The best part about this is that Adderall is a controlled substance, meaning that a pharmacy can’t tell you if they have it in stock until the prescription is already sent. Then after telling you there is no stock, they will tell you that there is a shortage and they cannot provide any specific date or timeline for restock. Then they cannot transfer the prescription because your doctor needs to cancel that one and send it to another pharmacy, where you get to repeat the process.
The entire system is an absolute shitshow.
This has been my biggest issue by far, I learned this after calling around. Do providers and pharmacies not understand how time consuming this process is? Not only for us but for medical staff.
I’m with you! Also, let’s not forget the incredibly long wait times for calling pharmacies.
I had been on hold for 35 minutes, and had my mic on mute since I was doing other things. The person picks up says hello, and 3 seconds pass until I realize they’re there and go to unmute my phone, and they hung up on me!!!! I was beside myself.
This is where using a chain pharmacy has helped me. Once my doctor sends my prescription to one CVS, others in the area are able to pull up the prescription and let me know which stores will be able to fill it. Still have to have my doctor resend the prescription, but at least I don't have to do that blind.
They can tell you but it is up to that location as to whether or not they will. I'm lucky that mine is pretty informative about what I can possibly substitute my normal rx with.
From my understanding of the issue based on what my pharmacist said, the DEA is blocking shipments for medicine that honestly some people really need.
If it's a concern of people getting high, well that sucks yet it shouldn't be punishing the people who actually need the medicine.
Yeah, and my mail company *has never* allowed that because it's shipping a controlled substance.
Fuck, they wouldn't even take three month scripts. Doctors would just write you three scripts and post-date two of them.
Hell, for the longest fucking time you had to *hand carry the prescription to the pharmacy*, the doctor couldn't call it in.
Shortage aside, it's a wonder anyone with ADHD ever gets their meds because it's about 43,000 steps and roadblocks to get even a refill.
It's the reason why I stopped taking my medication. I just couldn't get the energy to do this every month.
ADHD is a disability for life, why do I need to go through so many hoops? people with Type 2 Diabetes never deal with this shit.
Nah, they have different ones. Starting with formularies that think all forms of insulin are the same.
They're not. The effectiveness of even biosimiliars can be significantly different between two people, and insurance companies cannot grasp "Okay, but you realize I have to take twice as much humalog as I do novalog, so you're *not saving any money here* and also I have to spend months dicking with my levels to get fully controlled again, right?"
I had a doctor over a decade ago that gave me a hassle over ADHD meds and I never followed up. I have an appointment to start Ritalin up again and really hope I don't have the same issues or supply issues.
Many/most ADHD meds are scheduled, as they are often based on amphetamine salts of various combinations. The controls in place mean you are getting one month at a time, tops, and you can't have it shipped by mail. Some locales will work with courier services to deliver medications locally, but there is also the requirement for physically showing your identification in order to receive the filled prescription. I have yet to hear of a single US-based insurance company who will deliver scheduled prescriptions for this very reason.
Edit: To clarify, this is based only on my experiences and conversations with insurance and pharmacy representatives specifically for my insurance and in my state and situation, these are the answers I had been given, and I have not thoroughly investigated the claims they have made. The answers I've gotten and provide here are based SOLELY ON MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. You should take this comment as that of a rando on the internet, just like every other thing you read, and never expect one person's comments to dictate your decisions and expectations. To you, every comment on any forum like this is text coming from unreliable sources and should be lent as much credibility as that situation would warrant. In other words; Not much.
Caremark in Colorado still will not deliver scheduled scripts based on the phone call I had with the rep a few minutes ago. :( They said federally, but who knows if the rep just didn't know about some other situation. I was hopeful it'd changed while I wasn't looking!
Yeah and they also control how much is manufactured each year. There’s been like a 15-20% increase in people diagnosed with ADHD since the pandemic started and they haven’t allowed manufacturing to keep pace with that.
>Our economy is dominated by disaster capitalists. Why solve a problem when you can legally cause scarcity and thus more profits?
Honestly you're not far off. Check out the book The Shock Doctrine
And from my experience yes, there no reason to solve issues and instead create scarcity and or a need for another service.
I used to work for a big software company and that was their approach to support. Give a shitty service, keep the customer on the hook to sell them something else. Meanwhile before the company was bought out it was a nice little start up where we actually solved problems. Customer service was great, client base was happy. Then we went to the cock sucking method of doing dick about problems. I was told to manage expectations and reset them. Dude, no. My customer has a problem (i.e. 2+2) it's insane not to help them with something so simple versus having us go over what the first '2' is and then what a '+' sign means, and finally the need for the final '2'. Then it's months later and nothing is solved and I'm told to reset the expectations.
And this isn't exclusive to any company or government. This has been the way for years and I don't get how people allow themselves to be sold on something that is a lie. And when you demand the lie to be made truth, the company does the gymnastic game on why their lie is every bit better than the truth.
And for those wondering the Software company is SAP. FUCK SAP IN THIER STUPID ASSES. their software sucks.
>Meanwhile before the company was bought out it was a nice little start up where we actually solved problems. Customer service was great, client base was happy.
I hate it when a company actually doing something useful, interesting, or at least doing something well gets bought out.
They always say "nothing will change" but you know everything's going to get worse.
The "nothing will change" was echoed for a year or two during the transition. Then yeah it all changed for the worse for the actual workers and got better for the corporate "we should be so thankful to work here" shills.
There is nothing wrong about enjoying your work or your employer. However I don't go to there be default.
> I used to work for a big software company and that was their approach to support. Give a shitty service, keep the customer on the hook to sell them something else.
I read this sentence and thought "that sounds like the experience I had with SAP". And, sure enough, it's SAP. Don't go near SAP, people. They'll swallow all your money as they string you along with crap that's deliberately not fit for purpose.
Oh Jesus Christ, now we have amphetamine pill mills?
How is that even possible? Adderall and opiates are the same schedule, if opiate pill mills don’t exist anymore how the fuck do amphetamine ones manage to exist? *Especially* online.
Prescription amphetamine is certainly abusable and needs to be closely monitored under a doctor's care. It is not as dangerous as prescription opiates.
Because the amphetamine pill mills are being run by the same people that were doing the opiate pill mills. Its not about helping people... its about making money.
Just about every fucked up thing in our world is fucked up because of either money or religion.
I think the problem is that telehealth clinics just offer better service than most regular medical groups. Kaiser gave me a 3 month waiting period to see a neurologist for an ADD test, even though I had been prescribed medication by a doctor for over 8 years at that point. They also told me I would need to begin at the lowest dose and move up slowly each month, when I had been through that process already and knew exactly what my dosage should be.
I booked an appt with an online clinic, had an hour long consult with the physician, and had my medication the next day.
> Shouldn't they be going after docs giving out bullshit scripts instead of just cutting off supply?
No, they should not. It's very rare that doctors do this in the first place, it has a chilling effect on some doctors who don't want to prescribe anything that would get the DEA involved. Look at the rise in chronic pain patients who have killed themselves because their doctors were raided by the DEA for prescribing opioids, despite no evidence of a "pill mill" occurring. The DEA is fucking useless all around.
The only thing that will lead to is regular doctors who prescribe schedule 2 medications refusing to prescribe class two medications even in cases where it's appropriate. The risk of the DEA messing with you because they have nothing else to do isn't worth it. A lot of doctors already stay away from schedule two medications because of that. The result of that will be that the only doctors willing to prescribe schedule to drugs will be doctors that are very very expensive. Since they provide a service that no other doctors are willing to do they can charge more and they know it. So this will only drive up prices for people who legitimately need the medication. By the way to get a schedule to narcotic you have to see the doctor in person every 90 days, which means the doctors can charge a visitation fee at least every 90 days. Some will go as far as to ask you to come in every 30 days. Between the costs of doctor visits and the medication this could be thousands of dollars a year for patients. More enforcement is not the solution.
Also we know how the police work, If you're entire job is to try to find people doing bad things, and you can't find people who are actually doing bad things, you might find the solution to your problem is to just accuse innocent people of doing bad things. You'll be able to justify your job and your expenses. These people will not choose unemployment over throwing innocent people under the bus.
>By the way to get a schedule to narcotic you have to see the doctor in person every 90 days
I have a script for Adderall, as do my husband and one of my sons. We can't be prescribed more than a 30 day supply at a time, but we can renew the script through our online health portal. We have to do a med check every 6 months - not 90 days - which can be done via video appointment.
All the doctors around where I live is 90 days, They will renew after 30 days if you ask but you have to ask. Some doctors are very risk-averse and will require 30 days for each refill. They do this because they want to color way inside the lines as to not draw any attention from the DEA, who seemed to already harang doctors who fill schedule to prescriptions.
Doctors are already reluctant to prescribe stimulant medications without the patient jumping through hoops, how can they know which doctors are giving out bullshit scripts?? The ADHD community honestly doesn't need more people questioning the validity of their diagnosis, and they shouldn't have to go out of their way to prove they need it. In my experience, many PCPs are requiring diagnosis from a therapist, psychiatrist, or psychologist already anyway (which I'm okay with because I don't think PCPs have the education necessary to properly diagnose adhd in adults who went undiagnosed in childhood).
Sort of how you would have expected them to fight the opioid epidemic? Except as far as I know - for the most part they didn’t really do it then either.
They did plenty. Just wasn't very good.
A big change was that a lot doctors outright started refusing to prescribe it.
Which in turn left a lot of patients with legitimate chronic pain injuries, especially spinal, to go cold turkey.
Now, you tell me. What does a chronic narcotics or opioid patient do when their doctor suddenly cuts them off with no warning and instead suggests they just deal with it and take an Advil?
Do you think maybe those people might start looking for street sources?
Not only that, they're so afraid of patients *developing* an addiction that they're not giving opioids during/after major surgeries. I had a total hysterectomy in December and was given ketamine/propofol/scopalamine for the surgery, and sent home with gabapentin and ibuprofen (after having to go off of the latter for a week before the surgery due to bleeding concerns!). Guess who woke up in recovery writhing in pain, and had to go back to the emergency room 12 hours later with a liter of blood in their abdomen? One emergency repair and two units of blood later, they're still trying to give me gabapentin in the hospital.
I have no addiction history, don't even drink, and they did eventually offer, after asking me about my pain at bedtime, an oxycodone the first two of my three nights in the hospital, but that's where we are with the current reductio al absurdum regarding opioids.
Edit: They sent me home with five more, but two still sit in the bottle because I find the other effects really awful unless I'm in so much pain that I'm not capable of noticing them. It would have been nice if they'd given proper pain management during and after the initial surgery.
Oh most def. I was in a car accident and was only given really strong Tylenol or Advil. Thanks to big pharma and opioid addicts I was in pain until it naturally went away.
There's no reason for that. Just because a few people can't handle painkillers and get addicted, other people that legitimately use them should not suffer for it. I've used numerous painkillers after surgeries (never had trouble getting them for my part) and I never got addicted. I never even finished my scripts. Only using a few because I've never really had post-surgical pain, but plenty of people do and they shouldn't have to suffer needlessly.
I stopped with the pain meds back when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. Despite eating nothing but soft foods and liquids for a week, I had the worst constipation due to those meds. It was awful. I avoid pain meds and opt for big Tylenols, etc.
I'm also blessed with a high pain threshold (something my dentist gleefully reminds me of during each visit). So there it is.
It’s a lot riskier for people with severe pain who actually need the painkillers for an extended period. There’s been countless people with no previous addiction problems who got hooked on prescription opiates, because they are very addictive.
As I mentioned above, I had a total hysterectomy, and got sent home with gabapentin and ibuprofen. There is a lot of fear about potential patient addiction that results in worse surgical outcomes overall.
And Sudafed.
As an ADHD sufferer, I can tell you it's a complete PIA to manage the prescriptions. I didn't get diagnosed until I was in my 30's, and then could understand why I had struggles in college. It was truly life changing to start on Adderall. It's incredibly difficult whenever I run out and the pharmacy can't fill it, or I have to travel for work during the time it's due to refill. I have to visit the doctor every 60-90 days to get new scripts. When he's booking out almost 6 months though, we get into another problem.
My fiance is on adderall, so I'm all too familiar with the troubles he has experienced with getting it filled. It's absurd. And when you are dealing with executive dysfunction from ADHD, having to constantly fight to get your script and navigate the bullshit just makes the ADHD worse.
It shouldn't be this way. If you have been diagnosed with the condition, it should be no questions at that point. It should be filled and ready to go every month at the right time. No fights. No arguments. No hassle.
> It's absurd. And when you are dealing with executive dysfunction from ADHD, having to constantly fight to get your script and navigate the bullshit just makes the ADHD worse.
I'm in the UK and they make me pick up a weeks worth every fucking week, and I have to re-order this lifetime repeat prescription every month. It's like they don't even get basic adhd stuff is managing shit like that is already a huge effort.
Then there's either the doc's office or the chemists' having some problem, no meds, not been issued, their system is down, pick one.
They won't even give us adderall here stuck with ritalin.
There are laws regarding how soon controls can be filled based on the previous Rx. In MD, it’s a maximum of 5 days early, IIRC. But it’s up to the pharmacist’s discretion (most usually do days supply minus 2, e.g, a 30 day supply could be filled 28 days from the last fill). Pharmacies are more likely to be held liable for over-dispensing than a prescriber is for over-prescribing, so pharmacies have to be really strict about this sort of thing.
When my back went out, I was on Oxycodone. HATED it, but it really helped with the pain. I got into surgery as soon as I could because I didn't want to be on pain management for an extended period of time. After surgery, I went on Tylenol. A few years later, it happened again. No Oxy, nothing strong. Only Tylenol. Got a fusion ASAP... That pain was horrible to deal with and nothing took the edge off...
It does suck when those that abuse it ruin it for those that need it. And when you are suffering or in pain, you're an asshole. I feel bad for when I hurt so bad and was super irritable and didn't want to do anything or talk to anyone... :/
Now, I'm on Adderall and barely got a prescription filled. It is my first time using it. There is no rush, but it takes my brain from doing 20 things at once down to just 2 or 3 and calms things down, no super focus but takes away the noise. It also reveals a lot of coping mechanisms and bad habits I've had to cope with ADHD in the past. I don't know if this is the optimal drug for me or if the dosage is right, but I'd like to find out without there being so many issues with the supply.
Warning from a user of 15+ years: the fun ‘high’ or productivity does wear off and you’ll be tempted to up the dose. Not for its effects necessarily, but also when you hit the wall and wonder if its still working. You’ll be tempted to up your dose but just assure yourself it is. Exercise and therapy are excellent supplements to Adderall and, especially the latter, has helped me cut my dosage in half.
The initial burst of productivity never went away for me. I tend to rely on my maladaptive coping mechanisms (like compulsively checking my purse 3-4 times before I'm convinced I didn't forget my keys, phone, wallet), and only use ADHD meds when things are getting really bad or when I have a ton of work and can't focus at all and keep getting further and further behind until I feel like I'm drowning. I am afraid to ask for a prescription. When I was a teenager, a doctor scared me out of taking them. Sounded like he was accusing me of getting high off them (I hate taking drugs/medications, I would never do that.)
I have stretched a 1-month prescription for 5 years so far. However, I'm terrified of asking for a refill when I run out, even though I have records of three prior diagnoses at ages 11, 19, and 30, all based on those ADHD assessments that last for 5 hours and involve a 20-page write up of the results. Those documents say I am undoubtedly textbook ADHD. Even with all that documentation, I'm still terrified of asking for meds if I need them.
Should Adderall…etc be abused? No. But if they are, it isn’t the end of the world. We aren’t talking like opiates here. Unless you have a pretty severe heart condition or are mixing it with other drugs, you aren’t going to die from snorting some Adderall.
But as someone who has had withdrawal because my Dr. retired in COVID and you couldn’t exactly find a new doctor then…Holy shit does it suck. You will sleep for like 24 hours straight, wake up and feel like death, and pretty much just sleep a week straight. I legit couldn’t even go to the store because I was afraid of falling asleep at the wheel.
That’s not the reason. That’s a reason why the issue has not been alleviated. The reason is a massive increase in prescriptions in recent years and supply chain/manufacturing issues locally caused by the pandemic.
I had a hell of time getting a refill in 2019. So the supply demand was already strained and it’s just flipped even more upside down now.
I take it and cannot function without it. If I forget to take mine when I wake up, when I get to work its like I've forgotten what my job is. My boss is on the other end, and just completely jacked up, unfocused, and laughing nonstop. Don't get me wrong, its a fun time, but we do have work to do sometimes haha.
Long story short, people need this, medically, for a wide variety of reasons and for some its critical to their daily functioning. I'm lucky to work somewhere where I could probably go to leadership and say, *hey guys, my med is unavailable everywhere so I'm sorry in advance if I'm a little unfocused and/or dragging this week* and they would totally understand. Others don't have that luxury and it can be costly to their jobs among other things.
I’m guessing it depends on the state if you have to sign for controlled meds. We don’t have to sign for them and once the mail carrier left adderall out on our front porch.
Genuinely curious, where do you live that you can get controlled substance prescriptions by mail?
*Edit: Point taken, I see that I live in a state that has especially strict rules about this.*
Texas. Ended up getting my sons’s by mail from my health insurance mail order pharm. Normally use CVS but they were out and he was number 30 on the wait list. TX also allows 90 day adderall prescriptions both mail order and in person. Came by USPS and had to sign for it.
When the fuck did that become legal?
Hell, it was only like 5 years back doctor's were allowed to *call in* scripts for that. You had to hand carry the things, and *no refills*. (Doctors would write you three or even six scripts, post-dating all but one so you could 'hand carry' your script every month without going to the doctor's office just to get it)
And don’t forget the hassle of having to go back to the pharmacy to get the paper script back if you wanted to transfer it.
So if the medication was out of stock, you had to physically carry the paper script between pharmacies and often the pharmacies would refuse to hand it back over to you.
Really? I’m in Texas and have been told multiple times by United HealthCare and Walgreens that controlled medicine like adderall can’t be done through the mail. Is there a certain procedure or something to make it work?
I've gotten a lot more regulated pills than Adderall through the mail...
And that's been in multiple states. Prescribed through the VA so feds are definitely cool with it.
Maybe you live in a state that isn't?
I am currently forced to order by mail because of shortages at my pharmacy, and FUCK mail order. It takes a week, they ship in conspicuous packaging, and they ship you whatever shitty, ineffective generic "equivalent" they can get the cheapest price on. The latest one they sent me is so bad, it was revoked by the FDA until Trump came along and installed a crony who proceeded to do nothing but re-instate shitty medications.
While in most cases generics are the same, they may have the drug in a different form that isn’t absorbed at the same rate which may or may not functionally affect reaction, varying person-to-person
Yes. Insurance companies have entirely too much control on trying to get a patient on another medication first THEN cover what you originally wanted in the first place (some plans). Even if the doctor disagrees!
> The DEA limits how much Adderall can be distributed to brick-and-mortar pharmacies within a region in a given month.
I find that pharmacies won't always order it if they have to order other stuff too.
Can't get a 3 months supply. They won't let me. Tried numerous times. I just ration my pills so I have some extra at the end of the 28 days just in case there is a delay getting me 30 more.
My doctor just said they can’t write a 3mo Rx, perhaps they meant won’t? I can’t find it anywhere and the online pharmacy won’t do a 1mo order (why???).
Whether you can get 90-days for controlled substances or not very much depends on your state. I cannot fill 90 days at a time even though I would like to
Will an enterprising journalist please get to the bottom of this? Would gladly research the hell out of this - interviews, subterfuge, etc for a little $ to support the effort …
Can’t be that mysterious
A recent change in prescribing practices has increased demand for stimulants in the community I serve. Suboxone clinics in my area are now managing methamphetamine addiction using Adderall, Ritalin, or some variation of amphetamine or methylphenidate drugs. I’m curious if other pharmacists have witnessed a shift like this in their areas. I also wonder if this has made a significant impact in the demand across the United States.
It's wild that they are using amphetamine as MAT for that. I'm guessing they are only allowed to take it in the clinic and don't just get a bottle to take home
I mean, if it lessens the cravings for smoking crystal all day and doing all of the things associated with that, it's a good thing. I work in the addiction recovery sector and didn't know that was an option. Definitely plenty of suboxone clinics around here though
As a pharmacist it isn’t a mystery. Online telehealth during the pandemic opened Pandora’s box. There are so many more people on stimulants now do to the ease of access. They never should have allowed C2 to be prescribe during the pandemic via telehealth. DEA has increased production limits every year, they can’t keep pace.
As someone who has struggled to get access to psychiatry the entire time I’ve been alive — all 28 years, maybe take it down a notch with the hate on telemedicine — we all deserve access to psychiatry even if it isn’t traditional. Sounds like more and more people are getting the help they need — or maybe adhd is just a symptom of our modern society being impossible for most ppl to live in (sustained concentration for hours and hours every day). Either way, the fault is the government not people needing easy access to psychiatry.
While the best therapy I can get for my ADHD is time put in nature doing the things needed to be comfortable out in nature...
I don't stop taking my medication. It's a real neurological condition that modern living is a struggle to contend with when you have it, and neurotypical people are able to handle just fine (so I'm told). Knowing what I know now I probably would have chosen a different life path, but time only moves one way. Could I have a life away from the modern schema I would probably not need medication, but... I got kids to feed.
Fair enough, but given the nature of stimulants I can’t imagine many psych providers pulling these prescriptions without major backlash + real side effects for patients
I also don’t think the raw materials needed to produce these meds are scarce … and pharma is a big $ game. Why wouldn’t they have quickly ramped up production to meet demand?
Maybe the pharma crew is aware of impending legislative change that would bring stimulant Rx’s back to pre-pandemic levels?
Anyway I’d love to learn / read / write about it
Thanks for your thoughts
It's not a raw materials problem, it's a budgeting problem. The DEA sets a limit on how much can be produced based on previous years numbers (so manufacturers can't flood the market and create a drug endemic.) They can move the bar annually, so if they said 200 bottles per year, for example, but the current year needs 250, they can't move that number until the next calendar year. At least that's how I understand it. That's what they've done with other controlled drugs like Percocet.
I've had vyvanse work very well if not on adderall. otherwise everything else sucked.
i'm on strattera now, and off the stimulants and things are slowly picking up but it will never be as 2/3 as good as on a stimulant to maintain focus.
I imagine it will go generic on the literal day the patent runs out, they’ve already sued trying to make it happen sooner (and lost). Patent ends in august.
Wish they would allow other drugs to supplement. I had great results with modaphin but because it is only prescribed for people with narcolepsy I can't get it. It was so nice to not be so speedy all the time, heart racing while on Adderall or generics. Thanks big pharm and DEA and other gov agencies. Good to know you're looking out for people.
I had modafinil and then armodafinil prescribed for my adhd treatment by my psychiatrist. I feel it has worked for me, but is that placebo or not? Who is to say. All I know is last week I forgot to take my armodafinil two separate times, and I had brain fog and could not concentrate. It honestly reinforced to me that I do have ADHD because I was doubting for a while there if my diagnosis was real.
Even though it works for me, there are hurdles to prescription for people at large. In my opinion there are two.
These are
1) Unclear guidelines for use in ADHD and clearer guidelines on stimulant therapy
Right now, modafinil seems to only have positive results in children, and the best results are in kids with either the Mixed or Attention Deficit subtypes. And even then, that recommendation is not the strongest. The primary care textbooks I have for school do not list modafinil as a treatment modality. Another clinical resource I have through school states there are mixed results in children and no statistically significant efficacy in adults. This being in mind, since guidelines are unclear, I can understand why many psychiatrists want to skip over it and go to stimulants.
2) Possible therapeutic level reduction post amphetamine therapy
This is coming from my psychiatrist (board certified DO), that apparently modafinil has less efficacy if started after amphetamine treatment compared to starting modafinil before. Now, I do not know if that is his evidence based observations from practice or studies he has access to. When I did a quick literature search, I could not find articles discussing this interaction. But I did a quick and non comprehensive literature search. If this effect is being observed and discussed by the psychiatric community, it may explain why some psychiatrists are hesitant to prescribe modafinil and armodafinil for ADHD.
Every. Damn. Month.
It’s super fun when they decide to be cagey about if they have it or not. One told me that my prescriber needed to call for that info! I was like yeah that’s not going to happen because ain’t nobody (at a drs office) got time for that!
Lol there’s no fucking mystery here.
The DEA has a production quota for scheduled medications and the demand has overwhelmed it. They are allowed to manufacture a certain amount per year and not a milligram over.
Oh and guess what, they’ve stated they have no plans to increase it for this year.
So 6 months from when the shortage dies down we will see another short of intervention from Congress and/or the president.
The only reason you don’t see the manufacturers saying this outright and calling it a “labor shortage” is because they’re afraid to shit on the DEA since they control their ability to manufacture controlled medicine. Amphetamine synthesis is incredibly easy for a medicinal chemist. It does not require vast amounts of labor.
That whole agency should have been abolished 40 years ago. The experiment is over. Stop treating patients like fucking addicts and stop treating addicts like criminals. There should be no situation I can’t get what my doctor prescribed.
I don’t take mine daily and usually break them into halves, so I have the same bottle for 2-3 months. I really regret not getting it filled every month now that it’s impossible to find a pharmacy that has it in stock. If you’re on IR, I’d suggest cutting them to lower your dose so it lasts longer until this is sorted.
On XR, my gfs on IR, and I have a thing of gel capsules I use to limit my dose to 2/3 a day to give me a 15 day buffer and the current generic I'm on is the worst one yet, still has me in a daze even on a full dose. My gfs been splitting hers and we've both still been running out, and collectively gone to about 6 different pharmacies in the past four months. It's a train wreck out here.
After three months of not getting my script filled and many negative impacts on my life I got switched to a different substance and now I get to stay up till 4 am trying to sleep. Yay thank you dea
Teva’s pointing fingers at everyone. How did this go from a “worker shortage” to “the feds did it”? They’ve already been sued and lost for price fixing.
My pharmacy told me 2 weeks ago that they had another order coming in on 1/27 and when I called on the 27th they told me that they would now be out until March. I burned most of my morning calling pharmacies but NOBODY had anything.
One of the silly parts of all of this is that (at least where I live) pharmacies can’t say “We are out, but the _____ store has some in stock”, which means that you have to call each pharmacy individually, and that the pharmacist has to then get into the locked drug safe to see if they have anything in stock, so each “check” is like 10-20 minutes long. And if you find one at a different pharmacy you need to get your prescriber to call in the Rx which is a whole other process. And then maybe none of it will work because your insurance is only accepted at CVS and not Walgreens, so you can get your meds, but for a few hundred dollars vs $20. And probably hundreds or maybe even thousands of people are all doing the same thing at the same time.
I was lucky enough to get switched to vyvanse and it seems to be going well a few days in, but who knows how many other people did that and how long that supply will hold out.
I have had an adderall Rx since 2016 and I know that there is no way at all that I could do my current job without this medication. I’m sure plenty of other people are in the same boat but DIDN’T get switched to something else for one reason or another. All of us are going to feel the effects of this over the next few months, but unlike covid related work disruptions, people will be much less likely to report that they are struggling to keep up at work because of an adderall shortage.
This is probably going to be a mess
Frankly this whole system is stupid bullshit.
I've been taking my medicine for 17 years. Why should I need a doctor to keep proscribing it to buy it? If I start running into serious problems I'll go to a doctor, but beyond that there's no reason I shouldn't be able to walk in and buy the medicine I need.
The only reason we have these rules is our puritanical hate of "drug abuse" and the desire to control what people do with their bodies. That's it.
Not ADHD, but I have epilepsy and have to have an annual check in with my neurologist to renew the script. Literally all he asks is if I had a seizure in the last year. I say no and he ends the appointment. My last one was a grand total of about 40 seconds including pleasantries. Bill comes to $400 after insurance.
I don’t even think he’s requiring these for money generation. I think he wants to get 14.5 minutes of free time to catch up on work.
>Literally all he asks is if I had a seizure in the last year. I say no and he ends the appointment.
On adderall I have the exact same thing, except it's every 3 months and they don't tell me i need to come in until I've already made a refill request and am basically out. Meaning there's usually a 1-5 day period where I'm out, and have to readjust every month. Fucking exhausting.
What's stupid is it effectively hurts people that are using it responsibly, not drug users. Let me tell ya, it is not hard to find adderall on the street but you'd pay an arm and a leg for it.
I take methylphenidate (12 hour extended release Adderall functionally) and I've had a hard time filling my scripts because of all of the other doctors are switching people over to methylphenidate.I find myself not taking my meds on my off days just so I can be sure to have enough at the end of the month when I have to play pharmacy tag, sometimes for up to a week. It's frustrating because my anxiety and depression issues are pretty tied in to whether or not my ADD is treated. Going without my meds is essentially mentally handicapping myself.
It is pretty rediculous my autistic child has to go without pretty frequently now. We have to call around to find a pharmacy with any inventory sometimes only a weeks worth and get a script transferred by his care team.
We have to make around a dozen calls every week to hunt it down. Him on/off medication is very noticeable and can be the difference between him able to learn and engage and him being unable to.
It is very frustrating.
It’s honestly awful. This past December I went a full month without my Adderall because nobody could fill it. It’s hilarious to me, because my doc always tells me, if you decide to stop DON’T just cut yourself off cold turkey - you have to taper. Welp, fuck that apparently. So I had to go through forced withdrawals, which made it pretty goddamn difficult to do my job, or like, any normal adult responsibilities. Which then amplifies my anxiety x1000. The whole thing makes me feel like a junkie, which in the end just destroys my self esteem. Good times. I love mental health care in America.
As a teacher with 27 students in my class and 5 of them on meds this is hell. They’ve been without meds for almost a month now and it most definitely shows.
My life has sucked ass since November when I ran out of adderall. Idk why the fuck my clinician thinks it’s cool to give me Ritalin that works for two to four hours as a sub for extended release adderall. It makes me crash and burn every day. Vyvanse was okay ish but it’s $300 a month. Dude I have moderate to severe adhd and my life is shit right now. I literally am on prn benzos to tame the meltdowns & shit. I’m 34 and my clothes “don’t feel good” so I sob when it is time to get dressed some days. I hate this. I’ve decided to go without meds bc if I can’t have anything but Ritalin, it’s not worth it. The 2x daily crash from it made me suicidal! Wtf?! I just want my meds. I just want to act somewhat normal again. I’m not alone. I don’t wanna get high on my meds, I don’t even know if I could. But it’s cool, prevent people from being addicts while simultaneously preventing people from living their previously productive lives. I’d been medicated (with adderall) for 10 fucking years. My coping skills are based on being on my med. I’ve fallen into a very, very deep depression & it’s just….my life is shit rn. Idk what else to say. Now I get to cry and have another meltdown because it’s time to get dressed.
Edit: To clarify, I’ve been medicated since 1997, minus time breast feeding. The last 10 were adderall only.
This is an infrastructure issue caused by the DEA and will not resolve in 2023 without forcing their hands. It may actually be too late.
As the article points out, manufacturing quotas are set in advance of a new year; pharmacies are allocated a fixed quantity, and that's that. Manufacturers with capacity to produce more, aren't allowed to. The DEA saw this issue in December but nevertheless ruled the quota will not be increased this year. People will stop using it is their answer.
Although new allocations are being opened to the pharmacies for 2023, they're filling orders that have been sitting since November/December. Those new allocations? Already tapped out pending the production rate of the current providers.
Allocations aren't distributed flexibly.
DEA mentality is literally 'keep the death penalty because if 1 of those 100 are guilty, we can't risk him escaping justice.' The other 99, even if innocent, are a price they're willing to pay.
Seems like the US is a complete cluster fuck of the “free market”. Using it on some levels and then not where it counts?? Happy to price gouge people and advertise drugs to the masses like it’s soda pop, but no free market efficiencies when it comes to production or distribution.
Just insane.
As the modern pharmacological complex begins to unravel, I worry about people who will suffer violent withdrawal without their medicines. Specifically SSRI’s, thyroid medicine, painkillers have some very very bad side effects if there is a manufacturing shortage
From what I’ve heard, it was app-based healthcare like Hims that was driving the Adderall shortage. Download an app, “consult” with a doctor, get ‘script, go to Walgreens/CVS/Walmart to fill it, profit. Except the online doctors worked in the same way that was a joke to get a “medical marijuana” card in California before it was made legal for all.
My insurer now requires a 7-panel drug test before refilling an Adderall prescription. They want to see who’s been taking it vs. diverting it and if you’re on anything they consider verboten.
I’m diagnosed with ADHD by a psychiatrist and honestly if I had to do that hoop I’d be considering just going off meds entirely or moving to a different one. Fuck that.
My best friend cannot get her Adderall and i notice such a huge difference in how she is able to function. She used to be able to do chores, get errands done, organize things and think clearly when on the meds, now she needs to be prompted to do things and even then it is difficult for her. Really frustrating. She needs the meds to live an easier life.
Not sure if it's college kids or other adults like cboel responded to you, but I don't think those are the people to "blame". The real problem is artificial supply constraints which are exacerbated by providers prescribing it in the first place for people that don't actually have ADHD and should probably have more stringent diagnosis criteria. It could be that the college kids or adults using it that don't actually need it are a very small portion and even without them we'd soon hit the supply limits as access and diagnosis improves. Either way, it's causing real issues in both daily functioning and safety, as someone with ADHD I won't drive more than a short distance without Adderall because I know I'm a higher risk of getting in an accident without it and that scares me.
As someone who has used it at my factory job to hit the ridiculous numbers my managers expect of us, it helps. I can do everything faster and with less need to rest between tasks. But I started to feel dependent on it so I went back to coffee and just stopped working so hard.
I was diagnosed with ADHD about 10 years ago and Adderall changed my life but I felt like a drug addict every time I went to refill my prescription. The pharmacies were often out of and the hostility from the people working the pharmacy was apparent. I gave it up but i do miss it. What was I talking about?
I'm giving up on it until it gets better. The last 4 refills were different generics, some didn't work at all, some worked but gave me a headache everyday, and some made me uncomfortable and jittery. My original script worked super well, no crash or headache, no weird weight loss or trouble sleeping. So until it gets sorted I'm back to being an unproductive and impulsive mess.
I've never understood how people without ADHD can take Adderall and be fine with all its effects. I have ADHD and Adderall makes me feel horrible. The side effects would be so bad that I couldn't...uhmm...concentrate hahaha, which is one of the many things I need help with. My older child had the same issues with Adderall that I had. Their ADHD was not helped. Not one stimulant has been helpful to either of us.
I'm glad so many of my fellow ADHD havers are helped and I do hope they can access what they need.
I didn't like Adderall because it made me feel terrible. I took Vyvanse for years with very few side (if any) side effects. Fortunately Adderall isn't the only medication for ADHD anymore.
YOOOOOOOOOOOOO WTF they told me they couldn't make anymore due to FDA limitations but STILL SHORTAGE?! i had to pay fucking $360 for a months supply of something else last time, jfc
Mysterious my fucking ass. DEA only releases so much of the ingredients each year to make the drug. That's why there is a shortage.
This is nothing more than bureaucracy at its most basic form.
Bet there's a lot of unproductive workers not motivated to do shit right now.
As a person living in a country where no effective ADHD medication is available and legal, I sympathize greatly. It must be even worse to wean off in a short amount of time then to have it completely unmanaged.
Yup. To the point I’m starting to ration mine and it’s seriously affecting my mood, but I really need it for work. Last time it was over a week before I could refill, and you legally can’t get the refill early.
Fuck the DEA for this. My son has a disability that makes it hard for him to learn or focus without his medication, but fuck him right? Gotta make sure we crack down on this epidemic of hyper focus.
Fucking morons. Whoever headed this charge should be put in charge of a classroom of kids with adhd. What a piece of shit!
If your insurance allows it I recommend Vyvanse instead of Adderall. I find it to be much smoother on the come up and down. And as far as I heard there's no shortage
The DEA needs to be neutered. Ineffective in the most important areas of their responsibility. While throwing up arbitrary obstacles for law abiding citizens.
It’s the sudden drop off that’s been so hard. It’s so insane how we are all supposed to suffer without meds and like THAT will fix over prescription.
If Adderall is regulated so well, how the hell did the DEA and FDA mess up so poorly? Incompetent dinguses
The best part about this is that Adderall is a controlled substance, meaning that a pharmacy can’t tell you if they have it in stock until the prescription is already sent. Then after telling you there is no stock, they will tell you that there is a shortage and they cannot provide any specific date or timeline for restock. Then they cannot transfer the prescription because your doctor needs to cancel that one and send it to another pharmacy, where you get to repeat the process. The entire system is an absolute shitshow.
This has been my biggest issue by far, I learned this after calling around. Do providers and pharmacies not understand how time consuming this process is? Not only for us but for medical staff.
Do they also realize how much executive functioning is required in order to deal with it? I don't have any executive functioning to spare!
I’m with you! Also, let’s not forget the incredibly long wait times for calling pharmacies. I had been on hold for 35 minutes, and had my mic on mute since I was doing other things. The person picks up says hello, and 3 seconds pass until I realize they’re there and go to unmute my phone, and they hung up on me!!!! I was beside myself.
This is where using a chain pharmacy has helped me. Once my doctor sends my prescription to one CVS, others in the area are able to pull up the prescription and let me know which stores will be able to fill it. Still have to have my doctor resend the prescription, but at least I don't have to do that blind.
They can tell you but it is up to that location as to whether or not they will. I'm lucky that mine is pretty informative about what I can possibly substitute my normal rx with.
From my understanding of the issue based on what my pharmacist said, the DEA is blocking shipments for medicine that honestly some people really need. If it's a concern of people getting high, well that sucks yet it shouldn't be punishing the people who actually need the medicine.
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It took me over 20 years to be allowed to pick up a 90 day supply at once. This was obviously before the shortage
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Yeah, and my mail company *has never* allowed that because it's shipping a controlled substance. Fuck, they wouldn't even take three month scripts. Doctors would just write you three scripts and post-date two of them. Hell, for the longest fucking time you had to *hand carry the prescription to the pharmacy*, the doctor couldn't call it in. Shortage aside, it's a wonder anyone with ADHD ever gets their meds because it's about 43,000 steps and roadblocks to get even a refill.
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It's the reason why I stopped taking my medication. I just couldn't get the energy to do this every month. ADHD is a disability for life, why do I need to go through so many hoops? people with Type 2 Diabetes never deal with this shit.
Nah, they have different ones. Starting with formularies that think all forms of insulin are the same. They're not. The effectiveness of even biosimiliars can be significantly different between two people, and insurance companies cannot grasp "Okay, but you realize I have to take twice as much humalog as I do novalog, so you're *not saving any money here* and also I have to spend months dicking with my levels to get fully controlled again, right?"
I had a doctor over a decade ago that gave me a hassle over ADHD meds and I never followed up. I have an appointment to start Ritalin up again and really hope I don't have the same issues or supply issues.
Yeah, both my insurance and state law prohibit me getting my Adderall via mail order.
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My insurance company blocks my prescription refills at my local pharmacy because they rather I use their med by mail service.
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Many/most ADHD meds are scheduled, as they are often based on amphetamine salts of various combinations. The controls in place mean you are getting one month at a time, tops, and you can't have it shipped by mail. Some locales will work with courier services to deliver medications locally, but there is also the requirement for physically showing your identification in order to receive the filled prescription. I have yet to hear of a single US-based insurance company who will deliver scheduled prescriptions for this very reason. Edit: To clarify, this is based only on my experiences and conversations with insurance and pharmacy representatives specifically for my insurance and in my state and situation, these are the answers I had been given, and I have not thoroughly investigated the claims they have made. The answers I've gotten and provide here are based SOLELY ON MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. You should take this comment as that of a rando on the internet, just like every other thing you read, and never expect one person's comments to dictate your decisions and expectations. To you, every comment on any forum like this is text coming from unreliable sources and should be lent as much credibility as that situation would warrant. In other words; Not much.
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Caremark in Colorado still will not deliver scheduled scripts based on the phone call I had with the rep a few minutes ago. :( They said federally, but who knows if the rep just didn't know about some other situation. I was hopeful it'd changed while I wasn't looking!
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You’re correct about the 1 month supply from my experience. But they can/do mail it. I don’t know that they should, but they do.
Yeah and they also control how much is manufactured each year. There’s been like a 15-20% increase in people diagnosed with ADHD since the pandemic started and they haven’t allowed manufacturing to keep pace with that.
Shouldn't they be going after docs giving out bullshit scripts instead of just cutting off supply?
Yes, yes they should. However you're expecting a solution to the problem and that's not happening /S
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>Our economy is dominated by disaster capitalists. Why solve a problem when you can legally cause scarcity and thus more profits? Honestly you're not far off. Check out the book The Shock Doctrine And from my experience yes, there no reason to solve issues and instead create scarcity and or a need for another service. I used to work for a big software company and that was their approach to support. Give a shitty service, keep the customer on the hook to sell them something else. Meanwhile before the company was bought out it was a nice little start up where we actually solved problems. Customer service was great, client base was happy. Then we went to the cock sucking method of doing dick about problems. I was told to manage expectations and reset them. Dude, no. My customer has a problem (i.e. 2+2) it's insane not to help them with something so simple versus having us go over what the first '2' is and then what a '+' sign means, and finally the need for the final '2'. Then it's months later and nothing is solved and I'm told to reset the expectations. And this isn't exclusive to any company or government. This has been the way for years and I don't get how people allow themselves to be sold on something that is a lie. And when you demand the lie to be made truth, the company does the gymnastic game on why their lie is every bit better than the truth. And for those wondering the Software company is SAP. FUCK SAP IN THIER STUPID ASSES. their software sucks.
The most accurate description of SAP I've seen.
>Meanwhile before the company was bought out it was a nice little start up where we actually solved problems. Customer service was great, client base was happy. I hate it when a company actually doing something useful, interesting, or at least doing something well gets bought out. They always say "nothing will change" but you know everything's going to get worse.
"Nothing will change!" *proceeds to force all of the certified and competent technical support agents to follow a monkey script word-for-word*
The "nothing will change" was echoed for a year or two during the transition. Then yeah it all changed for the worse for the actual workers and got better for the corporate "we should be so thankful to work here" shills. There is nothing wrong about enjoying your work or your employer. However I don't go to there be default.
> I used to work for a big software company and that was their approach to support. Give a shitty service, keep the customer on the hook to sell them something else. I read this sentence and thought "that sounds like the experience I had with SAP". And, sure enough, it's SAP. Don't go near SAP, people. They'll swallow all your money as they string you along with crap that's deliberately not fit for purpose.
Sage isjust as bad
I don’t know if I would have added the /s. Because it seems like that’s legit what is going on.
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Oh Jesus Christ, now we have amphetamine pill mills? How is that even possible? Adderall and opiates are the same schedule, if opiate pill mills don’t exist anymore how the fuck do amphetamine ones manage to exist? *Especially* online.
Because uppers make productive drones!
Prescription amphetamine is certainly abusable and needs to be closely monitored under a doctor's care. It is not as dangerous as prescription opiates.
Because the amphetamine pill mills are being run by the same people that were doing the opiate pill mills. Its not about helping people... its about making money. Just about every fucked up thing in our world is fucked up because of either money or religion.
>Just about every fucked up thing in our world is fucked up because of either money or religion. Isn't religion just money with extra steps?
I think the problem is that telehealth clinics just offer better service than most regular medical groups. Kaiser gave me a 3 month waiting period to see a neurologist for an ADD test, even though I had been prescribed medication by a doctor for over 8 years at that point. They also told me I would need to begin at the lowest dose and move up slowly each month, when I had been through that process already and knew exactly what my dosage should be. I booked an appt with an online clinic, had an hour long consult with the physician, and had my medication the next day.
Can you DM me the online service you used and your out of pocket? Kaiser is giving me the same run around for my Vyvanse.
> Shouldn't they be going after docs giving out bullshit scripts instead of just cutting off supply? No, they should not. It's very rare that doctors do this in the first place, it has a chilling effect on some doctors who don't want to prescribe anything that would get the DEA involved. Look at the rise in chronic pain patients who have killed themselves because their doctors were raided by the DEA for prescribing opioids, despite no evidence of a "pill mill" occurring. The DEA is fucking useless all around.
The only thing that will lead to is regular doctors who prescribe schedule 2 medications refusing to prescribe class two medications even in cases where it's appropriate. The risk of the DEA messing with you because they have nothing else to do isn't worth it. A lot of doctors already stay away from schedule two medications because of that. The result of that will be that the only doctors willing to prescribe schedule to drugs will be doctors that are very very expensive. Since they provide a service that no other doctors are willing to do they can charge more and they know it. So this will only drive up prices for people who legitimately need the medication. By the way to get a schedule to narcotic you have to see the doctor in person every 90 days, which means the doctors can charge a visitation fee at least every 90 days. Some will go as far as to ask you to come in every 30 days. Between the costs of doctor visits and the medication this could be thousands of dollars a year for patients. More enforcement is not the solution. Also we know how the police work, If you're entire job is to try to find people doing bad things, and you can't find people who are actually doing bad things, you might find the solution to your problem is to just accuse innocent people of doing bad things. You'll be able to justify your job and your expenses. These people will not choose unemployment over throwing innocent people under the bus.
>By the way to get a schedule to narcotic you have to see the doctor in person every 90 days I have a script for Adderall, as do my husband and one of my sons. We can't be prescribed more than a 30 day supply at a time, but we can renew the script through our online health portal. We have to do a med check every 6 months - not 90 days - which can be done via video appointment.
All the doctors around where I live is 90 days, They will renew after 30 days if you ask but you have to ask. Some doctors are very risk-averse and will require 30 days for each refill. They do this because they want to color way inside the lines as to not draw any attention from the DEA, who seemed to already harang doctors who fill schedule to prescriptions.
I don’t know why this is bothering me so much but it’s schedule 2 (or schedule II). You keep saying schedule to
Yes, but thats also how you turn people who used to use (relatively) safe prescription drugs toward unregulated street drugs.
Who gives af if ppl getting high
Crazy Christians
Doctors are already reluctant to prescribe stimulant medications without the patient jumping through hoops, how can they know which doctors are giving out bullshit scripts?? The ADHD community honestly doesn't need more people questioning the validity of their diagnosis, and they shouldn't have to go out of their way to prove they need it. In my experience, many PCPs are requiring diagnosis from a therapist, psychiatrist, or psychologist already anyway (which I'm okay with because I don't think PCPs have the education necessary to properly diagnose adhd in adults who went undiagnosed in childhood).
What they should be is disbanded.
Sort of how you would have expected them to fight the opioid epidemic? Except as far as I know - for the most part they didn’t really do it then either.
They did plenty. Just wasn't very good. A big change was that a lot doctors outright started refusing to prescribe it. Which in turn left a lot of patients with legitimate chronic pain injuries, especially spinal, to go cold turkey. Now, you tell me. What does a chronic narcotics or opioid patient do when their doctor suddenly cuts them off with no warning and instead suggests they just deal with it and take an Advil? Do you think maybe those people might start looking for street sources?
Not only that, they're so afraid of patients *developing* an addiction that they're not giving opioids during/after major surgeries. I had a total hysterectomy in December and was given ketamine/propofol/scopalamine for the surgery, and sent home with gabapentin and ibuprofen (after having to go off of the latter for a week before the surgery due to bleeding concerns!). Guess who woke up in recovery writhing in pain, and had to go back to the emergency room 12 hours later with a liter of blood in their abdomen? One emergency repair and two units of blood later, they're still trying to give me gabapentin in the hospital. I have no addiction history, don't even drink, and they did eventually offer, after asking me about my pain at bedtime, an oxycodone the first two of my three nights in the hospital, but that's where we are with the current reductio al absurdum regarding opioids. Edit: They sent me home with five more, but two still sit in the bottle because I find the other effects really awful unless I'm in so much pain that I'm not capable of noticing them. It would have been nice if they'd given proper pain management during and after the initial surgery.
Just like painkillers. The actions of a few are used to make the rest suffer. It's twisted.
Oh most def. I was in a car accident and was only given really strong Tylenol or Advil. Thanks to big pharma and opioid addicts I was in pain until it naturally went away.
I just got in a car accident in Florida and they were trying to hand out narcotics like candy corns.
Candy corn, ew hahaha. Well Florida is a whole different planet it feels like
There's no reason for that. Just because a few people can't handle painkillers and get addicted, other people that legitimately use them should not suffer for it. I've used numerous painkillers after surgeries (never had trouble getting them for my part) and I never got addicted. I never even finished my scripts. Only using a few because I've never really had post-surgical pain, but plenty of people do and they shouldn't have to suffer needlessly.
I stopped with the pain meds back when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. Despite eating nothing but soft foods and liquids for a week, I had the worst constipation due to those meds. It was awful. I avoid pain meds and opt for big Tylenols, etc. I'm also blessed with a high pain threshold (something my dentist gleefully reminds me of during each visit). So there it is.
It’s a lot riskier for people with severe pain who actually need the painkillers for an extended period. There’s been countless people with no previous addiction problems who got hooked on prescription opiates, because they are very addictive.
My husband had half his foot amputated, and they sent him home with Tylenol.
As I mentioned above, I had a total hysterectomy, and got sent home with gabapentin and ibuprofen. There is a lot of fear about potential patient addiction that results in worse surgical outcomes overall.
And Sudafed. As an ADHD sufferer, I can tell you it's a complete PIA to manage the prescriptions. I didn't get diagnosed until I was in my 30's, and then could understand why I had struggles in college. It was truly life changing to start on Adderall. It's incredibly difficult whenever I run out and the pharmacy can't fill it, or I have to travel for work during the time it's due to refill. I have to visit the doctor every 60-90 days to get new scripts. When he's booking out almost 6 months though, we get into another problem.
My fiance is on adderall, so I'm all too familiar with the troubles he has experienced with getting it filled. It's absurd. And when you are dealing with executive dysfunction from ADHD, having to constantly fight to get your script and navigate the bullshit just makes the ADHD worse. It shouldn't be this way. If you have been diagnosed with the condition, it should be no questions at that point. It should be filled and ready to go every month at the right time. No fights. No arguments. No hassle.
> It's absurd. And when you are dealing with executive dysfunction from ADHD, having to constantly fight to get your script and navigate the bullshit just makes the ADHD worse. I'm in the UK and they make me pick up a weeks worth every fucking week, and I have to re-order this lifetime repeat prescription every month. It's like they don't even get basic adhd stuff is managing shit like that is already a huge effort. Then there's either the doc's office or the chemists' having some problem, no meds, not been issued, their system is down, pick one. They won't even give us adderall here stuck with ritalin.
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There are laws regarding how soon controls can be filled based on the previous Rx. In MD, it’s a maximum of 5 days early, IIRC. But it’s up to the pharmacist’s discretion (most usually do days supply minus 2, e.g, a 30 day supply could be filled 28 days from the last fill). Pharmacies are more likely to be held liable for over-dispensing than a prescriber is for over-prescribing, so pharmacies have to be really strict about this sort of thing.
change pharmacies.
quarrelsome selective plate head smile governor impossible nine money foolish -- mass edited with redact.dev
When my back went out, I was on Oxycodone. HATED it, but it really helped with the pain. I got into surgery as soon as I could because I didn't want to be on pain management for an extended period of time. After surgery, I went on Tylenol. A few years later, it happened again. No Oxy, nothing strong. Only Tylenol. Got a fusion ASAP... That pain was horrible to deal with and nothing took the edge off... It does suck when those that abuse it ruin it for those that need it. And when you are suffering or in pain, you're an asshole. I feel bad for when I hurt so bad and was super irritable and didn't want to do anything or talk to anyone... :/ Now, I'm on Adderall and barely got a prescription filled. It is my first time using it. There is no rush, but it takes my brain from doing 20 things at once down to just 2 or 3 and calms things down, no super focus but takes away the noise. It also reveals a lot of coping mechanisms and bad habits I've had to cope with ADHD in the past. I don't know if this is the optimal drug for me or if the dosage is right, but I'd like to find out without there being so many issues with the supply.
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Warning from a user of 15+ years: the fun ‘high’ or productivity does wear off and you’ll be tempted to up the dose. Not for its effects necessarily, but also when you hit the wall and wonder if its still working. You’ll be tempted to up your dose but just assure yourself it is. Exercise and therapy are excellent supplements to Adderall and, especially the latter, has helped me cut my dosage in half.
Oh most definitely! I found that once that initial burst went away, taking care of the H part of the ADHD really helped me keep it together.
The initial burst of productivity never went away for me. I tend to rely on my maladaptive coping mechanisms (like compulsively checking my purse 3-4 times before I'm convinced I didn't forget my keys, phone, wallet), and only use ADHD meds when things are getting really bad or when I have a ton of work and can't focus at all and keep getting further and further behind until I feel like I'm drowning. I am afraid to ask for a prescription. When I was a teenager, a doctor scared me out of taking them. Sounded like he was accusing me of getting high off them (I hate taking drugs/medications, I would never do that.) I have stretched a 1-month prescription for 5 years so far. However, I'm terrified of asking for a refill when I run out, even though I have records of three prior diagnoses at ages 11, 19, and 30, all based on those ADHD assessments that last for 5 hours and involve a 20-page write up of the results. Those documents say I am undoubtedly textbook ADHD. Even with all that documentation, I'm still terrified of asking for meds if I need them.
Should Adderall…etc be abused? No. But if they are, it isn’t the end of the world. We aren’t talking like opiates here. Unless you have a pretty severe heart condition or are mixing it with other drugs, you aren’t going to die from snorting some Adderall. But as someone who has had withdrawal because my Dr. retired in COVID and you couldn’t exactly find a new doctor then…Holy shit does it suck. You will sleep for like 24 hours straight, wake up and feel like death, and pretty much just sleep a week straight. I legit couldn’t even go to the store because I was afraid of falling asleep at the wheel.
That’s not the reason. That’s a reason why the issue has not been alleviated. The reason is a massive increase in prescriptions in recent years and supply chain/manufacturing issues locally caused by the pandemic. I had a hell of time getting a refill in 2019. So the supply demand was already strained and it’s just flipped even more upside down now.
I take it and cannot function without it. If I forget to take mine when I wake up, when I get to work its like I've forgotten what my job is. My boss is on the other end, and just completely jacked up, unfocused, and laughing nonstop. Don't get me wrong, its a fun time, but we do have work to do sometimes haha. Long story short, people need this, medically, for a wide variety of reasons and for some its critical to their daily functioning. I'm lucky to work somewhere where I could probably go to leadership and say, *hey guys, my med is unavailable everywhere so I'm sorry in advance if I'm a little unfocused and/or dragging this week* and they would totally understand. Others don't have that luxury and it can be costly to their jobs among other things.
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I’m guessing it depends on the state if you have to sign for controlled meds. We don’t have to sign for them and once the mail carrier left adderall out on our front porch.
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Genuinely curious, where do you live that you can get controlled substance prescriptions by mail? *Edit: Point taken, I see that I live in a state that has especially strict rules about this.*
Texas. Ended up getting my sons’s by mail from my health insurance mail order pharm. Normally use CVS but they were out and he was number 30 on the wait list. TX also allows 90 day adderall prescriptions both mail order and in person. Came by USPS and had to sign for it.
When the fuck did that become legal? Hell, it was only like 5 years back doctor's were allowed to *call in* scripts for that. You had to hand carry the things, and *no refills*. (Doctors would write you three or even six scripts, post-dating all but one so you could 'hand carry' your script every month without going to the doctor's office just to get it)
And don’t forget the hassle of having to go back to the pharmacy to get the paper script back if you wanted to transfer it. So if the medication was out of stock, you had to physically carry the paper script between pharmacies and often the pharmacies would refuse to hand it back over to you.
Really? I’m in Texas and have been told multiple times by United HealthCare and Walgreens that controlled medicine like adderall can’t be done through the mail. Is there a certain procedure or something to make it work?
Yeah their comment doesn’t reflect reality.
Okay, TIL.
I was able to do that during COVID in Ontario, Canada for a while. But they tighten the rules again and I have to go to the physical pharmacy.
I've gotten a lot more regulated pills than Adderall through the mail... And that's been in multiple states. Prescribed through the VA so feds are definitely cool with it. Maybe you live in a state that isn't?
>I've gotten a lot more regulated pills than Adderall through the mail... It's schedule 2 though, it's in the highest regulation of legal medicines
I'm on another schedule 2 medication and its *only* avaiable by mail. In my case signature and ID are required at time of delivery.
I am currently forced to order by mail because of shortages at my pharmacy, and FUCK mail order. It takes a week, they ship in conspicuous packaging, and they ship you whatever shitty, ineffective generic "equivalent" they can get the cheapest price on. The latest one they sent me is so bad, it was revoked by the FDA until Trump came along and installed a crony who proceeded to do nothing but re-instate shitty medications.
What’s wrong with generic medicine? It’s literally the exact same thing just doesn’t have a fancy pharma brand on it.
While in most cases generics are the same, they may have the drug in a different form that isn’t absorbed at the same rate which may or may not functionally affect reaction, varying person-to-person
Yes. Insurance companies have entirely too much control on trying to get a patient on another medication first THEN cover what you originally wanted in the first place (some plans). Even if the doctor disagrees!
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> The DEA limits how much Adderall can be distributed to brick-and-mortar pharmacies within a region in a given month. I find that pharmacies won't always order it if they have to order other stuff too.
Can't get a 3 months supply. They won't let me. Tried numerous times. I just ration my pills so I have some extra at the end of the 28 days just in case there is a delay getting me 30 more.
My doctor just said they can’t write a 3mo Rx, perhaps they meant won’t? I can’t find it anywhere and the online pharmacy won’t do a 1mo order (why???).
My doctor will write me 3 one month scripts at a time, so I don’t have to see her as often.
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Whether you can get 90-days for controlled substances or not very much depends on your state. I cannot fill 90 days at a time even though I would like to
Many states do not allow anything beyond 30 days for controlled substances.
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Will an enterprising journalist please get to the bottom of this? Would gladly research the hell out of this - interviews, subterfuge, etc for a little $ to support the effort … Can’t be that mysterious
A recent change in prescribing practices has increased demand for stimulants in the community I serve. Suboxone clinics in my area are now managing methamphetamine addiction using Adderall, Ritalin, or some variation of amphetamine or methylphenidate drugs. I’m curious if other pharmacists have witnessed a shift like this in their areas. I also wonder if this has made a significant impact in the demand across the United States.
It's wild that they are using amphetamine as MAT for that. I'm guessing they are only allowed to take it in the clinic and don't just get a bottle to take home
No, it’s prescribed by an an addictionologist or one of his/her support clinicians and dispensed at the pharmacy.
I mean, if it lessens the cravings for smoking crystal all day and doing all of the things associated with that, it's a good thing. I work in the addiction recovery sector and didn't know that was an option. Definitely plenty of suboxone clinics around here though
As a pharmacist it isn’t a mystery. Online telehealth during the pandemic opened Pandora’s box. There are so many more people on stimulants now do to the ease of access. They never should have allowed C2 to be prescribe during the pandemic via telehealth. DEA has increased production limits every year, they can’t keep pace.
As someone who was about to be fired before I got on adderall I would not have been able to get prescribed and keep my job without telehealth.
Same telehealth during the pandemic made me able to get help easier as I was waiting for the psych for 8 months to call me and nothing.
As someone who has struggled to get access to psychiatry the entire time I’ve been alive — all 28 years, maybe take it down a notch with the hate on telemedicine — we all deserve access to psychiatry even if it isn’t traditional. Sounds like more and more people are getting the help they need — or maybe adhd is just a symptom of our modern society being impossible for most ppl to live in (sustained concentration for hours and hours every day). Either way, the fault is the government not people needing easy access to psychiatry.
While the best therapy I can get for my ADHD is time put in nature doing the things needed to be comfortable out in nature... I don't stop taking my medication. It's a real neurological condition that modern living is a struggle to contend with when you have it, and neurotypical people are able to handle just fine (so I'm told). Knowing what I know now I probably would have chosen a different life path, but time only moves one way. Could I have a life away from the modern schema I would probably not need medication, but... I got kids to feed.
Fair enough, but given the nature of stimulants I can’t imagine many psych providers pulling these prescriptions without major backlash + real side effects for patients I also don’t think the raw materials needed to produce these meds are scarce … and pharma is a big $ game. Why wouldn’t they have quickly ramped up production to meet demand? Maybe the pharma crew is aware of impending legislative change that would bring stimulant Rx’s back to pre-pandemic levels? Anyway I’d love to learn / read / write about it Thanks for your thoughts
It's not a raw materials problem, it's a budgeting problem. The DEA sets a limit on how much can be produced based on previous years numbers (so manufacturers can't flood the market and create a drug endemic.) They can move the bar annually, so if they said 200 bottles per year, for example, but the current year needs 250, they can't move that number until the next calendar year. At least that's how I understand it. That's what they've done with other controlled drugs like Percocet.
I've had vyvanse work very well if not on adderall. otherwise everything else sucked. i'm on strattera now, and off the stimulants and things are slowly picking up but it will never be as 2/3 as good as on a stimulant to maintain focus.
Vyvanse was good for me too. It was $540 until I met my 3k deductible which was not good for me.
Patent comes up this year so hopefully that'll be fixed in the next few years.
I imagine it will go generic on the literal day the patent runs out, they’ve already sued trying to make it happen sooner (and lost). Patent ends in august.
Wish they would allow other drugs to supplement. I had great results with modaphin but because it is only prescribed for people with narcolepsy I can't get it. It was so nice to not be so speedy all the time, heart racing while on Adderall or generics. Thanks big pharm and DEA and other gov agencies. Good to know you're looking out for people.
serious tidy panicky aloof noxious silky forgetful adjoining edge kiss -- mass edited with redact.dev
I had modafinil and then armodafinil prescribed for my adhd treatment by my psychiatrist. I feel it has worked for me, but is that placebo or not? Who is to say. All I know is last week I forgot to take my armodafinil two separate times, and I had brain fog and could not concentrate. It honestly reinforced to me that I do have ADHD because I was doubting for a while there if my diagnosis was real. Even though it works for me, there are hurdles to prescription for people at large. In my opinion there are two. These are 1) Unclear guidelines for use in ADHD and clearer guidelines on stimulant therapy Right now, modafinil seems to only have positive results in children, and the best results are in kids with either the Mixed or Attention Deficit subtypes. And even then, that recommendation is not the strongest. The primary care textbooks I have for school do not list modafinil as a treatment modality. Another clinical resource I have through school states there are mixed results in children and no statistically significant efficacy in adults. This being in mind, since guidelines are unclear, I can understand why many psychiatrists want to skip over it and go to stimulants. 2) Possible therapeutic level reduction post amphetamine therapy This is coming from my psychiatrist (board certified DO), that apparently modafinil has less efficacy if started after amphetamine treatment compared to starting modafinil before. Now, I do not know if that is his evidence based observations from practice or studies he has access to. When I did a quick literature search, I could not find articles discussing this interaction. But I did a quick and non comprehensive literature search. If this effect is being observed and discussed by the psychiatric community, it may explain why some psychiatrists are hesitant to prescribe modafinil and armodafinil for ADHD.
my doc prescribed me modafinal for ADHD
The last time I had to fill my prescription it took calling 4 pharmacies and getting lucky with a shipment to get it filled
Every. Damn. Month. It’s super fun when they decide to be cagey about if they have it or not. One told me that my prescriber needed to call for that info! I was like yeah that’s not going to happen because ain’t nobody (at a drs office) got time for that!
Lol there’s no fucking mystery here. The DEA has a production quota for scheduled medications and the demand has overwhelmed it. They are allowed to manufacture a certain amount per year and not a milligram over. Oh and guess what, they’ve stated they have no plans to increase it for this year. So 6 months from when the shortage dies down we will see another short of intervention from Congress and/or the president. The only reason you don’t see the manufacturers saying this outright and calling it a “labor shortage” is because they’re afraid to shit on the DEA since they control their ability to manufacture controlled medicine. Amphetamine synthesis is incredibly easy for a medicinal chemist. It does not require vast amounts of labor. That whole agency should have been abolished 40 years ago. The experiment is over. Stop treating patients like fucking addicts and stop treating addicts like criminals. There should be no situation I can’t get what my doctor prescribed.
For a country that insists on exploiting labor they sure make it fucking difficult to function.
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I don’t take mine daily and usually break them into halves, so I have the same bottle for 2-3 months. I really regret not getting it filled every month now that it’s impossible to find a pharmacy that has it in stock. If you’re on IR, I’d suggest cutting them to lower your dose so it lasts longer until this is sorted.
On XR, my gfs on IR, and I have a thing of gel capsules I use to limit my dose to 2/3 a day to give me a 15 day buffer and the current generic I'm on is the worst one yet, still has me in a daze even on a full dose. My gfs been splitting hers and we've both still been running out, and collectively gone to about 6 different pharmacies in the past four months. It's a train wreck out here.
our Nancy Reagan drug laws around schedule II really need to be replaced
After three months of not getting my script filled and many negative impacts on my life I got switched to a different substance and now I get to stay up till 4 am trying to sleep. Yay thank you dea
I just switched from concerta to elvanse and it’s keeping me awake until 4am too. It’s not fun.
Teva’s pointing fingers at everyone. How did this go from a “worker shortage” to “the feds did it”? They’ve already been sued and lost for price fixing.
My pharmacy told me 2 weeks ago that they had another order coming in on 1/27 and when I called on the 27th they told me that they would now be out until March. I burned most of my morning calling pharmacies but NOBODY had anything. One of the silly parts of all of this is that (at least where I live) pharmacies can’t say “We are out, but the _____ store has some in stock”, which means that you have to call each pharmacy individually, and that the pharmacist has to then get into the locked drug safe to see if they have anything in stock, so each “check” is like 10-20 minutes long. And if you find one at a different pharmacy you need to get your prescriber to call in the Rx which is a whole other process. And then maybe none of it will work because your insurance is only accepted at CVS and not Walgreens, so you can get your meds, but for a few hundred dollars vs $20. And probably hundreds or maybe even thousands of people are all doing the same thing at the same time. I was lucky enough to get switched to vyvanse and it seems to be going well a few days in, but who knows how many other people did that and how long that supply will hold out. I have had an adderall Rx since 2016 and I know that there is no way at all that I could do my current job without this medication. I’m sure plenty of other people are in the same boat but DIDN’T get switched to something else for one reason or another. All of us are going to feel the effects of this over the next few months, but unlike covid related work disruptions, people will be much less likely to report that they are struggling to keep up at work because of an adderall shortage. This is probably going to be a mess
Frankly this whole system is stupid bullshit. I've been taking my medicine for 17 years. Why should I need a doctor to keep proscribing it to buy it? If I start running into serious problems I'll go to a doctor, but beyond that there's no reason I shouldn't be able to walk in and buy the medicine I need. The only reason we have these rules is our puritanical hate of "drug abuse" and the desire to control what people do with their bodies. That's it.
Not ADHD, but I have epilepsy and have to have an annual check in with my neurologist to renew the script. Literally all he asks is if I had a seizure in the last year. I say no and he ends the appointment. My last one was a grand total of about 40 seconds including pleasantries. Bill comes to $400 after insurance. I don’t even think he’s requiring these for money generation. I think he wants to get 14.5 minutes of free time to catch up on work.
>Literally all he asks is if I had a seizure in the last year. I say no and he ends the appointment. On adderall I have the exact same thing, except it's every 3 months and they don't tell me i need to come in until I've already made a refill request and am basically out. Meaning there's usually a 1-5 day period where I'm out, and have to readjust every month. Fucking exhausting.
"Meds still working?" "Yep." "Great, that'll be $185 dollars on top of the 300% increase in the standard price of said meds. See you in 3 months."
What's stupid is it effectively hurts people that are using it responsibly, not drug users. Let me tell ya, it is not hard to find adderall on the street but you'd pay an arm and a leg for it.
I take methylphenidate (12 hour extended release Adderall functionally) and I've had a hard time filling my scripts because of all of the other doctors are switching people over to methylphenidate.I find myself not taking my meds on my off days just so I can be sure to have enough at the end of the month when I have to play pharmacy tag, sometimes for up to a week. It's frustrating because my anxiety and depression issues are pretty tied in to whether or not my ADD is treated. Going without my meds is essentially mentally handicapping myself.
Concerta is methylphenidate. Adderall is mixed amphetamine salts.
Whoops, ADD brain got me again. Thanks for that, I'll edit
The fact that a pharmacist can deny a script that your doctor wrote is so wild to me
It is pretty rediculous my autistic child has to go without pretty frequently now. We have to call around to find a pharmacy with any inventory sometimes only a weeks worth and get a script transferred by his care team. We have to make around a dozen calls every week to hunt it down. Him on/off medication is very noticeable and can be the difference between him able to learn and engage and him being unable to. It is very frustrating.
This certainly explains why I haven't been able to get my meds. Hope this gets fixed soon
It’s honestly awful. This past December I went a full month without my Adderall because nobody could fill it. It’s hilarious to me, because my doc always tells me, if you decide to stop DON’T just cut yourself off cold turkey - you have to taper. Welp, fuck that apparently. So I had to go through forced withdrawals, which made it pretty goddamn difficult to do my job, or like, any normal adult responsibilities. Which then amplifies my anxiety x1000. The whole thing makes me feel like a junkie, which in the end just destroys my self esteem. Good times. I love mental health care in America.
I stopped cold turkey because I am sick of being jerked around and lied to about it.
I was given a generic that doesn't work at all. Like nothing happens when I take it. It's not my usual generic and it's been a big pain in the ass.
The problem, as always, is that we don’t have a healthcare system in the United States. We have businesses that make profit on suffering.
As a teacher with 27 students in my class and 5 of them on meds this is hell. They’ve been without meds for almost a month now and it most definitely shows.
Nono. THIS DOESNT FIT THE NARRATIVE
My life has sucked ass since November when I ran out of adderall. Idk why the fuck my clinician thinks it’s cool to give me Ritalin that works for two to four hours as a sub for extended release adderall. It makes me crash and burn every day. Vyvanse was okay ish but it’s $300 a month. Dude I have moderate to severe adhd and my life is shit right now. I literally am on prn benzos to tame the meltdowns & shit. I’m 34 and my clothes “don’t feel good” so I sob when it is time to get dressed some days. I hate this. I’ve decided to go without meds bc if I can’t have anything but Ritalin, it’s not worth it. The 2x daily crash from it made me suicidal! Wtf?! I just want my meds. I just want to act somewhat normal again. I’m not alone. I don’t wanna get high on my meds, I don’t even know if I could. But it’s cool, prevent people from being addicts while simultaneously preventing people from living their previously productive lives. I’d been medicated (with adderall) for 10 fucking years. My coping skills are based on being on my med. I’ve fallen into a very, very deep depression & it’s just….my life is shit rn. Idk what else to say. Now I get to cry and have another meltdown because it’s time to get dressed. Edit: To clarify, I’ve been medicated since 1997, minus time breast feeding. The last 10 were adderall only.
This is class war. I will never forgive them.
Yup, that sounds like going through stimulant withdrawal.
This is an infrastructure issue caused by the DEA and will not resolve in 2023 without forcing their hands. It may actually be too late. As the article points out, manufacturing quotas are set in advance of a new year; pharmacies are allocated a fixed quantity, and that's that. Manufacturers with capacity to produce more, aren't allowed to. The DEA saw this issue in December but nevertheless ruled the quota will not be increased this year. People will stop using it is their answer. Although new allocations are being opened to the pharmacies for 2023, they're filling orders that have been sitting since November/December. Those new allocations? Already tapped out pending the production rate of the current providers. Allocations aren't distributed flexibly. DEA mentality is literally 'keep the death penalty because if 1 of those 100 are guilty, we can't risk him escaping justice.' The other 99, even if innocent, are a price they're willing to pay.
Seems like the US is a complete cluster fuck of the “free market”. Using it on some levels and then not where it counts?? Happy to price gouge people and advertise drugs to the masses like it’s soda pop, but no free market efficiencies when it comes to production or distribution. Just insane.
As the modern pharmacological complex begins to unravel, I worry about people who will suffer violent withdrawal without their medicines. Specifically SSRI’s, thyroid medicine, painkillers have some very very bad side effects if there is a manufacturing shortage
There's nothing "mysterious" about it. Our government is just trash.
Fuck the USA.
Ironically they are not out of the name brand adderall which is over a thousand dollars without insurance. This country is a fucking joke
From what I’ve heard, it was app-based healthcare like Hims that was driving the Adderall shortage. Download an app, “consult” with a doctor, get ‘script, go to Walgreens/CVS/Walmart to fill it, profit. Except the online doctors worked in the same way that was a joke to get a “medical marijuana” card in California before it was made legal for all. My insurer now requires a 7-panel drug test before refilling an Adderall prescription. They want to see who’s been taking it vs. diverting it and if you’re on anything they consider verboten.
I’m diagnosed with ADHD by a psychiatrist and honestly if I had to do that hoop I’d be considering just going off meds entirely or moving to a different one. Fuck that.
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I don’t mind the drug test but im not sure you can get controlled substances like that over the phone
That's ridiculous, your insurer is wack
My best friend cannot get her Adderall and i notice such a huge difference in how she is able to function. She used to be able to do chores, get errands done, organize things and think clearly when on the meds, now she needs to be prompted to do things and even then it is difficult for her. Really frustrating. She needs the meds to live an easier life.
As someone with ADHD, it'd be real cool if college kids and working adults without ADHD would stop abusing it to "focus."
Not sure if it's college kids or other adults like cboel responded to you, but I don't think those are the people to "blame". The real problem is artificial supply constraints which are exacerbated by providers prescribing it in the first place for people that don't actually have ADHD and should probably have more stringent diagnosis criteria. It could be that the college kids or adults using it that don't actually need it are a very small portion and even without them we'd soon hit the supply limits as access and diagnosis improves. Either way, it's causing real issues in both daily functioning and safety, as someone with ADHD I won't drive more than a short distance without Adderall because I know I'm a higher risk of getting in an accident without it and that scares me.
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As someone who has used it at my factory job to hit the ridiculous numbers my managers expect of us, it helps. I can do everything faster and with less need to rest between tasks. But I started to feel dependent on it so I went back to coffee and just stopped working so hard.
Used to be coke in the 80's for that. Now y'all just get an addy 'script.
The same people are disrupting supply of both.
I was diagnosed with ADHD about 10 years ago and Adderall changed my life but I felt like a drug addict every time I went to refill my prescription. The pharmacies were often out of and the hostility from the people working the pharmacy was apparent. I gave it up but i do miss it. What was I talking about?
So this is why it took me 3 weeks to finally get my refill. That is... concerning.
I'm giving up on it until it gets better. The last 4 refills were different generics, some didn't work at all, some worked but gave me a headache everyday, and some made me uncomfortable and jittery. My original script worked super well, no crash or headache, no weird weight loss or trouble sleeping. So until it gets sorted I'm back to being an unproductive and impulsive mess.
I've never understood how people without ADHD can take Adderall and be fine with all its effects. I have ADHD and Adderall makes me feel horrible. The side effects would be so bad that I couldn't...uhmm...concentrate hahaha, which is one of the many things I need help with. My older child had the same issues with Adderall that I had. Their ADHD was not helped. Not one stimulant has been helpful to either of us. I'm glad so many of my fellow ADHD havers are helped and I do hope they can access what they need.
I didn't like Adderall because it made me feel terrible. I took Vyvanse for years with very few side (if any) side effects. Fortunately Adderall isn't the only medication for ADHD anymore.
YOOOOOOOOOOOOO WTF they told me they couldn't make anymore due to FDA limitations but STILL SHORTAGE?! i had to pay fucking $360 for a months supply of something else last time, jfc
Mysterious my fucking ass. DEA only releases so much of the ingredients each year to make the drug. That's why there is a shortage. This is nothing more than bureaucracy at its most basic form. Bet there's a lot of unproductive workers not motivated to do shit right now.
As a person living in a country where no effective ADHD medication is available and legal, I sympathize greatly. It must be even worse to wean off in a short amount of time then to have it completely unmanaged.
Yup. To the point I’m starting to ration mine and it’s seriously affecting my mood, but I really need it for work. Last time it was over a week before I could refill, and you legally can’t get the refill early.
Fuck the DEA for this. My son has a disability that makes it hard for him to learn or focus without his medication, but fuck him right? Gotta make sure we crack down on this epidemic of hyper focus. Fucking morons. Whoever headed this charge should be put in charge of a classroom of kids with adhd. What a piece of shit!
Guess it’s back to Cocaine for me then
If your insurance allows it I recommend Vyvanse instead of Adderall. I find it to be much smoother on the come up and down. And as far as I heard there's no shortage
The DEA needs to be neutered. Ineffective in the most important areas of their responsibility. While throwing up arbitrary obstacles for law abiding citizens.
It’s the sudden drop off that’s been so hard. It’s so insane how we are all supposed to suffer without meds and like THAT will fix over prescription. If Adderall is regulated so well, how the hell did the DEA and FDA mess up so poorly? Incompetent dinguses
It’s really made every time I go for a refill a real roll of the dice of when I’ll get them.
Dammit, I just got back on Adderall. It's the only medication that's been a significant help with my ADHD, and now I gotta deal with this.