I won't say I have ADHD, but I am very lazy. For my entire life, I've found myself unable to just snap out of laziness and choose to stop being lazy. I don't believe that I'm selfishly lazy, because my laziness often causes obvious, preventable problems for me, and I still can't find the switch inside myself to turn it off.
I wish we could set aside the labels and say "I'm lazy and I want to buy therapy to help me deal with being lazy." Maybe there is also a reason people are not getting their need for attention satisfied in whatever way they're supposed to.
I satisfy my need for attention by being good at programming, and then talking to other programmers about programming. I notice most people (general population) don't have any particular skill worth showing off like I do. I don't know what the actionable to fix that is, though.
Instead of forcing people to fabricate various illnesses to get performance enhancing medications, just make it over the counter.
Antidepressants, over the counter.
ADHD drugs, over the counter.
Anti-anxiety drugs, over the counter.
As long as you're at least 21, you should have the right to ingest whatever you want.
I personally wouldn't recreationally take any of the above, but I think everyone has a right to make their own choices.
In America there's a billion dollar industry in convincing everyone their broken. As far as I'm concerned I'm the best me I can be and that's it.
On the point of medication though I largely agree, the current system is insanely paternalistic. Like having patients be forced to follow up with doctors about medications they’ve been on for 5 years. However society doesn’t truly want to deal with the true costs of freedom like somebody being able to easily legally acquire a lethal dose of anxiety meds.
ADHD medications don't really restore anyone to 'normal'. They're a compensatory measure ('performance enhancer') which is reserved only for some people mainly for bad reasons (the war on drugs, lack of public and accessible infrastructure for addiction treatment). They can be used to help people with certain deficits meet certain demands (typically productivity in work or school), but it's not like they counteract ADHD. They help with some aspects of the disorder (difficulty sustaining attention) and make other aspects of the disorder (difficulty being deliberate and judicious about when to switch tasks) worse.
Gating them heavily behind many appointments and preventing pharmacies from providing any refills makes stimulant medications harder to access for people who have ADHD, especially during bad times when it's relatively poorly managed, which forms a vicious cycle. (ADHDers sometimes refer to the total fees associated with missed and late appointments and other such mishaps as 'the ADHD tax', and it's not unusual for that sum to exceed what an ADHD patient actually pays in copays, especially when they're first trying to get things under control.)
Expanding public access both to stimulant medication and to addiction treatment could, imo, help more people live better lives (including both ADHD patients and people who don't have ADHD) and allow treatment of ADHD to focus more on people who actually have ADHD , and on all of the management aspects of living with ADHD (which are much harder and collectively at least as important as medication).
(At the same time, under the policies the GP described, I would continue to consult with a psychiatrist, because adjusting psychoactive medications without professional assistance is a stupid thing to do.)
Their are tons of people who really do need medication.
Their are others who shop doctors to get the meds they want.
For example, it's common for kids struggling in college to get an ADHD diagnosis so they can study for longer hours. As far as I'm concerned as long as your adult, ingest whatever you want. But I don't think being unable to study Chem for 12 hours a day is an illness.
Why stop adults from doing what they want.
No one stops you from rock climbing, even though that's also dangerous.
I have inattentive ADHD and Aspergers, and wearing part of a nicotine patch for half the day really helps with focus issues. (Any longer and I don't sleep well, though.) I also take l-tyrosine and Avmacol, and drink tea.
Since I started this regimen, my work performance went up significantly and I got a promotion to a position I'd been wanting for nearly a decade. My wife is also a bit less upset with me and I feel subjectively more able to think ahead and plan.
Do you think someone with depressive tendencies should be able to overdose?
Please look up some of the package inserts. This isn't some globuli smartie medecine you are talking about. It's only legally available because the suffering caused by social isolation is less bearable than some of the side effects.
You can be happy if you only get malnutrition from them, if you are unlucky you'll end up with chronic diseases or cancer
If we had no drug enforcement whatsoever, sure. But as long as we do benzos may be one of the most dangerous forms of substances we have short of straight up opiods.
You can absolutely go to a therapist and say exactly that. You won't be turned away. Generally therapists are more interested in helping people versus labeling people.
I am not ignorant. I understand that many, perhaps the majority, of disabilities that exist in the United States are of the “invisible“ kind.
However, the number of individuals who want to elevate their very common, and human, difficulties in life, to a “disability“ is ridiculous. If I had to diagnose most of these people, I would call them narcissists.
This may be the domain of the matchmaking industry, which basically exists to keep people feeling alienated.
That’s not to dismiss people who actually suffer from actual differences, but some of it is the same old “rebellion” in different clothing.