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...

I just started taking adderall three or four months ago to deal with my long untreated ADHD.  As a single 25 year old who goes out regularly cutting alcohol out of my life is really not an option if I want to be social at all... 

So first, to address an above statement, the threat of death from alcohol poisoning is a little ridiculous unless we are talking about an unseasoned firsttimer who hasnt either built up a tollerance or learned his/her limits...

I will say there are a few things that will affect you, one being, adderall decreases your appetite and when you start drinking on adderall your appetite decreases even more.  This is going to affect your tollerance.  I have noticed that I get drunker faster when taking the drug but I don't get as drunk as I get without taking the drug.  Adderall actually calmed me down and noticably slowed my drinking, verses my prior party-like demeaner that I had before starting the drug... But this is only true while the adderall is active in my system... at some point the drug wears off and if you have been drinking heavily you can be left really drunk.  Just watch how much you drink and you should be fine and if you are going to be drinking heavily MAKE SURE TO EAT.  Besides that, you'll be fine...

I just started taking adderall three or four months ago to deal with my long untreated ADHD.  As a single 25 year old who goes out regularly cutting alcohol out of my life is really not an option if I want to be social at all... 

So first, to address an above statement, the threat of death from alcohol poisoning is a little ridiculous unless we are talking about an unseasoned firsttimer who hasnt either built up a tollerance or learned his/her limits...

I will say there are a few things that will affect you, one being, adderall decreases your appetite and when you start drinking on adderall your appetite decreases even more.  This is going to affect your tollerance.  I have noticed that I get drunker faster when taking the drug but I don't get as drunk as I get without taking the drug.  Adderall actually calmed me down and noticably slowed my drinking, verses my prior party-like demeaner that I had before starting the drug... But this is only true while the adderall is active in my system... at some point the drug wears off and if you have been drinking heavily you can be left really drunk.  Just watch how much you drink and you should be fine and if you are going to be drinking heavily MAKE SURE TO EAT.  Besides that, you'll be fine...

I just started taking adderall three or four months ago to deal with my long untreated ADHD.  As a single 25 year old who goes out regularly cutting alcohol out of my life is really not an option if I want to be social at all... 

So first, to address an above statement, the threat of death from alcohol poisoning is a little ridiculous unless we are talking about an unseasoned firsttimer who hasnt either built up a tollerance or learned his/her limits...

I will say there are a few things that will affect you, one being, adderall decreases your appetite and when you start drinking on adderall your appetite decreases even more.  This is going to affect your tollerance.  I have noticed that I get drunker faster when taking the drug but I don't get as drunk as I get without taking the drug.  Adderall actually calmed me down and noticably slowed my drinking, verses my prior party-like demeaner that I had before starting the drug... But this is only true while the adderall is active in my system... at some point the drug wears off and if you have been drinking heavily you can be left really drunk.  Just watch how much you drink and you should be fine and if you are going to be drinking heavily MAKE SURE TO EAT.  Besides that, you'll be fine...

I just started taking adderall three or four months ago to deal with my long untreated ADHD.  As a single 25 year old who goes out regularly cutting alcohol out of my life is really not an option if I want to be social at all... 

So first, to address an above statement, the threat of death from alcohol poisoning is a little ridiculous unless we are talking about an unseasoned firsttimer who hasnt either built up a tollerance or learned his/her limits...

I will say there are a few things that will affect you, one being, adderall decreases your appetite and when you start drinking on adderall your appetite decreases even more.  This is going to affect your tollerance.  I have noticed that I get drunker faster when taking the drug but I don't get as drunk as I get without taking the drug.  Adderall actually calmed me down and noticably slowed my drinking, verses my prior party-like demeaner that I had before starting the drug... But this is only true while the adderall is active in my system... at some point the drug wears off and if you have been drinking heavily you can be left really drunk.  Just watch how much you drink and you should be fine and if you are going to be drinking heavily MAKE SURE TO EAT.  Besides that, you'll be fine...

I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was between 8-10 years old and have been prescribed adderall ever since then. I went through the progression of higher dosages throughout the years and I am currently prescribed 30 mg of it. I'm now a college student and take two dosages throughout the day. I take 25 XR mg capsule in the morning and later on in the day a 5 mg pill to help me focus later in the night for my school work. Starting around my senior year of high school I started drinking. I have never felt any different side affects to the adderall when I've drank. The first time I drank I didn't even know I was truly drunk because I've grown to sometimes expect that feeling when adderall is either entering my system or leaving it. Maybe I don't notice the difference while drinking is because I have always been prescribed adderall and have never abused it. Caffeine is another affect that should discussed as well when dealing with adderall. Caffeine can prolong the effects of the medication onto the body long after it should. Your son should just be extremely careful if he decides to drink.

My boyfriend uses 20 mg Adderrall and consumes at minimum 5-6 beers daily! He is an idiot! The Adderrall is NOT a prescription--I do not know if he takes more than one a day and I am not sure how long he has been on Adderrall. I do know that he has absolutely NO SEX drive (with me anyway), he appears fidgety and nervous at times. He is moody. Sometimes I feel like I do not know who he is. The sad part of it all is I do know him...we have lived together for 13 years. He feels he needs the Adderrall to focus...and he always did seem to have ADD (which his son has) But, he is worse now...Adderall is a controlled substance with good reason. It is Rx with supervision as it should be...it increases your Norepinephrine, messes with your serotonin, and dopamine. It is a Amphetamine...which means You can become addicted--just like a Meth head! Aww Euphoria...fake your brain into thinking it is in euphoria...then it does not have to supply the dopamine or norepinephrine...afterall, you have Adderrall! By the way...your Heart needs you to keep it healthy too, Adderrall adds stress to your heart! Stay Heart Healthy--You should not take the controlled substance without supervision from a Psychiatrist or M.D. NOT BECAUSE IT IS ILLEGAL, but because it is to be prescribed to those who have a chemical imbalance in the brain.

I am a college student who has been taking Adderall for almost 4 years now. In my first 2 years of college I drank pretty heavily 2-3 nights a week. I never got drunk to the point that I would throw up like many people do when they begin college, but I blacked out to some degree pretty much every night that I would drink. What made that slightly worrying for me was that according to my friends, I would never seem/act drunk to any extent. I could hold rational conversations, I wouldn't slur my words or demonstrate any of the other indicators of consuming too much alcohol, yet I would be totally blacked out. Obviously this had the potential to land me in some bad situations.

I spoke to my psychiatrist about this and he said that drinking while on Adderall really shouldn't have any effect. Instead, I realized that it wasn't necessarily the medication that would cause me to black out, but the side effects of the medication can impact the extent to which alcohol affects the body. Adderall causes loss of appetite and insomnia - not eating or sleeping adequately before drinking large quantities of alcohol obviously affects the way that it processes alcohol.

I would say the most important thing to do is make sure you EAT before drinking. It's common sense, but especially when one is taking Adderall, its easy to forget.

The pharmaceutical instructions specifically states not to drink alcohol with adderall!  If he needs Alcohol and Adderall together, I would say get him back to his Doctor for a full panel work-up and a therapy consult referral. 

You have to be able to put side the Alcohol when you are taking medications that can interact in a negative manner (regardless of the level).  If that means you need further assistance to do so, seek the assistance for exclusion of alcohol NOT, inclusion.

P.S.  If he won't listen to a valid course of logic (such as the afore mentioned) that is usually a sign of needing help.

Hope this helps. 

Good Luck!