My First Day On Adderall

What a strange day I've had. Today was my first day on a small dose of Adderall, prescribed by a psychiatrist for Adult ADHD. A little while after taking it this morning, I felt a bit light headed and foggy. Yet I had no trouble at all staying on task. It was the first time in my life when I felt like things were normal for me. My head wasn't racing around from thought to thought. I wasn't racing around from task to task. I told my sister that I was going to get out the wheelbarrow, clean up the weeds from the yard and put them in a trach can... and that's exactly what I did! It may seem trivial to some, but for me it was incredibly satisfying.

Normally I would have walked out to the little plastic shed to get the wheelbarrow and decided I should probably check the sprinkler system to leaks and breaks. Then midway through that, I'd decide I needed something from Home Depot. After coming home from there, I'd remember I was supposed to get the wheelbarrow, and feel like a loser for having strayed from that task in the first place. And such are my days.

Now, I did have a fantastically calm and satisfying morning, but I noticed that the effects began to wear off earlier than I was told they would. I took the little blue pill at 11:30 and it's supposed to last 12 hours. My doc said it would be more like 8-10. But I began to get irritable and schizophrenic again around 5PM. I'll have to tell him about that. Also, I did not experience any anxiety or angst while medicated, so I suspect that he'll probably want to increase my dosage a bit from the minimum of 10mg I'm on now.

I was so happy with my Adderall this morning! I had my first experience as a true human being today.

I am clearly back to my old usual self right now. Perhaps tomorrow I'll attempt to write a blog entry while I'm actually under the effects of the drug.

Filed in: ADD • ADHD • Adderall

Anxious To Be Stimulated

Today I had an appointment with a real-live psychiatrist! I went in to see if he could either confirm or deny my theory that I have Adult ADHD. He was basically pleasant and asked me lots of questions like "Is your house a mess or is it organized?" And I'd say "It's a twisted mess." Then he asked me to fill out a questionnaire with similar questions. At the end of the hour he was explaining to me how he was prescribing Adderall XR and that I should make an appointment to see him next week. I was a little apprehensive about being prescribed medication after spending only 45 minutes with this psychiatrist, and I told him so. We went through my list of questions and concerns, the best of which was "What if I don't have ADD and I take this drug, will it cause me any harm?" His response was "No it's basically harmless. Besides, I'm pretty sure you have ADD."

So now I've been doing a little research on Adderall XR and I have to say I'm anxious to see how it affects my crazy brain. My main long-term concern is with my med school studies. I've never been an A+ student, but my IQ has always been very high. I hope this will help me focus on my studies so that I don't struggle so much in school when it starts up in August. Tomorrow will be my first day on it, although it's a small dose of only 10mg. What I don't understand is how this drug that's classified as a stimulant is supposed to help me calm down and concentrate and reduce hyperactivity (in my case manifesting as nervous/obsessive finger tapping/air piano playing/air word typing). I'll report my findings here over the weekend.

Filed in: ADD • ADHD • Adderall

Transcription Factor

When I was in 5th grade my mom bought me a little Casio keyboard. It was 1984 and the theme to Beverly Hills Cop was all over the radio. It's a catchy little synthesized tune that reminded everyone of how cool Eddie Murphy was. Remember when he was cool? Anyway.... within minutes I was playing this song (appropriately titled Axel F 'cause Eddie's name in the movie was Axel Foley) on my new Casio. I got some oohs and ahhs from my mom and uncle. I wasn't sure what they were crowing about, since I was just doing what came naturally to me. Without sounding like a dick, I can honestly say that I've met very few people who can hear the things that I hear in music. AND SO... since this is a talent I genuinely enjoy practicing, I thought I might start a weekly feature where I transcribe an interesting portion of a song.

This week, it's a piece of a Take 6 song called "So Much 2 Say". Take 6 is an incredible a cappella group that sings mostly gospel music. Their harmonies are rich and intricate, and they have an incredible range. I once clocked the bass singer hitting an A-flat below low C. This is absurd! And it was recorded before the new computer technologies that can pitch shift with no accompanying change in tempo.

Which brings me to a piece of software that I use when transcribing. It's called Transcribe! and is fucking awesome. It can change a song's tempo with no pitch shifting in real time... and it sounds brilliant too. None of that choppy sample-doubling some other apps use. It also can display a waveform superimposed over a keyboard, to help you determine what note is being played, although I don't use that very much because there are so many frequencies in a given sample set (even with just 6 voices) that the waveform is usually big jumbled mess. In any case, I highly recommend it if you do any transcribing; and I should also mention that the super-slow song samples I offer from now on are direct exports from Transcribe!. As a short disclaimer I'll just say that I transcribed this music by myself, and as such it may or may not be accurate or correct.... but it probably is =)

So Much 2 Say
Original Track - iTunes • •
Super Slow - MP3 @ 50% • MP3 @ 35%

Filed in: Audio • Music • Transcription