How does Adderall interact with alcohol?

Hi Robin,

Thank you for your question! It is recommended to avoid alcohol while taking Adderall. Taking both together may cause central nervous system depression, such as slowed breathing rate, sluggishness, delayed response time, etc. If your son insists on drinking, he may want to avoid taking Adderall on the days that he will be drinking. Or he may want to drink just a little bit at a time to see how the Adderall and alcohol together will affect him. You can read more about Adderall at this site. Above all, tell him to be safe and not to push the limits!

Casey

I can speak about ths one from personal experience. Adderall seems to overide the affect of alcohol, making the person feel as if they can drink more without getting drunk. The problem there is, although they may not feel as drunk the alcohol still has the same affect on their body and can lead to alcohol poisoning without the person even realizing that they are that wasted. Your son should definately watch the amount of alcohol he takes in, and know what his limit is before he starts.

I can speak about ths one from personal experience. Adderall seems to overide the affect of alcohol, making the person feel as if they can drink more without getting drunk. The problem there is, although they may not feel as drunk the alcohol still has the same affect on their body and can lead to alcohol poisoning without the person even realizing that they are that wasted. Your son should definately watch the amount of alcohol he takes in, and know what his limit is before he starts.

Dear Robin,

If your son is relatively young, I would not recommend for him to mix adderall with alcohol as this may result in unnecessarily excessive consumption of alcohol (in the worst case scenario, alcohol poisoning or death). Overall, if your son is able to determine his alcohol limits on his own without adult supervision then I would be slightly less concerned. Nonetheless, adderall is a very powerful drug and its effects should be well known by any user beforehand. In my experience, shifting to alcohol on the weekends after finishing work and witnessing firsthand the decline of the drug's effects is a relatively safe practice- I do impress that adderall is a very subjective drug such that its effects can vary widely from person to person. Health concerns outside of the possibilty of alcohol overdose are fairly limited in any event in this hypothetical combination of drugs (N.B.- I am speaking from an adult experience). Ultimately, the decision is your sons as he may very well continue his prescription throughout college and into adult life. I would encourage you to inform him of the risks involved and to keep his cool even when his friends might be drinking and pushing him to do the same- at the practical level, he may want to consider drinking at a slower rate if he chooses to drink in the first place or simply to avoid parties where peer pressure is too great of a force to evade. I hope this helps and best of luck to you and your son!

from experience, adderall is a great upper if your crossed and need a lift. hope this helps.

I will offer an opinion from someone who uses adderall in a different way than described by everyone else so far. I'm a college student and I don't have a prescription for adderall but I do take it pretty regularly to help me stay up and study. I sometimes drink after I've been studying on adderall to help me get to sleep faster. I find that when you drink after being on adderall for a while, you get drunk much faster than you would normally. I have done this many times and have never had the slightest problem besides a hangover in the morning. I think that people that take adderall to party longer are incredibly stupid. Just thought I would offer a different perspective on the issue.

I am 27 years old and I'm perscribed Adderall for my adult ADD.  I also drink just about every night.  Part of that is my dosage as well as the hours I work each day (I work 70+ hours a week so many times my 3rd dose is taken late in the day) so it helps to take the Adderall edge off when I get home.  If your son is not careful he may find himself drinking WAY too much without realizing that he has because of the potency of Adderall.  In moderation he should be fine.

I am a college student and have been prescribed to adderall for about 3 years now. It is an incredibly powerful drug that has given me many different side effects as I continue to take it. First off, beacuse I have had so much experience with this, I can say that taking adderall inconsistently is very dangerous. It can really affect your body in negative ways when it is abused. I would not recommend drinking and adderall together as i have seen a lot more negative outcomes within myself and many of my friends than positive ones (such as staying up longer). Your son might be okay since he is not accustom to the drug yet but once he starts taking it more often he'll probably often feel sick or he won't think he's drunk until it hits him later when the adderall wears off (which can be extremely harmful on the body). I usually don't blog but I feel the need to let people know how careful you have to be with this drug because it is not a joke and is one of the most endangering over the cabinet drugs out there if it is not used properly. The only time I would recommend drinking on adderall is if you drink later in the day AFTER the adderall has worn off. 

Whenever I take my adderall (I was prescribed it after I got a bad concussion) and drink, I tend to talk way too much and also drink more than I normally would. I'm college student and do not drink that heavily, but combining this medication and alcohol usually causes me a lot of trouble and I do not recommend it at all.

i recently was prescribed adderall. i took it for two days and went out drinking. i didnt feel like i consumed enough alcohol to produce the effects i was feeling.... but i also thought the four hours at a party only lasted 30 minutes.... i can say though that i felt as though id been given a date rape drug..... i dont recommend mixing these things...