Best Nootropic Supplements to Take with Adderall

When you search the keyword “Adderall” on Medium, you’ll find a lot of articles with titles such as “Why I Quit Adderall” and “How I Stopped Using Adderall” and “What Adderall Does to Your Brain” etc. etc. These “negative” takes on Adderall far outweigh the “positive” ones — and the reason why so many people are taking a generally negative view of Adderall on here is obvious: Adderall is not good for you.

With so much emphasis on Medium dot com placed on “self-improvement” and “self-care,” there isn’t much space here to earnestly praise the potential benefits of Adderall. Because let’s face it: even if the smart drug genuinely helps some people — say, with ADD/ADHD — to focus and achieve a healthier degree of productivity, most long-term Adderall users will openly admit that they have a problematic relationship to the prescription stimulant.

Yet, they continue to take Adderall (or Vyvanse, Ritalin, etc.) because let’s also face it: Adderall feels really good and does possess the power to make monumental tasks feel like a breeze.

So, what I’m not going to do here is judge anyone for taking Adderall (or Vyvanse, Ritalin, etc.) and attempt to convince them to not take Adderall — odds are you’re already well-informed on why cutting back on Adderall is a good idea.

Instead, I’d like to cover here some of the best nootropic supplements you can take with Adderall to help balance out the smart drug’s negative side effects as well as to help combat the dreaded Adderall comedown and crash.

Below, I’ll split my recommendations into two categories: 1) Nootropics for Adderall Balance, and 2) Nootropics for Adderall Recovery.

So alright enough talky talky — let’s get to it!

3 Best Nootropics for Adderall Balance

Here’s a short list of a few natural nootropics you can take with Adderall to help maximize the cognitive benefits of Adderall while minimizing its familiar downsides:

• L-Theanine
• Ashwagandha
• Turmeric

Let’s check them out:

1 | L-Theanine

Anybody who’s anybody knows that stacking L-theanine with caffeine helps amplify the focus-sharpening benefits of caffeine while mitigating the stimulant’s “jittery” side effects. Essentially, L-theanine, the nootropic amino acid responsible for green tea’s calming effects, helps “smooth out” the jolty errors of the feel-good energy rush associated with stimulants — and Adderall is no exception here.

Though, yes, obviously Adderall is far more powerful than caffeine, L-theanine still offers some significant mental harm reduction when paired with Adderall. Because L-theanine isn’t a sedative (which is cool and crazy to think about when you really dig into this cognitive enhancer), it still sustains the energy-boosting benefits of Adderall while limiting its annoying jittery side effects.

2 | Ashwagandha

Unlike L-theanine, ashwagandha is a sedative, meaning that taking too much ashwagandha can leave you feeling a bit drowsy. However, this isn’t something that should worry you in the slightest if you’re pairing it with Adderall. Frankly, it shouldn’t worry you much at all, Adderall or not, as ashwagandha’s sedative effect feels more like a mood lift (or anxiety relief) more so than legit drowsiness.

Even if you don’t take ashwagandha with Adderall, it’s still an effective herbal nootropic to take after the Adderall effects start wearing off, particularly in the evening to assist with calming the mind for better, deeper sleep. I love especially love ashwagandha because, like L-theanine, you can take this herb during the daytime for a mood boost or before bedtime for sleep — so long as you dosage out your ashwagandha serving appropriately.

3 | Turmeric

Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective — turmeric is referred to as a “superfood” for a reason: it’s an incredible spice that benefits virtually all aspects of your health, both brain and body; with some evidence suggesting that regularly consuming turmeric may even provide cognitive performance benefits. Nonetheless, the general virtues of turmeric aside, this is a smart spice to pair with Adderall, especially as turmeric extract (curcumin), as the herb may provide on-the-spot neural detoxification, essentially protecting against the neurotoxic byproducts of Adderall use.

3 Best Nootropics for Adderall Recovery

Okay, now that we’ve covered some great nootropics you can take with Adderall, here are some nootropics you can take during the Adderall comedown for acute cognitive recovery:

• L-Tyrosine
• Magnesium
• B-Vitamin Complex

The first of these is one of my all-time favorite daily nootropics:

1 | L-Tyrosine

A well-known amino acid precursor to dopamine, L-tyrosine is essential for healthy mood, motivation, and concentration. Under conditions of heightened stress and sleep deprivation, the brain’s natural tyrosine reserves deplete to keep up with the heightened catecholaminergic (dopamine, norepinephrine, etc.) demands, eventually resulting in brain fatigue and fog once your tyrosine reserves are all used up.

Since Adderall increases the synthesis and utilization of dopamine, habitually taking the smart drug can do some significant damage to your catecholaminergic pathway, contributing to greater brain fog and cognitive impairment in the long run. Taking L-tyrosine once the Adderall effects wear off can help replenish your brain’s lost tyrosine reserves, helping you keep your wits once the neurochemical stimulation passes.

2 | Magnesium

Involved in hundreds of enzymatic processes and biopathways, magnesium is detrimentally important to your overall health and fitness. But rather than explicitly detail all the ways in which magnesium affects your physiology and performance, let’s focus on its importance to Adderall recovery: magnesium helps calm overexcited neural activity — both in the central nervous system and at the neuromuscular junction (the point at which nervous tissue meets muscle).

Under conditions of magnesium deficiency, anxiety skyrockets as the brain is unable to calm itself down while muscle twitches and spasms disrupt healthy sleep, contributing to further cognitive impairment and cardiometabolic issues. By combatting the residual neuron-firing effects of Adderall, an acute dose of magnesium may help the nervous system relax, improving your mood state and sleep quality.

3 | B-Vitamin Complex

L-tyrosine doesn’t simply convert to dopamine (and other catecholamines) on its own. Many neurotransmitter synthesis pathways require the assistance of B-vitamins, a class of mood-boosting, cognitive-enhancing vitamins that act as cofactors in the production of catecholaminergic and serotonergic neurochemicals.

Again, due to the heightened demand Adderall places on the catecholaminergic system, it only makes sense to replenish your catecholamine stock with catecholaminergic nootropics — and this includes both L-tyrosine and an effective B-vitamin complex. Considering that B-vitamins assist with the conversion of tyrosine into dopamine, B-vitamins may work synergistically with a L-tyrosine supplement in an “Adderall recovery” context.

Final Thoughts: Supplements for Adderall

No doubt, Adderall is fun and feels good and no “natural nootropic” can truly compete with the brainpower advantages of taking Adderall — no matter what any “natural nootropic” supplement manufacturer tells you. Natural nootropics tried taking out caffeine with their “energy drink” alternative formulas (which failed), and so I don’t anticipate any of them doing the same for Adderall anytime soon.

And I’m saying that as a big fan of natural nootropics, one who sees natural nootropics as being far superior to Adderall for both brain health enhancement and long-term cognitive enhancement.

Having said that, natural nootropics may drastically help you get the most out of your Adderall habit by balancing out the drug’s negative side effects while replenishing your neurochemical stock against the Adderall brain-drain. With that in mind, whether you’re a habitual Adderall user or not, I have plenty of awesome nootropic supplement recommendations worth checking out and adding to your daily health stack. Stay tuned for more!