While it sounds counter-intuitive, what Adderall does for the ADD brain is to give it *just enough* extra stimulation that it will stop (or slow down) the zipping around from shiny thing to shiny thing. Amphetamines are -- for the ADD brain -- like a long-term shiny thing.

My brother is diagnosed as ADD, and my sister, who isn't, is fairly certain she is ADD based on the fact that when she tried amphetamines in the '70s, they had the reverse of the expected effect on her, making her feel like they slowed her down.

Fwiw, here's Edward Hallowell web site. It has a ton of great resources.

Yep. What they all said.

What I've been told to watch for, as signs that the dosage is too high and needs to be adjusted, are tics and loss of appetite. (I've also found that, when I'm on too high a dose, I tend to get REALLY irritable as the drug is wearing off. As a teenager, there were a few days when I had a ton of studying to do and took it three times a day, rather than twice like I was supposed to, in order to have a longer period when I could study, and my mother could ALWAYS tell when I'd done that by watching my behavior at the dinner table. But, on the proper dosage, I was fine.)

Thanks, everyone. I really appreciate all of the knowledge, advice, and calming words. I had worked myself into a little panic a while ago, and then TCG came home and gave me food and snuggles, so I'm feeling a little better now.

What I've been told to watch for, as signs that the dosage is too high and needs to be adjusted, are tics and loss of appetite.

Thanks, Hil. I'll keep that in mind, although I have been told I am on the lowest possible dosage right now.

sj, I've got ADD. I am fully supportive of you taking meds for it. One possibility for medication is a combination: it is not uncommon to use welbutrin together with ritalin or adderal. As for side effects, please be sure to stay in touch with your doctor about them.

Yep. All of these. And if the Adderall is too much for you, don't give up on all of the drugs. It's a fine-tuning process.

I live near NYC. If I can't find a good curly-hair stylist here, I can't find one anywhere. @@

I know there's a Ouidad curl specialist salon there!

Lemme look...

Here you go, Zenkitty!

The Ouidad Flagship Salon & Curl Education Center
37 West 57th Street
Fourth Floor
New York, NY 10019
212-888-3288
The first salon in the country devoted exclusively to curly, frizzy hair, Ouidad's flagship salon maintains a talented team of specialists who are all trained in the her trademark "Carving & Slicing" cutting method. The salon boasts 20 years of experience and is regularly consulted by beauty editors.

We're back from baseball - we won again. We're 3-0. Emmett bounced back from his previous shakey outing where he nearly blew the game, and pitched two shutout innings today. He also had two hits and a walk and made several plays in the field.

Whole team played well. We made lots of excellent defensive plays including catching two bombs in the outfield, and we ran the bases very aggressively. We got up 8-4, the opposing team caught us at 8-8. We squeezed out one run (on an RBI from Emmett's friend Preston) and then Jordan shut them down 1-2-3 for the last at bat.

Unfortunately the other team is now 0-3. I tried not to run out a slate of just my best pitchers today! Next time we see them I'll only have Emmett go 1 inning, I guess.

I'll throw in my $0.02 on ADD, even though we've kinda moved on (not!ex has it):

stimulant for the part of the brain that allows us to stay focused that is often asleep at the wheel

Descriptions I've read explained it as a triage situation.... the chemical that's missing is what allows the brain to sort incoming information and apply varying levels of importance. It seems so counter-intuitive that a stimulant would fix this, but it does. (Caffeine, to a much lesser extent, seems to do the same thing.)

t /$0.02

(Caffeine, to a much lesser extent, seems to do the same thing.)

Huh. This may explain why my brain does better on caffeine, even though my body does not.

Human bodies are weird.