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ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes

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

#191

Post by torben-friis »

klipklop wrote: post #77

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.…

Funnily enough, my journey here in Spain was almost the opposite.

I didn’t know until my thirties that certain issues with executive dysfunction could be caused by adhd, as it is not a widely known disorder particularly for adults.

After I contacted a professional however, and once the relevant testing and assessment was finished, my doctor strongly recommended trying medication as part of the therapy. The whole thing took about $200 for the assessments and medication is cheap. Absolute life changer btw.

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

#192

Post by mockingloris »

As someone from Nigeria who's self-diagnosed with ADHD (my brain switches gears on the spectrum, and I've learned to cope without formal help), reading this thread hits different.

Here, access to stimulants like Adderall or alternatives are expensive to be viable to the average household (if there is fore-knowledge, which is undocumented), doctors rarely diagnose ADHD in adults (that kind of access is on the premium side, so many have zero idea).

I self-medicate with coffee and green tea to get that dopamine hit, and mix in novelty tricks (gamifying tasks) to keep my monkey brain engaged. But the cultural stigma? Folks just call it laziness or blame "village people" (supernatural enemies).

It's exhausting, but I've leaned into the positives—like my ability to hyperfocusing on creative work for hours.

US folks, your bureaucracy sounds brutal, but at least diagnosis is an option. Anyone else from outside the West dealing with this?

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

#193

Post by [deleted] »

bsimpson wrote: post #138

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…

[deleted]

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

#194

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

homefree wrote: post #133

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.

> a huge amount of the public was taking stimulants regularly

Anecdotally, 100mg of caffeine combined with 200mg of L-theanine makes me maybe 25% as productive as I am on 5mg of Adderall, which is actually enough for me to function most days.

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

#195

Post by nxobject »

jasonfarnon wrote: post #188
Nikolas0 wrote: post #168

My $0.02 as a response to several comments I read in this thread: I was diagnosed with ADHD in my 40s and got Concerta. My belief is that ADHD is not a disease, nor a disability (even though it acts like one very frequently) and in fact there is evidence that ADHD is an important part of our evolution as a species. The problem(s) mostly relies with the modern way of life and what is expected from the society at large…

"The problem(s) mostly relies with the modern way of life and what is expected from the society at large." I assumed not just ADHD but a number of other psychological conditions are more about reconciling some individuals to this particular society. It seems baked into a lot of their diagnostic criteria, like how well one "functions" at school or work. Surely ADHD would not be cognizable where people don't have to sp…

> Surely ADHD would not be cognizable where people don't have to spend 8hrs/day through their youth sitting in one place.

Or, for that matter, in a society where people regulated their days by cues like the sky and the body, rather than the carefully organized "rain or shine" clocked time needed by the Industrial Revolution.

(This thesis isn't mine: the historian EP Thompson wrote a classic article on how the transition from a rural to an industrial working class in Britain was accompanied with timetabling and "clock discipline".)

https://academic.oup.com/past/article-abstract/38/1/56/14546...

https://academic.oup.com/past/pages/special_issue_3

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

#196

Post by [deleted] »

bsimpson wrote: post #138

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…

[deleted]

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

#197

Post by unethical_ban »

mandevil wrote: post #185
mithametacs wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I literally did the thing you’re not supposed to do. my psych kept giving me everything by Adderall. So I went to one of those online doctors and got Adderall through her. Then I just told my psychiatrist that I have Adderall prescription and she took it over. For the record, she’s actually really reasonable and I like her but very conservative about the stimulants. Which when I finally got them were a revelation. Me…

The DEA put Adderall on its list of the most abused medication, and limits production of it and investigates doctors who prescribe too much of it. This is a response to the problems with the abuse of legal opiates a decade ago- the DEA now takes potential abuse of legal drugs much more seriously and adderall (an amphetamine- it's a cousin of meth) is at a high risk of abuse. Your psychiatrist is trying to deal with t…

You're right, and the situation is a harm to those who need adderall. Besides, adderall is not nearly as dangerous as Opiods. Whoopty-doo if it's diet Coke. This is why, even though I don't like Adderall's side effects for my ADHD and don't use it often, I keep the prescription, because fuck the government trying to squeeze pharmacists and doctors.

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

#198

Post by cmrdporcupine »

throwpoaster wrote: post #155

Canadian here. ADHD diagnosis is one of the few non-socialized parts of our medical system. Because of the abuse potential they charge a fairly steep fee (cad $3k+, with a $2k+ autism assessment addon) to even attempt diagnosis (after screening by your GP — referral required). The intake paperwork alone was perhaps 100 pages of online questionnaires that lead to interviews where they schedule counselling and evaluati…

This wasn't the experience of our family here in Ontario. Nobody but the family doctor involved.

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

#199

Post by barchar »

baby_souffle wrote: post #157
teamonkey wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me of an article I read which claimed that being diagnosed with ADHD will prevent you from being a commercial pilot. Pilots will avoid getting diagnosed and medicated because it will kill their career, even though medication may make them safer. (I suspect ADHD pilots would handle takeoff and landing very well, as well as emergencies, but oh god the checklists and schedules and that whole middle part of…

> Pilots will avoid getting diagnosed and medicated because it will kill their career, even though medication may make them safer. Yeah, it's an issue! To the best of my understanding, it's not a mark against you if you have had treatment in the past. You can't have a valid license and be taking active treatment, though.

It's not a mark against you in that you can still get a medical, but it is a HUUUGE pain in the ass, and very, very expensive.

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

#200

Post by pessimizer »

elcritch wrote: post #179
mithametacs wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I literally did the thing you’re not supposed to do. my psych kept giving me everything by Adderall. So I went to one of those online doctors and got Adderall through her. Then I just told my psychiatrist that I have Adderall prescription and she took it over. For the record, she’s actually really reasonable and I like her but very conservative about the stimulants. Which when I finally got them were a revelation. Me…

I think of this stuff when folks say “trust the science!”. It’s all trust the science until that science conflicts with some broader agenda of a federal agency or a doctor’s whims about risks to their license. Medicine really has a bad problem with groupthink. To get the best healthcare you have to both trust physicians and be critical of them. Then the DEA seems to consider stimulants as a moral failing. I’ve been o…

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