Hi YYZadd,
I'm trying to figure out best meds for me and I am hoping to gain some knowledge from your, or others experiences.
I also was diagnosed recently, within the last 1 1/2 -2 years and just turned 44. After a decent amount of reading up on ADD I relectantly decided to give meds a try and started on Adderall XR 20mg about a year ago. I stopped taking it after about a month because even though I was getting good mental effects: clearer thinking, much better motivation, better impulse control, and a clearer view of what was going on around me and my own actions (although a think a fair amount of the last one has been due to reading and learning) ..it also made my heart race, kept me up too late, made my fingers and feet feel as if they were going numb speratically, and I really wasn't fond of the "geekin" feeling.
After being unmedicated for about a year I have been back on Adderall for about a month now, tried 15mg this time, in the hopes of removing the negative physical side affects and other than the foot and hand thing, just a little, and still a little of the "geekin" feeling here and there the rest are gone. ..... Unfortunately so is some of the clarity and motivation. Ultimately I would like to have more of the positive mental affects that I experienced with the 20mg, and keep the physcial effects to what I am experiencing with the 15mg, or ideally eliminate them all together, all though I realize the last part may be unrealistic.
I was thinking that maybe taking meds throughout the day as opposed to taking the time released version might help me to better regulate both the mental and physical effects of the meds. I am wondering if you started on the XR version and could speak to the differences, or if you could just share specifically what you are taking now and what your experiences with it have been with it.