Hi guys - quick question please! :)

[freshmanxx17]

Hi everyone,

I was just curious about experiences in regards to coming off of Adderall/Vyvanse. I am currently a 21 yo male finishing his fourth year of pharmacy school. My first two years of college i was able to primarily only use adderall sparingly during finals and midterms. Third year (first professional - pharm) had more usage but not quite daily. This year (second professional/fourth overall) is by and far the hardest most compact year of school thus I got a prescription for Vyvanse since August and have been using adderall and vyvanse relatively heavily with sporadic breaks for a few days since September. I have always used around 40-50 mg of vyvanse OR 20-40 mg of adderall daily and now that my coursework is coming to an end I will no longer need adderall anymore and am coming off of it.

So anyways, how long would you say it takes to "revert" back to ones normal self post adderall in your own experience? I definitely feel that adderall has made me a more anxious/irritable person so I am excited to finally go back to my less-serious not studying 24/7 personality. From previous years (much less usage however) i would say by about 3 months post last dose I noticed I was notably happier and less stressed and my energy/motivation levels finally began to rise again.

In summary, what do you guys think I should prepare for in terms of adjusting back to an amphetamine free lifestyle? Any approximate timeline for how long the fatigue/anhedonia/irritability will last once I stop? Thanks for any input

 

[Keif' Richards]

Well, you're not in a terrible place man. It's a very common trend for college students to use stimulants like Amphetamine to help them study and absorb information better. I, myself did it for four years of college. I would often party during the week and then take a large dose of Amphetamine and tear through all of my work in a single sitting. My point is that you're not really engaging in any kind of crazy behavior.

You'll have to do some adjusting, sure, but it's not like you're coming off of a chronic Methamphetamine habit, in which dosages are exponentially higher. You can probably expect a little bit of apathy, lack of ambition and maybe a little bit of depression, but given the dosages you've been experimenting with, I would expect said withdrawal symptoms to be transient, if at all present.

The hardest part of your journey is going to be learning how to do work without the aid of stimulants. It sounds simply enough, but it's actually very hard to break the habit of using stimulants to perform work. To this day, I always say "man, this would be so easy if I had some Adderall". It becomes embedded pretty heavily in your mind that stimulants make work easier.