The truth is that lots of people manage their stimulants just fine. Across everyone I know on stimulants, 8 friends and family, none are as you describe. These are people I physically see on a regular basis. No one is addicted, high, unable to function or experiencing material personality changes. Every single one of them is taking low to moderate doses, as needed, and says their stimulants changed their life for the better, allowing them to function "normally" at work or school.
Did you ask your friends how they are doing or did you find them annoying once and decided the problem was their medication?
Hopefully their friends are supportive of them and not secretly denying the existence of their disease.
Because wow, that’d be really abhorrent of those friends.
You are talking about greedy irresponsible doctors and bad faith "patients".
These are not the same thing.
You have no clue because you have no pertinent experience.
I shared these articles in another comment, but this is what I fear is taking over the 'mental health' diagnosis situation atm:
https://unherd.com/2022/11/who-decides-if-youre-mentally-ill...
Does the educational system make age-inappropriate almost inhumane demands on children? Yes. Do many kids have attentional and behavioural issues that are not ADHD? Yes. That can be improved without medication? Yes. Should these be distinguished from true AHDH and treated differently? Yes. Should kids with ADHD try non-medical interventions first? Yes. Should kids who have clear diagnostic markers for ADHD and who respond well to stimulants be prescribed stimulants? Hell yes. Should psychiatrists try to weed out non-ADHD people looking for legal sources of speed? Hell yes. Are the fields of psychopathology and psychotherapy problematic? Somewhat. Are they "right"? Not exactly, no. Are they "wrong"? Not exactly, no. Do they relieve suffering? Sometimes, Do they create unintended consequences? Yes, more often than we'd like. Is the whole field conducted in bad faith? No! Is it a work in progress? Yes. Are there bad faith practitioners? Yes. Are there incompetent practitioners? Yes. Are there competent practitioners acting in good faith? Absolutely yes. Are there reliable signals to tell these apart? No, unfortunately, no. Is there an epidemic of performance-enhancing prescription drug abuse in the circles in which you run? Apparently so, and I've heard this elsewhere. Is there performance-enhancing prescription drug abuse in the circles in which I run? Not to my knowledge.
Life is complicated. You do no good by mashing all this stuff together and disposing of it with simplistic conclusions.
Well, it’s you versus the entire medical community. Who do you think is more likely yo be right?
Your bad experience is unfortunate but does not reflect that of most people with ADHD. It’s the only disorder which responds incredibly well to treatment by stimulants, and you’ll find that fact proven out by medical science.
Until there's a blood test or concrete psychological proof, its just simply not a disease. These articles were great reads on this phenomenon of self diagnosis:
https://unherd.com/2022/11/who-decides-if-youre-mentally-ill...
Again, you versus the entire medical community. I am saddened to see you making such strong claims from a position of such ignorance.
You're talking about self-diagnosis, and I'm talking about medical professional diagnosing the disease.
If you take a peek at those articles, you'll notice that there's a big trend in people (usually young adults/teens) self diagnosing on the internet, whether its joining a forum/reddit/discord, then going to a doctor, saying, "I HAVE X" and more often than not, they get what they want. This takes away a good chunk of credibility of the 'medical community'. You can even get "diagnosed" via telehealth services now. No need to go into an office! How many people are they turning away? Hmm.
Both from people who do this, then decide the meds just get them high, so they must get everyone high—they don’t.
And from those who see this and use it as fuel attempt to discredit the condition itself.
> writes you a legal script for speed.
ADHD meds aren’t street drugs. There’s stimulant and non-stimulant options, that work for different people.
> its laughable this qualifies you for legal meth
Desoxyn is a rare treatment option, valuable to those who really need it.
Methamphetamine may be _very_ close to other amphetamines, but the methyl group unlocks access to other parts of the brain. It’s a different drug, with different effects.
I fully agree with you that this shouldn’t be happening, but the comparisons to street drugs only work in favour of operations like the one you describe in NYC.
It’s more likely still under-diagnosed.
The pandemic threw such a big spanner in the works that so many of us started to struggle enough to notice it wasn’t normal. This put the mental health system under significant strain. More people than ever have been diagnosed.
In the US, an ill-guided rule that limits the manufactured capacity of stimulants, not by demand, but by an arbitrary number, impact people recently.
They couldn’t refill their scripts. Supply effectively ran out.
> temporarily helpful to help someone with ADHD get their life in order and make meaningful lifestyle changes in order to get the symptoms under control.
A wheelchair is temporarily helpful, so are reading glasses. They could help someone to get their life in order, and make meaningful lifestyle changes to get their symptoms under control.
Somehow I think we’d both agree even after that you wouldn’t take someone’s wheelchair or reading glasses from them?
So she switched to better amphetamines (Dextro) and side effects turned away. Leaving only the positive, expected, effects essentially.
I took a lot of amphetamines in my life. But Ritalin is the only one I can't stand myself on. It's like a neuroleptic is packaged in (I know it isn't) but it makes so thumb and cold. IMO