I also just started taking Adderall, today in fact, but I'm only taking 15mg to start with, not 20. I have been taking Intuiv for quite a while. I am not officially diagnosed with adult ADD, but I have all the symptoms of it. Too many other factors like other psychological problems and past substance abuse would make a diagnosis of ADD virtually impossible for me. Anyway, I know enough about psychiatry, ADD, and psychoactive drugs to help with your questions even if I don't actually have ADD. First off, if you can, you should get Adderall XR. Then you'd only have to take it once a day with no "crashes." Secondly, although drugs like Adderall aren't like most anti-depressants where you have to wait for the drug to build up in your system, it's not going to have a full effect immediately. Side effects can interfere with the beneficial effects of the drug, and they can take a couple fo weeks to go away. A lot of the side effects of Adderall are the same for Wellbutrin, which I take, and it took about 3 weeks for the side effects of that to subside. Both drugs are dopamine and noradrenalin reuptake inhibitors, but in comparison, Adderall is like straight whiskey while Wellbutrin is like a wine cooler. Also, there are a lot of things that can interfere with Adderall working correctly. Vitamin C can interfere with the drug. If you drink a lot of fruit juice or take vitamin supplements, that could cause problems. I guess I'm going to have to stop taking the multi-vitamin I really liked that has 833% daily value of Vitamin C. Caffeine can interfere too, but I've received conflicting info. The drug info I got says that caffeine could enhance the side effects, making you feel more jittery or agitated or nervous, but some people on other forums are saying that caffeine can actually screw with Adderall working. I can see how that could happen. Multiple stimulants could be competing and maybe caffeine could block the Adderall. If that's true, it really sucks since I'm insanely addicted to green tea. Finally, you shouldn't expect it to relieve all your symptoms. The drug is going to make things easier, but people with ADD need to learn behavioral techniques that improve attention and memory to really deal with it effectively. The brain fog wouldn't go away completely, and I'd bet that any perceived worsening symptoms are the result of side effects. Also, and this is really important...if you think about whether the drug is working or not too much then it's definitely going to interfere wth the drug working. If you start thinking it isn't working, it will stop working. Placebos work because the patient thinks the pill or injection that's just saline is actually some drug that will work. For drugs that actually do work, doubting that they are going to work will scew up their effectiveness. I know this is an incredibly long reply, but I have just a few more things to point out. 1st, my psychiatrist, whom I think really knows what she's doing, told me she thought Concerta was the best med for adult ADD. Concerta and Ritalin have the same active ingredient. Dexedrine is dextroamphetamine. According to Wikipedia, dextromphetamine salts make up 75% of Adderall. Like I wrote earlier in this epic reply, I've been taking Intuiv (gunafacine) for quite awhile. Guanfacine was originally used just as a med for hypertension, but they found that it treated ADD in kids also, and it has the added benefit of not being a stimulant. It works by stimulating activity in the prefrontal cortex, so they say. It's FDA approved for kids to treat ADD, but not adults. Nevertheless, studies have shown that guanfacine works for adult ADD. When I started taking it, I noticed very quickly that I was able to think more clearly and my verbal communication skills drastically improved. My memory also improved. However, there are some big drawbacks. The drug will lower your blood pressure, which could cause weakness, faintness, and dizziness if your blood pressure is normal. I found that the side effects became negligible after a few days taking 1mg less than the usual therapeutic dose. But, when I started taking it at its usual therapeutic dose, the side effects got really annoying (constipation, sexual dysfunction, tiredness, dazedness, etc.). I had to reduce the dose. Anyway, this drug might really be able to help with the brain fog in addition to Adderall or Dexedrine.

I hope this helps.

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