My doctor’s appointment was scheduled for 12:00 noon on a Tuseday. The work day was typical, and by late morning, I was fading.
Cue the teary eyed yawns.
I left for the doctor’s just a couple minutes till – the office is a building next to where I work. After talking to the doctor per my previous post in this category, I was out of there – prescription for a schedule II controlled substance in hand. I went straight from there to WallyWorld, and filled the prescription. I got back to work at about 1:15. Per the doctor’s instructions, I took normal dose (10 mg – normal is 10 mg twice a day), and then a quick lunch, and got back to work.
I wasn’t expecting a lot, to be honest. My only prescription drug experience was Zoloft, which usually takes about 6 weeks of irritating side effects to start making any difference. So when the Adderall hit me like a train after 30 minutes, I was a little surprised!
As I mentioned previously, the effects I’m about to go over did not occurr after the first week of use. In fact, they are considered “side effects.” The fact is – the main effects of Adderall are not so blatantly noticable. Instead of noticing something “extra,” you realize you AREN’T feeling something NORMAL. Sleepiness. Boredom. You won’t, in the short run, develop tolerance to those more subtle effects. But you build tolerance to the “nice” side effects within just a few days. Anyway:
1:15 – Took a half dose (5 mg) with a glass of water (acid (pop, juice) inhibits the absorbtion of amphetamines).
1:45 – Noticed the first effect; complete lack of drowsiness, and a surge of mental and physical energy.
2:00 – Noticed I had no desire to go home, or do anything different than what I was currently doing, which happened to be a very tedious task that afternoon.
After 2:30 or so – Became extremely energetic and motivated. Did about 6 hours worth of work in 3 hours, instead of the usual vice-versa typical of my sleep deprived afternoon. I finally left at 5:00, instead of my usual 4:15.
Other effects noted throughout the day: Brief (30 minutes or so) period of unnatural euphoria (I imagine it’s what ecstasy must feel like). Extreme talkativeness and ability to form complex, witty sentences on my feet (something I’ve never been good at!). Very fast but very clever, intelligable conversation. Ability to multitask like never before; I was literally able to participate in two conversation at once, or participate in a conversation while doing a tedious, involved math problem. Sharpened memory – I frequently started to flip back to some previous work to reference it, then realized I knew what I was going to reference, word for word.
By the end of the workday, I’d worked for about 3 solid hours at full steam, only taking breaks for water. These breaks consisted of me walking/running to the kitchen, walking/running back to my desk, and picking up where’d I’d left off without a hesitation.
Other things I noticed – I drank far more water than usual, and still had cotton mouth (common side effect). Also, I had zero appetite. I had zero desire for any food whatsover. Those two “bad” side effects persisted for the rest of the day. I didn’t actually eat anymore that day.
Arriving home at about 5:00 and feeling 100% wide awake and energetic, my wife and I played a very unusual hour of tennis. After tennis – I spent the next couple hours installing laminate flooring. At this point, I was starting to feel slightly drowsy.
We went to bed at 10:30 – and I did not go to sleep until 4:00am. This common side effect #3 of the drug – extreme insomnia. Fortunately, this is a short lived side effect (for me anyway).
I was feeling pretty miserable tossing and turning in bed that Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Not because I was tired, but because I was afraid of how miserable Wednesday would be on 2 hours of sleep.
