It’s not a coincidence. The TRT gives you the free T you need to make the catecholamines that you need. I’m pretty sure that my ADD was largely just low test.
I almost feel like I’ve taken a small amount of adderal with how focused I’ve been the last 2 days. I don’t have the jittery part but do have the get shit done part, so it’s been nice. This is the best I’ve felt since starting TRT.
T does raise dopamine but Adderall works differently because it targets a specific part of the brain - prefrontal cortex (thinking brain) and depressing the limbic system (monkey brain) When I’m using it I feel much less social and personality gets dampened down but my thinking power is 10x - I’m much less impulsive or exhibit thrill seeking or pleasure seeking behaviour - on T I get an increase in these behaviours because it’s raising dopamine all over the brain you get a sense of overall more liveliness.
So lots of TRT guys find they need a higher dose of adderall or ritalin (at least anecdotally). I had the opposite happen. I take half the dose I used to and it’s still as effective. Our bodies are weird, man.
I was a “casual” user before. I only took Adderall when stress was doing me in and I HAD to get some stuff handled. I haven’t touched it since TRT. I probably should have used it more, my scrip is a hefty dose, but I really hated being on it.
Updates?
How long on TRT before you noticed results where you felt comfortable off your meds?
Feeling good. Haven’t take Adderall since Tuesday last week and while there are certainly time when I feel it would be helpful to take some, I also don’t feel like I need it to function, as I did before.
Something else I have thought about the weekend is that while I am in the early stages of TRT and while I am trying to dial my protocol in, I think staying away from anything that can confuse the results (mainly Adderall and Alcohol for me) would be best.
Haven’t been able to quit the coffee though.
As far as the amount of time it took for me to feel this way, that’s tough to answer as I was on vacation for my first 3 weeks and made a point not to take the Adderall during that time (I did a few times but I wasn’t on it daily). That said I felt effects within a few days, it may have been placebo but considering that now, 6 weeks in my good days feel very similar, I don’t think it was. The early weeks were more up and down so the good days I didn’t feel a need for it but the bad days I did.
But like I’ve said above I have a less common for of ADHD to most guys. So YMMV.
I actually had an interesting day on Saturday. After using Vyvanse 4 days in a row last week (tues-fri) woke up Saturday feeling pretty manic all of Saturday I felt like I was on coke… insane amount of energy and determination, assertiveness to the nth degree just a strange rebound effect. Imagine being an elastic band being pulled away from a source of fun and excitement for 4 days and then you finally let go and it’s flying at 1,000miles/hr… not sure if that imagery comes across best I could describe it - also don’t quite understand how or why it happened scientifically…
It has been 12 days since I last took Adderall. I just started my 8th week of TRT. My energy levels are up and when I am tired I mostly feel sleepy but I can still do things rather than feeling exhausted.
That said, at work I have been procrastinating far more than I should be and I am not sure I’ll make it through this whole week without Adderall.
I stop taking the Adderall because I wanted to feel how the TRT was affecting me and I felt the Adderall was making it hard to distinguish between what was from TRT and what was from the Adderall. Since stopping the Adderall I haven’t had a bad day (low energy) but I have also quit it around the 6 week mark where the TRT should’ve been stabilizing so it is hard to know what is causing what.
Before TRT I was using Adderall to function, without it I was just exhausted all the time. Now I feel like it would be helpful when I need to concentrate at work but not something I need daily.