MB,

What's the Adderall like for you?

I think I have Adult AD.  I've never been able to concentrate in meetings at work.  My mind keeps wandering and I have to force myself to stop checking web sites while at work.

I have a chronic problem with not finishing things.

Do these meds actually work?

Many years ago, in college, I was on Ritalin, and later, Concerta.

They work very well. On them, I would sit and work for hours on end. I would have gotten much better grades if I had taken them consistently.

But they are not completely magical. Sometimes I would take them and wind up focusing just as completely on whatever very compelling hobby I had at the moment. So you still need to cultivate more mental discipline, to direct the focus you have on the things you must do.

Adreeall has serious side effects:

http://side-effects.owndoc.com/adderall-side-effects.html

Oh, they *definitely* work.  They're performance enhancers that enhance everybody.

I find that on Adderall I sit down and chill out and concentrate the way the rest of my coworkers do, so they're either all on it too, or this just brings me up to normal (and if they took it perhaps it would make them superhuman).

I used to be unable to get any work done without cranking up untz untz techno music to full volume in my headphones, but I haven't had to listen to music at all anymore.  I'm also finding it really hard to multi-task.  For instance, in Calc I used to take notes while listening to the professor speak but on Adderall I'm finding it impossible.  Either I can't focus on two things at once now, or I was *never* able to focus on two things at once and the drug reveals it.

Email me if you want to talk about it more.

I gave up trying to multitask a long time ago.  I am pretty adamant about people to stop trying to get me to multitask, too, and eventually they do figure out that constantly interrupting me does not make me get things done faster.