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Adderall induced cognitive impairment


Socially awkward

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Hi, I am just wondering if any former (or current) Adderall abusers have ever experienced a rapid decrease in learning ability and memory including difficulting finding/remembering words during conversations? If so, how long did it take for your brain to recover? Or is this damage permanent? Some days I feel like I could have early onset dementia and have actually considered getting an MRI done. :( 

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Thanks everyone for your feedback.

I have been using for 2 yrs and have recently began tapering over the past month or so with my quit day being March 6th. I am only using it for work and abstaining the rest of the time. I have 5 weeks off work from March 6 and will be overseas and won’t have access. this drug is also illegal where I am traveling. I am hoping by the time I return to work mid April I will be recovered enough to perform at my job and I would have forgotten that amphetamines even existed.

i started noticing these memory issues a couple of yrs  before I was prescribed amphetamines which was the reason I was diagnosed as having ADHD in the first place. I now believe this could have been an anxiety related cause and low IQ, not ADHD. 

Anyways I think my level of cognition has declined rapidly in the 2 yrs I’ve been using, especially over the past 6 months. I feel I am the most stupid towards the end of my 12 hr shift when the drug is wearing off and I really struggle to string a sentence together. It’s like I can’t remember anything that has happened over the past 2 yrs.

i tried to go without my pills at work yesterday and lasted 2 hrs and it felt like I didn’t know how to do my job and I felt scared and anxious to speak to people so I ended up taking my pills. When I am meeting friends on my days off I feel like a zombie and I have trouble focusing on conversations etc. I feel tempted to cave in and use in these situations, but since speaking to my dr and having my prescription cutback I am stopped knowing if I do, I won’t have enough pills to get me through work.

I checked out that link 8 stages of amphetamine abuse. I believe I am at stage 6 although I haven’t quite reached psychosis, the rest all rings true. To be honest, I’m probably not far off and I hope I can make it until the 6th of March before the psychosis does decide to show its ugly head.

i don’t want to replace amphetamines with another substance but have found L tyrosine and ginkgo biloba supplements seem to be helping somewhat. I feel I am making progress as I starting to get out of bed and do things on my days off where as previously I wasn’t capable of doing anything. I just hope my brain hasn’t become permanently damaged to the extent of not being able to work or earn an income in the foreseeable future.

 

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@komgordon I had a look at that reddit thread. Thanks for sharing. I’m not sure my stomach could keep down that many supplements. I am already taking 500mg Ltyrosine x 2 daily and 1 x ginkgo 120mg and the occasional multi vitamin which is already too much. I think I just need to stop popping pills all together and learn to deal with the consequences 

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11 hours ago, Socially awkward said:

I checked out that link 8 stages of amphetamine abuse. I believe I am at stage 6 although I haven’t quite reached psychosis, the rest all rings true. To be honest, I’m probably not far off and I hope I can make it until the 6th of March before the psychosis does decide to show its ugly head.

don't worry about the psychosis - if you haven't already experienced it and you're already tapering and cutting back, you're in good shape.

and whatever you're feeling is not permanent! it really takes an extraordinary amount of amphetamine over a long enough time to be neurotoxic enough for that scenario. the losing words and difficulty constructing sentences is a well documented effect of abuse and also early recovery - it does go away!  (:

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8 hours ago, Socially awkward said:

@komgordon I had a look at that reddit thread. Thanks for sharing. I’m not sure my stomach could keep down that many supplements. I am already taking 500mg Ltyrosine x 2 daily and 1 x ginkgo 120mg and the occasional multi vitamin which is already too much. I think I just need to stop popping pills all together and learn to deal with the consequences 

Switch to 250mg of L-dopa.  Go to a vitamin shop they should have it.  It will work better than l-tyrosine in your case.

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On 1/24/2019 at 11:37 PM, Socially awkward said:

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

I have been using for 2 yrs and have recently began tapering over the past month or so with my quit day being March 6th. I am only using it for work and abstaining the rest of the time. I have 5 weeks off work from March 6 and will be overseas and won’t have access. this drug is also illegal where I am traveling. I am hoping by the time I return to work mid April I will be recovered enough to perform at my job and I would have forgotten that amphetamines even existed.

i started noticing these memory issues a couple of yrs  before I was prescribed amphetamines which was the reason I was diagnosed as having ADHD in the first place. I now believe this could have been an anxiety related cause and low IQ, not ADHD. 

Anyways I think my level of cognition has declined rapidly in the 2 yrs I’ve been using, especially over the past 6 months. I feel I am the most stupid towards the end of my 12 hr shift when the drug is wearing off and I really struggle to string a sentence together. It’s like I can’t remember anything that has happened over the past 2 yrs.

i tried to go without my pills at work yesterday and lasted 2 hrs and it felt like I didn’t know how to do my job and I felt scared and anxious to speak to people so I ended up taking my pills. When I am meeting friends on my days off I feel like a zombie and I have trouble focusing on conversations etc. I feel tempted to cave in and use in these situations, but since speaking to my dr and having my prescription cutback I am stopped knowing if I do, I won’t have enough pills to get me through work.

I checked out that link 8 stages of amphetamine abuse. I believe I am at stage 6 although I haven’t quite reached psychosis, the rest all rings true. To be honest, I’m probably not far off and I hope I can make it until the 6th of March before the psychosis does decide to show its ugly head.

i don’t want to replace amphetamines with another substance but have found L tyrosine and ginkgo biloba supplements seem to be helping somewhat. I feel I am making progress as I starting to get out of bed and do things on my days off where as previously I wasn’t capable of doing anything. I just hope my brain hasn’t become permanently damaged to the extent of not being able to work or earn an income in the foreseeable future.

 

As others said it’s NOT permanent. A lot of people have been successful tapering down, but I actually think it’s more difficult. You’re constantly detoxing from the drugs which is where your symptoms are coming from. Once you’re completely detoxed I bet you will find you stop having these issues.

Maybe instead of not taking any for two hours you could take a lower dose? Or when it wears off take some l-tyrosine or caffeine.

I have only been off two/three months (Can’t  remember my quit date. It was just whenever I finally ran out) I feel great and I think 90% is nutrition, sleep, and exercise. I ate healthy (by American standards) before but I really went all out when quitting and since I have a bigger appetite I was able to get more nutrition in. (Without gaining any weight). If I could go back I would have started this before I quit. 

If you have ever taken your blood sugar after Adderall you will see that it spikes. Add sugar to that and you’re in for a crash. I don’t know if any of this applies to you.

TLDR: You will recover. Tyrosine is super helpful. It’s hard to believe how great you can feel off of it when what you’re feeling right now is detox symptoms. 

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@AbsentMinded I believe you are right, I always feel awful for the first day after I crash but the symptoms have certainly become a lot milder now that I’m only using at work and have cut back on the amount of overtime I have been putting in. I’ve kinda needed to for the sake of my wellbeing although they are not happy I am only working my regular full time hrs at the moment. I’m feeling optimistic that when I return from my break I’ll be able to function without it. I no longer get any real benefit other than it just it just stops the acute withdrawals from happening whilst I’m at work. Without it I feel tired, scattered and very withdrawn. The L tyrosine does seem to be helping though. I never thought of bringing L tyrosine to work with me, I think I might give it a try. 

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