adderall (spell check?) help with vicodin addiction at all?

[anni77777]

Ok so if anyone read my initial post (and reason for being here lol) I have an opiate addiction.  My psychiatrist just put my on adderall and once it kicks in it actually does help me function throughout the day. when i do take my regular dose, i do not think about or take any Vicodin, which kind of makes me happy in a sense that it seems like it will be of great assistance in getting off of it. But my cousin who is a pharmacy tech scolds me for taking the adderall and talks about how bad IT is for your body, nervous system, etc..so am i robbing peter to pay paul? i know vicodin is very bad for me, espcially for the length of time ive been taking it, but #1 half of the time i take the vicoprofin without the tylonol (not making excuses just stating facts) and now i am beginning to wonder what kind of trouble im getting myself into in beginning to take the adderall. Does anyone here have experience with these two particularly? i know obviously one is a stimulant and the other a "downer". but to make matters even more complicated, i am on about 8 other doctor prescribed medications for my auto-immune disorder and the health issues that go with it...just wondering if quitting the one and adding the other to my "official" medication list will be better for me in the long run. i mean obviously i will quit the Vicodin because its bad when abused, but should i stay on the adderral ? or just take it while i am quitting the vics to help with the withdrawal then stop taking those? i have noticed mood swings and irritability with the adderall as well , but then again we all know how those get with an opiate addiction and withdrawal from that...frustrating! lol also, how can i change my username on here?? lol.. i,without thinking, chose one that is part of my public email and one that i use for many different online accounts, and this is a kind of private part of my life that i am not very proud of and battling so i do not want to put it out there on the mass-market internet for all to see, as i am in college, a few non-profit organizations and  work from home ..thanks guys :)

[Shelly3577]

I am in the medical field and an addict, but as a professional IN the medical field, I strongly do not advise Adderall!!!!!!!  He's right - it's straight speed and can/will cause elevated blood pressure, faster heart rate, etc.  It is not a safe alternative.

May I ask what your other routine meds are?  You can inbox me if you don't want to post them here.

[anni77777]

believe me, i do know what you mean...i am hoping that with the current medicine my neuro put me on, i will be able to get off of all the medicine alltogether and go into remission from the auto-immune disorder and just stop taking EVERYTHING, become a vegetarian and continue to juice as i do now...that may be some time away, but hopefully no more than a year or two..

[FunctioningJunkie]

It's speed, man!

Please be very careful with that stuff. At one point I was taking a "poor man's speedball", 20mg vicodin and 30mg adderall, twice a day for months simultaneously. In the same way that heroin and vicodin are opiates, methamphetamine and adderall are amphetamines. Amphetamines are highly addictive in the mental sense and yes given time can cause nasty issues such as high blood pressure and heart attack, not to mention the horrible comedown speed is well known for.

I'm guilty of this too but there is this stigma attached to prescription drugs I think that they are both "clean" and "safe". Sure, your adderall is not going to contain rat poison if the doctor prescribes it, but take enough of it and you can really hurt yourself. I reached a point where I couldn't happily take one without the other as to me they sort of potentiated one another, which led to a serious mental addiction to both speed and opiates. The reason speed is so nasty is because it acts on the brain's pleasure reward center. Imagine in your head there is a glass of happy juice that pours into your system every time you want to enjoy something. Well speed -- in crude terms -- depletes that glass. Imagine there comes a day when you want to be happy but there is no happy juice to be poured because speed has stolen it all. It literally becomes impossible for you to be happy. So what does one do? More speed, duh!

Please don't get into that cycle. I'm not saying you're irresponsible like me, but the danger is there.  

[texaslady68]

Adderall is extremely addicting and has a very high rate of abuse.  If you are an addict, chances are you will eventually become addicted to it and start using it in higher doses.  Do your research on it.  If it were me, and I might use it just to get through the Vicodin withdrawals and then stop before it becomes another problem you have to deal with.  Good Luck!