Is Adderall Dangerous & Bad For You?

So, tomorrow I start taking Adderall to help me focus/concentrate better.
I'm always afraid of side effects. How dangerous is Adderall? Is it dangerous and bad for you?

It's become incredibly popular for college & high school students to get Adderall from a dealer even without a diagnosis for ADHD, and I'm wondering what the side effects are if you don't actually have any sort of disorder and are just taking it to focus better on your work. Does it make you lose or gain weight or anything?

I read some reviews about Adderall and people said they couldn’t live without it and wouldn’t even go to school if they didn’t have it. This drug sounds too good and I was wondering if it was. What’s the downside and how dangerous is it? How bad is it for you?

Adderall is definitely bad for you.

I had a friend in college that was on adderall from the time he was 14. He wasn't the same person while he was on Adderall. He said it made him feel like he was taking speed. He eventually was able to stop taking Adderall and totally became a different person. He was able to focus and become a normal guy without the drug.
I think you should ask your doctor.

Side Effect: The biggest is that the first week you take it you will sleep a total of 7 hours the whole week, it keeps you up all night.

Here's a quote:
Adderall has a high abuse potential. Due to the fact that Adderall has a powerful effect of increasing blood pressure, it carries the same risk of sudden death, stroke, and heart attack in patients with pre-existing heart conditions, as does methylphenidate and other stimulants used to treat ADHD, as well as the same risk of seizures in patients with a history of seizures.

So Adderall is a dangerous medication.

Haven't you ever seen the Desperate Housewives episode where Lynette takes her kids ADHD meds to try and keep up with things. And when she runs out, the crash is really bad. To the point she was stealing other kids ADD meds. Then finally she realized she shouldn't be on them but she had her sleep pattern all messed up.

Children and adults take Adderall these days without a real prescription. That's just messed up. Adderall does help improve performance for people suffering from adhd. For people who are not struggling with this disease please be aware that it will only affect you as a synthetic for of speed. It will give you more energy, and you may lose weight, but you will not sleep, eat correctly, and these can affect your judgment, may cause hallucinations, and emotional stability.

Instead of making a sweeping generalization like "adderall is bad for you," and proceeding to back this claim with an anecdote, it's probably best to look at the evidence when assessing the risk of taking a drug like adderall. I have asked this same question to my doctor and the response I received was that adderall - and amphetamines in general - are one of the longest studied and best understood drugs on the market. In healthy patients, that is, people without preexisting heart conditions or any other number of ailments, one of the only documented serious side-effects is that adderall can increase suicidal thoughts and idealizations in teens and adults.
Having taken adderall for the past four years, I can tell you that the only side-effects I have encountered are the usual loss of appetite, anxiousness, dry mouth, etc. reported by most people prescribed to this medication. Though these aren't the most pleasant feelings, the benefit is definitely worth the cost. Moreover, there are ways to reduce the impact of these side-effects on your life. For example, i've found that exercising 5-6 hours after taking adderall IR significantly reduces its effects while subsequently increasing my appetite, improving the quality of my sleep and overall health. It can be difficult to eat while on adderall, so developing some form of eating schedule really helps. This takes discipline but it's an effective way to ensure that you are ingesting the proper amount of nutrients on a daily basis. The aforementioned side-effects also decrease with time as your body adjusts to the medication. I haven't increased my dosage for the past 2 years, and it still seems to work very effectively. However, I'd like to emphasize that I am only one case. Everyone will have a different experience, and checking with your doc is highly recommended before starting on a drug like adderall.
To people looking for information, I wouldn't listen to most of the posts on the internet. I realize this is essentially the same as saying to disregard everything I just previously said, but seriously, there are a lot of stupid people in this world who don't have the foggiest idea about the risks or benefits associated with taking adderall. Most people like to quote sound-bytes or sensational stories about this guy in this place who died a horrific death from a stimulant. Talk to your doctor, weigh the pros and cons, and look at the evidence. Beyond this, I would be weary to trust anything you hear on the internet.

Adderall is fine as long as you are prescribed it... Doctors need to first check out that you have a normal heart among other things because it can effect your heart. Also, it causes little to no appetite so be cautious of this as well! So many people are prescribed adderall by Doctors, if it was THAT bad for you this wouldn't be prescribed so often.

My friend is prescribed 2 Addie 20s a day by a doctor, big deal, doesn't change the fact that Amphet salts have chemically morphed his brain and turned him into an addict.

Sometime ago I got a cervical spine spinal cord injury. It has caused me to have narcolepsy, memory loss and I live in constant pain. I use to sleep for days and days, I just could not snap out of sleep and the back of my neck hurting constantly. My doctor prescribed a narcolepsy drug which my ins. would not pay ($800.00per month) he then prescribed Adderall 10mg 2xs daily and this really helped me to finally come back to myself. Occasionally I would feel the feeling of little worms at the base of my scull and I know that sleep is coming on but not near as deep or long he is now trying me on Adderrallxr and it does not work very well at all. It does not have that wake-up punch that the regular Adderrall has it tends to last longer but does not snap me out of deep sleep. I have been so glad to come back to my family. Adderrall thank you so much. it has not been a cure but it sure has brought me a long way back to my family and the former life i use to have!

The most important thing to remember about Adderall XR is to not consume any caffeine when you take it. Ive taken it for a long time and if you forget that part and drink something with caffeine in it you will end up staying awake most of the night. Another key to using this medicine is to take it in the morning so it does its job all day, the earlier the better. I dont take my medicine if its 11:00am or later, because its too hard to go to sleep if you do. If you follow those two things then you shouldn't have any problem. As far as it being addicting, I cant speak for other people but I forget mine occasionally and wont notice till later in the day. I've never had an un-fightable urge to take it or anything like that.