Adderall and sleep

I am 58, and attention deficit has always been a part of my life. I am the space cadet type, ADD but not ADHD. I discovered it had a name when I was 45. Adderall is something I take to keep myself on track and actually get things done. Before Adderall I self medicated with lots of sugar, caffeine and occasionally pseudofed when I needed to focus. What I wanted to add to this discussion is this: those with ADD have a different response to stimulants than those without it. When I was in college, some of us scored some funny white powder ( yes, the Real Thing (grin)) to try out. I found everyone else running around talking nonstop, eating like crazy and prancing around the room. I was filled with an immense inner calm, and finally went outside for some peace and quiet. It was the first time I felt clear headed and connected to the flow of time around me. The good news was I was a student, without a job or money, and with ADD, so I never got around to repeating the experiment or I could easily have become addicted to the stuff. The moral here is to remember different folks have different responses to the same drugs. My personal opinion is that if stimulants make you feel agitated, you probably don't have ADD. If you drink 6 cups of coffee and four colas then sleep like a baby, you might consider getting checked out.

I am 21 years old and my doctor prescribed me 20mg of Adderall to take twice a day. I've been taking it for about a week (only in the morning, I'm still too wound up to take it 4 hours later!) and I have already lost 10lbs. Also I've been having trouble breathing deeply, chest pain, tingling in my arms and legs, and no appetite whatsoever. Are these symptoms normal?

Well I have been taking Adderall now for 4 months. The first 2 weeks I was hyperfocused to the point that I could barely pull myself away from the office to go home. I was irritable and once went so long without eating or drinking anything that I got seriously light headed and thought I was going down. I still get the dry mouth, I have lost 25 lbs. over the last 4 months and am now extremely prone to severe sunburn. Or so I was until I developed the tan that I have now, and I think the Adderall is hiding the fact that I am seriously in need of sleep. I have never been much of a sleeper, I usually go to sleep around midnight or later, sometimes as late as 2AM and my alarm goes off at 5:15. However it catches up with me about every 4 months and I am exhausted by the time dinner is over and I have to go to sleep right away. After that 10 to 12 hours of sleep I am good again with the little sleep for months. However today and last night I found myself getting extremely angry for no reason. My wife and I just had our second child 4 weeks ago so my sleep has been even less than usual. One night I went to sleep at 1:30AM, got up at 3:30 to feed the baby, went back to sleep at 4:15 and got up at 5:15 to go to work. I think I am ready for one of those body shut downs but the Adderall is keeping me from realizing it. I sat at my desk this morning with my fist clenched, gnashing my teeth with tears streaming down my face and nothing had happened to cause it at all. I am not sure about the Adderall yet. So far I have really liked the increased focus at work and I am now going back to College which I have effectively put off now for 5 years. So it seems to really have helped my focus and motivation. I am EXTREMELY ADHD by the way. Whenever I used to have trouble falling asleep I would pound a Mountain Dew and sleep like a baby. Caffeine has always had a calming effect on me, so I assume the Adderall works in a similar manner. I am going to try and force myself to sleep early tonight and see if the unexplained anger subsides. I will post with my results.