I am a 37 year old female who has always been very hesitant about taking medications and never really needed them. I work long (12hr) shifts in a hospital and one morning about 2 or 3 years ago, I was supposed to be to work at 7am and I woke up at 3am and could not go back to sleep. A friend told me to try an adderall because it would wake me up and give me energy. I was very, very hesitant, but I tried it anyway, expecting a huge burst of energy. What I was not expecting was how much my mind was calmed - all the CONSTANT racing thoughts I d always had just sort of fell into place and I could actually focus. I didn t even know that I wasn t actually focusing before. I could actually finish projects, read an email the entire way through, and overall, was just much more productive. When the adderall wore off and my thoughts went back to normal it was exhausting and I hated the feeling of now knowing that my mind was racing a mile a minute. I talked to my doctor about it and she agreed that I had adult add and prescribed me adderall. I have been taking it ever since with absolutely no problems. But, over the past six months or so, my health seems to be rapidly declining. I have gained a massive amount of weight, experience extreme fatigue, high blood pressure and swelling...I just never feel very good. I recently began seeing a new doctor and she said that she does NOT like adderall and does not prescribe it to her patients. This is very concerning to me because I really do feel that it helps me immensely and I am also going through nursing school and find that without it, it is very, very difficult for me to complete my assignments. I find myself reading the same lines over and over and not comprehending anything I read and lack that focus to get my necessary homework completed. I have read so many things about adderall and although some of them have been good, most of it has been bad. I truly believe it helps me and that I tolerate it very well, but I don t know if that is what has contributed to my health issues or not. I didn t have any problems at all for a very long time - is it normal for a drug that I ve been taking to suddenly have a negative effect on my health, or could something else be the root cause?