Posted by PinkPearl on April 15, 2002, at 1:40:00
In reply to Why would a stim help anxiety?, posted by Spongemomsquarepants on April 14, 2002, at 0:25:12
Hey Sponge, (great name!)
I take Adderall XR for ADHD too. And it is just as wonderful for me. As IsoM said, it allows me to collect and organize my thoughts (which also greatly relieves my depression). Instead of thinking, "oh my gosh, my house is so messy, there's no point in cleaning it, I don't know where to begin...", I now think, "ok, I have 20 minutes, that's enough time to put on a load of laundry and sort through the mail."
In brain studies of people with ADHD, the parts of their brains responsible for impulse-control, orderliness, focus, self-control, etc. are shown to be receiving too little electrical stimulation. So the stimulant actually just increases the electrical impulses up to within a normal range for those people.
There is a misconception that stimulants will "hype-up" everyone who takes them as if they were on "speed". But for the people who need a boost in these "self-control" areas of their brains, it only works to normalize them.
Maybe your anxiety was due to one of these areas of "understimulation".
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Pearl.
poster:PinkPearl
thread:103006
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020408/msgs/103096.html