MRW My school therapist wants me to go off anti-depressants and put me on Adderall because I said I have a lot of trouble concentrating. Any trolls on it? I'm scared.

Sure. As for the Adderall, I took 30 mg. I used both regular and extended and I preferred the extended because I didn't like the intensity of the regular. This was during my earlier years of college, so mostly school tasks and occasionally work. I would usually take them in the morning/early afternoon. I would take it 30 minutes to an hour before I wanted to start working, but I would try to give myself at least 8 hours of clearance before I had to go to bed because it made falling asleep difficult. So basically I would take it between 7 am and 2 pm depending on when I wanted to start working, hoping to be in bed by 10 or 11 pm. I would constantly lose track of time because I would focus so intently on one task, but again it was almost too much for me. For example, while taking notes, every letter had to be perfect. I have horrible penmanship so this would take FOREVER. When I was done, though, I knew the content I was studying like the back of my hand. I used to keep alarms set during study sessions to give myself a head up if I was getting too meticulous and wasting time. Because I usually would tackle one subject at a time and needed the focus to be localized to one task, Adderall was quite effective for this time in my life.

As for the Vyvanse, I've taken it during the last year of college and I now take it regularly during the week. (I'm about 2 years out just to give you an idea) I started with 30 mg extended, and I have been taking 40 mg for the past 6 months. During this time I have a little bit more strict with it simply due to my life becoming more routine, so I don't like to risk a night without sleep or messing with my schedule too drastically. I take it in the mornings between 7 and 11. During school I was using it solely for school work. It was my senior year in mechanical engineering and I was drowning. I had a lot of projects and my responsibilities were all over the place, so I was able to use the Vyvanse to motivate myself to work, but I wasn't so obsessed with one task at a time. I do project management now, and it's helped in this area as well since work related tasks are kind of everywhere as well. It's also nice because it is project based, so if I take it and we end up having a slow day, I'm not extremely frustrated with nowhere to put the energy.

Both have allowed me to focus on every single task, and also encouraged a more systematic approach. I've heard them both described in the following way: "you just really love to learn all of a sudden." I don't feel this way. It increases my desire to be productive regardless of the content on which I am focusing, and that alone is enough motivation to get me to complete my responsibilities for the day. This is true for both medications in my opinion. The only difference is that I would need a more strict to-do list on Adderall because I needed to know when it was time to move onto the next task.

tldr: Both help me focus on school/work related tasks as much as personal responsibilities. Vyvanse is more of a "big picture" application, as I will get all of my daily tasks done with ease. Adderall is more of a task specific application because it makes me want to go all in on one thing at a time. Both cause me to lose track of time, but Adderall is more intense in this regard than Vyvanse.

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