[girliegirl]

Hello,

I am new to the message board. Everyone's stories are so inspiring!


Here's my story. I will soon be 32 and since the age of 17, I have been in a gaining and losing pattern during this time.

At 5'2the I weighed a little over 160 in highschool. While not extreme, I certainly felt uncomfortable. At 17the I started eating right and exercising. Over4 months I lost 30my pounds and it was life changing. Over the course of the next year I lost another 15. I attribute that to my more active lifestyle and continued eating habits, I stayed around that size until my mid-twenties which wad fin because I had added weights to my workouts and honestly looked better tones at that weight than at 115. Fastforward to 30. Over the years the weight slowly crept back and I was at 160.

I had always struggled with what I thought was depression, so I finally sought help from my dr. Who referred me to a psychiatrist. He put me on anti-depressants and things went from difficult to unbearable. I would come home from work and sit on the sofa, eating junk and not moving until bed time. It was well over a year with over 4 trials of meds. Finally I explained that it wasn't working and I didn't know how much longer I
could take it.

He referred me to a psychologist and she said from my answers it seemed to her I had ADD. My doc prescribed adderall and I was very nervous. Both at another medication, and that I had heard bad stories of abuse of this medication. I took a chance.and filled.my rx.

Needless to say I was amazed. I thought it wad normal to have a constant stream of thoughts that would cause me to lose focus and zone out.
It also curbed my appetite, which I was warned about. I've been combating this by eating six small balanced meals a day. I was finally motivated at work and at home. I also started working out again. Ths is where my concern is. I was able to jump right back in, which
Was great. I would workout after work, because I thought by then the meds would wear off because I've read that working out while on adderall can have bad effects.

I recently decided to stop taking it on the weekends.as my mood and confidence had increased ten fold. My.first weekend workout was so tough. It was like my energy was zapped. I pushed through, but was concerned the adderall was allowing me to intensify my workouts even thought it was around 8-9 hours from my dose.

I plan on discussing this at my next appointment in a week, but wondered if anyone here has experience with adderall.

Thanks for listening :-)

[girliegirl]

Sorry for typo's posting on my phone is annoying :-)

[shapedself]

As a general rule, I wouldn't monkey with your medication doses without consulting your doctor. Your doctor is also probably the best to answer these types of questions. Good luck.

[ItsMyTurn]

ADHD'er here. I am on Ritalin and my kids are on Adderall. I workout in the evenings as well and have had no issues. I do take "medication holidays" on weekends as well (that's what my psych calls them, lol) and they are actually encouraging to that. The Adderall will effect your workout routine and ability and here's why: Adderall is a stimulant. The only dangers of working out on it as an adult is heart rate. If you monitor your heart rate and find it doesn't go extraordinarily high, you should be fine. Will taking your medication holidays make the workouts seem harder to get through? Very possible - again, it's a stimulant. Since it's affecting you AS a stimulant, you may want to ask about Concerta for an option to treat your ADD instead. Then you are able to treat the attention deficit, and not have that stimulant addition. I have to take the stimulant in order to keep myself from jumping cubicles in a single bound, I actually have to wait for my medication to wear off in order be able to get through my workouts - and I do a LOT more activity on weekends.

I also might add: If you are on Adderall XR and not just plain Adderall, the XR is time released. Therefore it can extend through you longer. So you may think it "should" be out of your system, but it may have lagged sometime during day and held out for later on for you. Just an added piece of knowledge for you

You are doing great and good luck to you!

[kelseyvc]

As someone who has taken Adderall XR for seven years, I would recommend that you try to take breaks from it. I made the mistake of taking it every day, and I am now dependent on it to the point where I am worthlessly sluggish and incredibly hungry if I miss a dose.

[ValRock]

I'm on Concerta and have zero problems working out directly after taking it, in the morning. I'm not sure if Aderal is the the same mechanism, but my doctor has never mentioned a problem with exercising on it.

I can't take a break from mine or I'm a mess. I'm jealous that you can!

Also, my experience with perceived depression was exactly the same as yours! Everyone thought I was depressed... Antidepressants make me MORE depressed. I finally had a psychiatrist that said to me "Not being able to keep your head together, is probably pretty dang depressing! Let's treat this ADD and see if that helps." Miracle, it did!