Comment by dlnovell | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dlnovell | Hacker News Reader

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I would say do NOT ask your doctor. I walked straight into an urgent care clinic and had a physician I had never had before. I said "I have a hard time focusing during class and doing homework, I think I'm ADD. Can I have some adderol?". That was it. He wrote me a prescription with refills for a year. Doctors are WAY too happy to write prescriptions and would rather do that then help you figure out the underlying cause of your health issues.

Adderol(and some of the other drugs) were a nightmare for me. I was uber-productive on them, but I'll never use any of that crap again. I'd rather be less effective than use amphetamines.

I've considered using nootropics (sp?), but I think getting good sleep and finding a motivational visualization to focus on before getting to work is pretty effective.

That's the exception more than the rule.

And frankly, what you say happened is illegal in America. Adderall is a schedule 2 controlled substance, which means no refills at all, much less for a year.

edit: I can't reply below so I'll do it here. Agreed -- there's a scary underside to this story and its that at most universities (especially the top-tier), its much too easy to walk in and get a prescription. Also, at both universities I've attended it was known that you could buy it in certain areas in the library.

Well, this was about 7 years ago so perhaps my memory failed me on the details.

All I know is it is _way_ too easy to get a prescription for adderol (and any prescription for that matter), and my experience is _not_ an exception at all. When I was in college I never knew anyone who went to the doctor to try to get a prescription that was turned down or required to take any sort of test.

I have to disagree here. I can't think of any incidents where anyone I know has gone to a doctor and requested a specific drug and not had it prescribed. All the doctor visit accomplished was to make it more expensive.

We'd probably be better off if the prescription requirement was removed from the vast majority of drugs and the advertising was restricted instead.

An old roommate of mine is a psychiatrist and he claims that 60% of his job is denying drug requests.

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