Addiction and ADHD are both areas in which The Center for Effective Living specializes, so when the two converge, it’s of special interest to us. As the school year has been winding down, there’s been a significant spike in news coverage of non-ADHD students abusing ADHD medications to asset with focus while studying for finals. Although there has been a great deal of coverage of this drug abuse issue and the resulting risk of addiction, very little has been said about how this trend affects actual ADHD sufferers. This essay from one student managing ADHD with medication offers some insight into how the abuse of ADHD drugs is complicating the diagnosis and treatment process for young people who are actually struggling with ADHD symptoms.
Please read this excerpt and click through to the full text using the link below, and if you’re in the Cleveland area and you recognize either the plight of the ADHD sufferer or think you or someone you know might be abusing ADHD drugs, give us a call.
During the final week of classes last semester I went to an off campus pharmacy to refill my prescription for Vyvanse, as the Schiffert Health Center does not dispense Vyvanse or any medication like it. Upon reading my prescription the pharmacist made a joke about how it must be close finals time because they’ve seen an increase in requests for similar medications.
I was taken aback; not only should pharmacists refrain from making any unnecessary comments toward patients about their medicine, but I was surprised that a person who had studied medicine would reduce my neurodevelopmental disorder to a simple joke.
Any other sufferers of ADHD would no doubt agree with the classification, but unfortunately because of the rampant abuse of the medicinal treatment and quick, often wrong diagnosis given to young children a stigma toward ADHD has developed.
Not only do those of us with ADHD often get ridiculed and told to “try harder,” many people refuse to believe that such a disorder exists, and that kids just need to “buckle down” and “focus.”