9 ms·

> The idea of performance enhancing drugs making their way into the workplace arena scares me a lot. You say that as if it hasn't already happened, Adderall ha

> The idea of performance enhancing drugs making their way into the workplace arena scares me a lot. You say that as if it hasn't already happened, Adderall has been ubiquitous for years. At my last office job we had an intern from out of state miss work abruptly because she couldn't get her Adderall prescription filled, and, I shit you not, skipped work to fly to Nevada to fill her out of state 'script because CA pharmacies wouldn't. She claimed she couldn't get any work done without it, from what I saw she couldn't get any work done either way, but the Adderall sure helped her focus on her phone for hours on end.

hpoe 6y ago
This is one thing that terrifies me about moving away from my Dr. if I were to move across the country and suddenly couldn't get my medicine I know I would quickly become a wreck for a week or so well I dealt with all of the comedowns.
- hated 6y ago
  .
  - klodolph 6y ago
    > I realize in some cases it isn't possible, but those cases are few and far between. Really? Do you have any basis for saying this? For many people, going without meds is like going without glasses--you may be able to walk around without your glasses, but you're not functioning the way you want to.
  - stickfigure 6y ago
    You seem to be prescribing a medical plan based off of less than two lines of text. That seems, at best, irresponsible.
  - tekdude 6y ago
    Be careful about providing pharmaceutical advice over the internet. There may be some prescribed medications that people can safely self-ween from, but stopping psychiatric drugs should only be done with close medical guidance. There have been many documented cases of people stopping too quickly with dire results. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-challenge-of-going-off-psychiatric-drugs https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-challenge-...
- why_only_15 6y ago
  trans people experience this a lot. It's a big reason why i decided not to get hormones from a doctor and instead order them online.
  - sterlind 6y ago
    I felt this during the big injectable estrogen shortage of 2019. Ended up begging an ex for some of their vial because I couldn't get my Rx filled anywhere.
    - why_only_15 6y ago
      Woah I had never heard about that, could you say more?
      - sterlind 6y ago
        I had the timeline wrong, it was 2016-17 apparently (years have been a blur for me.) There was (is?) a duopoly of manufacturers for estradiol valerate: Par and Perrigo. [0] Perrigo stopped manufacturing, only disclosing issues with "shortages of an inactive component" to the FDA and refusing further comment. Par said their supplier for the API pulled out, and had to rework their supply chain. I eventually managed to track down a trans-run compounding pharmacy that had apparently stockpiled the stuff (so grateful to my community!) but it was a rough time and I'm glad my ex came through for me. Detransitioning is harrowing, I speak from experience. 0. http://www.ridgepoliticalreviews.com/all-articles/no-country-for-trans-women-persistent-shortages-of-injectable-estrogen-in-the-united-states http://www.ridgepoliticalreviews.com/all-articles/no-country...
notduncansmith 6y ago
Yeah, meth will do that to you. I was diagnosed with inattentive-type ADHD, and while I definitely felt the “high” from Adderall (and was convinced I was more productive) it was hard to say I actually was. I did find it easier to stay up later than I should; but that loan always comes with interest, the drugs just give you a bigger line of credit. Ditto other stimulants. The only stimulant I still use is caffeine, and I would like to use that one less. For non-chemical coping, I find day-before and morning-of planning to help immensely with my ADHD symptoms. I do wish I had gotten non-medication help sooner in life, but even in my late twenties, still better late than never.
- emteycz 6y ago
  I use stimulants to cope with my ADHD. The problem is that without it my mind - a bright one - goes absolutely blank. It actively refuses to cooperate unless what I want to do is extremely interesting. Without the stimulants I feel like a train cart being taken to a different direction by the rail tracks, pushed or pulled against its will by the train. I was unable to go clean my teeth, eat, or clean my flat; and I didn't do anything fun too (except for porn and weed). I was a mindless drone for most of my life. Stimulants have put myself in the foreground, and made me actually me.
  - notduncansmith 6y ago
    Most of your post resonates with me. Can you clarify what you mean by “actually me”?
    - emteycz 6y ago
      A long time ago while high on weed I noticed that my mind is actually two very disparate parts: My "autopilot" and myself. I can control the autopilot, but it can also control me, especially by promoting desires for porn, weed, sugar, videogames etc; this quickly becomes impossible to ignore, and then the autopilot takes over completely. Since then I noticed that this wasn't a creation of the drug, it's there all the time, I just never thought about it, and thought it's always just myself (mostly because I really did hate school, that wasn't just an urge). My whole life was a fight between myself who wanted to make cool software, do my school work and be physically active, and the urges of my autopilot - and the autopilot mostly won, except for a few extremely stimulating cases. Now I can control myself, and the person other people see and interact with is me, not my autopilot; and it's me enabling the autopilot when I need it, not the autopilot enabling intelligence when it needs it.
sillysaurusx 6y ago
I've been on adderall since I was 17. I'm 32 now. Almost more of my life has been spent on it than off it. I've been productive in a variety of ways. Some examples are listed on my patreon: https://www.patreon.com/shawwn https://www.patreon.com/shawwn but I feel silly bragging about comparatively minor accomplishments in ML. But I know for a fact that without adderall, I wouldn't have done a damn thing. I've tried for a few months. Shrugged and went back. Her flying to Nevada is completely understandable. CA pharmacies are some of the worst in terms of this medicine. I've experienced it firsthand. Is it so hard to believe that I'd probably be a potsmoker working at a grocery store if I hadn't had adderall? Not that there's anything wrong with potsmoking nor working at a grocery store, but it's not ML. I advise empathy. Try. And I wish I could put it more eloquently why it's worthwhile. Her missing work for a few ays is equal to a coworker getting sick for a few days. Your reaction is why so many keep their lives private. I myself have gone from Missouri to IL to fill a script. A few hours' drive is nothing. Fun road trip. Most recently, a person (who wasn't me) found themselves in CA unable to fill their script because their doctor wasn't licensed in CA. They literally just tell you "Sorry, can't do it." What are you supposed to do? It's easy to say "Well, just deal with it." And we do. Let me cast a sleeping spell on you and see how well you do. You're getting verryyy sleeeppyy... you'll have a rough week.
- ArnoVW 6y ago
  This sums up perfectly the issue with mental health problems. Burn-out. Depression. ADHD. Being 'old'. You cut slack for someone with a broken leg or a blind cane. But unless you've been there yourself, you don't understand what's going on in the head of someone else. So the natural thing to do is to decide "they're slacking".
  - djeiasbsbo 6y ago
    Exactly. I think one of the problems is that "invisible" handicaps do not invoke an emotional response. In fact it is even worse because e.g. irrational behaviour of a mentally ill person often invokes a negative response. This results in stigmatisation, which is inherently counter productive. A general mindset change is needed to address this on a larger scale. Specifically, in education there should be much more of a focus on ethics than there is now. This is hard because it can be in contrast to "profit-focused" education where e.g. the main goal of studying a field is to get a well paying job at a big company. But of course there are many factors there such as how a university is funded and can keep running. Sadly, it doesn't look like the general population is ready for these discussions because as a human race, we cannot even get over more known/discussed problems such as racism.
zapdrive 6y ago
Must be a "diversity hire".

hpoe 6y ago

This is one thing that terrifies me about moving away from my Dr. if I were to move across the country and suddenly couldn't get my medicine I know I would quickly become a wreck for a week or so well I dealt with all of the comedowns.

hated 6y ago
.
- klodolph 6y ago
  > I realize in some cases it isn't possible, but those cases are few and far between. Really? Do you have any basis for saying this? For many people, going without meds is like going without glasses--you may be able to walk around without your glasses, but you're not functioning the way you want to.
- stickfigure 6y ago
  You seem to be prescribing a medical plan based off of less than two lines of text. That seems, at best, irresponsible.
- tekdude 6y ago
  Be careful about providing pharmaceutical advice over the internet. There may be some prescribed medications that people can safely self-ween from, but stopping psychiatric drugs should only be done with close medical guidance. There have been many documented cases of people stopping too quickly with dire results. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-challenge-of-going-off-psychiatric-drugs https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-challenge-...
why_only_15 6y ago
trans people experience this a lot. It's a big reason why i decided not to get hormones from a doctor and instead order them online.
- sterlind 6y ago
  I felt this during the big injectable estrogen shortage of 2019. Ended up begging an ex for some of their vial because I couldn't get my Rx filled anywhere.
  - why_only_15 6y ago
    Woah I had never heard about that, could you say more?
    - sterlind 6y ago
      I had the timeline wrong, it was 2016-17 apparently (years have been a blur for me.) There was (is?) a duopoly of manufacturers for estradiol valerate: Par and Perrigo. [0] Perrigo stopped manufacturing, only disclosing issues with "shortages of an inactive component" to the FDA and refusing further comment. Par said their supplier for the API pulled out, and had to rework their supply chain. I eventually managed to track down a trans-run compounding pharmacy that had apparently stockpiled the stuff (so grateful to my community!) but it was a rough time and I'm glad my ex came through for me. Detransitioning is harrowing, I speak from experience. 0. http://www.ridgepoliticalreviews.com/all-articles/no-country-for-trans-women-persistent-shortages-of-injectable-estrogen-in-the-united-states http://www.ridgepoliticalreviews.com/all-articles/no-country...

notduncansmith 6y ago

Yeah, meth will do that to you. I was diagnosed with inattentive-type ADHD, and while I definitely felt the “high” from Adderall (and was convinced I was more productive) it was hard to say I actually was. I did find it easier to stay up later than I should; but that loan always comes with interest, the drugs just give you a bigger line of credit. Ditto other stimulants. The only stimulant I still use is caffeine, and I would like to use that one less. For non-chemical coping, I find day-before and morning-of planning to help immensely with my ADHD symptoms. I do wish I had gotten non-medication help sooner in life, but even in my late twenties, still better late than never.

emteycz 6y ago
I use stimulants to cope with my ADHD. The problem is that without it my mind - a bright one - goes absolutely blank. It actively refuses to cooperate unless what I want to do is extremely interesting. Without the stimulants I feel like a train cart being taken to a different direction by the rail tracks, pushed or pulled against its will by the train. I was unable to go clean my teeth, eat, or clean my flat; and I didn't do anything fun too (except for porn and weed). I was a mindless drone for most of my life. Stimulants have put myself in the foreground, and made me actually me.
- notduncansmith 6y ago
  Most of your post resonates with me. Can you clarify what you mean by “actually me”?
  - emteycz 6y ago
    A long time ago while high on weed I noticed that my mind is actually two very disparate parts: My "autopilot" and myself. I can control the autopilot, but it can also control me, especially by promoting desires for porn, weed, sugar, videogames etc; this quickly becomes impossible to ignore, and then the autopilot takes over completely. Since then I noticed that this wasn't a creation of the drug, it's there all the time, I just never thought about it, and thought it's always just myself (mostly because I really did hate school, that wasn't just an urge). My whole life was a fight between myself who wanted to make cool software, do my school work and be physically active, and the urges of my autopilot - and the autopilot mostly won, except for a few extremely stimulating cases. Now I can control myself, and the person other people see and interact with is me, not my autopilot; and it's me enabling the autopilot when I need it, not the autopilot enabling intelligence when it needs it.

sillysaurusx 6y ago

I've been on adderall since I was 17. I'm 32 now. Almost more of my life has been spent on it than off it. I've been productive in a variety of ways. Some examples are listed on my patreon: https://www.patreon.com/shawwn https://www.patreon.com/shawwn but I feel silly bragging about comparatively minor accomplishments in ML. But I know for a fact that without adderall, I wouldn't have done a damn thing. I've tried for a few months. Shrugged and went back. Her flying to Nevada is completely understandable. CA pharmacies are some of the worst in terms of this medicine. I've experienced it firsthand. Is it so hard to believe that I'd probably be a potsmoker working at a grocery store if I hadn't had adderall? Not that there's anything wrong with potsmoking nor working at a grocery store, but it's not ML. I advise empathy. Try. And I wish I could put it more eloquently why it's worthwhile. Her missing work for a few ays is equal to a coworker getting sick for a few days. Your reaction is why so many keep their lives private. I myself have gone from Missouri to IL to fill a script. A few hours' drive is nothing. Fun road trip. Most recently, a person (who wasn't me) found themselves in CA unable to fill their script because their doctor wasn't licensed in CA. They literally just tell you "Sorry, can't do it." What are you supposed to do? It's easy to say "Well, just deal with it." And we do. Let me cast a sleeping spell on you and see how well you do. You're getting verryyy sleeeppyy... you'll have a rough week.

ArnoVW 6y ago
This sums up perfectly the issue with mental health problems. Burn-out. Depression. ADHD. Being 'old'. You cut slack for someone with a broken leg or a blind cane. But unless you've been there yourself, you don't understand what's going on in the head of someone else. So the natural thing to do is to decide "they're slacking".
- djeiasbsbo 6y ago
  Exactly. I think one of the problems is that "invisible" handicaps do not invoke an emotional response. In fact it is even worse because e.g. irrational behaviour of a mentally ill person often invokes a negative response. This results in stigmatisation, which is inherently counter productive. A general mindset change is needed to address this on a larger scale. Specifically, in education there should be much more of a focus on ethics than there is now. This is hard because it can be in contrast to "profit-focused" education where e.g. the main goal of studying a field is to get a well paying job at a big company. But of course there are many factors there such as how a university is funded and can keep running. Sadly, it doesn't look like the general population is ready for these discussions because as a human race, we cannot even get over more known/discussed problems such as racism.

zapdrive 6y ago

Must be a "diversity hire".