Posted by laima on February 17, 2007, at 23:56:28
In reply to Re: adderall for depression » laima, posted by wishingstar on February 17, 2007, at 14:19:08
I think if it works, why not leave it open ended? You can decide as you go along, after all. You'll know for yourself if you start craving extra unnecessary medication... if you run out early...that sort of thing. I had a craving problem with ritalin, but not with adderall. Seems to me I craved to take extra ritalin as each dose wore off- but again, that really doesn't seem to be an issue with the brand name adderall, because the wearing off seems nearly undetectable. It's supposedly a highly designed drug, specifically intened to be smooth acting, without spikes or crashes- and I'm feeling impressed by how well they did. As for addiction- I imagine there would be a withdrawal if the adderall disappeared suddenly, but most accounts say it's only a day or two. Antidepressents, benzos- many or most known to come with potential for much worse withdrawals. As for the every day part- there are actually a number of reports on remedyfind from people who have been taking adderall, even other stimulants, daily for years for depression with success. I was very concerned with starting adderall myself, because "amphetamine" sounds so severe, somehow. Well, I'm sure there are people who would debate this, but my doctor maintains that indeed loads of people take adderall for years without a glitch. He says if the last dose is early enough in the day, it flushes out of the body each night, and the brain gets a chance to recover. Per his view, antidepressents and benzos with much longer half-lives are the drugs most associated with tolerance and poop out, because the brain never gets a break from them. I hope he's right- I do feel good at least to know he's quite well repected in his field, to an extent his opinion isn't easily dismissable. Really, I feel that considering how well this med is working out for me, and if it continues to do so, and if I am spared tolerance and poop out to boot- wow. I'm using it along with Emsam, and this is probably the most effective combo I've ever had, fingers crossed it holds up. (Again though- this is one med where there seems to be a humungous difference between brand and generic.) But wow, if you haven't tried any of the non-ssri antidepressants yet, you've got loads of options in front of you. Your prospects sound quite promising. Good luck!
> Thanks laima for sharing your experiences. I'm excited to try it.. it sounds like it could be promising. But from what many people have said, it sounds like it isnt something I should plan to take every day for... forever, right? I'm a bit concerned because I do tend to have an addictive personality and get hooked on things easily. Knowing in advance about this potential should help though, and I will talk about it with my pdoc. I'm planning to talk to him about trying a non-SSRI AD, as I've never been on any of those. Maybe the adderall will at least get me through the inbetween while I'm searching for a better AD. We'll see.
>
> Thanks!
poster:laima
thread:733371
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070213/msgs/733733.html