You miss two of the biggest points of formal diagnosis. Legal rights to accommodation (IEP, workplace) and getting insurance/healthcare money. If an autistic person can’t hold down a job or even live independently only really being diagnosed offically will get them the support they need. I’ve had to ask for accommodation to have noise cancelling headphones in a certain workspace where I was unable to really focus and having my demands backed by legislation and a diagnosis made it much easier to demand that.

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.

The two of you sound like you're being dismissive of mental illnesses that cause immense suffering and are accusing people of just seeking attention or performance enhancing drugs. That's pretty fucked up.

I have ADHD and mostly agree with GP's proposal.

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.)

I'm not trying to be dismissive.

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.

Nicotine is a very effective ADHD med, and it's available over the counter. (No, I don't mean in tobacco.)

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.

I don't even know how to respond to this.

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

Ok sure but the notion that you are the best you you can be is also originating in America too

I'm pretty libertarian on most political charts, but offering benzos to people OTC seems like one of the last things I'd be trying to legalize.

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.