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2 years ago
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Relatively long venty rant that isn't very important, so you can ignore it if you wish.
TLDR I'm disproportionately upset about a short delay in refilling my ADHD medication and I'm taking it a bit too personally.
Really frustrated about how my provider/pharmacy is handling the shortage on ADHD meds
They already make it difficult enough for someone with ADHD to fill their prescriptions by not allowing me to get automatic notifications when it's time for me to refill. I can set that up for my SSRIs, but not my stimulants. 🤔🤔🤔 I can't refill them earlier than 1 week before they run out. And with the shortage, even if I time my refill request on the dot, it's still not enough time to get them before I run out.
When they can't refill my meds, the only way I am notified is by a little message that shows up if I go back to the prescription section of the website, several days after asking them to fill it. And in order to do anything about it, I have to call the pharmacy (which i found out today isn't open on weekends so I have to wait till monday! 🙃)
Calling them takes me to some poor pharmacist who is sick and tired of telling people like me that they literally can't do anything because they physically don't have the meds. Not their fault and I feel bad for them, but they're not always very understanding because pfff we're just stimulant junkies who are too lazy to be useful without their fix (Strawman here obviously, some of them have been very helpful, but I will come back to that sentiment in a sec)
I'm extremely lucky that I have a workaround, in that I have a prescription for Vyvanse which is an expensive "designer drug" that I can only get with my insurance because I'm cool and have tried everything else they tried to throw at me instead. SHOCKINGLY there's no shortage of the stuff that costs the insurance companies the most money. My prescription is typically filled as the generic form of Vyvanse (Lisdextroamphetamine, identical but cheaper and with a longer, scarier name) which is affected by the shortage. All I have to do when I call the pharmacy is typically to tell them to fill the prescription as Vyvanse, and then suddenly there's no issue. But then of course it will be another several days before the order actually gets filled.
I even messaged my doctor to have my prescription changed back to Vyvanse to avoid this in the future. Which they did, for a bit, and it was dandy.
This month, though, they apparently changed it back to the generic without notifying me, and now I'm out of my Vyvanse. And can't call till monday.
All in all it's actually not that big a deal. They've been able to fill my short-release Adderall, which isn't ideal on its own, but is better than nothing. And it will most likely just be for a few days. It'll be fine.
I'm just. So tired. Of dealing with this every month, and of how little respect ADHD still gets, as a genuine disorder. They make it so hard for us to get our stimulants, but then hand them out like candy to long-covid patients, and now there isn't enough to go around anymore. They won't bother to hand out name-brand versions of drugs, even when they're out of the generic. They hardly bother to communicate with me, and expect me to keep track of everything myself, which is infamously difficult for people with ADHD.
There's always been a sentiment that ADHD folks just aren't trying hard enough. And even when that sentiment is starting to change, it's through gritted teeth. Why should we, as adults, feel entitled to the fancy meth drug just because we don't want to do stuff? Because it works. It makes it so that I can actually do stuff. People without ADHD just don't understand what it's like to live a life where not wanting to do something means your brain simply refuses to do it. People who don't get diagnosed just go through their life thinking everything is just "supposed" to be incredibly difficult, or that they're just lazy or stupid. Yeah it's not a life-saving drug, but it is extremely important to my quality of life. Yes, I'm a bit too dependent on my medication and someday I would like to change that a bit. But that's my own business. And it's not like they're jumping to offer me any alternative treatment like a life coach or whatever.
That got even more tangential than I intended, but it's been extremely frustrating and it helps to get it off my chest. I'm way more upset than I need to be, and I feel super entitled for complaining about something that I honestly have a very reasonable solution to. but I'm just so tired of not being taken seriously, and of seeing other ADHD folks not even taking themselves seriously because they don't think that they deserve to. Stuff like this just tends to make me spiral a bit. I'll be fine. I just like to externalize things.
Thanks for reading, if you did. Remember that no matter who you are or what you do, you deserve to be happy, and that if medications help you achieve that, you deserve to have a steady access to them.
TLDR I'm disproportionately upset about a short delay in refilling my ADHD medication and I'm taking it a bit too personally.
Really frustrated about how my provider/pharmacy is handling the shortage on ADHD meds
They already make it difficult enough for someone with ADHD to fill their prescriptions by not allowing me to get automatic notifications when it's time for me to refill. I can set that up for my SSRIs, but not my stimulants. 🤔🤔🤔 I can't refill them earlier than 1 week before they run out. And with the shortage, even if I time my refill request on the dot, it's still not enough time to get them before I run out.
When they can't refill my meds, the only way I am notified is by a little message that shows up if I go back to the prescription section of the website, several days after asking them to fill it. And in order to do anything about it, I have to call the pharmacy (which i found out today isn't open on weekends so I have to wait till monday! 🙃)
Calling them takes me to some poor pharmacist who is sick and tired of telling people like me that they literally can't do anything because they physically don't have the meds. Not their fault and I feel bad for them, but they're not always very understanding because pfff we're just stimulant junkies who are too lazy to be useful without their fix (Strawman here obviously, some of them have been very helpful, but I will come back to that sentiment in a sec)
I'm extremely lucky that I have a workaround, in that I have a prescription for Vyvanse which is an expensive "designer drug" that I can only get with my insurance because I'm cool and have tried everything else they tried to throw at me instead. SHOCKINGLY there's no shortage of the stuff that costs the insurance companies the most money. My prescription is typically filled as the generic form of Vyvanse (Lisdextroamphetamine, identical but cheaper and with a longer, scarier name) which is affected by the shortage. All I have to do when I call the pharmacy is typically to tell them to fill the prescription as Vyvanse, and then suddenly there's no issue. But then of course it will be another several days before the order actually gets filled.
I even messaged my doctor to have my prescription changed back to Vyvanse to avoid this in the future. Which they did, for a bit, and it was dandy.
This month, though, they apparently changed it back to the generic without notifying me, and now I'm out of my Vyvanse. And can't call till monday.
All in all it's actually not that big a deal. They've been able to fill my short-release Adderall, which isn't ideal on its own, but is better than nothing. And it will most likely just be for a few days. It'll be fine.
I'm just. So tired. Of dealing with this every month, and of how little respect ADHD still gets, as a genuine disorder. They make it so hard for us to get our stimulants, but then hand them out like candy to long-covid patients, and now there isn't enough to go around anymore. They won't bother to hand out name-brand versions of drugs, even when they're out of the generic. They hardly bother to communicate with me, and expect me to keep track of everything myself, which is infamously difficult for people with ADHD.
There's always been a sentiment that ADHD folks just aren't trying hard enough. And even when that sentiment is starting to change, it's through gritted teeth. Why should we, as adults, feel entitled to the fancy meth drug just because we don't want to do stuff? Because it works. It makes it so that I can actually do stuff. People without ADHD just don't understand what it's like to live a life where not wanting to do something means your brain simply refuses to do it. People who don't get diagnosed just go through their life thinking everything is just "supposed" to be incredibly difficult, or that they're just lazy or stupid. Yeah it's not a life-saving drug, but it is extremely important to my quality of life. Yes, I'm a bit too dependent on my medication and someday I would like to change that a bit. But that's my own business. And it's not like they're jumping to offer me any alternative treatment like a life coach or whatever.
That got even more tangential than I intended, but it's been extremely frustrating and it helps to get it off my chest. I'm way more upset than I need to be, and I feel super entitled for complaining about something that I honestly have a very reasonable solution to. but I'm just so tired of not being taken seriously, and of seeing other ADHD folks not even taking themselves seriously because they don't think that they deserve to. Stuff like this just tends to make me spiral a bit. I'll be fine. I just like to externalize things.
Thanks for reading, if you did. Remember that no matter who you are or what you do, you deserve to be happy, and that if medications help you achieve that, you deserve to have a steady access to them.
I live with someone who's on Vyvanse and what you've said here about the ADHD very much lines up with what he's had to say as well. He was meant to be on it years ago and only just got onto it late last year, after waiting about 2 years for a video call appointment just for a doctor to check a "yes" box when he'd already been on them when he was younger.
I hope come monday you get some answers to this, it's not cool to switch someones meds on them; especially if it's of the brain altering nature like such. :|
You're 100% valid and justified in everything spoken/written here, future doctors & pharmacists will probably have better understanding and care for ADHD where it'll be addressed far more promptly and taken more seriously than current ones...here's hoping that's sooner than later.
Pharmacies particularly strict on stimulants because they're a popular street drug and they don't want people selling their extra pills. They take longer to fill than other prescriptions because my doctor actually has to give the pharmacy permission every single time. And it really is basically just having her check off a little box. It's so bureaucratic.
I'm glad your housemate was able to get it! Hopefully they don't have to pay full price for it because Vyvanse is expensive.
Honestly I'm not expecting to get any answers, other than "there's a national shortage" when I call on monday. I suspect it was my provider/insurance who saw I was on the fancy meds and switched me back to the generic stuff without even considering pharmaceutical availability; they probably do it all the time because normally it won't make a difference to the patient. Normally I couldn't care less, but when my prescription is listed as something the pharmacy doesn't have, they're just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and can't substitute it with name-brand without me calling them to tell them it's what my prescription is meant to be