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?
Plenty of people in every profession are idiots, doctors included. They are no more special than mechanics or programmers.
The ‘strict vetting process’ is only a method of keeping the supply of doctors low. Literally, that isn’t conspiracy. Edit: although that is a u.s. issue specifically.
This in no way sounds like anti-vax rhetoric? Doing actual research and doing something that doesn’t affect others is literally the exact opposite of what those people stand for.
The human body is just another machine. You can learn it as easily as you can learn how to fix whatever horrible sound you engine is making. The only advantage a doctor has over a layman is more direct access to resources (both knowledge, as in easy access to research, and tools, such as blood tests), but that doesn’t exclude a random from using those resources themselves.
Firstly:Those two professions are also skilled and a lay man should not pick up. A bad mechanic causes car crashes, a bad programmer causes security issues. Maybe for minor things like weird car noises, or maybe installing a mod for a game would be fine, but comparing medication to weird car noise is not comparable.
Secondly: it takes 8 years to become a fully fledged doctor and one of the the most competitive jobs to go for, and for good reason, as it is people’s lives that are at stake. They maybe idiots in other areas, like can’t cook or bad at spelling, but they are medical professionals and it is their job to ensure your safety.
If you are going to be constantly state they are just as incompetent as the next guy you are going to need evidence. For that to be the case.
I agree that this isn’t acceptable, but I’m struggling to understand how this supports your argument? you think the doctors they pick for that “low” numbered group is just as incompetent as the people they didn’t pick? They are picking the best/more professional doctors from the lot and the rest don’t make it or try again another time.
Anti-vax see themselves as doing “Actual research” and that doctors are “idiots that don’t know what they are talking about” (or corrupt). That all they have is a “fancy bit of paper”
They don’t understand how dangerous ignoring medical advice can be because they don’t know enough about the science behind it and think their research online is sufficient to keep them informed.
Then why does it take 8 years minimum to study for it? Even if it was “horrible engine noise” kind of fix unless this would be 100% accurate of the time, it can potentially break the “car”.
If it is so easy to get into the profession then go become a doctor and save lives. Should be easy to beat those “idiots” you seem to be implying are rampant. After you’re a doctor I will put a bit more weight into your opinions. Especially the one were some doctors can be idiots.
Wow, almost made it sound if those things were easy and not important at all.
Sure, technically. In the sense that every random person has a chance to go to medical school.
Not everyone can pass medical school. Definitely not everyone should.
But unless you are 100.00% confident that not a single person would be negatively affected by self-medication instead of doctors advice (or even absence of advice) then your energy is better put to complaining that there aren’t enough doctors to meet demand rather than trying to advocate they can be substituted with sufficient Internet research.
You really have issues, my guy. Your obsession with authority is something you should get help shedding.
First and foremost, yes a layman should pick those jobs up. It’s not difficult to get the basics down and to safely work on things. Ffs sounds like you are terrified of even changing your own oil. i don’t expect people to swap out their own engines or build their own OS, but plenty of ‘advances’ knowledge can be learned in a week and be useful.
Secondly; the reason it’s competitive is because the number of doctors is artificially lowered by government intervention, not most people failing out of school or some shit. It’s also common knowledge to anyone who has ever worked in or adjacent to the medical industry that plenty of people in it are complete morons; hell there is a worryingly high number of anti-vaxxers even! Which i didn’t appreciate you comparing me to, jackass.
The lay person can have access to plenty of research materials, they just aren’t bundled in a major network, and many tools that you’d need to watch out for in self medication are cheaply available from smaller clinics.
We both “have issues” its why we are on the adhd community. But “Obsession with authority”? Hardly.
It’s a healthy respect for a profession that takes a lot of hard work and talent to get into.
All you’ve done is complain they are “stupid”, they only reject treatment due to bigotry, that an average Joe can somehow compete with 8 years of dedicated study. That universities are “degree factories” All without proof as if it is self-evident.
This isn’t healthy scepticism, it’s borderline conspiracy theory territory rooted in mistrust for the establishment. You are trying to shoot down my arguments by stating the whole system is corrupt and cannot be trusted. To me this blind mistrust mirrors the anti-vax sentiment. if you don’t want to be compared then don’t go implying that the whole medicine industry is out to get you.
There are idiots in every profession. What’s your point? That doctors would need to be idiots too? Maybe, but the difference between other professions would be overwhelmingly on the smart side of things. Also; Doctors could be idiots but that doesn’t mean they aren’t specialised in their fields. I heard it is not uncommon for a doctor to have difficulties with taxes or cooking, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to bad medical practice, because if it did, they couldn’t be doctors as they would be kicked out. Bad doctors happen, sometimes human errors/mistakes happen, but not at the rate that you can disregard any medical advice from them.
You would need a better “proof” than that if you are going to prove that most doctors opinions are not to be respected.
Basics are not enough to do advanced work. Practicing medicine is probably one off the most advanced work you can do.
Regardless if the number of doctors is artificially lowered or not; It’s still competitive. Meaning higher quality candidates are a survival pressure. So unless you got some more conspiracy theories for how a “moron” is picked over a good doctor, then there is no arguing that the majority is qualified for the position.
A lay person is not trained to research. Not taught on critical thinking skills, not trained on symptoms to look out for, heck some people don’t know how to use a computer. They shouldn’t be given the chance to hurt themselves through silly self-medication advice and shame on you for encouraging it.
Hell it is even recommended that doctors do not self-diagnose, and they certainly are not allowed to prescribe themselves class-B drugs whenever they want. No way a layman should.
If a medical professional doesn’t trust his own bias to cloud his judgment, you shouldn’t either.
“He who represents himself has a fool for a client.” this same principle applies to medicine as well.
I hope you stop self medication, and seek proper medical advice. However we both know your stubbornness won’t let you. Even if a registered doctor came in this forum to convince you it is dangerous you would ignore him. regardless of what qualifications the person convincing you has you would stick to your opinion.
This is particularly frustrating to me as from my point of view you could hurting yourself slowly, both mentally and physically, and I worry this is affecting your life in ways you can’t objectively see.
I can’t stop you from doing this to yourself, but I can ask you to stop giving this advice out to avoid other people hurting themselves.