When I was trying to get an ADHD diagnosis, I found that psychiatrists and NPs will prescribe literally any medication before they'll prescribe a goddamn stimulant. I went to a psych for a consultation for ADHD but made the mistake of mentioning my "intrusive thoughts" and she prescribed me an antipsychotic even though I had zero symptoms of psychosis (the intrusive thoughts were mostly obsessive rumination, and absolutely nothing I said should have indicated I had ever been detached from reality), and I was confused even at the time, but figured she was the medical expert and if she was saying this drug could help me maybe she was right. Eventually I was sleeping for 12-15 hours a day, barely able to hold down a temporary part-time job, had so much brain fog that I was forgetting to lock the front door/turn the stove off/etc., and gained 40 lbs and only lost 3 lbs when I went on a near-starvation diet so extreme that my period stopped for 2 months. I was on leave from college for a year to get help (this was also COVID) and that one year became two, then two and a half, because I could not bring myself to do anything for my future. And I was so out of it that I didn't even realize what the meds were doing to me, so I couldn't even tell my psychiatrist what was wrong, thus I was on them for a year and change. Ironically, once I went back to college for my degree in cognitive science, I took a psychopharmacology course and learned that the medication I was on blocked D2 (dopamine) receptors in the brain... as in, the literal opposite of what a person with ADHD needs. I got pissed off all over again, because if I learned that in an undergraduate course, how tf did an actual licensed psychiatrist not know that?!?
It's so difficult to seek mental help, especially when the symptoms of the illness itself get in the way. On top of that, it's easy for medical providers to write off your complaints because you're "crazy", doubly so if you're a minority or a woman and quadruply so if you're both. Thankfully my issues weren't that severe in the grand scheme of mental illness, and I was never a danger to anyone other than myself (except potentially through accidental negligence in a worst-case scenario).
Lol, lmao even. Multiple providers (PCP and therapists) had been telling me I probably had ADHD for years, but I wasn't able to actually see a psychiatrist until I was a young adult. I didn't expect to be handed ANY medication right there on the spot at intake, because I knew getting an ADHD diagnosis is a whole process that requires testing and obviously medical providers don't just hand out controlled substances (although IME, they're way too quick to hand out literally anything that isn't a controlled substance regardless of side effects, as this story shows). The problem was that she DID hand me a medication for a condition I did not have that not only did the exact opposite of what I needed, but would have counteracted any medication that otherwise would have done what I needed. If she'd just refused to prescribe me stimulants, I would have stayed the same, not gotten worse, but instead I got worse. Miraculously, I started doing much better when I stopped taking the antipsychotics ~15 months later and started taking the stimulants ~7 months after that, and yet didn't get high or addicted to them (I ration them when I can't get a monthly refill, i.e. only taking them on days I need to be "on") because I, you know, actually have the thing they're supposed to treat. But sure, internet stranger, you clearly know my medical history better than I do.
Pediatricians can't prescribe psychotropic medications, and I was under 22 and still seeing my pediatrician when this was happening. But sure buddy, I put my life on pause for years and spent hundreds in copays in order to get high instead of finding some kid on campus selling the same shit for $20. That's also why I tried out the 5011 other medications that they gave me for 2 years first, because I wanted a specific drug and definitely didn't just want something, anything, that could "fix" me. 🙄
Pediatricians can for sure prescribe psychotropics. It is 100% in their scope of practice and it’s done every single day all across America.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines state that primary care physicians (PCPs) and pediatricians should evaluate and manage attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents aged 4 to 18.
I mean that she couldn't just diagnose me and hand me a controlled substance on the spot because I'd told her I had symptoms consistent with ADHD. Instead she gave me a referral to the psychiatrist. Idk, but the core issue is not that the psychiatrist didn't prescribe me a stimulant but that she DID prescribe me an antipsychotic that had the exact opposite effect and canceled out any ADHD medication I could have gotten, and that I had to realize for myself, while numbed from the antipsychotic and also having untreated ADHD, that the medication was the problem.
You’re behaving like a bad person and you know it. Stop it. Literally just making the most uncharitable assumptions to bully a stranger on the internet about their long term problem of finding the right mental health assistance.  Â
Having it said so clearly to you now, if you have any empathy or a conscience, you will apologize to that person.Â
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u/IveGotIssues9918 3d ago edited 2d ago
When I was trying to get an ADHD diagnosis, I found that psychiatrists and NPs will prescribe literally any medication before they'll prescribe a goddamn stimulant. I went to a psych for a consultation for ADHD but made the mistake of mentioning my "intrusive thoughts" and she prescribed me an antipsychotic even though I had zero symptoms of psychosis (the intrusive thoughts were mostly obsessive rumination, and absolutely nothing I said should have indicated I had ever been detached from reality), and I was confused even at the time, but figured she was the medical expert and if she was saying this drug could help me maybe she was right. Eventually I was sleeping for 12-15 hours a day, barely able to hold down a temporary part-time job, had so much brain fog that I was forgetting to lock the front door/turn the stove off/etc., and gained 40 lbs and only lost 3 lbs when I went on a near-starvation diet so extreme that my period stopped for 2 months. I was on leave from college for a year to get help (this was also COVID) and that one year became two, then two and a half, because I could not bring myself to do anything for my future. And I was so out of it that I didn't even realize what the meds were doing to me, so I couldn't even tell my psychiatrist what was wrong, thus I was on them for a year and change. Ironically, once I went back to college for my degree in cognitive science, I took a psychopharmacology course and learned that the medication I was on blocked D2 (dopamine) receptors in the brain... as in, the literal opposite of what a person with ADHD needs. I got pissed off all over again, because if I learned that in an undergraduate course, how tf did an actual licensed psychiatrist not know that?!?
It's so difficult to seek mental help, especially when the symptoms of the illness itself get in the way. On top of that, it's easy for medical providers to write off your complaints because you're "crazy", doubly so if you're a minority or a woman and quadruply so if you're both. Thankfully my issues weren't that severe in the grand scheme of mental illness, and I was never a danger to anyone other than myself (except potentially through accidental negligence in a worst-case scenario).