Hi everyone! I was diagnosed a few years ago in my early 30s, and started taking Adderall along with some different drugs for anxiety as well.

With Adderall and then Wellbutrin, even in small dosages, I notice that my HRV Stress (recorded on a Garmin 945 Forerunner) is significantly elevated for the entire day. When I used to take a midday and evening dose of (instant release) Adderall, it severely impacted my sleep. I also tried extended release taken in the morning, and that caused sleeping issues as well. So did an extended release of Wellbutrin.

Basically, any benefits those medications provide (and it didn’t really feel like it was helping) were offset by the bodily impact.

Has anyone had a similar experience with either of these medications? Any notable co-morbidities or changed metabolism or something that you identified as causing these symptoms? Did Ritalin or Strattera work for you when Adderall did not? I’ve been cycling through other non-stim medications with my provider, but haven’t found anything that provides benefits for ADHD (I’m currently on guanfacine and zoloft, which mitigates my anxiety at least).

  • @HandMadeArtisanRobotEnglish
    1•3 months ago

    I had a similar experience with small doses of Adderall. It would improve my focus, but it left me feeling anxious in the evenings.

    What helped in my case was consistency. I took the meds every weekday for a month and slowly the anxiety lessened as my body got used to the meds.

    • @hank_the_tank66OPEnglish
      2•3 months ago

      I took Adderall for about two years with slowly increasing dosages, so I definitely had the consistency aspect down. If anything it seemed to work well early on, but then started causing issues the longer I took it.