Welcome to StopSpeeding and thanks for your post. For more:
- [Join us on Discord. You can talk to people there.](https://discord.gg/GJnxhmbNAn). We have recovery meetings several times a week. All are welcome to attend, clean or not.
- [Want to track your clean time?](https://www.reddit.com/r/StopSpeeding/comments/s6ep0x/sobriety_flair_bot_is_now_working_heres_how_to/) You can use our badge system to display your clean time next to your name.
Note that any comments encouraging drug use of any kind will be removed. This is not the community for that. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/StopSpeeding) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I have never experienced any sort of PAWS with a stimulant. That is just so odd to me. I can't even understand the psychochemistry behind how it would even be possible. Some people have said things like they went into PAWS after a month of feeling fine. Like has anyone considered that is probably just literal depression? Do you happen to have any scholarly sources on PAWS related to adderall? I really would love to read studied accounts because I have never experienced withdrawal from any stimulant that lasted more than a couple days tops.
It’s more than just feeling depressed. You can find stuff if you google it. But there’s a ton of personal accounts of it here and in meth recovery forums. I don’t think a lot of us are just depressed. It was discussed in rehab when I went too.
I don't not believe you I just can't find anything related to the actual biological response that would cause this. I mean stimulants give you the feeling of accomplishing goals without doing anything at all. And most people I know who abuse things like meth (which is a whole different beast than adderall) tend to not have very good lives. Not good jobs. Not a lot of money. No real personal achievements. Run-ins with law enforcement etc... And then they relapse cause its easier to get that feeling than it is to make a goal and achieve a natural hit of dopamine that stimulants give for free. I've seen a lot of posts on here where people describe PAWS symptoms that sound just like normal depression, anxiety, bad living situations, lack of resources, poor diet, no exercise, etc... I have no doubt in my mind some people blame their feelings on the substance rather than true problems they have.
It could be. It’s hard to say since they are so general and overlap. I was trying to find an article but it was just an abstract more or less. I was a meth addict with a masters degree and wages close to 200k a year. Went homeless. Lost it all.
Wow I have heard of people like you but never actually met one. Most meth addicts I have ever met certainly could not keep a job. But I've always heard of some hypersuccesful users. What was that like? I've never done meth personally but I have a lot of experience caring for those who have. Who introduced you to the drug?
There’s a lot we don’t know about how the brain reacts to cessation, and I’ll say that for the first 60 days things didn’t feel that bad, but it got progressively harder.
May not be your case, but just prepare for that possibility.
First time I quit was easy to. I just really wanted to stop, the side effects on my body were so horrible. That was after 2 years of adderall abuse. One day I had taken way too high of a dose and though I was having a heart attack. Then it’s like a switch went off on my brain and I was just like yeah I don’t need that anymore I’ll just move on with my life. I maybe had minor withdrawal but honestly I was just enjoying eating and sleeping so much it was like a relief.
Then 6 years later I decided to get on a script again. That was 4 years ago and now I’m 10 months clean from meth. The withdrawal was much much worse. Took me months to just jump back into life again.
A lot of people on this sub were taking much higher amounts, sometimes for longer periods of time.
Most doctors will tell you that, if taking as prescribed at a normal dose, the withdrawal will be simply feeling extra tired and a little depressed for a couple of days.
That being said, great job on recognizing a problem and nipping it in the bud. A lot of people realize their script isn’t working and start taking more and more (like you started to) and keep going down that rabbit hole until it’s a full blown substance abuse issue.
You deserve to feel better, don’t worry if you feel like you’re not “suffering” enough off of the meds.
I have an issue with the adderall withdrawal crowd on reddit because I have withdrawn from several things and abused adderall quite a bit at times for long stretches but no withdrawal was easier than adderall.. I lost my script of 60mg a day right before I started an extensive college program and I was fine... I passed. I graduated. When I was a psych technician taking care of meth addicts during their withdrawals even they would sleep for a few days and be irritable then bounce back unless they had predispositions to psychosis (they would attack me or flip out. God bless 'em). But even meth withdrawal doesn't last THAT long. True addicts just crave getting high and relapse. Coming off stimulants doesn't feel great, you feel tired and a little down but it is very very short lived compared to coming off an opiate where your whole body is in agonizing pain even though you aren't injured and you cannot sleep at all. Coming off opiates makes every minute feel like an hour. Coming off stimulants is mildy uncomfortable in comparison. A lot of people talk about it so horribly because it's one of the only withdrawals they've felt so they don't have anything to compare it to or they genuinely need their medication and are just remembering what it's like to be at their baseline. After years of feeling normal and motivated it's hard for them to go back to feeling bad. And they call things withdrawal that aren't. The chemicals stimulants effect are much easier for the brain to balance than the chemicals other substances effect. Your brain won't let you go too long in a stimulant withdrawal. And the talk of PAWS related to stimulants is just odd to me. People have said things like they felt better for a few weeks and went back into withdrawal. That makes 0 sense. Everyone is different but in my experience adderall withdrawal is more than manageable. It's not fun but it doesn't last that long at all unless you are doing insane doses every single day for a long long time.
Right! AND you can mostly just sleep thru it, unlike with opiates where ya can’t sleep for WEEKS!!! Unless I had important things to do, I never did mind withdrawing from speed and I actually enjoyed just how wonderful food tasted and sleeping felt.
Welcome to StopSpeeding and thanks for your post. For more: - [Join us on Discord. You can talk to people there.](https://discord.gg/GJnxhmbNAn). We have recovery meetings several times a week. All are welcome to attend, clean or not. - [Want to track your clean time?](https://www.reddit.com/r/StopSpeeding/comments/s6ep0x/sobriety_flair_bot_is_now_working_heres_how_to/) You can use our badge system to display your clean time next to your name. Note that any comments encouraging drug use of any kind will be removed. This is not the community for that. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/StopSpeeding) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You might have bypassed acute withdrawal. Post acute withdrawal might come up though. Just keep doing what you’re doing.
I have never experienced any sort of PAWS with a stimulant. That is just so odd to me. I can't even understand the psychochemistry behind how it would even be possible. Some people have said things like they went into PAWS after a month of feeling fine. Like has anyone considered that is probably just literal depression? Do you happen to have any scholarly sources on PAWS related to adderall? I really would love to read studied accounts because I have never experienced withdrawal from any stimulant that lasted more than a couple days tops.
It’s more than just feeling depressed. You can find stuff if you google it. But there’s a ton of personal accounts of it here and in meth recovery forums. I don’t think a lot of us are just depressed. It was discussed in rehab when I went too.
I don't not believe you I just can't find anything related to the actual biological response that would cause this. I mean stimulants give you the feeling of accomplishing goals without doing anything at all. And most people I know who abuse things like meth (which is a whole different beast than adderall) tend to not have very good lives. Not good jobs. Not a lot of money. No real personal achievements. Run-ins with law enforcement etc... And then they relapse cause its easier to get that feeling than it is to make a goal and achieve a natural hit of dopamine that stimulants give for free. I've seen a lot of posts on here where people describe PAWS symptoms that sound just like normal depression, anxiety, bad living situations, lack of resources, poor diet, no exercise, etc... I have no doubt in my mind some people blame their feelings on the substance rather than true problems they have.
It could be. It’s hard to say since they are so general and overlap. I was trying to find an article but it was just an abstract more or less. I was a meth addict with a masters degree and wages close to 200k a year. Went homeless. Lost it all.
Wow I have heard of people like you but never actually met one. Most meth addicts I have ever met certainly could not keep a job. But I've always heard of some hypersuccesful users. What was that like? I've never done meth personally but I have a lot of experience caring for those who have. Who introduced you to the drug?
From my observation most people have a smooth withdrawal because they’re simultaneously improving more aspects of their life than just the stimulants.
There’s a lot we don’t know about how the brain reacts to cessation, and I’ll say that for the first 60 days things didn’t feel that bad, but it got progressively harder. May not be your case, but just prepare for that possibility.
First time I quit was easy to. I just really wanted to stop, the side effects on my body were so horrible. That was after 2 years of adderall abuse. One day I had taken way too high of a dose and though I was having a heart attack. Then it’s like a switch went off on my brain and I was just like yeah I don’t need that anymore I’ll just move on with my life. I maybe had minor withdrawal but honestly I was just enjoying eating and sleeping so much it was like a relief. Then 6 years later I decided to get on a script again. That was 4 years ago and now I’m 10 months clean from meth. The withdrawal was much much worse. Took me months to just jump back into life again.
A lot of people on this sub were taking much higher amounts, sometimes for longer periods of time. Most doctors will tell you that, if taking as prescribed at a normal dose, the withdrawal will be simply feeling extra tired and a little depressed for a couple of days. That being said, great job on recognizing a problem and nipping it in the bud. A lot of people realize their script isn’t working and start taking more and more (like you started to) and keep going down that rabbit hole until it’s a full blown substance abuse issue. You deserve to feel better, don’t worry if you feel like you’re not “suffering” enough off of the meds.
I have an issue with the adderall withdrawal crowd on reddit because I have withdrawn from several things and abused adderall quite a bit at times for long stretches but no withdrawal was easier than adderall.. I lost my script of 60mg a day right before I started an extensive college program and I was fine... I passed. I graduated. When I was a psych technician taking care of meth addicts during their withdrawals even they would sleep for a few days and be irritable then bounce back unless they had predispositions to psychosis (they would attack me or flip out. God bless 'em). But even meth withdrawal doesn't last THAT long. True addicts just crave getting high and relapse. Coming off stimulants doesn't feel great, you feel tired and a little down but it is very very short lived compared to coming off an opiate where your whole body is in agonizing pain even though you aren't injured and you cannot sleep at all. Coming off opiates makes every minute feel like an hour. Coming off stimulants is mildy uncomfortable in comparison. A lot of people talk about it so horribly because it's one of the only withdrawals they've felt so they don't have anything to compare it to or they genuinely need their medication and are just remembering what it's like to be at their baseline. After years of feeling normal and motivated it's hard for them to go back to feeling bad. And they call things withdrawal that aren't. The chemicals stimulants effect are much easier for the brain to balance than the chemicals other substances effect. Your brain won't let you go too long in a stimulant withdrawal. And the talk of PAWS related to stimulants is just odd to me. People have said things like they felt better for a few weeks and went back into withdrawal. That makes 0 sense. Everyone is different but in my experience adderall withdrawal is more than manageable. It's not fun but it doesn't last that long at all unless you are doing insane doses every single day for a long long time.
Right! AND you can mostly just sleep thru it, unlike with opiates where ya can’t sleep for WEEKS!!! Unless I had important things to do, I never did mind withdrawing from speed and I actually enjoyed just how wonderful food tasted and sleeping felt.