Physical Withdrawal

[tinybuddha]

This forum truly makes a difference! Mike I can not thank you or the other members who generously give their time to post giving non-judgemental advice and support. I plan on writing out my story hopefully soon. My life has been twisted by adderall for so long now. Over the last month I have made significant improvement with my addiction.(After many failed attempts) I have managed to get down to 40mg IR(I was taking over 90mgs everyday and more most days) and also have been able to stop taking multiple prescription meds to sleep and have cut back to using just the one pill. I know to many doesn't sound like much. From where I was in this dark depressed void a few months ago it is huge. The best part is I truly like myself without the adderall better, and I thought the opposite for so long. My problem is the mornings are so hard for me that even though I hate the adderall feeling now I cave and take it just to get through it. I used to take the adderall all day and whenever I went out at all socially. Now I don't want the adderall feeling I used to but I get weak in the morning(and I feel horrible about it) and take it b/c I literally ache in the early AM. My routine was for a long time was take the adderall in AM and then lay beck down until kicks in and get up. The days I didn't take it I would just sleep all day. Now I wish I could just sleep for a few days my body needs the rest and I want to get it out of my system. I feel very tired when I don't take the adderall but I can not actually sleep much at all, which leads me to lay there and then the depression kicks in hard. I wake very early in the AM and can not fall back asleep I feel sick and the worst part for me is I get get muscle twitches and intense pain in my lower extremities. I find it hard to describe but I get like extremely restless legs like little pins and needles in my legs when I don't take the adderall mainly the front on my shins. I have read so much on adderall and have a degree in the medical field, but found almost everything is pertaining to mainly fatigue symptoms. I really would like to know if anyone else has had physical withdrawal symptoms besides fatigue? Or almost felt insomnia? Muscle pain or this for lack of better term restless leg sensation? Just knowing I am not the only one would help me. If so how long did these type of physical symptoms last? Did they give way to more classic withdrawal? Did anything help to get through enough to not take the pill? Thank you.

[tinybuddha]

I see there are 46 views, but no reply. Please feel free to respond to the post on your withdrawal experiences without having to do an introduction or summary. I know that not feeling ready to get into all that kept me from responding to posts for a long time. Honestly, I after writing this and not getting a response I am feeling even more alone with this and uneasy about it.

[Concertafree]

This is my first post and my drug use is concerta 36. I am 30 and have taken it for 5 years with my longest pause about 2 months ago for six weeks. I was having unrelated surgery and wanted to be safe and quit cold turkey for the two weeks leading up to the operation. I definitely had twitching ... Spasms under my eyes or in my thighs and butt. I think this can be due to a vitamin b deficiency or potassium, so u started a b complex and it went away after about a week off. Hope that helps. I know it is not much but I think this website is really amazing and am glad I found it.

[matilda]

Hi tinyb --

The fatigue gets better, so long as you don't re-up your intake of Adderall. You have asked your body to be in high action mode for long stretches of time when the more normal deal is for the body to be in states of higher activity and then less, plus adequate rest, etc. It's just going to be a little while before you're normal.

You can do this if it's what you really want. I've found the difficult side effects of quitting passed fairly quickly, although I'm leaning heavier on coffee than I normally would. You do what you gotta do to get better, if it's worth it for you at this point in your life. For me, the drug was making me depressed and flattening out my personality to boot, so the toll it was taking on my life was too extreme to ignore. I'm still re-learning how to live my life without it, but during every moment of weakness I remind myself that this is the way I was meant to be, and I'll figure out how this thing (me) works over time!

Be gentle with yourself -- this is tough.

M

[Greg]

I agree with Matilda, the fatigue gets a lot better. And eventually you will have more energy. Your body won't be confined to the sleep wake cycles of being on adderall and off. Physically, I feel cravings and pressure in and around my head, especially around the base of my neck, sometimes around my temples and occasionally in the forehead. It's not painful but its really uncomfortable and unpleasant. i'm pretty sure those side effects are just my body craving adderall. Although I'm curious to know if anyone else experiences feeling this way. I also recently started getting headaches when Im not well rested, which is another way I believe my body is craving adderall. I also get this itchy feeling inside my body which is hard to describe! These periods of cravings can sometimes last all day, or sometimes for hours.

I also found, to my surprise, that a little caffeine helps to motivate me a lot more and definitely helps keep me awake. Sometimes I drink some diet soda. I try to sleep as much as possible to keep the withdrawal to a minimum.

[byforky]

I'm 6 days clean now. Other then EXTREME fatigue, I had slight headaches. Nothing extreme, but It was annoying. I have been drinking more coffee, and it does help. Although, I' don't want to replace my addiction with another. I have been very restless at nigt. I have had to sleep on the sofa so my SO could sleep. I have had some neck and shoulder tension. I think that's it. I wonder how long before it goes away. I thik it's getting better already. Tomorro will be a week! Good luck everone!