Has adderall affected your physical health?

[Doge]

no doubt the thrush was connected to your dry mouth.  this is not an uncommon thing for adderallics to deal with.  hope it went away and never comes back!

[SleepyStupid]

sorry for the dig, but i want to add some more reminders to this thread of how seriously my addiction affected my health

 

- several months ago (Aug), i was attending a conference for work. i was tweaked out at 3AM in the morning, sitting outside on our balcony, chain smoking cigarettes, doing adderally things.. of course all sitting in a super stationary position (had my legs crossed). one side effect of adderall abuse is loss of feeling in limbs. my entire right leg had fallen asleep but i *didnt feel the pins and needles*. i went to stand up, collapsed and severely injured my big toe. of course, i downplayed the injury, hobbled around for a month or so.. but still to this day wearing certain shoes or walking for too long will cause me pain. maybe i let it heal incorrectly or something. i wish i had fucking cared more about my life to avoid this. this may not have been a direct result of abuse but i attribute it to that.

 

- over the course of my 6 year addiction, my hygiene of course deteriorated so i was more prone to things like athletes foot, thrush, tongue sore s etc. but these are some what transient and can be treated. you know what isnt easily treated? damaging your toe nail matrices from habitual toe curling. apparently if you apply enough friction or force over time, your toe nails will begin to grow thicker and in my case now grow straight up. its fucking weird. ill need to see a podiatrist or something, but ive been too ashamed thus far to take any action.  

[Subtracterall]

On November 1, 2015 at 11:08 PM, quit-once said:

My auditory hallucination was the sound of a lawn mower in the background, all the time.  And I continued to use for several more years.....why?

I still have muscle twitches in my legs and feet,  4 years after quitting

Quit-Once,

May I please inquire as to how long you have been off addy and how are your legs and feet now?  Do you still have muscle twitches in your legs and feet?  Do you have any other symptoms in your legs and feet?  Do you have any vericose veins in your legs?  I am trying to figure out whether my veins in my legs will stop failing since i'm off addy now and have had the damaged leg veins removed.  

Thank you.

[quit-once]

7 hours ago, Subtracterall said:

Quit-Once,

May I please inquire as to how long you have been off addy and how are your legs and feet now?  Do you still have muscle twitches in your legs and feet?  Do you have any other symptoms in your legs and feet?  Do you have any vericose veins in your legs?  I am trying to figure out whether my veins in my legs will stop failing since i'm off addy now and have had the damaged leg veins removed.  

Thank you.

My Quit date was June 3, 2011 so I have been Adderall- free for almost six years.  The muscle twitches in my legs and feet is much better now than it was even two years ago.  But, as I am typing this, I can still feel a subtle twitch deep in my right ankle and also my lower thigh.  It is not annoying, it is not painful and it causes me no discomfort.  I'm not sure I would even be aware of it if I weren't writing about it.  I do not have any issues with my veins.   Some people have twitches in their faces and I have been lucky enough to avoid that issue.  One thing I believed aggrevated my muscle twitches was taking L-Tyrosine but I haven't used that supplement for 2-3 years.  If minor muscle twitching is the worst long term affect of my Adderall addiction, I consider myself very lucky. 

[quit-once]

And thank you for bringing this thread back to life, Subtracterall.  I feel like this is one of the most valuable threads ever created on this forum because it reminds us of the reasons we quit and how bad that shit is for our physical health.

[KimR]

So happy to see this thread. I've also had most symptoms listed here, with the heart palpitations and high blood pressure being the worst. 

This drug is the devil. 

[stealthology]

On 1/29/2014 at 9:20 PM, quit-once said:

I looked and looked for anything besides anecdotal stories of long term Adderall abuse and never found anything.  I believe it is because Big Pharma controls the science of drugs and since this one is such a lucrative substance they really don't want negative information out there.  So the scientific information available is mostly from studies done with kids and low doses, since that is what is typically prescribed.  And Adderall as a branded drug has only existed for 20 years or so, although amphetamines and other speed have been around since the 1930's.  Parkinsons Disease is one of the few documented conditions related to long term use.  Alcohol addiction has plagued mankind for centuries so there is a lot of information on the side effects of abusing that evil drug and how it kills people.  

 

I have a pretty long list.  I will restrict it to only the physical, (not mental or behavioral) side effects that I experienced.  By the way, I abused adderall as a binge user for nine years, then daily the last two years, at a dosage of 100-150 mg per day, and I have been off it for about 32 months.

Sensory: 

Blurry vision.  Dry eyes.  Tears of fire.  Eye muscle twitches.  Poor depth perception.

Impaired hearing.  Audio hallucinations.  Ringing in my ears.

Impaired sense of smell.  Nose runs lasting all day.  Incessant sneezing.  Hoarse voice.

Physical numbness.  Drooling.  Tongue thrashing.  Jaw clenching.  My tongue is still semi-active.

Heightened and impaired sense of taste.  Mouth burns.  Biting my tongue and cheek.  Difficulty swallowing and choking.

 

Also:

Dry, brittle and cracked skin.  Mystery cuts and scratches.  Red splotches on my face and elsewhere that would last for days.

Weird and offensive body odors.

Sexual and urinary dysfunction.

Muscle twitches and spasms.  I still have these in my lower extremities.

Brittle hair.  Thinning hair.  Gray hair.  My hair got healthy again and less thin and gray after quitting.

Dark nails.  Hangnails.

Reduced sleep, both quantity and quality - only 5 hours daily.

Bloated, puffy skin.  Bags or circles under my eyes.  Acne.  Keratonosis.

Weight gain from poor eating habits and lack of sleep.  Excessive belly fat.

Shortness of breath.  Wheezing.  Craving cigarettes.

Bad eating habits and poor food choices.

Heart palpitations - like a cell phone on vibrate in my shirt pocket.  Heart beating hard and out of my chest.

Rapid pulse - my resting heart rate was 110-120 BPM, and right now it is 56 BPM.

Purple hands that were always cold.  My whole body felt cold, and I also overheated easily too.  Night sweats.

Sore muscles, sore joints and brittle bones.  Broken and brittle teeth, despite taking extra calcium.

Digestive issues and acid reflux. especially at night.

 

I may come back to this and add more as I think of it.  My God, if that wasn't enough reason to quit, I still have an equally long list of the mental deficiencies Adderall caused but that is another post.

Did the puffy/dark circles get better after quitting? 

[quit-once]

12 hours ago, stealthology said:

Did the puffy/dark circles get better after quitting? 

Yes, they went away.  I think that was from the lack of sleep and exhaustion that was all too easy to cure with another pill.

[inneedofhelpBP]

The scary truth of why we don't know the timeline/ damage it causes is because it hasn't been around long enough! We don't know what use/ abuse does to people 40 years down the road. I guarantee that 40 years from now, people are going to be like, "WHAT! People took that shit?! It was LEGAL?" 

 

My experience in no particular order is:

Freezing cold

Purple, blotchy skin

93 lbs (scary, I'm 5'3"- my friends called me "Skeletor")

Heart problems- had a heart attack once- I was 21. 

Vein pulsations 

Panic attacks

Thinning hair

Thinning teeth

Psychosis/ paranoia- heard music, voices, sirens

Dizziness 

Cravings for more, more, more

Involuntary neck/ head twitching

Confusion, inability to read or understand things

Inability to communicate normally- things that made sense in my head came out in pieces, robotic

Memory loss

[Subtracterall]

50 minutes ago, inneedofhelpBP said:

The scary truth of why we don't know the timeline/ damage it causes is because it hasn't been around long enough! We don't know what use/ abuse does to people 40 years down the road. I guarantee that 40 years from now, people are going to be like, "WHAT! People took that shit?! It was LEGAL?" 

 

My experience in no particular order is:

Freezing cold

Purple, blotchy skin

93 lbs (scary, I'm 5'3"- my friends called me "Skeletor")

Heart problems- had a heart attack once- I was 21. 

Vein pulsations 

Panic attacks

Thinning hair

Thinning teeth

Psychosis/ paranoia- heard music, voices, sirens

Dizziness 

Cravings for more, more, more

Involuntary neck/ head twitching

Confusion, inability to read or understand things

Inability to communicate normally- things that made sense in my head came out in pieces, robotic

Memory loss

InneedofhelpBP,

you are the first person I have heard mention vein pulsations. I think I have this and I've been clean almost three months but I still have the pulsations all through my body. Did yours go away?  How did you know it was vein pulsations that caused your symptom?  Did you see a doctor for this? I want the pulsing to stop and have no idea how to go about achieving that.  Thank you for any info you can provide on this. it seems rare and I will appreciate any info you can share with me. 

[inneedofhelpBP]

Subtracterall,

It's hard for me to say because I switched from adderall to vyvance and still experience this, though the pulsing is not nearly as hard or strong as it was on adderall- if that makes sense. In between my adderall to Vyvance transition, I quit for I think four months. I don't recall the pulsing being present towards the end of that time. I notice other factors contribute to the pulsing. Too much caffeine, smoking cigarettes, and exercise definitely provokes the pulsing. I can't help but think that it all started from the addy. Maybe we're going to experience this for a while, until our bodies heal. Like I said, we're kind of guinnea pigs for this drug.  

 

Ive never seen a doctor for this. It's always been something I've kind of just accepted. Shouldn't be that way though!

[Sunnie]

Ive had pulsing veins too. I had mono in December so i though it was bc of that or a combo of mono and adderall use but i still feel pulsation from time to time especially when ive had caffeine and or feel anxious. 

[SamJo]

On 3/30/2017 at 9:32 AM, inneedofhelpBP said:

The scary truth of why we don't know the timeline/ damage it causes is because it hasn't been around long enough! We don't know what use/ abuse does to people 40 years down the road. I guarantee that 40 years from now, people are going to be like, "WHAT! People took that shit?! It was LEGAL?" 

 

My experience in no particular order is:

Freezing cold

Purple, blotchy skin

93 lbs (scary, I'm 5'3"- my friends called me "Skeletor")

Heart problems- had a heart attack once- I was 21. 

Vein pulsations 

Panic attacks

Thinning hair

Thinning teeth

Psychosis/ paranoia- heard music, voices, sirens

Dizziness 

Cravings for more, more, more

Involuntary neck/ head twitching

Confusion, inability to read or understand things

Inability to communicate normally- things that made sense in my head came out in pieces, robotic

Memory loss

I’ve experienced a lot of those symptoms as well. How long have you been off? Has your memory / confusion gotten better? 

[jasonl2017]

Ahh I love this thread so much. The oral health is what has scared me the most during my use. I’ve been to see an orthodontist once now - with a more thorough follow up next month. The tips of my teeth are becoming transparent, gums have receded heavily. She thinks I’ll have to have a gum graft to clear out all of the tarter that has built up. Gums are a red color, irritated and unhealthy instead of pink. I used to have very straight teeth which has been totally ruined now. And I’ve grinded and chipped away at the tops of a lot of teeth. Another user mentioned having many, many cavities which is the same for me as well. Teeth just rotting out because of what grew and stayed in my mouth all the time due to the dryness. 

[Mark S]

God I experienced so many of these symptoms but to your last post jasonl2017 my dental problems were very similar to yours. I did not know teeth could become transparent. I do now. Receding gums. Dry mouth. Cavities. I now have partials .

People who take meth have horrible dental problems. The medical slang name for it is meth mouth. It’s interesting how adderall affects our  teeth in similar ways. Just further evidence how similar these two drugs are to one another.

[StAnne0822]

On 1/29/2014 at 9:20 PM, quit-once said:

I looked and looked for anything besides anecdotal stories of long term Adderall abuse and never found anything.  I believe it is because Big Pharma controls the science of drugs and since this one is such a lucrative substance they really don't want negative information out there.  So the scientific information available is mostly from studies done with kids and low doses, since that is what is typically prescribed.  And Adderall as a branded drug has only existed for 20 years or so, although amphetamines and other speed have been around since the 1930's.  Parkinsons Disease is one of the few documented conditions related to long term use.  Alcohol addiction has plagued mankind for centuries so there is a lot of information on the side effects of abusing that evil drug and how it kills people.  

 

I have a pretty long list.  I will restrict it to only the physical, (not mental or behavioral) side effects that I experienced.  By the way, I abused adderall as a binge user for nine years, then daily the last two years, at a dosage of 100-150 mg per day, and I have been off it for about 32 months.

Sensory: 

Blurry vision.  Dry eyes.  Tears of fire.  Eye muscle twitches.  Poor depth perception.

Impaired hearing.  Audio hallucinations.  Ringing in my ears.

Impaired sense of smell.  Nose runs lasting all day.  Incessant sneezing.  Hoarse voice.

Physical numbness.  Drooling.  Tongue thrashing.  Jaw clenching.  My tongue is still semi-active.

Heightened and impaired sense of taste.  Mouth burns.  Biting my tongue and cheek.  Difficulty swallowing and choking.

 

Also:

Dry, brittle and cracked skin.  Mystery cuts and scratches.  Red splotches on my face and elsewhere that would last for days.

Weird and offensive body odors.

Sexual and urinary dysfunction.

Muscle twitches and spasms.  I still have these in my lower extremities.

Brittle hair.  Thinning hair.  Gray hair.  My hair got healthy again and less thin and gray after quitting.

Dark nails.  Hangnails.

Reduced sleep, both quantity and quality - only 5 hours daily.

Bloated, puffy skin.  Bags or circles under my eyes.  Acne.  Keratonosis.

Weight gain from poor eating habits and lack of sleep.  Excessive belly fat.

Shortness of breath.  Wheezing.  Craving cigarettes.

Bad eating habits and poor food choices.

Heart palpitations - like a cell phone on vibrate in my shirt pocket.  Heart beating hard and out of my chest.

Rapid pulse - my resting heart rate was 110-120 BPM, and right now it is 56 BPM.

Purple hands that were always cold.  My whole body felt cold, and I also overheated easily too.  Night sweats.

Sore muscles, sore joints and brittle bones.  Broken and brittle teeth, despite taking extra calcium.

Digestive issues and acid reflux. especially at night.

 

I may come back to this and add more as I think of it.  My God, if that wasn't enough reason to quit, I still have an equally long list of the mental deficiencies Adderall caused but that is another post.

Please share the mental deficiencies.