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Caffeine can be effectively used instead of adderall for concentration
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this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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Years of experimenting on myself would disagree. Caffeine makes me jittery, scattered, and kind of an a-hole in regular amounts. When it comes to coffee, my sweet spot is a single mug of 1/10 caf.
Not all stimulants are the same. If they were, Ritalin and Adderall would be interchangeable. But many people, including me, find that only one of those two prescription stims works.
I'm really curious whether the any of the study participants actually had ADHD. I'm gonna bet they were all NTs.
It seems like this study doesn't say anything about ADHD or Adderall. All they gave out was caffeine or placebo and they either told the participants they were getting caffeine or Adderall. So all the study really concluded is that if (a neurotypical) college student was fooled into thinking they took Adderall where they really took caffeine they'd perform better than someone who just took caffeine. Which just seems like proving the placebo effect.
Yeah. I can't stand myself on Adderall or Ritalin - only dextroamphetamine works (and my lil brother is the same way). Caffeine is a sedative for me and does nothing for my dad - he can drink it at any time of the day and not have issues with sleeping or anxiety. There are definitely some metabolism issues that probably affect everyone but are particularly problematic for people who need stimulants of one form or another to function in society.
I have similar experiences. I find the Levoamphetamine in Adderall is less helpful that just pure dextroamphetamine
Adderall is a mixture of amphetamine salts, which have different chiralities (left handed vs right handed) Levoamphetamine is the left handed version and dextroamphetamine is the right handed version.
Dextro is the main one and the more active of the two. When I take formulations with levo i seem to have more side effects and headaches.
By any chance are you autistic? Many autistic people report that sedatives and stimulants have opposite effects for them, with sedatives leaving them wired and stimulants leading to them becoming tired. I had a similar issue with benedryl as a kid.
Benadryl is also a sedative for me. I've heard the caffeine thing is related to ADHD, but there is a ton of comorbidity in both directions. I probably meet some of the criteria for autism but haven't ever sought out a formal diagnosis, if only because I'm a stats professor, so my benchmark for "normal" is probably off by quite a ways :).
Similar experience here, I drink decaf espresso and more than 1 cup even of decaf in the morning can leave me jittery and clammy for most of the day. So I try to limit it to 1 per day and skip days as well to ward off headaches. I've tried adding L-theanine on occasion (which for some seems to steer the effects of coffee more towards tea) and it might help some for me but not by much.
L-theanine was such a disappointment for me. I'd heard it was supposed to take the jitters out of coffee, but instead I end up jittery, drowsy, and spacey all at the same time.