this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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ADHD

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Disclaimer: I'm referring the the US medical system, but I imagine people in other countries may encounter similar things.

I cannot be the only one who has had this experience, but all my dealings with the medical industry feel like they were refined by a group of psychologists to exploit the weaknesses of those with ADHD.

The volume of calls, appointments, and paperwork I had to full out to get a diagnosis and prescription for treatment is completely unreasonable to expect someone with poor working memory and attention issues to navigate.

Then, to stay on medication, you need to schedule and make appointments with a psychiatrist every month, for the rest of your life, and if you miss a single one, you will run out of meds (and likely charged a fine), which will make it even harder to remember to make the next one. If you miss too many, that psychiatrist will refuse to see you again and you have to go back to your PCP to get a new referral.

Look, I understand that their time is valuable, but this system couldn't be designed any other way to be more accommodating to people who clinically forget things?!

It's like designing a wheelchair ramp that's actually just stairs that are 3x as steep as the regular stairs. Also, if you fall to the bottom, someone takes your wheelchair until you can climb back up.

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[–] bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 14 points 19 hours ago (4 children)

Germany here. It’s kind of similar here. The system is rigged against us.

My strategy is to use medication to enable me to build a support structure and learn techniques that help with dealing with symptoms. E. g. meditation, physical exercises that help mind-body connection, CBT, routines, etc. So that when I’m without meds, I can fall back on skills I acquired and trained.

What I also do is hoard medication. Ask for a higher dose or more pills, than I actually need. That way I can miss an appointment and still have enough for the next month or so. I even hide pills in different places around my apartment.

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (3 children)

Also in Germany, undiagnosed.

There is an ADHD clinic close to me - They sent me a bunch of forms to fill out. Not form-fillable PDFs. They expected me to go to a print shop, print it, fill it out, scan it, and email it back. About 8 months later I ended up just learning how to write texts into PDFs because I kept forgetting and postponing. Now to wait "up to 24 months" for the first appointment, what a joke.

[–] bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Do it like I did: fail so hard at life that lose your job, lose Bürgergeld welfare, and are in danger of losing your apartment. Have a mental breakdown and go to a psychiatric hospital crisis center.

Do yourself a favor and buy a used brother laser printer. The toner lasts ages and they support universal PCL printer drivers. I bought one new 16 years ago and never bought new toner for it, only paper. It cost less than 100 € back then. Still prints.

[–] HaveMeOnYourPodcast@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

Older Brother printers are amazing. I've had mine since 2007.

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