Struggles with getting ADHD medicine filled.

[Lady67]

Does anyone else have trouble getting your meds refilled by your pharmacy? The past year getting my prescription filled has become so stressful! When my normal pharmacy says they are waiting for a shipment and it doesn’t come in…I have to contact my physician to try and have the prescription sent to another pharmacy. It’s gotten so bad that I start worrying the week before if I’ll be able to get my meds in time. I just hate the feeling of no control when trying to get a prescription filled. It’s stressful to think you can’t get prescribed medicines filled. I even thought maybe I should try and just go without….My doctor thought that the shortage was over, but it’s still happening here where I live.

[Blue_186281_red]

I had trouble until 6 months ago when I gave up on my local pharmacy and went to CVS. It's a cartel so you gotta go to the big corps. My MD was indifferent to supply problem at first, but when she realized how bad it was she put a little time into talking to pharmacy and tweaking Rx. The drug laws are so obviously not for drug abuse prevention - they arbitrarily require the Rx to EXACTLY match the pills, so it often helped when she changed dosages (i.e. changing 30mg cap to 15mg x2 caps. Short acting was easier to get than extended too. The shortage is just a scam to force us into switching to new copy written drugs. My adderall costs about $8. The brand name is more like $300. switch to some new drug and the price goes up up up. I suspect I'm getting improved supplies in Silicon Valley after the politicians angered too many powerful computer geeks.

[wtfadhd in reply to Blue_186281_red]

EXACTLY!!!! so refreshing that others understand the politics behind the shortage vs assuming am emotional stance.

[wtfadhd]

hello, the “ shortages” continue to be an issue in the United States. not sure about other countries. When i faced this problem, i gave pharmacy serious push back on what dosages of my addy they DID have in stock and the pharmacy did not like that and said they couldnt pull that info up which as a complete lie. i pushed back hard- they told me what mg of addy that they did have in stock. i let my doctor know, my doctor changed my script to match what the pharmacy did have. i think pharmacy only had 10 mg in stock and i needed 20 mg or something like that and the pharmacy filled it. i have no problem being assertive n advocating for myself. some people would be mortified to handle it the way i did, lol. good luck! not knowing if we can get our meds from month to month is super irritating

[Mamamichl in reply to wtfadhd]

No one should have to go through this monthly, let alone people like us that can’t think ahead other than worrying, I’m just glad we are good problem solvers.

[wtfadhd in reply to Mamamichl]

out of curiosity, bc i have a very curious brain, what lies are we being told on what precisely is causing the shortage? i know the false narrative is that its bc do many people take stimulants… but we all know that even if that were true, its not causing the shortage. if corporations can make money off something , they will produce it in abundance.

[Wasted71years in reply to wtfadhd]

The supplies of some raw materials are restricted by government action as well as limits set on how many doses can be manufactured.

As long as there are people who don't really believe that ADHD is real and therefore see us as drug abusers instead of patients getting help, they will continue to choke down the supply of medicine.

The comments surrounding this and the increases in diagnoses often hint that these additional people must not 'really' have ADHD or that somehow they or the doctors are pushing drugs and abusing the system.

Clearly they don't believe that stimulants do not create pleasurable highs in people with ADHD but just let our brains perform like neurotypical ones do. Thus the concern they evince that an increase in demand is a sign of abuse and incompetent diagnosticians.

Prejudice against neurodivergent people - ADHD - is the root cause here.

[Wasted71years in reply to Wasted71years]

Can you imagine a different scenario where they decided that an increase in the rate of prescriptions for insulin was a sign of abuse or bad diagnosis and therefore cut back on the supply? Or blood pressure medicine or similar meds? It is their belief that ADHD is not real and we are getting immoral pleasure that lets them do this with our meds but not with chemotherapy drugs or others.

[wtfadhd in reply to Wasted71years]

I think we all agree that there is a stigma n skepticism regarding ADHD and stimulants, however I dont think that this is the reason that big pharma is able to keep up with the supply n demand. I suspected that the shortage had something to do with money. i researched this today n came across an article about the stimulant shortage. The article suggested that the govt has already given permission for big pharma to produce more, and the ingredients are available. The problem is that generic forms of stimulants are now standard, and its not cost effective enough for big pharma to put in all the extra effort to meet the demand. the profit margin on stimulants is just too low. Big Pharma focuses on medications that are the most profitable, and it nothing to do with the stigma nor is it personal against ADHD. that theory resonated with me because thats about what all politics and policies n social problem are rooted in.

[CheriS]

I've been without my meds for 4 weeks now. I've started a non-stimulant that helps somewhat but it definitely doesn't work the same way my stimulant does. I don't think it will be available until after the new year when the drug company submits their estimated number of prescriptions to the FDA. I'm crossing my fingers they will estimate for a lot more demand than they have in the past year or more.

[Sarahrocha98]

I’ve had trouble with adderall, but not that I switched to Vyvanse I don’t have issues. It had gotten so bad I would go to Mexico (TJ) for Ritalin LA 😭😭 They have doctors on-site to prescribe medication at pharmacies and it’s the same brands as the US, but the costs is way lower even though its without insurance We’re in SoCal, so it’s only a 1-2hr drive.

[Jozlynn]

I was watching Dr. Phil (don't laugh 😆) and a woman was on there whose MD was prescribing her Adderall for weight loss because it was cheaper than the other weight loss meds she had been taking. I can't help but think that if that's a common thing, NO FREAKING wonder there's a shortage! It's being prescribed to people who don't actually need it. There are plenty of weight loss drugs out there without prescribing ADHD meds as the solution.

That's just a theory - but I do NOT think it's because so many people are being diagnosed. I read that there is some arbitrary (in my opinion) number of meds that are allowed to be produced, controlled by the government. Now to be fair, I don't know if this is accurate or not - but to me, there's something shady behind the shortage.

Every single month, I have to call the pharmacy and ask if they have my dosage before I submit my request for a refill. They refuse to tell me what they DO have in stock (they quote it's against the law - which I call BS on) but they WILL tell me yes or no if I ask about a specific dosage. So how does that jive?

Because I work with other ADHDers (I have a VA agency who only supports those with ADHD) I know how much we generally hate having to make phone calls like this - and it's almost like they're counting on that. I've literally done the search of pharmacies for my clients to try to help them find their meds in stock somewhere - and it's hard everywhere. It just feels like whomever controls the stock doesn't actually give a rats backend about ADHD and what life can be like without our meds.

Thanks for letting me vent here. 😏

[AuDHD3245]

It's worldwide. There are hundreds of thousands of people being diagnosed, all choosing the same medication. The suppliers can't handle it and the world is without. Apparently it does harm your body when you go without, but, I personally dont think that's right. They're stimulants or increase sensitivity to parts of the brain, and most people are literally just having to stop from the higher dose, which is against all recommendations from any GP or professional. It's a waiting game and we have to get used to it, because by the time they're back in stock, they're near enough gone because there's a 10 thousand people queue waiting for them. There's a natural tablet called Lion's mane, which is supposed to be natures ADHD medication. It works, but no stimulation