I have adult ADHD. I am a 29 year old husband and father of three. I am on disability for a heart problem that has been fixed three surgeries later. I?m just waiting the allotted amount of time after my last operation to go by with no heart issues so I may be released from disability. Social Security Disability pays me a total of $550.00 per month. My wife works a full time job, she really holds it down.
Here was a typical day for me. I would wake up to my oldest daughter shaking me at about 7:00 AM on a week day, I would then tell her to get her brother and sister, ages 7 and 5 respectively, ready for school and to feed them. My oldest daughter is only 9 years old. I would then nod back off to sleep and have them wake me to show me what they were wearing before school. Next I would yell from my bed on the couch (wife works graveyards so I generally would just sleep on the couch watching TV) for them to have a good day at school and I would send them out to go wait for the bus.
I would then wait for my wife to get home from work and have her cook me breakfast. I would then sit at the computer and play WoW or EQ2 nonstop until probably 3:00 PM or so, I would get up and eat probably 3 or 4 cup of noodles one after another. I weighed 317 pounds at this time. Then I?d tell the wife what to make for dinner. Back to my game of choice, 4:00 was raid start time; it was also the time the kids got off the bus. My favorite phrase was, ?Shut the fuck up, I?m raiding.? In response to any of my children saying anything at all to me, I would say, ?Damn it, what the fuck, can?t you see I?m busy?? I?m not even joking. Bedtime for the kids would come and go and I didn?t even realize they were in bed asleep already. I would go eat more cup o noodles, then jerk off to internet porn and log back in. I?d get to sleep around 3:00 or 4:00 AM.
I was a completely worthless human being. Eventually my wife convinced me to see a head doctor. She had been asking me for some time now, finally I consented. I spoke with a doctor one time for about two hours; I was completely honest for the first time in my life I believe that day. I was diagnosed with Adult ADHD and prescribed Methylphenidate. From what I understand, that is the same drug as Ritalin, but it is for adults. I wasted another month of my life with that medication. It literally locked up my brain. I called the doctor to explain this and she told me to wait it out for a month and see what would happen as I adapted to the medication. One month later there were no changes, so I decided to change doctors.
I went in to see y new doctor and again, was completely honest. He gave me the same diagnosis but added something called Dysthymic Disorder. Dysthymic Disorder is characterized by chronic depression, but with less severity than a major depression. The essential symptom for Dysthymic disorder is an almost daily depressed mood for at least two years, but without the necessary criteria for a major depression. Low energy, sleep or appetite disturbances and low self-esteem are usually part of the clinical picture as well. The new doctor prescribed me Adderall.
The dosage was one Adderall XR 10mg (the XR is a time release) and one 10mg Adderall instant release in the morning followed by one 10mg Adderall instant release tablet in the afternoon. Starting day one, I realized I was much more soft-spoken. I immediately realized it was getting hot and our cooler was broken, so off I went to the hardware store and fixed the cooler. As days turned into weeks, I cleaned house and played my online games less and less. I began taking showers daily instead of every third day or so. It is Summer time, so I haven?t had to worry about getting the kids ready for school myself yet, but my yelling at them had become almost nonexistent. By the end of the month I had lost twenty pounds and enrolled myself into college.
Two weeks later, we changed my dosage to a single 20mg Adderall XR in the morning and that?s it. Here I am now I weigh 294 and steadily dropping every day. I eat three meals a day, but I don?t gorge on food as I used to Also, because I?m not really hungry, I find it easy to eat healthy foods as opposed to Double Quarter Pounder Super Sized Value meals from McDonalds twice daily. Today I took my youngest to the doctor?s office for a visit. I had never done that before, that was a job for my wife I thought. I asked the doctor about my weight loss while I was there. He said because of how heavy I was and my eating habits, I can afford to lose the weight rapidly and he was pleased with my progress thus far.
With the wife and kids, it?s night and day. I no longer play any online games at all. I spend so much time with them and am currently trying to teach my oldest how to play guitar. I don?t know how to myself, but she doesn?t know that. I do play two player games with my son, and have even been spotted playing Barbies with my youngest daughter. I think about my wife before I think about myself?..usually. I also have received perfect scores for the two classes I am taking thus far. I?m sure they are basic classes, but I feel awesome about those scores.
In the end, if this is to be my new life and it is completely due to Adderall, I don?t care if I have health problems down the road. I would rather wake up and live for my family and for myself everyday and have a shorter life than to live a long life of worthlessness. Also, I have seen Amphetamines compared directly to Methamphetamines. Although they are similar in many ways, they are also vastly different. I?m willing to take my chances that pharmaceutical grade amphetamines will harm me less in the long run than methamphetamines made in some biker?s bathroom with acetone and kerosene. Are amphetamines safe? Of course they aren?t. I do not feel, however, that they need to be lumped in with methamphetamines.
Sorry for being so long winded, but since this is where this thread is now and this directly pertains to a very remarkable change in my life, I decided to share. Keep in mind, please, that I do not take the Adderall recreationally at all. I take only as directed.