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[Jade]

After experiencing bizarre symptoms for years such as; falling asleep standing up just about anywhere like check out lines in stores, at work with clients sitting at my desk or while speaking with customers on the telephone, while eating a meal in the middle of chewing, having a face to face conversation. Then trying to figure out what was going on when I would be acting out 'automatic behavior'. The fact that I also have a fairly severe case of Scoliosis since I was 11 years old which causes me back pain, so I had been taking pain meds for years trying to deal with that problem..Well my EX-husband was never very understanding about the back condition and when I would...lets say..fall asleep at the grocery check out counter he would insist it was because of my back pain medications, so it took me much longer to actually realize I had an additional problem! It wasn't until after my divorce and the Cataplexy kicked in with everything else that I finally had the night and also daytime sleep studies and was diagnosed. I started off with Nuvigil which did NOTHING except drain my medical budget (too expensive even with insurance!). We the tried Adderall which does actually help me sometimes, but even with increasing my daily dosage to 60mg's per day I have some really really BAD DAYS. I have times where I can't keep my eyes open it seems for anything in the world. It is VERY frustrating to say the least! My sleep doctor has taken me out of work since last July 2011 and I have applied for disability. Big surprise, I have been denied two times now stating the evidence shows I have medical issues severe enough that will prevent me for working, but they go on to say that these conditions are not expected to remain severe enough to keep me from working for 12 months in a row! So I guess as far as the SS Disability Office is concerned all of us with Narcolepsy should be better in 12 months!! Yeah right....ok, I have vented. My main question was is it normal to fall asleep after taking Adderall? Thanks everyone, this is my 1st post.

[thecatnapper]

I took Adderall XR back in 2008 long before I suspected that Narcolepsy was my real issue. My primary care doc (who was a quack) gave it to me for depression and said it would give me energy. I never took more than 15mg twice a day. Like you, I'd have some days when I still couldn't get moving. I quit my job after I'd been on the Adderall for about 14 weeks. I was buzzed all the time but still felt awful and then I became so agressive that no one could stand me. I went nuts when my supervisor wouldn't get off my back about the time I was missing from work and I just walked out. I never worked full-time again. I stayed on the Adderall for several more months and then had to take Ativan to control the anxiety it caused and to make me go to sleep at night. I ended up getting horribly addicted to it and had to be hospitalized so I'm not a fan of either Adderall or Benzos. They diagnosed me as being Bipolar and after I'd been out of work for a year and had been in and out of the hospital several times I was able to get disability for that. Back when it all went down I was hating life but now I appreciate everything I learned from what I went through. I've only just recently been diagnosed with Narc but I'm going to stick with the Bipolar diagnosis so that I can keep my disability because unless I have some miraculous recovery I don't see myself getting back to work any time soon. It's ridiculous that they don't see Narc as a disability. There are a lot of people who have great results with treatment and can lead mostly normal lives but there are still many that have severe enough cases that even with treatment they still struggle quite a bit. So, I know how you feel. I spent the majority of this past day asleep on the sofa. Everytime I tried to get up I'd get so exhausted that I felt like I was going to throw up. Thankfully everyday is not that serious.