as small as a world and as large as alone, karalianne: Here’s a thing that really bothers...

1:17am September 3, 2014

Here’s a thing that really bothers me.

I get a lot of questions about medication over at the ADHD blog. Which is fine; I look stuff up at drugs.com, which has all the same literature your pharmacist is supposed to give you (they always have given it to me here in Canada but apparently that’s not a thing everywhere) plus the info that’s for doctors (which is really interesting because it has the results of the studies they did to see what the side effects are and stuff). Sometimes I check crazymeds.us as well but there isn’t much there about ADHD meds so it’s better for depression and anxiety and stuff than ADHD.

So it bothers me first of all that people aren’t given the literature they’re supposed to get so that they can know what the side effects are and stuff.

But what really bugs me is that they’re given this stuff and they haven’t really given their informed consent for it.

By which I mean, they haven’t been told all they need to know (wholly aside from the side effects and other information in the literature the pharmacist is supposed to give them).

They don’t know that if they can’t deal with the side effects, they can (and should) tell their doctor they want to try something else.

This is a huge betrayal on the part of the medical community.

I know that in some countries there are really limited options; some places only have one medication approved for ADHD treatment, some don’t have anything approved for adults, etc. But in Canada and the USA, that isn’t true. There are at least three types of methylphenidate and three types of amphetamine, plus Strattera and Intuniv.

The fact that most of the questions I get about medication are from North Americans who have no idea that there are more than two medications approved for treatment of ADHD is absolutely appalling. The fact that these people don’t know that they can ask their doctor to try something else is equally appalling.

I know that part of this is probably due to the culture we’ve built up around the medical industry, where we somehow believe that doctors are infallible and whatever they say is The Truth or something. But I guarantee you that they get stuff wrong all the time. I can tell you about a couple of my own misdiagnoses.

People, ask your doctors questions. Read up on whatever you’re diagnosed with and learn about the treatments. Learn about whatever medication you’re given so you know what to watch out for and stuff like that. Unless you’ve tried literally everything, you probably have options.