ADHD healthcare in the UK is very hard to come by. You can only get It on govt insurance (NHS) basically via something akin to a loophole (Right to Choose), and the prices of private relative to median wage and disposable income render It inaccessible for most.
To put this into context for non-brits I was diagnosed in January after around a 10 month wait after my GP referred me, and still waiting on titration, I was quoted a waiting time of 6 months, and I’ve been following up every month since through every contact form available and still no sign of when this will be okay. I work in the tech sector (software development company) as a mid-level cybersecurity engineer. My salary is in the 70th or so percentile for the UK, and paying private would easily take a quarter of my disposable income after rent and bills.
It sucks to see how people just suffer endlessly waiting. But there is a way to have your cake and eat it too and its called self-medicating. It’s not a perfect solution but we don’t live in a perfect world/system, and for me the benefits to life quality make the hassle well-worth it.
However I was banned by /r/ADHDUK when someone asked whether self-medicating was a good idea and I responded with a list of pros and cons in what at least I thought was an extremely sensitive, dispassionate and balanced manner, and the thread was locked shortly after, with the mods lock comment putting in a final word that self-medicating is “always a bad idea” - a narrative that seems not at all accurate in my view.
To my shock though this didn’t seem to be just a case of power tripping mods, but an overwhelming community consensus as well.
Coming from the trans community where self-medicating to transition is arguably almost more common than receiving genuine medical care due to various failures and malice on behalf of the government and the healthcare system in the UK, I am somewhat shocked people had such a negative view of even the idea, and that it seemed fairly common even across the ADHD space as a whole. Honestly I started self-medicating about as soon as I put the referral in, I knew I had ADHD, the diagnosis etc. is just hoops for me to jump through.
So I’m curious what is the outlook in this community? Positive? Negative? Neither? What do you think of self-medicating and why?
I want to talk about this bc instead of sleeping I’m still gripped with energy from the 10mg IR Adderall I took 20 hours ago. And I’m out of the diazepam they scripted to help. I hate my meds rn and can’t get the pro’s to try anything else with me. My low season is about to start and I’m really scared, I’m already drinking too much, started smoking cigs again. I tried two different ADHD meds since I got diagnosed Oct '23, decent results with stratera but bad, can’t tell if it’s real kinda dreams, couldn’t eat either. I really don’t like Adderall, it just feels like cocaine, going on 9 mo. I was at my best micro dosing mushrooms during the year I waited for my diagnosis. I dialed in to .017-.020 mcg as my sweet spot. Over .021 made me spacey, which wasn’t a bad day, just less balanced.
We have to talk about self-medicating as a community bc people end up drinking, smoking, over-doing psych’s, self harm. We need to be real, and ready to have harm reduction conversations with people that can’t or don’t get a diagnosis. We need to be able to educate and help each other when there is no physician to consult OR you have a lazy-ass NP that only spends 5 min to figure out what refills to send. It’s going to be another 6 weeks before I have a chance to get referred to another NP and I don’t know what my options are. OR you lost your fucking letter and the providers make you start the process over, which is what my partner is dealing with. I’m in the US and our insurance costs 1k/mo for this FUCKIN BULLSHIT
feeling sassy might delete, good luck out there
P.s. all the trans people in my life diy, and they all found mentoring communities to learn from, some on 4-chan. Why can’t neurodivergent people get together and share strategies, instead of walking through life feeling like a piece of shit bc you can’t hold down a job or socialize sober. Those are symptoms, and those of us that went through the diagnostic process are LUCKY to be able to talk about it and help bring others in to reduce the harm of their coping mechanisms. This isn’t reddit, you want a heavily modded space, head on back. I want real stories, from real lives, warts and all.
Sorry, I’m so tired and I can’t stop worrying about 14 things and my heart rate won’t drop below 80, and this prudish anti whatever attitude is irking
I would get a second opinion if you can afford it. Newer doctors usually want to try non stimulant ADHD meds before jumping right to Adderall and Ritalin.
Boi howdy Ima tryin! People should also know Adderall to get up and Valium (Diazepam) to go down will increase your tolerance and dependency on both! I think these two are specifically contraindicated for that reason