Adderall Consequences

[LILTEX41]

Just got back from the dentist. He's advised me to go see a TMJ specialist. I have an appt. set for next week. The past week my TMJ has been excruciating. My jaw pops and cracks and it actually hurts too much to eat. This leads me to question it. Where is this coming from?

I had a crown done a couple weeks ago. It was my very first crown. The dentist said my bite is ok. He thinks they aggravated the TMJ by the long period of holding my mouth wide open. Why did I have to get a crown? - Adderall

Has my jaw been disintegrating over the years on adderall? Um yeah. Oh wait, there's more.

Could This Be Causing Your TMD Symptoms?

Frequent Drug Use. The use of amphetamines, such as cocaine, is known to increase parafunctional activity such as teeth clenching and grinding. This may add to an underlying TMD problem or increase the incidence of a problem occurring.

I honestly can't believe just how much of my life has been impacted by this drug. I'm going to make a list of all my adderall consequences below. Hope to hear back from everyone on this. I want to know what consequences you've all experienced as well. Here we go...

1. Loss of Relationship - 5 year relationship/engagement called off

2. ER/Hospital/psych ward trip 1 - medical bills (2 weeks off work) 2009

3. Automobile accident - slammed into median/blew out four tires - 2010

4. ER/Hospital/detox - medical bills (2 months off work std) - 2010

5. Medical problems (dental/TMJ)

6. Horrible withdrawal period from bipolar/schizo meds. (I am neither, but the rehab doc prescribed me meds for these conditions based off my symptoms of adderall overdose). I am so sick and tired of being doped up on drugs I don't need, I stopped them abruptly and now suffering the consequences. Not fun.

I really hope this is the last consequence of my adderall use. I think my list here is pretty solid. Anyone?

[trey]

Adrenal burn-out perhaps?

I don't know much about the cause-effect chain of adderall in relation to the adrenal & thyroid glands but when imbalanced the symptoms sound very similar to what makes me take adderall (sluggishness, poor concentration to name a couple) I wouldn't be surprised if ongoing amphetamine use leads to a weakening of the adrenal glands. I'm going to have both these tested asap

With your TMJ symptoms have you experienced your ears ringing, tinnitus, any ear pressure etc ?

Trey

[Alliee]

I wrote this letter to Shire. I was on 20 mg XR for a two and a half years. This past month I discovered IR, and have been more of my normal self. I think I had some withdrawal symptoms on Friday. I found myself hysterical in the middle of the night and feeling really scared and upset after adderall had worn off for the day. This had to do with a scary man at work that I was not really phased by because of the Adderall "numbing" zombie like effect. It's important for people to have normal reactions, and adderall takes that away. Here is the letter I wrote in the middle of the night because I just realized that Adderall's manufacturer, Shire, funds the research done by all of the best doctors and researchers in our country. I'm talking, Yale, Harvard, Mayoclinic, everyone. No wonder the best treatment for ADHD includes "medicine" and not really any "skills" yet. Ugh. So wrong. Common sense tells me Adderall is not right. However, I do have the Innattentive type of Attention Deficit Disorder. So, maybe this is why I am not reacting well to Adderall (I just realized this yesterday). That all being said, I still take it. I want to get off of it and my parents are going to help me. I had a strange panic attack on Saturday in front of them. After the one I had on Friday night. I will tell all about this later, but here is the letter I wrote when I was hysterical friday night. This is not like me. I sent this to Medinfo.org... probably not even the right place, but I had just sent them in inquiry about the effects adderall has on my brain (not just the good stuff...i.e. frontal lobe light up). But also the bad stuff. I asked what it dimmed down? And what permanent effects it had. I did not get a clear answer. Only scientific writing. I will write more on the subject later. Wish I could do it all day and get to the bottom of it but have to go work at my dad's office.

Thank you. What I'm about to tell you all is so tragic for me and it's the truth. No one knows the terrible things that have happened to me as a result of the way my brain has changed because of Adderall. I'm just a 25 year old girl. I was on it for three years. I have had more lows than ever before but it's all been gradual. One of the many of my issues is that I don't have the same boundaries. I work at a dr's office as office staff. There was a patient there today who was the scariest man i've ever encountered and his movements and intense stairs at me make me sob now that the adderall has worn off (12:25 am). But when I was in the office I didn't even care. I still waved goodbye to him and flashed a big smile at this man. The effects of adderall get worse in this situation. Looking back, only now do I realize there was more to it. A lady who I work with who is nothing but happy all the time, even when her mother died, she was strong, but today there was something really wrong with her. Looking back I realize that she could see in the reflection of the picture what was happening, that's why she was so sad today, and she realized that I flashed a huge smile at him anyway. She thinks there is something wrong with me. There is. It's adderall.

Do you realize that this is just a day in the life? This is not an e-mail I saught out to send because this happened. This kind of strange thing, and many other kinds of strange destructive things have been happening to me for three years since I've been on this drug. I got another e-mail in response to one I had sent a few days ago, and as I lie in my bed, crying, again, at something new and crazy that I experienced, I remembered I still had google up, so I decided I'd write it all down.

To protect my e-motions from you all. I'm just going to go ahead and say, that I know I will only get a generic response, and you will keep making your millions and giving grants, when many good, unsuspecting, trusting, healthy, people have had their lives turned upside down because they have an already confusing disorder that's treatment has been taken over by your company. It's irresponsible. It's destructive. It's evil. So many people that love me and depend on me are numb towards me. They think they've done something wrong to make me as strange as Ive become, suddenly, and gradually, in these three years. Not being able to put a finger on why is your companies fault. It is your responsibility to explain in normal, every day words, EXACTLY EXACTLY EXACTLY WHAT THE CHEMICALS ARE DOING AND/OR HAVE DONE PERMANANTLY TO MY BRAIN. Every good person knows this.

[Mike]

Hi Alliee!

That's a pretty scary story about that creepy guy at your work. I hope your car close by and your parking lot is well lit.

You mentioned that you got a response to your letter that was "only scientific writing". Do you still have that response? I'd kind of like to see it.

[Alliee]

Sure.. it's about 14 pages long in a word doc.. I just copy and pasted it. Do you want me to send it to you?

[Alliee]

oops, tex, sorry to steal your thunder. I definitely was disoriented about the way this thread was set up I guess. That sucks about your TMJ. I think all of these things should be a warning that comes in everyday writing from the manufacturer and is given at the dr's office. Shire might think that's unreasonable in the business world.. but it's so necessary. Adderall impacts everyone differently, negatively, and hugely. It sounds like it needs at least a 20 page alphabatized list of warnings to go a long with the first perscription written at the dr.s office. especially with primary care physicians.

Here are what I think my consequences are for now..I think about these a lot.. it's beyond frustrating on a bad day.

Consequences

-Loss of relationship with sister (best friend)

-Mean things said to father I never would have said without adderall comedown

-ignored my older brother when he was going through a tough time

-told everyone in my community i was studying the LSAT (didn't study with my normal brain on it, didn't do well... it was not like me...)

-volunteered for anything and everything (too much at once)

-delayed finding a career path by three years because there was no anxiety to push me in the direction of finding a job when I quit the job i got right after college

-Now I'm behind all of my peers in the game of life (this is not like me)

-had two rocky relationships... unlike the ones I had pre-adderall, I'm normally a sweet, mild mannered, easy going, loving girlfriend.. on adderall.. au contraire. I analyze everything, am snappy, am quiet and robotic... this is not me! I normally make the conversation flow.. and I'm very carring!

-I got in a relationship I probably never would have gotten in if my life had been more stable and more normal for me and I hadn't been taking adderall at the time.

-loss closeness with my friends from high school when i moved back home a few years ago (they wanted to hang out, I always said no.. I was studying for the LSAT and "figuring out what I wanted to do with a law degree" (tons of very excessive research that amounted to nothing), losing tons of weight, and got really pail all summer)

-unusually suspicious of others (I didn't even know this was a side effect.. but I was.. I was paranoid and started calling people abusive and all this crazy stuff...?...)

-all of my normal social skills were gone and i wasn't eloquent and couldn't make a conversation flow

- i lost my character

-began to not care about anything.. was late to work all the time... normally i would have been to anxious to do this every day. this isn't like me!

-i lost my need for relationships.. didn't care about my boyfriend and it built a bad foundation for our relationship.. i stopped taking adderall over christmas break... everything was going smoothly with my bf... then the day I started taking adderall.. we started fighting. i noticed this always happened. We'd not get in a fight.. then the day i took it again, without fail we would start fighting.

then i stopped taking at the beginning of a grad school semester and ended up not being able to do any work.. just starred at my book.. because I was used to adderall.. I was just lost. So I withdrew from classes and didn't go back to grad school. (this type of behavior is not like me either)

Then I had to tell people about it.. Adderall just disrupted me getting started in my early 20's... I still have a chance but I never would have gotten in any of that.. and I know I would have had a lot more character. People used to always admire me a lot.. they don't now.. and I'm 25 and single.. I'm pretty sure this wouldn't be the case either.

[LILTEX41]

Hi, Member. I'm getting ready to head to work so I don't have much time, but wanted to respond. YOU CAN DO THIS! There is a FANTASTIC life out there waiting for you!!!!! I haven't been on this site in a few months as I've been so busy, but looking at everyone's stories right now makes me remember how bad it was.

I'm about 7.5 months clean right now and feel amazing! I can't promise you I would've gotten clean without a 2nd hospitilization/outpatient, but what I can promise you is that life is SO much better without adderall!

I used to freak out that I'd collapse at work without adderall and they'd all see me for what I truly was, but what actually happened was that I've changed so much that one of my employees actually followed my lead and quit taking her adderall as well. I get compliments all the time about how I look so healthy and amazing now. I am 100% myself again and people sure do love the new me they've never known.

As follow up to my previous post, here's a new list. I'm going to add as another thread.

Lil Tex's Quitting Adderall (and getting sober) Rewards:

1) Sleep

2) Sanity

3) Happiness

4) Health

5) New Opportunities

6) Exercise!

7) Friends!

8) Repair family relationships

9) Training (see list of all races I am signed up for below)

- Bridgeland Sprint Triathlon (august 2011)

- Clear Lake Olympic Triathlon (august 2011)

- San Antonio Marathon (november 2011)

- Half Ironman/Austin (october 2011)

- The Woodlands Marathon (march 2012)

- The Woodlands Ironman (may 2012)

10) Self Respect

11) Self Worth

12) Self Esteem

13) Lost weight through eating healthy and have a crazy sculpted physique (I look a thousand times better now than I did when I was malnourshied unhealthy and chain smoking cigarettes). I feel awesome.

14) I have more energy than ever

15) I have finally stopped wanting adderall. This is by far the biggest accomplishment. I thought I wouldn't be able to live without adderall. What I've discovered was that adderall stopped me from living. It shut off the world around me and left me as prisoner to it's wrath. Everyone around me knew I was sick and people ran from me. A psychic even told me that. She said said they could tell I had a good heart, but as soon as they knew me for more than 15 minutes they ran like hell. That's not a way to live. Get help if you need to people! There is an incredible life out there waiting for you and believe me it is patiently waiting for the day you can man up and get off those junk pills! You are WORTH IT!!!!!!

[Alliee]

Thanks so much for this tex. i will hang on to this. yea.. i can't stand when people run like hell from me. I don't deserve this. this is the opposite of who I am.