Hi Goody - I found your story very interesting, and having a daughter, I can sympothize with you. Although my daughter is very young, if she turns out to be like my wife and I were, we have our hands full. Anyway, I am 28 years old and I suffer from Adult ADD. I never realized it in college, high school, or lower school, but I have always suffered from this condition. I was always a very smart person that didnt really care about school. I never studied or did homework but was somehow able to pull B or C average through high school and even college. I have a lot of the same issues that you speak of your daughter having, and as a teen, I also experimented with a lot of drugs, starting with tobacco, alcohol, then to Weed (I was a daily pot smoker for 5 or 6 years). I also tried cocaine, mushrooms, vicodin, and about anything else I could get my hands on. I will say that I never really liked the stimulant medications because I never really got any buzz off of them. I then got in a car accident and hurt my back really bad and for the next 5 years or so, I had an umlimited supply of pain medications, eventually ending up being totally addicted and taking approx 250 - 300mg of oxycontin per day. I went to rehab (which is not for losers by the way, everyone in holywood that your daughter probably idolizes has been to rehab) and got off of them using subutex. I am now off of subutex and have not used anything but I do have cravings from time to time. I am seeing a phych about my issues. After several months of meeting with me, he diagnosed me with ADD and it was like a ligt bulb went off. I REALIZED THAT I WAS JUST SELF MEDICATING MYSELF FOR ALL OF THOSE YEARS, TO TRY AND FEEL NORMAL. I was put on Adderall and immediately I felt normal, happy and content, Like I think other people do. I didnt get any buzz from it, but I do get some energy. I was later switched to Dexedrine, because it has less side effects for me. I have had ABSOLUTELY no cravings for any drugs since I started the ADD meds. I have not even felt like taking more of it, since I do not get high from it. This is strange for me because in my years of abusing opiates, I have always taken more and more... I wold use a 30 day prescription in 5 days usually.

Anyway - Enough about meI do think that your daughter exhibits some or many symptoms of ADD from what you write. She is definitely seeking out Adderall, but it may be that she has taken it from her friends and noticed that it aleviates her symptoms. Then again she may just be trying to get high.... I think I would take her to another phych, one that specializes in ADD or addiction treatment and let her be evaluated and take the ADD test. Also, there is a new ADD drug out called VYVANSE that has the same active ingredient as Adderall (dextro-amphetamine), but it is impossible to abuse it or misuse it. The d-amphetamine in VYVANSE is in a form that if crushed and snorted is totally pointless. Only the digestion process and your liver breaking down amino acids that are bonded to the amphetamine can release the active drug. It sounds great for people that may have some history of abuse, or teens who may sell their meds or take it to get high. I want to say that I have not tried VYVANSE so I do not have first hand experience with it. I think that if your daughter does really have ADD and it goes undiagnosed, that would be worse than her getting diagnosed and letting her try either one of the meds that has less potential for abuse, or even letting her try Adderall under very controlled circumstances. For example, if she came home and lived with you during Summer break, you could keep the bottle and hand out her doses, and make sure to watch her swallow it, so she does no spit it out and take it to her room and crush it to snort. My guess is that she does have ADD and she is self medicating, just as I did. And believe me, self medicating can go from one thing to another very quickly... Being on controlled doses of adderall would have saved me years of extreme opiate addiction.