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Comment by ugexe | Hacker News Reader

The tolerance/withdrawal drawbacks for adderall are nearly non existent if you don't abuse it and take weekends off. Sure, after the well known honeymoon phase of a few weeks it's not the superman pill you might have expected would last forever, but otherwise responsible use will keep you more productive. People with little will power or addictive personalities (which a third party can't possibly always know) aren't usually equipped to deal with such moderation, so instead we let the "gotta work 7 days a week!" grinders stigmatize an otherwise safe and useful medicine/tool.

When used responsibly I can assure you it's more effective and has less side effects than caffeine IF you tolerate it well (not everyone can, just like not everyone can tolerate caffeine)

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Unfortunately, most casual and first-time users associate Adderall with the honeymoon phase you spoke of, not the actual long-term therapeutic effects that come from proper therapeutic use and dosing schedules.

Generally speaking, conversations around using Adderall for productivity center more around the hyperactivity and unnatural engagement brought on by too-high dosing or acute use. Adderall is meant for long-term therapeutic use at reasonable doses, where the hyperactivity and super-focus aspects give way to tolerance and leave the user with just enough of a correction to offset their ADHD.

Abusers and non-ADHD users, on the other hand, tend to chase the initial euphoria and the hyperactivity that comes with sporadic, acute dosing and higher-than-normal dosages. Tolerance inevitably catches up to this manner of usage, and the downregulation of prolonged elevated dopamine and norepinephrine levels combined with compounded sleep debt inevitably catches up with them.

> sporadic, acute dosing ... tolerance inevitably catches up to this manner of usage

Out of curiosity, does a sporadic use still lead to tolerance?

i recently quit adderall after 10 years and experienced Zero withdrawal.

Everyone is different, of course, but after 10 years it would be reasonable to assume that your brain was well-adapted to many of the effects of the Adderall and that you were taking a reasonable therapeutic dosage with a proper, healthy dosing schedule.

On the other hand, those who abuse Adderall for the initial euphoric and energetic properties with sporadic dosing schemes are likely to experience unpleasant withdrawal as those effects disappear.

I can't imagine a withdrawal for amphetamine outside the come-down from a multi-day binge. The come-down lasts a day or two. Maybe a week of fogginess if you hit it fear-and-loathing hard.

If you're taking amphetamine at such a rate that you would call it a "withdrawal", then you might want to consider the possibility that you were abusing amphetamine.

It's common to double-dose on the weekend whether for a productivity spree or recreation (they're usually one in the same) even if you haven't taken a pill in months. You just have to pay a day or two penalty and you're good to go.

I try to take weekends off of my Vyvanse and do skip at least Sundays every week. If I go two or more weeks without a day off when I do finally take one I'm extremely lethargic. I just want to sleep for the entire day, and often will sleep an extra two-three hours in the morning completely unintentionally.

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