Writing off/after Adderall

[PostAdderall]

Does anyone have a difficult time writing after quitting Adderall? I feel as though I was a pretty good writer both before Adderall and while on Adderall, but recently I have been having a hard time writing eloquently and coherently. I write much more slowly, and feel like I have a difficult time effectively communicating my ideas. Does anyone else struggle with this? Any suggestions? I am considering just trying to write a little bit everyday to give myself some mental exercise -- perhaps it is just that overtime I have fallen out of touch with the reading/writing part of my brain.

[quit-once]

It took me almost three months before I could even write my first post on this website. I wondered about this too because I thought that adderall made me a better writer. But when I compare things I wrote on adderall and things I wrote post-adderall, I cannot honestly tell any difference in the quality of the article. I was never very good at writing about myself before I started posting on these boards. But with seventy or so posts under my name on this site, well, I still struggle writing about myself, but the experience has helped me to become a better writer and I can see the progress by looking back at those first few posts when I joined this website late last summer.

[Mike]

Actually, I had the opposite experience. Writing was the one thing I couldn't do while on Adderall. On Adderall, my writing would be over-styled and full of lengthy tangents. Plus I'd get jammed-up overanalyizing everything. Good writing requires ruthless prioritization and fat-trimming, and my sober brain is way better at that than my Adderall brain.

Also, after quitting Adderall I found I was less satisfied with writing something for its own sake. As in, I stopped writing things nobody read and started writing things in public.

On Adderall, writing was always that thing I meant to make time for, but never did. Since quitting Adderall, I rarely go two days without writing something. I know you guys don't see much of it here anymore, but I created another website after this one that kind of blew up (even moreso than quittingadderall.com), so that's where a lot of my writing ends up these days.

@PostAdderall - You need to get that flow started again. It's like your writing muscle has atrophied. It took me a while to get back into the swing of it, but once I did, well...I still haven't stopped pouring it out. I know it might be disheartening to feel like you suddenly can't articulate your ideas, but that actually might be a sign that your entering a new phase as a writer. To me, that's a sign that your brain has started to treat writing and communicating like a problem to solve. The problem is "How do I say this clearly?"

And that's how you should be thinking. Great pieces of writing start with that frustrating problem.

If I had any tips for getting over that, it would be this: Spit it out. As simply and stupidly as you can. Turn off the part of your brain that wants to be eloquent and stylistic, and just type out the jist of what you're trying to say in your own words. Then go from there.

Also, The Artist's Way really, really helped me get back my writing ability. The whole book is full of exercises designed to help "blocked" artists get back in their groove.

Anyhow, good luck. And if you want to test your skills by writing an article for the main blog, I'd be happy to put it up!

Also, FWIW, I still have trouble writing about myself haha. I think that's just a personality thing more than a writing ability thing.

[Greg]

Mike, really glad to hear you are well. Was definitely wondering what happened to ya...!!!!!

[marybelle]

whats this other website @mike??! 

[EricP]

I find focus and memory overall compromised. Even something as simple as a birthday card takes me time to find the right mood to focus and write something meaningful. I also find myself questioning and second guessing my spelling more often. My errors are more frequent so when finish I always reread to proof.

My hand writing has also become a bit more like "chicken scratch" unless I force myself to focus on it a bit. 

Making lists of my daly "to do's" has been a very important step of each work morning. 

Some of this has seemed to improve in the past couple months however it is so gradual it is hard to measure unless I think back to a particular day/time that I was really struggling.