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ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

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141–150 of 537 posts

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#141

I've seen so much strongly relatable ADHD content over my life, and had so many close friends get diagnosed, that I've often wondered if I'm in the population, or if it's pathologizing the regular experience of modern humans. I haven't had mental healthcare, so I don't have much personal insight, but I found this interview with Trevor Noah very interesting. It's the first time I've heard someone who identified with A…

Strong agree, especially with how it has interacted with social media since 2019/2020, but it is a bit impolitic to say.

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#142
post #118

I was diagnosed as a kid, I never really took the meds consistently. My perspective now is that adhd people are a minority tribe, very chill people living in an unchill world. I feel blessed that I have the ability to function and find my place in this world without taking the meds, not everyone with the “disease” is so lucky. Having adhd you feel alot like an alien most of the time, which can of course be alienating…

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Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#143
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s the same thing for me and Klonopin and my psychosis. The Klonopin is the only thing that stops my psychosis yet they only give me 20 tablets at a time and since I’m homeless and driving around it’s really hard for me to get a new doctor and a new prescription. I’ve been taking it as needed for over nine years and they still can’t get it through their thick heads that I’m not gonna abuse it.

i'm curious, are you homeless because of your psychosis?

Yes, I have schizoaffective disorder, Asperger‘s, and myofacial pain disorder they put me on disability about 22 years ago. I used to be able to handle living in apartments on my disability, but rent has gotten crazy so I ended up living in a van which actually ended up being kind of OK.

I have episodic psychosis. It’s not something that happens every day. And I’m seeming to manage it with some genetic and nutritional understanding I have of myself so it’s not that much of a problem anymore. I just have to be careful with Covid because both times I had Covid I had the worst psychosis of my life.

All my disorders are mostly due to a CBS Deficiency.

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#144

The irony about getting treatment for ADHD is that medical providers make it very hard to get the proper medication and treatment. People with ADHD are horrible at following through and handle rejection poorly. So the worse the ADHD is, the less likely somebody will be able to actually get treatment for it. A lot of people suffer because doctors fear losing their license like so many did during the pain pill debacle.…

I've heard it argued that ADHD diagnoses should come with a social worker. Every time I realize it's Friday and I'm gonna run out of medication because I forgot to call in the refill I think about that. Three day weekends are the worst. One workaround I've heard is that you order every 30 days even if you forgot to take your pills one or two times. Any surplus pills go into an old bottle you hide in the back of a dra…

> I've heard it argued that ADHD diagnoses should come with a social worker.

I know a few people with crippling ADHD that have managed to hire a "life coach" of sorts to help. Takes a bit of screening to find somebody that knows ADHD and how to help with it versus the more generic/useless skills you probably first thought of when you read 'life coach' :).

> Every time I realize it's Friday and I'm gonna run out of medication because I forgot to call in the refill I think about that.

We all have to develop our own coping / survival tools and I'm sure you've heard "put it in your calendar" before. I've had really good luck with an electronic pill dispenser. They can get pricey but for ~ $100 you can get a device that'll keep track of 30 doses and even push alerts to your phone if you've missed a scheduled dose or are down to your last few. You can also DIY; micro controllers and eInk display panels are _cheap_ now. My current iteration is wired into my Home Automation system and that affords me several opportunities to nudge me towards medication when i'd have otherwise forgotten.

> One workaround I've heard is that you order every 30 days even if you forgot to take your pills one or two times. Any surplus pills go into an old bottle you hide in the back of a drawer. You only ever withdraw when you've fucked up your re-order.

Yep. +1 for this. The first prescribing psych that I had clued me into this. They explicitly asked me if I wanted a bump to my Rx for the month so I could start building a buffer. I was clueless but it was explained to me that there's a bunch of timers and rules around how/when you can re-fill and you might not always have a continuous supply unless you take matters into your own hands. Years later, I now live in an area where fire season is almost year-round and you can bet that I have ~ 2 weeks supply stashed away in my "go bag".

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. I'm in the US and my doctor prescribed Adderall for me. While I'd obviously never argue that a drug can't be abused, for me personally, I can't imagine abusing Adderall more than, say, ibuprofen. It's not that it's unpleasant to take it, but that it has zero pleasant qualities, either, except that now I can pay attention to things that don't fascinate me. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't (seem to)…

I’ve only taken it once. I woke up feeling sick, stiff, and lethargic while staying with a friend in NYC in 2008. My friend said “I’ve got just the thing” and gave me one of his adderall. 20 minutes later I was feeling better than I’ve ever felt in my life. We had one of the most exciting, memorable days in my life, just pinging all over the city. That night we went out to a club, where I somehow charmed a girl way o…

The previous poster habitually drinks coffee, and thus already has tolerance to the stimulant effects / increased neurotransmission.

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#146
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you may sell them if you get them more frequently. Now here's a pack of 30.

> Since you may sell them if you get them more frequently. Now here's a pack of 30. But it's already a C/II class medication so the name on the Rx has to match the name on the photo ID and the pharmacy has to keep the records / there are rules for how often C/II medications can be dispensed. If you have a 30d Rx, the soonest you can come back with an Rx for that same medication is ~25d. Regardless, does it matter if…

Sorry, I was being a little tongue in cheek. My wife is on Adderall for ADHD and the renewal thing is frustrating for sure. Our pharmacy would only let us refill her prescription the day of until our psychiatrist wrote one that said 30 tablets over 25 days. So I get the frustration, I just find it kinda silly that there's all these overblown controls, and then they give a "large" amount when all is said and done. Kinda like security theatre to me, it's just dumb and punishes people that already have a hard time keeping up on appointments and paperwork due to their health.

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#147

My hypothesis about this for a long time has been stimulants help everyone be more productive (with some tradeoffs) and ADHD is kind of a weakly differentiated diagnosis that could apply to most people. Probably something like this was lost when people stopped smoking, obviously beneficial for health - but a huge amount of the public was taking stimulants regularly via nicotine until relatively recently.

I've also heard something similar. That maybe the reason so many are diagnosed today[0] is they were self-medicating via smoking.

[0]: Which requires it to be affecting your life -- NOT that you actually do or don't have it and are dealing with it okay. Diagnostic criteria is that it must be hindering you in a job/school/relationships/etc.

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#148

I'm on Ritalin - which works for me. Where I'm from (Norway), getting a diagnosis is no walk in the park. Very extensive process, if you're adult. At least the doctors I've seen, have all been very precautious in prescribing anything other than the basics. If Ritalin doesn't work for you, they'll obviously try something other...but my doctor told be straight up that it is a red flag when some patients will ask specif…

That's interesting. I'm in the US and my doctor prescribed Adderall for me. While I'd obviously never argue that a drug can't be abused, for me personally, I can't imagine abusing Adderall more than, say, ibuprofen. It's not that it's unpleasant to take it, but that it has zero pleasant qualities, either, except that now I can pay attention to things that don't fascinate me. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't (seem to)…

[deleted]

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that motor coordination is a mostly separate issue from attention regulation and task completion, so it would make sense that a stimulant would address focus and impulsivity (as well as suicidality and criminality by proxy of those) but not clumsiness. Also, one can have ADHD without being clumsy, but being clumsy alone does not quality for ADHD. I could be completely wrong, but hopefully that exp…

Not a fan of "clumsy" reminds me too much of "lazy"... Anyway, back on topic: I wonder if there are 2 specific neurodivergencies going on that got wrapped up into ADHD, but only one actually has to do with executive functioning and serotonin (the 70% that get helped by amphetamines) while the other has to do with sensory and body awareness stuff. If they have high enough co-morbidity or are weirdly co-morbid so that…

There are two main variants of ADHD: primarily hyperactive, and primarily inattentive. Then there is a combined type.

Re: ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

#150
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't even account for the perma-drama due to the artificial shortage generated by the DEA. Getting your prescription filled, if you manage to wrangle one, often requires hours of calling around which pharmacy can fill said prescription. And you get to do that every months. And you can't get a prescription earlier, you have to wait a full month. So, essentially: Right when you're forced off your medication tha…

The hoops I have to jump through for a prescription I’ve been on for multiple years is ridiculous. My insurance will wrongly think I’ve filled it at a CVS I sent the script to hoping they’d have it in stock and then I sometimes end up paying out of pocket because otherwise I am exhausted all day and have limited capacity to do tasks. The meds themselves have dramatically improved my life by being more capable of gett…

> Main downside is the drop off around 8/9pm when I become really tired and unfocused.

Talk to your prescribing psych about this. More, but smaller, doses throughout the day may be a way around this. Diet and changing when I medicate helped me a ton. I got another few hours per day out of my meds just by splitting the medication up and administering every few hours, timed just before/after lunch.

You do still need to acknowledge / accept that the medication can't be a 24x7/forever cure though; that crash back to sub-optimal levels of function and abundant distractability is inevitable :(.

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