My beautiful 11 year old daughter was on Adderall XR 20 mg per da...

Hi I HAVE 2 DAUGHTERS THAT ARE ON ADDERALLXR AND THEY DON'T SLEEP AND MY OLDEST DAUGHTER GETS REALY MADE AND SHE CAN'T KEEP FRIENDS. AND MY YOUNGEST DAUGHTER STAYS TO HER SELF. REALY DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO .WHEN I TAKE THEM OFF THEY ACT REALY STUPID AND CRAZY IS BEACUSE OF THE WITHDRAWS? PLEASE WRITE BACK SOON P.S.EMILY 16 ELAINE 14

My son takes Adderall XR 15mg and has Trichotillomania. He has been on the medication since he was 5. He began pulling his eyelashes out 2 years ago. I never thought that it may be a side effect of the medication. I will watch him closely this summer to see if his condition improves when he is off the Adderall.

You sound like you are describing my daughter. She started taking Adderall XR last September and started pulling her hair by the end of November. Her head was bald in different stages. She stopped taking the medication in June because school was out for the summer. She immediately stopped pullling her hair. The therapist she is seeing suggested a homeopathic doctor. We now have her on natural remedies. School has only been back in session for a few days so we will see how it works. My thoughts and prayers are with you. I know how devistating this is....I've been through it.

My 11yr old son has been on Adderrall XR for the past 3 yrs (we briefly tried Vyvanse 8 months ago). He started pulling out his hair (Trichotillomania) Sept 07 and his Psychiatrist put him on celexa. Besides the bald spots and low sef esteem, his grades have dropped dramatically. I never thought to question the Adderall. Thank you all for posting your experiences.

I have a 9 year old daughter who has been on Adderall for close to 1 year. We uped her dosageto 10 mg in September and she has been pulling her hair since. I just decided to take her off the Adderall to see if it makes a difference. It has been encouraging to read these posts. I am hoping it is the Adderall

Hi my son is 9 years old and he has been on Adderall xr 20mg for about a year and a half last fall he started to pull out his eyelashes now he started to pull out the hair on his legs he picks at his ears untill there are sores.He also suffers from insomia, estremely skinny!!! and very irritable,I had no idea that adderall could be causing this untill I read your story and a few other families I'm freaking out and don't know what to do, of course the doctor said it should'nt be the med but I disagree but I don't know what elseto do for him and school. You did say in your story that you started to take her to a Homeopathic doctor, I live in ct do you know how I can find one?

I am 15, and have taken Adderall XR since 5th grade, but had been taking Adderall since 3rd grade. I started at maybe 10 mg, but have continually increased the dosage over the years. It was in 5th grade that I started getting tics. I believe that this was because of the increase in medication, and the fact that my teacher would stop me from doing things like doodling or playing with my school supplies. This left my hands free. I think it started with me twiddling my thumbs. Ok, normal enough. Then it moved on to cracking my knuckles. That was my first real tic. My desk partner hated it so much though, that I managed to stop. When we got new desk assignments, instead of cracking my knuckles again, I took to playing with my hair. Until now, I never knew that this was actually (common-ish) had a name. Reading this brings tears to my eyes.
In 5th grade I scratched bloody bald spots on my scalp. This obviously was a great cause for concern among my parents, who consulted my doctors, etc. Somehow I stopped scratching my head, and took to biting my nails, something I had always despised when other people did it. That was eventually solved, though tedious, and a great struggle for me. It is no wonder that I was also diagnosed with depression that year.
Then came the neck tic. I still get this tic a bit sometimes, but not to the extent it was once. I think this was the summer after 5th grade. It got to the point where I would twist my neck to crack it almost nonstop.
It was insane. I knew it. I hated it. I wanted control. It finally got fixed with the constant presence of a friend during a vacation. It was so embarassing for me, but each day I would work on it more and more and more. It took that whole summer for me to be tic free.
Fast-forward to 8th grade. They upp the dosage again. Since then I have not been tic free. I have some (incredibly weak) level of control over my hair pulling. In high school its just plain embarrassing. The thing is, I have beautiful hair, apparently. So people are constantly asking to play with it, and touching it, and wanting to braid it, curl it, etc. Several people have discovered bald spots, spots with broken short hair, and bloody scabs. The embarrassment is ridiculous. But other ADHD medications have not worked for me, and my parents don't want to risk taking me off meds, and doing poorly in school. It is so terrible.
I highly, highly, highly encourage anyone who reads this, to try non-stimulant add/adhd medications before turning to things like adderall. Your child will benefit so much more. Please, trust me.

FYI if your kids are having that many NEGATIVE side effects from A medicine that is suppose to help, then either CHANGE the med or don't let them take it!!!!! i am 30 years old and was diagnosed 10 years ago. i refused to take the med and didn't take the diagnosis seriously. about three months ago i was having such a difficult time with everyday life i remember about my AD/HD diagnosis and went back to the same doctor for help. The RIGHT MEDICATION AND DOSAGE makes all the difference. I had about 5 weeks of of terrible negative symptoms while i was trying new medicine and getting the right dosage for me. I mix a couple different ones daily. It is a HARD prosses but i new this medicine would help. i take a couple different types to make the right combo that works for me! I am great now three months into it . the only symptom left is dry mouth and part of that is from the dry weather. Help your kids find the right dosage and medicine. It is a hard struggle, but do it on the weekends. If you over dose it isn't pretty. The medicine is suppose to make life easier if you are having such negative responses to it DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!!!!

I am 21 years old and I have been diagnosed with ADD, and a learning disability since I was in the first grade. Adderall was not really around when I was that young. I was put on Ritalin for about a year and my parents didn’t like the way it made me act, and I lost a lot of weight for a young child, so they took me off of it. My teachers use to tell my parents that I would never be able to go to college and that high school would be very difficult for me if I didn’t get the help that I needed. I thank God every day that I have the parents I have who worked with me every day after school and made sure every homework assignment was done and made flash cards to help me study. I have an older sister that is truly gifted in school, she is now in Med school so this was all new to my parents having to help me every step of the way. I graduated high school from an all academic high school with honors. I was a football cheerleader, ran cross country, and played varsity volleyball and still managed to keep my grades up. I am living proof that it can be done without medication with the right help. I am now currently at the University of Alabama majoring in business and will be graduating next May. I have to say it was decision to start taking Adderall my freshman year of college when I was having trouble keeping up. I was doing well with it, but I had to watch out how much I worked out while I was on it because of my heart rate. I also had to cut out my coffee, red bull, and sodas, because that would increase my heart rate as well. I also had trouble trying to sleep at night. I know that I had to set my alarm in the morning at 7 am to take it because some days I had an 11 o’clock class and if I took it then I would be wide awake at 4 in the morning. I did find when I was doing homework, or reading chapters for a class, I was pulling my hair out. I would find a hand full of hair by my desk chair but I didn’t really do anything about until I noticed when I put my hair up I had a bald spot behind my ear. I knew that I had to stop it immediately or I would lose all my hair. It was almost an addiction that I wanted to pull it out. I googled it one day and found that other people had the same problem while they were taking Adderall. So people told me to put a hat on when I caught myself “pulling”, when I driving long distance, watching a movie, or reading and doing homework. That seemed to help. Other ways to stop were chewing gum, putting gloves or mittens on, or band aides on the tips of your fingers. That all seemed to work for me because I only caught myself pulling my hair out when I was alone. When I was in class or out having fun with friends it was not a problem. Adderall makes you feel like have to be doing something AT ALL time and I felt like my hands needed to be doing something when I was just watching TV. My roommate is also on Adderall and she finds herself biting her nails, or picking at her face when she is just sitting around. She also found that putting mittens on helped her stop it. I hope these methods help someone because they did help me stop. I know it is probably harder to have self control to stop when you are younger, so good luck with everything!

I want you all to know I am a 28 year old male who was on adderall for two years. I was taking 60mg a day. The first few months it seemed to do great, but then I started paying more attention to myself that I would never think about before. I started pulling my hair out, becoming antisocial, and had a significant change in my personality, which caused me to lose my job from the anxiety of not wanting to be around people. These so called physicians, psychologist/psychiatrist do not know as much as we would like to think. My older sister has been on adderall XR for five years and has done great on it. But, to make this short adderall can be the wrong medication your child needs. I am currently on Vyvanse and taking 70mg twice a day and have been on this medication for 6 months now. I have improved a great deal, but to all parents that are in need of an answer send me an email at manage27@usa.com and I will be glad to help assist you in finding the right solution. Trust me my family was so scared and I am a grown man. I have no license nor do I tend to get one to practice pharmacology. But what I do have is firsthand experience with ADHD and how adderall effected me. I have also done so much research about the CNS and how it works that it took me a year to finally figure out if adderall was causing me to loose my mind, friends, and social life. Dexedrine is another option as your physician may state it is stronger, but for some patients it is the right medication. To all parents who are in complete shock and have no idea of what to do please get them off the adderall and change there medication.