JustinW

Let it go

Sebastian, I think it is good that you are processing your thoughts and feelings regarding your quit. Your recent posts have been difficult for me to read because they echo so much of what I have been experiencing and thinking. Thank you for being transparent and coming here to help you work this out as I'm sure that typing your story is therapeutic. Keep fighting the good fight my friend.

Welcome to the SDC MadHatter! Congratulations on making it further than a lot of people.

Nothing worth doing is easy

I understand how adderall can be a good tool to help us ADHDers get our crap together. My intelligence level also masked my symptoms growing up. I weaned off on my second attempt to quit and ended it while I was on vacation. Weaning really just prolonged the misery for me and looking back I realize that I experienced the same long-term (3 - 5 month) withdrawal symptoms when I quit cold turkey and I should have just stuck it out. Best of luck on your international move, it sounds like an awesome opportunity!

Good job in quitting, your path in life pre-adderall sounds very similar to mine. I like the "relatively even keel" of an 11 year old girl; my daughter is 10 and the drama is staggering at times.

If you can't look back in a few years and see the silver lining, you probably didn't learn anything but I know that you have learned a lot so that won't be an issue for you.

Dragging a little bit, had to work in the shop until 9 last night and do the same thing today.

ZK - Just remember that "The same boiling water that hardens the egg softens the carrot" (Dr. James Dobson). The reasons for our struggles may not be immediately obvious or may not visible for years but they are making us better people.

We're on track for the wettest year on record.

I knew you could do it FW!!!

But it's summer!

Stroll

Yeah, keeping your head in your screen while giving the passerby the finger is probably bad form.

Statistics and Economics - two four letter words in my opinion.

Do anything possible or even impossible in order to ensure your success!

OK, so what are you going to do about it?

Congratulations FW, only one day to go!

Now if MFA would come back! Someone logged on to her account and changed her profile picture back in March.

Busy! I have bad days like last Sunday when my lawnmower broke down and got stuck. Of course with all the rain here I can't get the lawn mowed so it looks like a foreclosure. Add to that it's a heavy workload week at school so my self esteem has been pretty low but as my buddy SpongeBob says "I am confident in my ability to successfully succeed." This morning I decided that I would turn things around to a positive direction through attitude and brute force. That's my neurosis for the week. (We all have our own personal blend of crazy, don't we?)

Make sure that your support system is extremely sound if you decide to try a different anti-depressant than Effexor! That is bad stuff and the withdrawal symptoms can be quite extreme. All of us have down days, even at this point in recovery. 16 months appears to be another plateau period in recovery but I suspect that after another 2 months or so things will get back on track, at least that's what I'm hoping for.

Brain damage or not, the future is what YOU make of it!

Make sure that you don't beat yourself up too much; you don't want to enter a shame spiral. Did you make a list of your reasons to quit the first time? If not, it can be a lifesaver on those tough days.

Then I hope that my statement came across for what it was; that for profit universities tend to have a bad rep but I don't know if it is deserved or not. I think that it is probably a case where there are a few good ones but the bad ones give the entire industry a black eye.

Ashley, I remember how you were on the fence about whether or not you could handle the environment and location so I am thrilled to hear that things are working out positively for you!