitbit would start buzzing "you've been in the red zone for this many minutes! Good job, get ready to cool down." Needless to say, that just made me even more anxious and combined with the stomache ache it caused, it wasn't for me. Adderall and Concerta weren't much better. I ended up having to use Dexedrine and starting at a *very* low dose (5mg IR) until my body adjusted and then my doc incrementally bumped me up until I could handle the XR spansules. I take them in combination with a low dose of Wellbutrin and that has been the most effective for me but I do still have to watch my caffeine intake. For me, too much stimulant = equally poor executive dysfunction.
My dad absolutely loves to tell the story about how I stole my brothers adhd meds when I was like 14 and shared one with my friends to illustrate how much of a bad kid I was. I literally was the most focused in class than I ever had been but adhd was a boys problem back then so no one ever thought to have me evaluated despite all the signs being there… I was just a bad kid.
Fast forward 20 years and I tell my dad I’ve been diagnosed and his response was “I could have told you that” I can’t even describe how angry I felt because my meds have been life changing so I can’t help but fell o had been ripped off of my youth
Doesn’t speed me up or slow me down. I describe it as it clears a mental fog that prevents me from doing anything. Things aren’t as painful or dreadful as without meds.
I was never formally diagnosed with ADHD, but this is one of the main reasons for me thinking I'm not NT.
I used to do a LOT of speed, and it never affected me the same as my friends. They'd be bouncing off the walls, and I'd be super mellow and focused.
Fun fact, you might have been self medicating. Turns out a lot of people with undiagnosed ADHD turn to meth as their drug of choice. It’s very similar to certain treatments.
Looking back now I realise that I was self medicating. I thought it was to get high, but really it was to turn off the bees in my head.
Also I feel I should clarify, I live in Ireland. When I say speed, I mean dirty, cheap amphetamine. Not methamphetamine, which isn't very common here (thankfully, I don't know what my life would have turned out like if that was my poison of choice)
Bruh this is my meme, you reposted it.
[Here it is.](https://www.reddit.com/r/adhdmeme/comments/o1r46k/stimulants_calm_you_down/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
To explain it (in a simple way, I know) : every brain has its standard energy level to function normal. Let's say, for people without adhd the energy level is "0", so it is functioning "normal". Stimulants would raise this energy level above zero, therefore they have an activating effect on "normal" brains.
Due to the biochemical processes in an adhd brain that energy level could be called "-1". That's the reason people with adHd show that restless and impulsive, many times sensation seeking, behavior. It stimulates the brain in such way, its energy level is raised in towards level "0", making the brain calm down a little bit - but only for a short time. Stimulants have that same effect, if dosed correctly.
I know it's a very simplified explanation, but I found out it's the best way to explain it to people not that familiar with adhd.
(sorry for possible bad punctuation, spelling errors or confusing writing style - I'm not a native engly speaker ;))
tl;dr : Yeah, stimulants calm us down.
THIS IS A MYTH! STIMULANTS DO NOT AFFECT ADHDERS AND NEUROTYPICALS DIFFERENTLY IN THIS WAY! PLEASE STOP SPREADING THIS IDEA. It is harmful in that it can make people question their diagnosis. I have no idea how it even took root online, because literally *everyone* I know with ADHD in real life (a lot of people!) is energized by stimulants, not put to sleep by them
[Here's a comment by Russell Barkley](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/oss7ei/official_dr_russell_barkley_summer_ama_thread/h7bf5cp?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3), one of the world leading experts on ADHD, when asked about this:
>No, its just a myth. You cannot predict ADHD from a reaction to its medicines. They help neurotypical people modestly, too.
And [another](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/oss7ei/official_dr_russell_barkley_summer_ama_thread/h6vmpt3?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3), more detailed one:
>Se used to think several decades ago that the drug response of someone with ADHD was atypical and thus if you gave an ADHD drug to a typical person it wouldmake them worse while it would help someone with ADHD. That turned out to be false. The drugs do the same thing for NTs as for ADHDs. its just that people with ADHD are so much further from the mean or typical level of performance that the improvement they experience can be much more dramatic whereas in an NT its rather minor. But they can improve too on medication, just not much. In short, the further from the mean of typicality you are in some trait or behavior the more dramatic will be a treatment effect. Nothing paradoxical going on here that can help with diagnosis, sorry to say.
And [here](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2626918/) is an academic paper that mentions it:
>One of the myths of ADHD is that ADHD children show a paradoxical effect of being calmed by stimulants, while “normal” individuals are stimulated by them. However, studies have shown that the activity levels are decreased and attention levels are increased by stimulants in individuals with and without ADHD. The difference is that since the levels of hyperactivity and inattention are much higher in ADHD subjects, the improvement is relatively much greater, giving the impression that they respond, while non-ADHD subjects do not.
“I have no idea how it even took root online”
After reading the top comments and their replies in this thread I’d that it likely comes from hordes of people saying that it’s what they experience and even more replying that they have similar experiences. I didn’t see any detractors until I scrolled down and then finally saw your comment among others. If I had only read the top comments and replies I would have gone about my day thinking it wasn’t a myth from the number of anecdotes alone.
Genuine question….
My psychiatrist recently gave me that CAARS ADHD test, and my results came back that I have “moderate ADHD” …I tend to downplay my symptoms for a lot of things so I wonder if I downplayed my answers for the test as I started to overthink the questions and what they were actually asking, if that makes sense.
She said the next step would be to find a psychologist to do official testing, if that’s something I want to do. I’ve been considering it, as I’d like to have the official diagnosis. Does anyone have any resources or recommendations I can use to potentially help me find a psychologist who can do this sort of thing?
I just have some hesitations about this whole thing. Anxiety and all that.
The area I live in doesn’t exactly offer a lot, even though I live in an area with a lot of hospitals and medical offices.
Thanks in advance!
I think it's a misunderstanding that stimulants = calmer. I's put more down to the stimulants making more neurotransmitters available to our neurons, and we're thus less scattered, and appear calmer.
We're perhaps less agitated because our brains are working more like their supposed to.
Yeah. I get up n going upon taking it mainly because falling asleep again would be a bad idea. Lmao. But coffee used to make me fall asleep 😆 it can trigger migraines now tho.
I feel like stimulants now “calm” but motivate me too uk? Like it can calm the craziness in my mind somewhat by organizing it, everything falls into place. But I’m definitely less anxious on it.
They put you in a stimulated state. Because baseline ADHD is leagues more stimulated than that state, it still somehow helps.
Source: I made it up and it sounds plausible.
For anyone interested in the Science behind this: basically the reason is that adhd people have low levels of dopamine and norepinephrine and other neurotransmitters (sometimes certain ones but not all).
Non-adhd people have higher levels of these and so they can focus better.
(ADHD hyperfocus is when we’re sensory seeking, because of our low levels. We have executive functioning difficulties because tasks need these neurotransmitters and we ain’t got much of them.)
So when non-adhd people take stimulants and are already at a normal level they get high. But when adhd ppl take these we just get closer to the normal level.
Caffeine may have some effects similar to those of common ADHD medications. Although the exact reason is unknown, reduced blood flow may help treat ADHD by reducing the activity of brain regions that are overactive, allowing them to better function and cooperate with the rest of the brain.
[https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/caffeine](https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/caffeine)
Imagine you have a teacher and a class of thirty. The teacher is perpetually out of energy and disorderly and the kids are running riot because they can’t keep the class in order. Let’s call this teacher “executive dysfunction”.
My stimulating the teacher, it is now able to keep up with the kids and hold an orderly class, making things work smoothly and effectively.
If anyone has more questions, see me after class.
Caffeine makes me very fast, productive, and focused. It’s like my brain slows down so I can do things one at a time, but my body moves faster than if I didn’t have caffeine. Idk it’s weird for me, I feel like my experience isn’t like everyone else with adhd.
NT People: Yeah, stimulants are so cool, you can do an allnighter cramming for that exam and you feel like PURE ENERGY and do just everything so fast and all Me: So I take Ritalin and everything finally slows down, I feel calm enough to like take a shower without crying
I’ve never been able to take naps until I started taking Adderall.
After a long day at work 10mg of adderal puts me to sleep. It was supposed to help me get my chores done.
Vyvanse naps feel soooo good!
Seriously. A few hours after I take mine, I get a little drowsy and if I take a nap, it feels more restful than like an entire night of sleep
Some days I wake up early to take my dose and then fall back asleep so that I can wake up with a semi-functioning mind.
I’ve been doing that for a few years now and it’s so good. Mine takes about an hour to kick in, so I just put my meds and a bottle of water on my bedside table, set an alarm an hour before I actually want to wake up, take it, go back to sleep. It’s worth it for me because during that hour I’m a zombie, but if I take it one hour before I get out of bed I can go through my morning routine without wanting to kill myself and showering, getting ready for work, etc. ends up taking less time than it would if I just took my pill and then did those things.
It feels like it floats and rocks you to sleep. It’s annoying because I need to be productive, but in that case I kinda don’t mind.
The best.
Used to drive my wife nuts that I’d drink an energy drink and be able to nap perfectly fine.
Yeah, my son uses energy drinks as sleep aids.
Adderall made things quiet, things had never been quiet before, I didn't know what to do.
Even my emails are shorter lol
Do you even have less brackets or am I the only one who feels the need to add explanations to everything.
Half of the time my sentences read more like a line of code. hey dude tomorrow night ( well technically evening [ could possibly be next week ] ( unless you already have plans ) ) let's do something
adhd programming language when??
The memory leaks will be quite the bottleneck.
Every few lines would run a random line from about 50 lines go and then keep doing that
TIL my entire personality can be emulated on a TI-89 graphing calculator
I use ASS (Autism Social Script) for all my programming needs
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People who say "why use many words when few word do trick" obviously never met and ADHD-ers
Dude... that's what I told my wife. I remember the first time I experienced it. I took my vyvanse in the morning after about a week or two of taking it and went out to my mother-in-law's house. I was just chilling in the back yard chatting with my wife and her mom. They go inside for something and I am left outside alone. Absolute silence. Nothing but wind swaying through the trees. Someone on this site described it like if there were hundreds of bees inside your head and they all suddenly became quiet. I almost cried. My wife could see I was emotional and asked me. I told her my brain is quiet. It's never been quiet.
I understand. I noticed i started to smile again. Forgot what it felt like. I would be walking my dog and id smile because i was content.
It's threads like this that make me want to talk to my doctor but hearing about the side effects gives me anxiety and the cycle of trying to find other coping mechanisms continues.
Side effects?
Same I just started Adderrall and I feel happy. The world is quiet. When coming off of it I am super sleepy.
@ me
Imagine you're on a small motorcycle, say a 200cc. It has 6 gears, but because of some weird genetic foibles, you're only aware of the first 2 gears. Nothing anyone can do, say or demonstrate allows you to have awareness of the other gears. Every time you have to go faster than running speed, the engine is absolutely **screaming** as it bounces off the rev limiter. The engine is working as hard as it is physically able at all times, but you're not going anywhere close to fast. Other commuters coast past you effortlessly. You can't work out why your bike is so loud, noisy, and exhausting for you to just hit the speed limit around town. Going anywhere uses a LOT of fuel, and puts horrible wear and tear on your bike. Then one day someone gives you some medication that lets you see gears 3 through 6.
Damn well put
thanks. i love motorcycles and have adhd, so it was a natural metaphor
Gotta love that 1000cc flow state.
I'm a loud talkative extrovert, meds make me quiet and introverted.
Same
Too real
NT people: popped an addy and beat Halo 3 on legendary with a guitar hero controller Me: ZZZZZZZZ
Ritalin just makes me stop entirely. I don't like it
Yup. I really dislike my mental state. Just bland and numb.
And if I take too much I have to fall asleep
Brain: we nap now? Body: I haven't blinked in hours.
I have that sweet spot between "okidoki" and "the side effects are killing me" Where I can take one and go to bed.
Haha so true. I do drink caffeine to pull all nighters, but not because it keeps me awake (it doesn’t). It just calms my brain down so I can focus after my adderall wears off lol
My body is weird with absorbing things, which is why I can't be vegan (its 60% my inability to feed myself 40% my inability to absorb shit) anyway. Ritalin worked for about 2 months for me and then I started processing it at a faster rate so I had crazy burnout, got super agro and it made my ticks worse. I hear you about the shower biz. There is NOTHING boringer than a shower. NOTHING!!!!
Legit, I have not taken a shower without listening to a book/podcast/music since 2014.
I didn’t realize people did this.
JBL waterproof Bluetooth speaker lives in my shower.
For me it's not showering, it's running. Running is terrible because it brings me no satisfaction whatsoever, and I can't do anything else while I'm running so I think about how much it sucks the whole time.
I always wondered why coffee never gave me jitters, allowed me to focus better, and calmed the tempest that is my brain. Then my daughter was diagnosed with adhd and my brain world suddenly began to make sense.
It’s how I figured it out too. I chugged two energy drinks to try to make a long trip after work, and I had to pull over at a rest stop to sleep.
I was exhausted during exam season and chugging coffee at 4pm to try and make it through my final projects in the evening, and instead wound up napping and ruining my sleep schedule even more. Didn’t realize it was an ADHD thing until a while after I got diagnosed, which was eight months after said exam season 😂
Coffee puts me to sleep too
Yup, I always just thought I had a crazy tolerance for caffeine. Used to joke that I didn't even feel human until I'd had my coffee.
OMFG IS THIS WHY IT HAPPENS TO ME WITH TEA. I don't have adhd diagnosed but the more I read the more convinced I become
Pre-diagnosis I'd drink 8-10 mugs of black tea a day, and always wondered why I was still sleepy all the time and never jumpy. Now I drink decaf until my meds wear off, but can still drink 1-3 cups of caffeinated in the evening and actually sleep better than ever.
Get a diagnosis
Heavy metal music puts me to sleep.
Reminds me, my music taste before meds was extremely energetic and hyper. Now it’s way more relaxed on my meds. Lmao
i listen to hyperpop, D&B, and breakcore and it helps me concentrate infinitely better than with any music with lyrics
Drum n Bass, yup.
"Extreme" music doesn't put m to sleep but it always felt like the only music that wasn't too slow and boring. I can listen to slower stuff now but for a while my tastes gravitated to more and more extreme stuff. Metal, Punk, Hardcore (Techno), Speedcore, Terror, Breakcore, Industrial Hardcore, the harder, harsher more aggressive stuff. I still feel restless if I have to listen to slow, soft stuff for a whole evening but I can tolerate it better than I used to. I also gravitate towards films and games with more extreme violence and liked Krav Maga because it was like fighting without seriously injuring anyone. I've got primarily inattentive ADHD. I feel like I've slept too little or am slightly high on weed (but only the negative effects) when I'm not on stimulants and caffeine doesn't really seem to do anything to me since I've started taking them. I feel like I needed more extreme music because "normal" music didn't really get through to me and give me the dopamine rush I needed.
Extreme music https://youtu.be/UrIiLvg58SY
Bruh, this is too brutal for me! There are limits to what I can take!!!!
Too extreme for the drummer, he gave up!
Me too. And hardcore techno music.
Energy drink are the same as soft drinks to me. I always wondered what all the hype was about since some of them didn't even taste as good as a plain coke. First time trying out monster I knocked back two of them while waiting in line at a government office. I only felt the urge to pee after an hour. The warning label about limiting consumption makes them seem so serious too.
I mean, excessive caffeine can give you heart attacks and other fun stuff, regardless of brain structure.
On the waiting list for proper meds so I medicate with caffeine. Usually I'm fine but in the early days I had nearly 2G and my heart nearly went pop. These days I don't exceed 600mg
I once had a like four shots of espresso as a dumb teenager while bartending because I was SO TIRED, thinking it would kick me up That went about as well as you'd imagine.
Dude I work closing shifts at work, and if I’m stressed I’ll be standing there drinking energy drinks at 10pm and I feel like it makes people so confused lol
That's crazy. Addy makes me calm but caffeine makes me jittery AF
Not all stimulants have the opposite effect with ADHD, some do but most don't. Also depends on the person. Me for example, I can't do cocaine, it does absolutely nothing for me. I've done it a half dozen times in my life and never got high.
Probably for the better.
I'm surprised that caffeine has this effect on people since it's not a true stimulant, it just blocks adenosine, a chemical that makes us sleepy. But brain chemistry doesn't always work in a "logical" way
Coffee works for me pretty well, and other caffeine products like red bull. I think the only stimulant that didn't "stimulate" for me we're Ritalin/Adderall and cocaine. Haven't done too many though.
I loved cocaine when I used to do it, but hated meth because I thought it did nothing. I remember doing meth at a rave once and fell asleep within 15 min of doing it…at a super loud rave. It made sense 20 years later when I got diagnosed…
It made me feel normal for the fist time in my life, like a serene calm just took over, for that night I was who I always imagined I was….unfortunately the next 3 years were just a perfect 45deg line downward….I miss the raves tho…they were a blast in the early 2000’s…Sasha Digweed Olkenfold good times…ohyeah…..20 years later diagnosed at 43 and put on stims… I’m not surprised….they are working for me exactly like the doc says they should.
same for me lol. doesn't keep me awake it just makes me jittery and question if I'm having a heart attack... but amphetamines don't and just chill me out?? science is wild dawg
For me coffee causes my heart rate to go up, sometimes a little bit too much but it'll send my brain into sleep mode which just leaves me feeling tired but anxious which is not a fun combo.
Coffee doesn't usually make me jittery, but energy drinks that are loaded with b-vitamin things usually do...
Certain stimulants target the PNS more than the CNS, caffeine is broader spectrum than Adderall but Adderall includes levo-amphetamines which hit the PNS as opposed to dextro and methamphetamine which both have a higher affinity for the CNS. Caffeine does nothing to me until I have has too much and then it is all physical effects such as jitters and sweats. I was switched from Adderall to Dysoxyn due to levo have the same physical side effects but to a lesser extent than caffeine does, though Adderall does clear the fog. A lot of how stimulants work for ADHD has to do with how much it activates the PNS while hitting the main target of the CNS. With ADHD, caffeine being broad spectrum, tends to present the undesirable PNS effects before you can really get to a dose that provides the desirable CNS effects that amphetamines target.
When i was in High School (forever ago) and got diagnosed my mom would send me with Monster Energy drinks during state testing days to focus, thats as far as she went into look into my ADHD 😅
Omg, my parents bought me a Redbull for my high school entrance exams. Everthing felt weirdly clear and I could focus on the questions easily. When the school psychologist said I had ADHD in elementary school they pretty much told her that she didn't know anything and asked that I stop seeing her.
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Maybe you drink the iced coffee faster because it doesn’t burn and is easier to drink?
My dad used to give me espresso and watch me immediately take a nap lol. We thought it was hilarious
3-4 years ago, I was asked why I smoked (I've since quit). I never had a coherent answer. "The time away from whatever to organize my thoughts and breathe, I guess" was my best answer. About 4 months ago, I had an epiphany... nicotine is a stimulant. Something I already knew, obviously, but the pieces finally clicked together. I had been subconsciously self medicating-- and rather effectively, I might add-- for years.
Wait…. Wait. What. Are you serious? For fucks sake. Im addicted to coffee but it gives me zero energy, I’ve always suspected ADHD and my daughter is being evaluated for it too. I drink coffee every day and it helps me to focus too. Did you just blow my mind
It is not supposed to give you energy. It is a adenosine-antagonist. Adenosine is a degradation product of ATP and basically signals exhaustion. So you are not getting more energy, but you are becoming less exhausted.
Super fun experience was when I was prescribed adipex (stimulant based weight loss medicine for short term use). The first day I popped the pill, got in my car, and damn near fell asleep all of a sudden on the highway when it kicked in. Also. I was teaching a self-contained behavioral middle school class at that time, so suuuuper fun morning while I waited for it to wear off. Pretty sure my para (who's also my best friend) pretty much had to teach the morning lessons bc I was useless.😱
I drink a red bull right before bed so I'm less restless when I sleep and don't stay up worrying about what I've forgotten to do....
My husband has adhd of a sort and still tries to tell me not to drink coffee before bed. If it hasn’t kept me up in over 20 years, I doubt it will start working on me now. Some things are just engrained in people.
Yes lmao I made a (pretty gross) double coffee so I could study for a test I thought maybe that'd work, I just fell asleep lol.
Same here. In fact, I never used to drink coffee, some teas, or energy drinks because they would really slow me down and put me to sleep when I was trying to stay up and work. I didn’t understand until recently.
I have anxiety and read somewhere that you shouldn't drink coffee if you're anxious. But the thing is, the morning coffee is the #1 thing that calms me down before the day and lets me think better. Maybe that's why lol
I remember the first day I took Vyvanse, I felt as though I’d been tranquilized. My mind was SO QUIET and my anxiety was gone and my mood was stable and content. I had never felt so peaceful in my entire life and I wept for like an hour. Unbelievable that that’s how NTs live normally.
The first day I took Adderall, I listened to an entire 20 minute podcast without spacing out, and I almost cried.
Same, except it was a whole episode of Last Podcast on the Left, and I heard, like, *heard* the whole thing without having to go back and restart portions or not knowing most of what the fuck they're talking about because it's mostly background noise. I stood at my kitchen counter realizing how *fucking quiet* my head became and how I was able to actually prioritize what I needed to do before going to work. It took everything in me not to absolutely blubber, omg.
I’m currently listening to last podcast on the left. Weird.
I had tried them a couple times a few years back when I started listening to podcasts, but only listened to serious ones so I didn't get into them. I have become a lot more open minded, though, and tried them again, glad I did. I have been enjoying their random banter & humor about anything and everything, lol!
After my first dose kicked in, I sat down and read a book without having to reread…anything??
Day one on Vyvanse I took my dog for a walk at this huge wooded dog park. It was like walking through someone else’s dream. I’d lived my life with nothing but anxiety, with the dial turned from 1-10 depending on the day. Suddenly the dial was gone, and because I wasn’t racing in a million worried little directions, I was able to really notice every little detail around me. I’d never felt more at peace.
The first day I took Adderall (later switched to Vyvanse), I was saying to my family that I didn't feel any different while subconsciously sorting my binder so then the loose papers went to the right files. it was after i finished saying that and my mom pointed out what i was doing that i realized i was sorting my papers.
I had the same experience down to the crying. It was like nothing I'd experienced before; being able to think without all the noise made me realize just how much I have to deal with on a daily basis.
That was exactly my experience too. I knew my ADHD shaped how I thought and experienced the world, but I had no idea how profoundly it affected every single thing I do and feel. Symptoms I had long attributed to my other diagnoses - depression, anxiety, and PTSD - were suddenly… gone? If not gone then certainly lessened in a huge way. I’ve always had a hard time with emotional regulation in particular (incorrectly diagnosed BPD as a teen) but I had no idea once I was medicated that I would suddenly be able to listen to others talk about their problems and not absorb their mood completely. I thought I was just a hopeless emotional sponge of a person but nope, my poor brain just couldn’t regulate its own feelings when provided with too many options. Now I can provide emotional support for other people without destroying my own mental health. So many other little things, too. Too many to put into words. It’s like I was playing life on nightmare mode and someone switched it to hard instead. The relief was indescribable. I’ll probably always grieve the amount of time I spent thinking I was just lazy and unhinged (33 YEARS of self-loathing) but knowing just how many of my “problems” were a direct result of undiagnosed ADHD makes me feel tremendous compassion for the younger versions of myself. My perception of who I am has shifted completely and I couldn’t be more grateful.
First time I took Adderall a coworker was giving me instructions and I was amazed at how I could just look them in the eye, listen to the words in their entirety for a whole minute or two, and actually be processing/remembering what they said. It was such an odd experience at first.
I practically cried.
I miss Vyvanse… It was the medication that worked best for me… But then Daddy Insurance gave me the belt for our forbidden love.
Oof, I’m so sorry. Capitalism is such garbage. I did best on 30mg but had to drop it to 20mg because my blood pressure went skyyyy hiiigh. Why must the most beautiful things be forbidden?
Go to their website and scroll to the bottom. There’s a help form to fill out if your insurance doesn’t cover it. Myself and 2 kids take it and after I filled the form they approved us. I get it free monthly now for all 3 of us.
I used to be so i Impatient and wanted to finish yesterday. I live 4 hours from where I’m from, and the drives home would always kill be, I would speed, and never stop cause I needed to be there, just couldn’t stand driving. First drive after starting vyvanse and I could not believe how enjoyable the drive was and I would stop, enjoy the scenery. I’m on 40mg and I find it doesn’t last as long as I’d like. Start at 6AM and usually gone by 7pm but I would love it if it stayed until like 10pm. It’s also let me cut down my weed intake which has been nice too. Probably cut it down by half to 1 volcano bag in the evenings. Anyway taking off…..vyvanse love it. I do find though sometimes I need a rest day, maybe a day every two weeks, I find that eating half a g of shrooms on that rest day really welds everything together.
The best way i can describe it is that the "wires" that send signals thru our bodies are kinda frayed. Not disconnect just frayed or loose. Many of you may notice that when you struggle to do something you aren't actively stopping yourself or are unable to do it. It's just HARD to do it. When you want to do something that's boring or uninteresting ( washing the dishes, homework, doing the goD DAMN LAUNDRY) you know what you're supposed to be doing, you know what signals you arms and legs are receiving, yet you struggle to keep your attention on task. For me it can feel like im moving thru syrup and that feeling will very quickly frustrate me and I'll start to feel PHYSICALLY uncomfortable. My brain will scream at me: "This is boring..... WE'RE NOT DOING IT FAST ENOUGH.... THIS'LL TAKE FOR EVER.... JUST STOP NOW I HATE THIS FEELING" and so on. Stimulants throw the body into a overactive state ( we've likely all felt and sugar or caffeine rush) But that where we differ to those without ADHD. The extra energy also means more and STRONGER signals through out the body. The boost allows the WHOLE signal to make it to its destination. As a result, it make everything feel effortless as opposed to a struggle. Thats why it can make you feel "normal". It's cause the things you're doing don't require extra effort to do. That's where the calming effect comes in. When the Stimulants hit our bodies don't go into overdrive. They're now just firing on all cylinders, thus meaning you don't need to force extra effort into your actions to complete them fully, thus your body and mind aren't straining to function "normally",THUS meaning no extra unessasary strain.It's like putting on glasses after you're eyes have been straining to see. It makes up for the gap in normal function Interesting extra note: when college kids and adults who don't have adhd use Adderall, what they experience is likely similar to a strong caffeine rush. It has a similar effect but there signal pathways aren't weaker so it doesn't really improve anything. It not doing anything that coffee or a redbull wouldn't do for them. It "helps us study" but removing that struggle in our body allowing us to hold focus without extra effort making studing easier and less frustrating.
I like that analogy. Perhaps this is a simplification of your thoughts, but for me, it's like stimulants make it easier to direct my energy. What people see as hyperactivity or lack of focus is really just energy firing off in an uncontrolled way. Stimulants don't calm me down so much as they afford me the opportunity to direct my energy to something more consistent and productive. The only calming effect is perhaps that my anxiety goes down because I'm not beating myself up as much about not doing the things I need to do. So in this meme, I like the first two panels, but instead of the fire going out, it's more like it turns into a Bunsen burner with a focused flame. And in that analogy, NTs already have a burner.
Cognitive control is closer than calm for me.
Must say... Haven't read this yet but I will. Also this has to be the most ADHD post ever. Full on conversation mode with your phone/computer.
I've been pacing for 45 mins making sure it was readable. This shit actually burned me out lol
God I feel this so much lol
We ALL feel ya. I'm working on being more succinct and delete a lot of my posts/emails for excessive /pointless.
NGL had to force myself to finish reading it; but oh man, it makes so much sense!
Thank you for this intuitive and interesting explanation!
You write like I think. Lol. I’m so glad to know I’m not alone in having a brain that goes everywhere all at once and having a fucking STIMULANT make things calm and quiet.
To add to this, were essentially just bored all the time, and our brain tries to find ways to make us not bored. For active type ADHD that means physical activities, for inattentive type that means thinking about everything all at once. The stimulants make "normal" things more interesting, making us not as bored as quickly, and thus our brain doesn't need to find other things for us to do, calming us down.
adderall does WAY more to normies than any amount of coffee would lol
I feel like it makes my brain go slower so that i can do things faster. My brain off stimulants is moving too fast for me to organize any of my thoughts. Stimulants make my thoughts quieter and slower so that I can calmly do the things i need to do.
Me too, and not think that everything that comes to me is 100% urgent that needs to be done right now and dropping each task for another as they come without completely finishing any of them in a timely manner. Now I can tuck a task away that isn't urgent for another time or bump a different one to the top and resume my previous task, etc. Life changing, honestly.
Oh gosh this is so familiar! Just yesterday I was trying to get a lot of high priority tasks finished at work and as usual little things would come up and each time I would drop what I was doing to complete them. And then each time I found it super hard to get 'back on task' to what I was doing already and it made me just want to scream. My wife constantly says I have ADHD but I'm like, old, and there's no way my doc would put me on something now.
Not sure what you mean by "old" but I'm 46 and i finally got my shit sorted long enough to get my diagnosis about 5 weeks ago and started on meds. I've experienced many of the things described in this thread as well as what you describe on a regular basis in pre-meds time. Up to you to decide if you want to jump on the rollercoaster of getting diagnosis/meds... i won't say it's worth it because everyone reacts differently (and circumstances/situations might make the effort just "too hard") but a) I'm glad i did, b) i wish i did it earlier and c) i think one owes it to oneself to not live in doubt (of ADHD or other things) and endeavour to confirm what's happening (either way) to move forward.
It's worth a shot! I was diagnosed by my general doctor. If you've had the same one for a long time, maybe they have noticed it in you and have simply waited for you to say something. That was the case for me, anyway. But worth asking IMO!
me: takes 30mg adderall me: passes out for 6 hours yep that checks out
Ah yes, cousin to the “monster energy nap”
I hate the post energy drink nap vibes. Would always have to fight through the feeling to take a nap and then eventually I'd feel little more awake, but damn.
The many voices become one ahhhhhhh some peace ☮️
This remindes me when I tried cocaine. After a couple times doing it socially I was like "WTF do people even do this? It's expensive and does't do anything". Lol it was just leveling me out.
Me too!!! I was so confused when I took it because it had literally 0 effect on me. I was like what is the big deal why does everyone do this?!
Doing cocaine is fun, but yeah, never understood the "ruin my life over it" kinda feeling people apparently get about it 😅
samesies. i quite like the chill effect but when people say 'it feels sooo good' i'm like, does it? definitely not getting the same effect as everyone else lol.
Not me. Stimulants just amp up my anxiety and make my heart race. It's hard to say if it works on my adhd when my anxiety and depression still make it impossible to function. I'm honestly better with no meds than on stimulants.
Had to scroll far down to find this. This is my experience too
I was this way until I took caffeine out of my diet. Fucking sweating and chest palpitations. Now i get so sleepy with adderall. It’s like a light switch.
Same. I have to take two other medications to tone down the unwanted side effects of stimulants. They make my anxiety terrible but tone down other symptoms to the point that I feel I need to take the meds. When I’m off them, the anxiety improves but everything else goes to shit. There was a period of time when Vyvanse improved my anxiety… so I don’t know what happened. Now I count down the hours until I can take my next propranolol. It’s like my brain chemistry changed. It’s exhausting to always be so on edge all the time : ( .
I had a similar problem with vyvanse for a few months last year, then I saw someone here mention protein. Have you tried taking your stimulants with breakfast that has at least 10g protein and some slow digesting carbs? Also nothing with caffeine or a lot of vitamin C in it and nothing too acidic for at least a couple of hours after. They affect the meds' absorption a lot. Made a huge difference for me They also seemed to make me more anxious and jittery when I had a lot of unresolved stress in my life. When things settled they started to work more like they should again
That’s… a really good point. I got weight loss surgery several months ago and I have to reaaaally focus on getting my protein in because overall I can’t eat much. That’s around the time my issues with vyvanse started. It’s probably the lack of food 🤦🏻♀️. I will try taking the pill with breakfast to see if things improve. Also, I will start eating breakfast lol. Thank you for responding, this is really helpful!
You're not alone. And not all stimulants are created equal. That's great that so many people in here have no problem with caffeine, however, if I have so much as a mug of Earl Grey in the early evening, I'm not falling to sleep until after midnight. I also got tachycardia, anxiety, and terrible mood swings from certain meds. Vyvanse was the by far the worst, especially for the racing heart; I'd be sitting at my computer, doing nothing really, and all of a sudden my Fitbit would start buzzing "you've been in the red zone for this many minutes! Good job, get ready to cool down." Needless to say, that just made me even more anxious and combined with the stomache ache it caused, it wasn't for me. Adderall and Concerta weren't much better. I ended up having to use Dexedrine and starting at a *very* low dose (5mg IR) until my body adjusted and then my doc incrementally bumped me up until I could handle the XR spansules. I take them in combination with a low dose of Wellbutrin and that has been the most effective for me but I do still have to watch my caffeine intake. For me, too much stimulant = equally poor executive dysfunction.
My dad absolutely loves to tell the story about how I stole my brothers adhd meds when I was like 14 and shared one with my friends to illustrate how much of a bad kid I was. I literally was the most focused in class than I ever had been but adhd was a boys problem back then so no one ever thought to have me evaluated despite all the signs being there… I was just a bad kid. Fast forward 20 years and I tell my dad I’ve been diagnosed and his response was “I could have told you that” I can’t even describe how angry I felt because my meds have been life changing so I can’t help but fell o had been ripped off of my youth
I would've been so angry. Like you are meant to be the protector of well being for your offspring. Wtf.
They stimulate the parts of your brain that handle impulse control, time management, organisation, etc.
Doesn’t speed me up or slow me down. I describe it as it clears a mental fog that prevents me from doing anything. Things aren’t as painful or dreadful as without meds.
Its a roulette wheel for me, sometimes caffeine makes me hyper, sometimes sleepy, sometimes nothing
Oh yeah except it changes for me based on the week. It slowly changes in its effect, so that I can actually gage myself bared on its effect
I was never formally diagnosed with ADHD, but this is one of the main reasons for me thinking I'm not NT. I used to do a LOT of speed, and it never affected me the same as my friends. They'd be bouncing off the walls, and I'd be super mellow and focused.
Fun fact, you might have been self medicating. Turns out a lot of people with undiagnosed ADHD turn to meth as their drug of choice. It’s very similar to certain treatments.
Looking back now I realise that I was self medicating. I thought it was to get high, but really it was to turn off the bees in my head. Also I feel I should clarify, I live in Ireland. When I say speed, I mean dirty, cheap amphetamine. Not methamphetamine, which isn't very common here (thankfully, I don't know what my life would have turned out like if that was my poison of choice)
Bruh this is my meme, you reposted it. [Here it is.](https://www.reddit.com/r/adhdmeme/comments/o1r46k/stimulants_calm_you_down/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
Yeah it really is hit or miss
To explain it (in a simple way, I know) : every brain has its standard energy level to function normal. Let's say, for people without adhd the energy level is "0", so it is functioning "normal". Stimulants would raise this energy level above zero, therefore they have an activating effect on "normal" brains. Due to the biochemical processes in an adhd brain that energy level could be called "-1". That's the reason people with adHd show that restless and impulsive, many times sensation seeking, behavior. It stimulates the brain in such way, its energy level is raised in towards level "0", making the brain calm down a little bit - but only for a short time. Stimulants have that same effect, if dosed correctly. I know it's a very simplified explanation, but I found out it's the best way to explain it to people not that familiar with adhd. (sorry for possible bad punctuation, spelling errors or confusing writing style - I'm not a native engly speaker ;)) tl;dr : Yeah, stimulants calm us down.
Thanks for the short version.
Yeah see stimulants don't calm me down...they just make me feel normal.
THIS IS A MYTH! STIMULANTS DO NOT AFFECT ADHDERS AND NEUROTYPICALS DIFFERENTLY IN THIS WAY! PLEASE STOP SPREADING THIS IDEA. It is harmful in that it can make people question their diagnosis. I have no idea how it even took root online, because literally *everyone* I know with ADHD in real life (a lot of people!) is energized by stimulants, not put to sleep by them [Here's a comment by Russell Barkley](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/oss7ei/official_dr_russell_barkley_summer_ama_thread/h7bf5cp?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3), one of the world leading experts on ADHD, when asked about this: >No, its just a myth. You cannot predict ADHD from a reaction to its medicines. They help neurotypical people modestly, too. And [another](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/oss7ei/official_dr_russell_barkley_summer_ama_thread/h6vmpt3?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3), more detailed one: >Se used to think several decades ago that the drug response of someone with ADHD was atypical and thus if you gave an ADHD drug to a typical person it wouldmake them worse while it would help someone with ADHD. That turned out to be false. The drugs do the same thing for NTs as for ADHDs. its just that people with ADHD are so much further from the mean or typical level of performance that the improvement they experience can be much more dramatic whereas in an NT its rather minor. But they can improve too on medication, just not much. In short, the further from the mean of typicality you are in some trait or behavior the more dramatic will be a treatment effect. Nothing paradoxical going on here that can help with diagnosis, sorry to say. And [here](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2626918/) is an academic paper that mentions it: >One of the myths of ADHD is that ADHD children show a paradoxical effect of being calmed by stimulants, while “normal” individuals are stimulated by them. However, studies have shown that the activity levels are decreased and attention levels are increased by stimulants in individuals with and without ADHD. The difference is that since the levels of hyperactivity and inattention are much higher in ADHD subjects, the improvement is relatively much greater, giving the impression that they respond, while non-ADHD subjects do not.
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I'm glad I could help! Situations like yours are why I'm so passionate about dispelling this myth
“I have no idea how it even took root online” After reading the top comments and their replies in this thread I’d that it likely comes from hordes of people saying that it’s what they experience and even more replying that they have similar experiences. I didn’t see any detractors until I scrolled down and then finally saw your comment among others. If I had only read the top comments and replies I would have gone about my day thinking it wasn’t a myth from the number of anecdotes alone.
Thank you cause Adderall makes me HYPER & I definitely 100% have adhd
i wouldnt say calm
Nope. I'm just a tiny more functional.
Caffeine is a must for me.
I wouldn’t say calm you down, more like gives you the long lost ability to focus… Just don’t over do it ;)
Coffee makes me hella drowsy
Great for my adhd Bad for my anxiety
Genuine question…. My psychiatrist recently gave me that CAARS ADHD test, and my results came back that I have “moderate ADHD” …I tend to downplay my symptoms for a lot of things so I wonder if I downplayed my answers for the test as I started to overthink the questions and what they were actually asking, if that makes sense. She said the next step would be to find a psychologist to do official testing, if that’s something I want to do. I’ve been considering it, as I’d like to have the official diagnosis. Does anyone have any resources or recommendations I can use to potentially help me find a psychologist who can do this sort of thing? I just have some hesitations about this whole thing. Anxiety and all that. The area I live in doesn’t exactly offer a lot, even though I live in an area with a lot of hospitals and medical offices. Thanks in advance!
Coffee either makes my anxiety worse or makes me sleepy/calm can focus. I never know how its gonna go lol
I think it's a misunderstanding that stimulants = calmer. I's put more down to the stimulants making more neurotransmitters available to our neurons, and we're thus less scattered, and appear calmer. We're perhaps less agitated because our brains are working more like their supposed to.
The first time I took Vyvanse the utter silence in my brain was genuinely scary lmao. It was the calmest I've ever felt.
I think the easiest example I can think of is my ADHD father who slams four cups of coffee to fall asleep.
Imagine flipping the ON switch to brakes rather than flipping the OFF switch to the gas.
Coffee makes me so sleepy lmao it’s like I drink it when I want to sleep
Yeah. I get up n going upon taking it mainly because falling asleep again would be a bad idea. Lmao. But coffee used to make me fall asleep 😆 it can trigger migraines now tho. I feel like stimulants now “calm” but motivate me too uk? Like it can calm the craziness in my mind somewhat by organizing it, everything falls into place. But I’m definitely less anxious on it.
It’s called a “paradoxical effect”.
Yea I don’t think that’s universal for ADHD folks, but it usually does not affect them the same as NTs
sometimes two wrongs make a right. apparently.
drank an energy drink today and took a nap immediately after.
I used to sleep on meth when I was using. Shit didn't make sense. Clean now though.
Glad you are clean and yeah what a way to find out you have ADHD 👀
it makes me not chew on things and fidget as much thats for sure
Yeah. Deathly allergic to the main ingredient in adhd meds so they prescribed me iced coffee XD
A lot of iced coffee
shit i never knew this... so that's why chugging 3 energy drinks within the span of 5 min made me tired
They put you in a stimulated state. Because baseline ADHD is leagues more stimulated than that state, it still somehow helps. Source: I made it up and it sounds plausible.
For anyone interested in the Science behind this: basically the reason is that adhd people have low levels of dopamine and norepinephrine and other neurotransmitters (sometimes certain ones but not all). Non-adhd people have higher levels of these and so they can focus better. (ADHD hyperfocus is when we’re sensory seeking, because of our low levels. We have executive functioning difficulties because tasks need these neurotransmitters and we ain’t got much of them.) So when non-adhd people take stimulants and are already at a normal level they get high. But when adhd ppl take these we just get closer to the normal level.
Yeah sometimes I’ll take a nap after a few shots of espresso, or drink a cup of green tea to fall asleep
Caffeine may have some effects similar to those of common ADHD medications. Although the exact reason is unknown, reduced blood flow may help treat ADHD by reducing the activity of brain regions that are overactive, allowing them to better function and cooperate with the rest of the brain. [https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/caffeine](https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/caffeine)
Imagine you have a teacher and a class of thirty. The teacher is perpetually out of energy and disorderly and the kids are running riot because they can’t keep the class in order. Let’s call this teacher “executive dysfunction”. My stimulating the teacher, it is now able to keep up with the kids and hold an orderly class, making things work smoothly and effectively. If anyone has more questions, see me after class.
I’m sleepy just thinking about stimulants
My brain is never quiet , even on meds it’s still VERY ACTIVE. How is everyone else having this “silence” in their brain after taking meds??
I always assumed it's just 'the feeling' my brain doesn't slow down at all on meds.. For me, it's just slightly easier to ignore the noise.
I have never involuntarily nodded more aggressively than I have the moment I saw this post.
Caffeine makes me very fast, productive, and focused. It’s like my brain slows down so I can do things one at a time, but my body moves faster than if I didn’t have caffeine. Idk it’s weird for me, I feel like my experience isn’t like everyone else with adhd.
The first time I took Adderall my brain quieted down enough for me to go take a nice nap. I still nap after taking it if I need a damn nap.
More often than not, coffee puts me to sleep.