As a 15 year old in high school, my laziness and depression had gotten the best of me, and, having experienced the amphetamine high with all of its euphoria and motivation before by taking a 70mg Vyvanse by mistake, I decided to talk to my parents about whether or not I had ADD. They were surprisingly receptive to the idea, and within a month I had a prescription for 20mg Adderall IR per day, 2-10mgs throughout the day. At the time I was already skinny, being a male at 5'6" weighing only 115 pounds. Over the course of my sophomore year in high school, I was completely emaciated; I had lost 10 pounds. I started smoking marijuana frequently, and for a time, the legal "incense/spice/k2 (it has various names)", the latter I regret immensely. My drug use was heavy, most notably marijuana, incense, alcohol, and amphetamines.
I would never take my prescription as written, and the doctor for some reason encouraged my taking it "only when I needed it". I've come to find out that intermittent use of amphetamines leads to increased neurotoxicity, as your body can never fully get used to it. Though the doctor had no idea about my dosing. I would sometimes get 3 hours of sleep, thinking "doesn't matter, I have adderall", and take up to 60mg throughout the day, eat nothing, barely sleep again, and have to do it again. But, I never ran out out my prescription early, due to painstakingly rationing near the end of the month.
So, to the point. I am now a junior, no longer prescribed Adderall, though I do "tweak" about once a week when I have a lot of work on friends' modest dosed Vyvanse. I have fortunately gained a lot of weight, but I have noticed a severe mental decline. I once prided myself on being extremely smart in comparison to my peers, and now that has tapered. I have less motivation than before I started adderall (due to low dopamine levels no doubt), but that isn't what concerns me.
I think my overall intellect has decreased. My practice SAT score freshman year, without "cheating" with adderall, scaled for a 1900 SAT. My practice SAT in the fall of my sophomore year, on adderall, was 2030. In the Spring of my sophomore year, after nearly hitting rock bottom from the drug, I took the SAT (on adderall) and made a 1910. I took the practice SAT again this year, after two months of being clean, "cheating" with my friend's vyvanse, and fear that I may have scored lower than my freshman year.
There's an obvious disparity between my scores, exacerbated because I have obviously regressed in intelligence over time. I've researched, and there's not much information on amphetamine neurotoxicity in the form of intelligence loss. The majority of it seems to be centered around obvious dopamine depletion and serotonin irregularities.
So, after reading my story, have any of you also experienced similar mental symptoms, where you believe that you are mentally less capable than you were before you started adderall?