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Comment by garbawarb | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how it compares to Adderall.

I have an Adderall prescription, although I rarely use it. Adderall lets me focus on things longer, with distractions staying in the background. If anything, Adderall makes me too focused on a task.

If I were doom scrolling when Adderall kicked in, the risk is I'd continue doing it for hours.

Adderall produces a very, very different experience and is prescribed to address a very, very different root cause.

However, amphetamines such as Adderall were also sometimes prescribed for weight loss. I'm surprised it was done so rarely before Ozempic was a thing. They were quite effective.

The side effects of adderall are pretty bad. If I'm on a dose that's high enough to suppress my appetite, then I get a very bad crash in the evening. I start to feel like if I want to enjoy life after work, I need to take another adderall to feel normal. That disrupts sleep, and then things start to get really bad.

This varies from person to person, but the effects mentioned above have been my personal experience as well.

Stimulants have well documented downsides. It’s one of the hard aspects for adults with adhd as you often need to taper as you develop heart issues.

This is not accurate outside of abusive dosages or those with pre-existing conditions and I know adult patients in their 70s and even 80s on stimulants.

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