Disclaimer: I’m referring the the US medical system, but I imagine people in other countries may encounter similar things.
I cannot be the only one who has had this experience, but all my dealings with the medical industry feel like they were refined by a group of psychologists to exploit the weaknesses of those with ADHD.
The volume of calls, appointments, and paperwork I had to full out to get a diagnosis and prescription for treatment is completely unreasonable to expect someone with poor working memory and attention issues to navigate.
Then, to stay on medication, you need to schedule and make appointments with a psychiatrist every month, for the rest of your life, and if you miss a single one, you will run out of meds (and likely charged a fine), which will make it even harder to remember to make the next one. If you miss too many, that psychiatrist will refuse to see you again and you have to go back to your PCP to get a new referral.
Look, I understand that their time is valuable, but this system couldn’t be designed any other way to be more accommodating to people who clinically forget things?!
It’s like designing a wheelchair ramp that’s actually just stairs that are 3x as steep as the regular stairs. Also, if you fall to the bottom, someone takes your wheelchair until you can climb back up.
My anxiety, depression, and executive dysfunction prevent me from talking to a therapist and getting a diagnosis. I am so sick of this…
CBD gummies have worked miracles for my depression and anxiety. Depending on where you live, maybe give it a try for a week or two and see what happens?
What dosage are you taking, when, and what type?
These guys work really well.
https://wyldcbd.com/products/raspberry-gummies
They have different flavors, and for me the peach ones work really well
This is the state of U.S. healthcare, homie just prescribed peach flavoring.
I know this is accurate because I also live in this hellhole.
It’s great, isn’t it? I also got laid off at the end of January, lost my health insurance immediately so I had to cancel my gallbladder removal for the next week because I could no longer afford it.
ThE pRiVaTe MaRkEt WiLl SoLvE tHe PrObLeM
Just hold your breath, it will trickle down any second
I started with a 300mg per bag of 20 (so each gummy would be 20mg each). I would take one a night for a week, every other week (I’d stay sober when with my kids). After a couple of 300, I moved up to 2000 (100mg/gummy).
What brand?
3CHI Gummies
The 2000 is called Pulse. I forget what the 300 was called.
You really don’t need a therapist. You just need a GP that’ll do the questionnaire.
Depends on where they are. I legally need a psychiatrist to give me my prescription.
Removed by mod
As someone with unmedicated ADHD and a severe heart condition, I feel this rant deep, deep in my soul but more for my heart stuff.
You mean I have to call for follow ups every three months and also remember to fill my multiple medications every month or else I am sent on a death spiral? And you also mean to tell me that I can’t take any of the typical ADHD drugs because it might hurt my heart?
Win win.
“Zocdoc” is a great app to make appointments when possible.
100%
It took me years to realize I had it, even more years to get a diagnosis (I was told I had “severe ADHD” btw") and even now, I’m out of medication more often than I have any due to logistical and financial barriers.
This is why I got off the schedule 1 stuff. There are other options.
Not really. I’ve tried some other solutions like antidepressants and they didn’t help because they don’t address the core issue. AFAIK only stimulants are proven to be an effective treatment for ADHD.
Also, that only alleviates one of the problems I mentioned.
Wellbutrin and strattera are both for adhd
those aren’t options for everyone.
Sure. But it’s helpful information for people who otherwise haven’t heard of them. If one person’s life is easier from reading my comment, that’s a win.
Or shall we only try and help when it’s perfect?
Removed by mod
Congratulations, you’re the first person I tagged for misinformation on Lemmy.
I will believe you if you show me a credible source which proves your claim
What are you talking about.
Treatment for ADHD is (not always, but often) stimulant medication. There’s no herb you can grow at home to treat that, and that’s a good thing, because the stuff we use to treat ADHD apparently turns neurotypicals into addicts.
Removed by mod
Dude, stop. I use cannabis on a daily basis, for both medical and non-medical reasons, and it’s not a fucking panacea. If it has worked for you, that’s wonderful, but please stop embarrassing yourself and making other cannabis users look like fools with this bullshit.
Sativa vs indica is pure marketing horse shit. Stop spreading misinformation.
Indica and sativa labels are largely meaningless when it comes to cannabis complexities
I grow weed and have ADHD. You’re a fucking moron.
Stop giving bad advice based on misinformation please.
Growing Ephedra could actually work.
Cannabis is not a suitable treatment for ADHD. If anything, it exacerbates attention and memory issues.
My perspective is only mine, but I’ve had mixed results on this.
I’m in my mid-thirties and I have not seen a doctor as an adult. I have been to urgent care twice, once in my early twenties for pneumonia and once a couple years ago for a fungal ear infection.
I have a few minor ailments, some curable and some not, which I would love to see a doctor for. But I’m always afraid to open that door. Due to my ADHD, I tend to get in a cycle where I’ll find a decent job, burn out due to poor sleep hygiene and the pressure of wanting to do well, and then spend months working on personal projects and getting good sleep until I have to find work again.
I have this fear that I’ll find a doctor and get prescribed for something that I’m told I need and then become reliant on that medicine and then leave my job and not have an affordable way to get it. I’m mildly overweight, but at my peak fatness I was worried I was pre-diabetic. And I avoided seeing a doctor still because I figured I’d like to focus on diet and exercise to address it without medicine, because I don’t want to get prescribed anything. I get concerned hearing news stories about doctors getting pharmaceutical kickbacks.
I can’t stay young forever. My problems will worsen without adequate care. My goal is to make enough money from creating software independently that I don’t have to worry about whether I have a job or not when I schedule a doctor’s visit. To know I’ll be able to afford any medication either way. I feel like I’m getting close to realistically achieving this but it’s not necessarily a realistic goal for the average person with ADHD to have.
In the absence of healthcare, I have smoked and consumed a lot of cannabis. This self-medication has been the source of some of my ailments. There is a real possibility that if I continue to smoke this way into old age, I will develop some form of emphysema. I do not want to be dependent on this drug forever.
That said, the effect it has on my ADHD is mostly positive. I’ve developed a tolerance such that I’m not as affected by most of the usual negative side effects - impaired memory, lowered cognitive function, etc, though there is still some effect. It leads me to disassociate more for sure. But that can also be good practice for maintaining focus when I’m sober. I’m a lot better at that than I used to be. Maybe mainly due to maturity and experience. But if properly channeled, the THC-fueled ADHD tangents can lead to productive results. In my experience.
People forget that cannabis has a narcotic component. When I consume edibles, it makes me sleepy. But something about the metabolic pathway of smoking gives cannabis smoke or vapor a stimulant effect on me. And it motivates me to enjoy the thing I’m doing, whatever that is. It’s very easy to get lost in the enjoyment of watching movies or playing video games or making comments on Lemmy (oops). But when I’m doing work while high, I get a certain enjoyment in the minutiae of the task and trying to adequately solve whatever piece of the puzzle is keeping my work from advancing. Where I might not have had the motivation to work at all before, cannabis can make it a fun activity. Again, it’s how it works for me.
But it’s expensive, even with how cheap it’s become. When you look at the long term, who knows if I would have saved money with pharmaceuticals instead? And it hurts my lungs, makes me cough loudly. I’m also dependent on it. I’ve needed to stop at times for jobs, or because I was trying to quit. And I notice after a week or two, I’m more irritable, more lethargic, with increased depression and suicidal ideation. It is addictive.
But so are the stimulants people with ADHD take. I’ve dated people on these meds and seen the difference in energy of on versus off. I wonder if in some ways I’m better of from having not used my access to medical care and instead I developed coping mechanisms that allow me to exist in the world. Or just grew out of some of my issues to some degree. But even if THC has helped me with the introspective development I needed to reach this point, I wonder if I would now be better off without it. And maybe give the pharmaceuticals a shot, tentatively. I’m unsure.
I don’t think the guy promoting cannabis in this thread is doing so with very much tact, and maybe the downvotes are useful to deliver that point. But given my history I hesitate to entirely dismiss the idea that cannabis can stand in for a stimulant in certain scenarios. We should be realistic about the risks and tradeoffs, but I felt the need to provide my somewhat biased viewpoint. Not trying to persuade anyone, just want my experience to live here as another point of data. In case anyone else has experienced something similar.
There is no grow at home remedy that works the way my medication does. To make claims like that it’s ignorant and harmful to people who do actually need medication.
It is. I tried it and it works for me. I’m talking about cannabis medication. It’s far safer than amphetamine. There are are doctors who prescribe it to you.
Without any additional details, I have to admit I’m skeptical. “My brain won’t let me be productive? I know, weed will make this better!” sounds… counterintuitive.
Just a quick search: https://neurolaunch.com/cannabis-and-adhd/
You can find the referenced studies at the bottom of the page.
There is almost no evidence to back up their claims. It is a whole lot of “might”, “suggests”, and “possible”. It’s great if it works for you, but for you to say it’s superior to prescribed medication is still more harmful than helpful. I support more research into medical use for cannabis, but people who try to claim it treats everything only hurt the movement for wider acceptance.
An actual systematic review showed a lack of research, and currently very little evidence of benefits.
I would be particularly cautious suggesting this to people with psychosis related disorders like bipolar or schizophrenia on top of ADHD as it can be detrimental to their wellbeing.
It sounds like it can be helpful for some people but considering how it worsens some symptoms like short term memory, motivation, and cognitive ability I would not consider it a replacement for prescription medication.
Certainly a very interesting topic of research, I would like to see more done… A refinement on dosage recommendations, strains specifically grown to cater to ADHD… Theres also the fact that the method of intake changes how it effects you (edibles vs smoking). If there is any way to lessen undesirable side effects…
And for the record, not all prescription medication for ADHD is amphetamines.
It works for me
Good for you. Now stop telling people your solution is universal and mutually exclusive to all other medical solutions
This works for you. Congratulations. You found a thing that works for you. You, who is privileged enough to have the space AND the mental capacities to grow things at home. Your situation is extraordinary and your advice is not advice.
-
Get off your high horse of weed being healthier than prescription medication.
-
I’m not a doctor (but clearly neither are you) but I doubt you actually have ADHD… Weed exacerbates my ADHD symptoms. Attempting to treat my disability with weed would NOT work for me.
-
Let’s say you’re correct and you do have ADHD and vaping a sativa strain really does help you. Well everyone is different and not every medication or treatment program is going to be a solution for everyone (for any condition, not just ADHD.) So either way, gtfo of here with the attitude that weed is the only solution anyone could possibly need and all of us are just victims for thinking otherwise.
-
I’m extremely happy with the process I’ve had, but I understand it’s very likely not representative of the rest of us here.
By and large, you’re right though. My wife has gone through similar struggles and hasn’t been medicated for over a year because of it.
I’ve never seen a psychiatrist - I was diagnosed by a psychologist and prescribed by my general practitioner doctor. My doctor doesn’t make me come into the office regularly, I can generally just message him for a refill. I realize I am extremely lucky (not that lucky - I can’t seem to tolerate stimulants), but I encourage people to try a different route.
I’ve heard it makes reliably getting meds a lot easier if they arent stimulants, so maybe youve got that going for you? 😃
This was for stimulants, I haven’t tried non-stimulants yet, but I am also of a demographic that doesn’t arouse suspicion
I meant shortages, i hear its a nightmare (at least in the US). I’ve got a little over a month to go for an appointment for an initial evaluation 😞
It’s hit or miss. The instant release Adderall has been more reliably available than the extended release version, but they’re both often delayed by a couple of days. The longest delay for me so far was like 2 weeks for the extended release. I’ve been taking it for almost a year now.
I think state regulations might vary. Where I am, every three months I HAVE to have an appointment to get a refill prescription for my Adderall. But fortunately my psych is still doing virtual appointments, which is a lot less disruptive to my workday.
You guys don’t have repeat prescriptions?
I just order mine on an app when I get a reminder and then pick it up from the chemist a few days later when I get a ping.
I have to go in every year to get refills on my epi pens and my migraine meds. I have to have a doctor sign off on those and I don’t really know why. I am not on ADHD meds but I imagine that would be the same.
It’s every 6 months for controls.
Oh yeah… I should probably refill my epipens…
My old doctor used to require monthly check-ins to get my ADHD meds.
Usa person, i canget auto refills on meds never tried with adhd meds though. The ones that have auro refill have a final refill date and max refill number.
Like the person above said, I’ve only ever had them do that three months at a time, but it’s better than monthly, which is how I started.
I have difficulty believing that the DEA allows a 90 day supply of stimulants.
On December 19, 2007, a DEA regulation came into effect that allows a prescriber to issue multiple prescriptions authorizing an individual patient to receive a total of up to a 90-day supply of a Schedule II controlled substance.2 However, this is allowable only under the following conditions:
There are some restrictions, but it’s a thing. It looks like it can depend on state. In my case, I believe they did it every month, but I only had to visit the office once every three months, the two after that were just called in/you could fill out a website form if you had any issue. But that likely counted as “three prescriptions,” rather than “a single 90-day prescription,” to your point. The main thing for me was not having to get away from work and into a doctor’s office every single month only for her to say, “Alright! See you next month!” as she charged me more than the insurance allowed to fund her (literal) new Corvette parked out front.
Your use of “chemist” makes me think you’re out of the US.
Most ADHD meds in the US are “controlled substances” and that means our doctors can only prescribe up to three months at a time. After three months we have to have a follow-up appointment, then they can prescribe three more months of meds.
Plus the federal government decided that too many people were taking medications like Adderall. So their “solution” was to instate a cap on how much Adderall manufacturers can make. Which means there’s now a national shortage of Adderall. And that shortage means folks with ADHD are frequently going without their meds entirely or are forced to call multiple pharmacies in the area to ask who has their meds in stock. (My health insurance through work requires me to use a mail-order pharmacy because it means cost savings for them. But that means I don’t have the luxury of shopping around different stores to see who has my meds in stock - at least, not to fill the prescription through insurance and get the lower price. So if the mail order place is out, then I’m screwed.)
Our healthcare system is so fucked.
Adhd meds here are controlled substances too. It makes it so the prescription lasts only a month. But how many packs of meds you have on this prescription, is only set by your doctor. So I get 4 months refills and have to buy it within one month.
And yeah, med shortage over here is an issue too.
Yeah, the DEA wouldn’t allow that. Where I’m at in the US you can only get one month at a time, and most people have to go to the doctors office in person to pick up a physical prescription.
You only have a 3-4 day window before your pills run out to do this, too, so if your pharmacy is out, you’re fucked because most pharmacies won’t just fill a control if you don’t have other prescriptions with them (if they’re accepting new controls at all). All because they’re afraid of the DEA.
I’ve often day dreamed about starting a class action lawsuit against the DEA for discriminating against the disabled.
Anyone that might be thinking this is an exaggeration, it is not.
My wife has adhd and takes vyvanse for it, a strictly controlled substance. I have to be extremely vigilant about making sure her prescription gets to the pharmacy and that the pharmacy fills it correctly.
We recently moved across country. Here’s a fun puzzle to work on.
- You can not get more than a 30 day supply of the drug
- Due to lack of providers, you can not get an in state prescription for more than 30 days
- while it is perfectly legal to fill the out of state prescription, every large pharmacy that can get vyvanse has a corporate policy against filling out of state prescriptions for it
- smaller pharmacies are willing to fill the prescription, but can’t stock the medicine.
The amount of times I had to explain this to people and just exasperatedly go “so should I just prepare my wife to go through withdrawal of this medication she has been prescribed and taking for nearly a half a decade? Is that ok with you, is that an ok patient outcome? Is that what you’d let happen to your wife”
Luckily shes married to an angry, persistent, yet very polite man who will shame the shit out of people until he gets it fixed. But I have no idea how she was supposed to navigate this alone, while facing the terror of withdrawal.
How did you manage that? I’ve been worried about moving out of state for this reason (not that I have immediate plans, but I’ve thought about it).
It took a lot of persistence and luck. I had found my wife a new doctor to do her medication management and I ended up just politely hounding her staff explaining calmly but firmly the catch-22 I found myself in.
The trick I’ve learned over caring for my chronically ill wife, who I love with all my heart, is to be very nice to the front line medical people but to never give up. They take crap all day from angry people, so I make it my mission to never yell at them, never get cross with them. I just explain what’s going on and my goal is always to get them on my side, be my person on the inside.
That worked here too. After calling a couple times and being nice, one person working the phone remembered me and I could tell they wanted to help. I just kept asking them for options, people like it when they can be part of solving the problem. They got in the doctors ear about this and suddenly if she did a virtual evaluation of my wife she could write a preliminary prescription to fill the gap.
Is this how things should work? No. Should you have to beg and cajole and get lucky that someone will help you? Absolutely not. But this is how I’ve figured out how to navigate this broken system.
Tl;Dr - Be very nice to office staff, be persistent, make it a problem you can solve together, keep reminding them that you are advocating for a flesh and blood human being you care about and that them just suffering will never be a good enough answer.
Also don’t get frustrated if you don’t make progress and need to call back, I think it only took calling 3 days in a row for them to figure out they better help me or they were going to have to talk to me every single day
My biggest fear living in the US was falling off meds and being unable to get back on them. If your life situation allows you should absolutely rely on friends or family for help. You don’t need to do this alone, ADHD is a disability and you’re allowed to need assistance.
you should absolutely rely on friends or family for help.
Aw, I wish. There are two types of people in my family. The first type is people who also have ADHD (unmedicated, at that) and/or autism. The second type is people who believe the first type are jUsT bEiNg LaZy.
There is no in-between.
I feel your pain precisely. Also, most of the people who clearly have ADHD/autism or other, much-worse things are often the ones denying it’s a thing.
Well fuck, my apologies then.
I’ve never had a doctor or therapist take me serious. If I had access to the drugs I could self medicated diagnose better.
It’s designed that way, because it has the same effect on everyone. People with ADHD are just starting with a lower capacity for it. The goal is to get as many people as possible to give up on getting what should be theirs in order to “save money”. It’s the same thing you’ll see in certain software when you try to do something they don’t like, for example, opening a link in an external browser, or contacting an actual support representative. Suddenly, this app is really poorly designed! It’s not a bug, it’s a feature
No, it’s entirely a DEA thing. They have such a stick up their ass that must doctors and pharmacies are terrified of writing/filling too many controls because the DEA can fuck them in the ass for actually providing the meds people need.
I’ve been self medicating for decades with nicotine and THC. It works well for me. I guess I’m lucky.
THC helps a lot in very low doses (20mg or so) but I build a tolerance to it after 2-3 weeks, and also it makes me completely stupid. Its great for getting chores and shit done but terrible for my job. It also makes me really really wordy, which is kind of annoying for everyone involved.
This is one of the benefits of being on non-stimulant meds, the hoops to jump through are way less (I still had to fight insurance for a prior auth, which took nearly a month). I use an online Psychiatrist (Talkiatry) and have been really happy with my doctor. I also only need to see him as often as we think is medically necessary since atamoxetine can be refilled. It’s been shown in trials to be as effective as methylphenidate and works well for me so far.
The diagnostic piece though is indeed hard, but I can sort of understand that. It’s a pathway to drugs with a high probability of abuse, and no sure fire way to diagnose. So from a liability and care viewpoint I get why psychologists do due diligence in evaluating people (especially adults) for ADHD. It still sucks if you need help, but in theory you only have to deal with that process once to get a diagnosis. Also, as many people have pointed out, many PCPs are willing to fill scripts for controlled substances if needed, especially once you are on a stable dose that you know works. Like many things, the start up is the hardest and it gets easier once you hit steady state.
