I do have Modafinil, too. I'm prescribed both. I don't necessarily alternate (and no, Moda isn't a mind-altering substance). Modafinil is effective, but I've found Adrafinil, the supplement form that's a Modafinil pro-drug to be much, much, much more effective. Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to find anymore, along with Racetams, thanks to manufacturing problems stemming from COVID-19.
Modafinil gave me awful heartburn and nausea. I was prescribed 100 mg, but I've found for best results to take it and break off 1/4 of it, taking only 25 mg. It also makes me very robotic. The focus/energy I get is more lifeless and dull than even it's pro-drug, Adrafinil, which is more of a fascinated focus where I'm genuinely interested in whatever it is I'm doing.
It must have something to do with the speed your body digests it.
I actually think Ritalin and Adderall are less addictive than caffeine. We've got hundreds of millions of caffeine addicts walking around in America, but it's socially acceptable so we don't really care.
The reason I believe this is related to the "porn addiction" question. Porn lacks a withdrawal period, and even a plausible mechanism for how one could withdrawal from porn use (what neurons would be involved? lol). But caffeine definitely has a withdrawal period where people are grumpy, tired, unable to concentrate, and feel like their life force was stripped from them. Adenosine is a serious compound.
The book simply called Caffeine by Michael Pollan (https://amzn.to/3LtFAMr) is a superb write-up. It's super short (the audiobook is only 2 hours). The writer quit caffeine after years of drinking it to see what would happen. It wasn't pretty. For months, he went through very uncomfortable symptoms.
I'm actually on the fence about whether Adderall/amphetamine has a withdrawal at all and some researchers are starting to ask the question again (I can find the research somewhere in the bowels of my notes if you'd like).
I can only speak for myself here, but I've gone months at a time with daily Adderall use and haven't experienced any sort of withdrawal symptoms or even a fog. It was more just like my symptoms rushed back again. Of course, my experience isn't everyone else's, so take that also with a huge grain of salt.
There's a debate going on right now about whether there are actually withdrawal symptoms with stimulants like Adderall/Dextroamphetamine/Ritalin in small, medicinal doses. We may come to find out that it might just be a return of symptoms or something akin to rebound anxiety from moderate benzodiazepine use until you start using "street" doses and then the problems start.
It wouldn't surprise me either way, as methamphetamine certainly has withdrawal symptoms, but I think it's a question worth revisiting.
One thing people mistake about pharmaceutical drugs often is how safe they really are. We tend to think they're more dangerous than they actually are.
Adderall is a great example. The LD-50 of amphetamine is 180 mg/kg of body weight. I'm 124 lbs, so about 56 kg. That means the LD-50 for me is 10,080 mg. That's an ungodly amount. (1)
My dose is 10 mg, the starter dose. I'd have to take 1,008 of my 10 mg Adderall pills to die. And even then, since it's LD-50, I'd only have a 50% chance of dying. In terms of safety, I don't think you can ask for much more than that.
But, most people don't know that because, I feel, the old Reefer Madness mindset is still with us, alive and well, as can be observed in The Atlantic article I cited.
It's basically impossible to take 1,000+ pills of any sort without the stomach going, "Eff this, I'm throwing up," against your will. That's why pills are heavily diluted and contain mostly filler. It makes suicides nearly impossible should they fall into the wrong hands.
I think it's a good thing that we're better safe than sorry and that we're not telling people, "Yeah, you can just take 300 Adderall with no consequences." Obviously, that's not true and people should always take their prescribed amounts. But I have a very healthy skepticism of much of our drug talk in this country, especially when you analyze evidence like this contrasted with our healthy fear of overdosing and the media machine that feeds it.
It feeds into so much of our evolutionary wiring, to play it safe, to see danger where there is none, and this cultural idea leftover from our Protestant roots that constantly tells us "no pain, no gain," and that you can't have any fun, benefits, or enjoy anything without serious consequences later on. That's not always the case.
That's the long way of me saying, I haven't had any issues with it yet whatsoever, but I've also not exceeded the medicinal dose and the starting point dose. If my medication stops working as intended, it's time for a break. Even that in itself is a sign that these drugs might not be addictive like benzos are, which can sneak up on you and suddenly, you can't just stop taking them without severe consequences.
1. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/amphetamine#section=Acute-Effects
