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Comment by RHSman2 | Hacker News Reader

Theoretically, if you have ADHD the medicine shouldn’t make you ‘high’. If you don’t it will have that effect. This was told to me by a specialist (I am dubious though)

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That's pretty dubious, especially about 'medicine' in general. If that was true it would double as a surefire test for ADHD. As well, all it takes is a little stronger dose and I know of a friend with ADHD that abuses it to party

The dose is managed to be the minimum that treats your symptoms. A massive dose of amphetamines will obviously get anyone high, but we're talking about the response in a clinically relevant range of doses.

It is Europe and that is what I thought. Aka, anecdotes

This is false - if the dose is high enough with a drug like Adderall or Vyvanse you will get the euphoric and high energy when first starting out. Over the course of a week or two your body adapts and that feeling fades.

This is a common misconception. The euphoria is a transient side-effect. Some people don’t experience much euphoria from amphetamine.

I experienced euphoria for a month or so when I first started treatment, but now it feels similar to a morning cup of coffee.

I'm commenting just to balance out everyone saying this is false. I took Ritalin in middle school and never felt high whatsoever. One day my mom took it (once) because she was curious and she said she felt high (she told me this many many years later).

I took it again after college and can say that yes if you take a high enough dose it will make you slightly euphoric but I think it's different than the high of recreational drugs. If your mood is too heightened when you take it then probably you should cut back on your dosage.

A normal dose can make you high or euphoric the first few times you take it. Eventually your body down-regulates and you don't experience a high, but if you read ADHD experiences on the internet you will often come across people who have just had their first dose and are clearly geeked up.

This is false. I was diagnosed ADHD by a psychologist twice (this is the full ADHD test where they put you through IQ and other cognitive testing). My ADHD was severe enough that I qualified for accommodations on the SATs. I was still able to get high on Vyvanse/Adderall often enough to get addicted to it. Drug companies lie to make these medications seem safer than they are.

Yep. As someone who has been taking these medications for over a decade, I can say the danger of physical and mental addiction is very real. I've also stopped medication several times over this period and the withdrawal can last weeks or months.

Have also done breaks and it’s hard, but it’s confounded with the accompanying massive drop in life functioning. I’d argue it’s 50/50 but anecdotally. The research on street addiction of amphetamine (think homeless not Ivy League SAT prep) and recovery is fairly robust. Doable but hard.

That's really interesting to me. I take methylphenidate as a (doctor prescribed) stimulant and don't get the euphoria much at all. Maybe a little bit the first time I take an increased dose. 5 mg made me feel drugged and tired the first time. At 10 mg, I very nearly puked at about 2 hours and 4 hours after the dose the first week but no euphoria. I just had a more normal amount of energy compared to how tired I am naturally. 15 mg and I'm pretty bright and alert, but wouldn't call it euphoria by any means. I don't know what a recreational dose is. I just got my prescription upped so that I've got a couple 20 mg doses available. If I have a suspiciously lovely day, I'll let you know. I'm definitely not addicted. I feel no need to take it except when I know I need it to get through the day.

What did give me euphoria and hypo-manic behaviors was Nuvigil at 250 mg after having been off it for 2 weeks. That was an inexperienced mistake on my part, but it was really fun.

I just don't see how people become physically addicted to these drugs. I am on Desoxyn have been for years and at a pretty high dose for a clinical dose. 35mg twice a day. I have went weeks without taking my medication with no ill effect. Not a single withdraw, the only thing that happens is the foggy head comes back and I cannot seem to put one foot in front of the other to get things completed. there is only one company that makes Desoxyn and it always has to be ordered, so I have times that my pharmacy does not have it and no pharmacy stocks it by default because it is pharmaceutical Methamphetamine. I do not take anywhere near a recreational dose, but I cannot for the life of me, understand how people on prescriptions for these class of drugs get junkie level addicted. I don't have any literature to back it up, but I would assume by the street drugs, if any of these meds would be the most addictive, it would be the one whos active ingredient is methamphetamine. I just go oh well it's going to suck for a week and not much will get done. Recreational meth users are generally taking anywhere from 100-200mg at recreational doses. For me to take that my months prescription would be used up in about 8 doses. certainly not enough time to develop dependency. So where are these people getting such high doses that they can continually take, to develop physical addition.

I also have no idea why anyone would want to abuse something like Adderall. The levoamphetamine targets the bodies nervous system rather than the brain. On very low therapeutic doses it cause all kinds of peripheral physicals problems for me.

It is also good to keep in mind ADD/ADHD meds have one of the highest success rates in the pharmacological field of psychiatrics care. It's one of psychiatrics success stories and there is a mountain of evidence that supports it. It is sad that it is still stigmatized as just wanting to get high. I avoided treatment for years due to that. Not accepting the proven track record of stimulant based treatment for ADD/ADHD is doing a lot of harm to a lot of people. Is it over diagnosed sure, but that does not negate that it does work for people who suffer focus disorders.

Oh, I wasn't physically dependent. But taking it at a young age contributed to a polysubstance abuse disorder. I have no issue with adults taking ADD meds by the way. I just don't like the way it's prescribed to kids so frequently (I was on it when I was 9). I'm not sure why the fact that it's evidence based matters because I never questioned that it works (I've taken it more than enough times to know that it works, lol). I'm questioning whether the pros outweigh the cons from a holistic, social perspective.

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