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Comment by taterbase | Hacker News Reader

I enjoyed your story up until adderall. While I'm sure the added pep it provides now is great I think its potential for addiction and health problems make it a bigger burden than caffeine ever was. Synthetic productivity is not sustainable. Take care and watch out for your self. Speed is not to be taken lightly.

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Low doses of adderall haven't been shown to have long term negative effects. There are side-effects to all medication, but him being treated is probably far healthier than the depression that can come with untreated ADD.

I see your concern and I share it, I make sure to temper my use of it to lessen dependence and addiction. I got my first prescription of a relatively low dose of Adderall 5mg IR 2x/day.

Realistically, I only use it once per day ever, and then not all days- just when I really feel that i've got a good laundry list of things to get done. I never take it on weekends or on holiday (don't even take it with me). My ADD is pretty severe, but it was just formally recognized as ADD recently for me. If I don't have anything specific to do, then I don't take it and I suffer no ill effects (didn't take any to California & Burning Man for example)

Yeah, I think every amphetamine user arrives at those notorious crossroads where you either try to out-dose the accumulating tolerance or realize you need to sprinkle in breaks if you want it to work a week from now.

I don't know why doctors prescribe it as a drug that can be taken every day. Not every day is equal, and every day is certainly not Side-project Saturday (best day of the week). :)

I recommend Vyvanse, the d-amphetamine prodrug with a therapeutic slope. Makes Adderall XR feel like a tweak with a trailing depression.

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