Adderall - Anyone else have a side effect of obsessively hacking up what turns out to be nothing?

Unfortunately there's no real solution for this. I seen one commenter suggest the use of Proton Pump Inhibitors to reduce the acid reflux. But I would strongly urge against this when using Amphetamine based stimulants, as PPI's are highly alkaline and are known to greatly increase amphetamine concentration levels in the blood, which can lead to a potentially dangerous overdose. So it's strongly advised to completely avoid PPI's when taking Amphetamine based stimulants.

I want to THREE ENTs and a Specialist at OSU Wexner Medical ENT, where I saw who was supposedly one of the premier ENT Doctors in the country. Only to be told by the last ENT, as I sat in his chair sobbing uncontrollably, that I “needed to see a psychologist and that it was mental like a nervous tic”. Because he. Also could find nothing wrong with me physically. I even had a ct scan of my head and face done.

For many, many agonizing months I’ve cried myself to sleep and cried in the shower and cried in my car at work. Unfortunately for me I was taking 30mg twice a day and my situation got SEVERE. I was ready to end it all. That’s how bad my nose and throat and the mucus and plegm and hocking was. I couldn’t even eat anything!! Forget about ice cream or chocolate and no way to the creamer for coffee or anything with sugar. Yep changed my diet, changed my cologne, you name it I tried to change it. But can’t change ADHD sadly.

I was lost, out of options and ready to relieve my family and friends of my horrible bodily noises and I’m not exaggerating or kidding. I knew I wasn’t crazy but after almost 2 years and 3 ENTs and a Specialist and trying anything I could to get better I was mentally done. I even had to take time off work. So impossible to explain this issue to someone who has never dealt with it. This thread will save my life. I have had a feeling for about 4-5 months it was the amphetamine salts and I just couldn’t “google the right combo” of words and symptoms. I even told one of the ENTs and the Allergy Doctor that I thought it was related to the medication. They literally blew me off. I even put it in writing on my chart.

So today is a special day I get to tell my wife and kids I have identified the root cause. Now I wonder how long my body will take to correct the damage. I literally feel like I need to find a support group like AA or NA now to get support and share stories. Blessed and grateful for all of you for sharing.

In turn, the pharmacy has to get the drug from different manufacturers so the shape and color may be different than my last prescription.
All that to say this ... I have noticed a HUGE difference in the amount of "wall paper paste" I have in my throat depending on the different manufacturers. I take 30mg twice daily and have for alot of years - most always I have received orange "footballs" (or oval shaped pills). The mucus was getting almost unbearable. Sometimes I would receive round orange pills - the mucus wasn't as bad and to be honest- the medication seemed to work better. Recently I received round yellow pills for a few months - almost no mucus at all and again my meds worked better than either of the others. After taking the same dose for as many years, to say I could tell a difference in how the meds worked is a big deal and has me wondering if anyone else has experienced or noticed anything like this?
I was disappointed to see when I picked up my refill for this month that we were back to orange "footballs" --- by midday the very first day I started this prescription, I was MISERABLE!!
Thoughts???

I used to do that too and my dr told me it was dried out mucus he called it "mucus plugs". But since starting a new CF med called Trikafta i dont cough the nasty junk up anymore so coughing up "chunks" of stuff has resolved. I'm thinking that the smoking contributes to the brown coca cola colored stuff your coughing up. Just my opinion tho.

I am not sure why so many doctors don't know about this, and that is concerning. It may be a bit of knowledge that was lost over the decades as more and more doctors who don't specialize in these type of behavioral disorders started prescribing this to adults. My doctor at the time was Dr. Donald Eastmead in Memphis TN. He was a developmental behavioral pediatric specialist. Hopefully that will bring some legitimacy to your concerns when talking to your doctor. Thank you to the users who posted their tips on how to elevated the symptoms. Can't wait to try them. P.S. I do not smoke. However being near someone who is smoking or just smelling it on someone's clothes will cause the draining to kick into high gear.

The mechanism of action for LPR as it relates to adderall, as I’ve surmised, is linked to the various bodily effects of the drug. Given that it’s a vasoconstrictor, it not only constricts your blood vessels, but also your throat and intestines and most bodily tubes. It also causes dry mouth, clearly. Additionally, as adderall is potentialized by an alkaline stomach, the presence of the drug increases your stomach acidity. Going long periods of time without eating or sleeping (we all do it) also greatly increase your stomach acid production. Given that your GI tract is constricted and your stomach is overflowing with acid, the stomach acid begins a retrograde flow up from your stomach, past your esophagus and into your larynx and pharynx. This creates the sensation of something being caught in your throat (the scientific term is globus). Given your dry mouth, it is automatic to want some sort of lubrication, so we attempt to cough up what we think to be mucin, although it is actually stomach acid. All these factors lead a certain predisposed group of adderall consumers to experience what is known as LPR. I have found, and I’m not sure about any of you, that these symptoms continue even when I go without adderall for weeks at a time. Although taking adderall drastically exacerbates the condition. I have a few tricks to help with this condition. #1 ABC: always be chewing (gum). #2 tums and occasional H2 blockers (e.g., Zantac, Pepcid). #3 alkaline water. It’s a dumb fad but it actually helps when fighting stomach acid getting caught in your throat. #4 occasionally gargle salt water. LPR often leads to tonsil stones which further exacerbates the condition and make your breath smell bad, and a salt water gargle helps. Those are the first lines of defense, but I’ve developed some more weird coping mechanisms as well. #6 taking a benzo (e.g., Xanax, Klonopin) as you begin to come down from adderall. It opens up your throat and causes you to salivate regularly, and as an added bonus, it also helps with the crash of adderall and helps you eat food as soon as your done with your homework or whatever you have to do. Obviously this is not an easy recommendation, but if you’re lucky like me, and you have a Xanax prescription, it’s a lifesaver. And if you’re not lucky like me, I would *never* recommend ;) buying ;) them ;) illegally ;). My final, and by far strangest tip: if you feel as if your condition has become unbearable, take a toothbrush, and gag yourself with it repeatedly. It won’t make you vomit unless you keep at it for too long because there’s a whole bunch of stomach acid in your throat and esophagus that need to get out before any vomit could see the light of day. It really does help. Just brush your tongue, then go back to your uvula and you’ll feel the stomach acid from your throat come up and you can actually cough it up and spit it out. Hope this helped some of y’all; it’s hell living like this but there are ways to make it more tolerable.