How ADHD Treatment Is Not ADHD Friendly

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0:08i don't usually do rants in my videos because i'm not usually angry i usually understand that there are limitations within the health care system that we're learning a lot more about adhd and maybe professionals aren't up to date on that because there's a lot of stuff that they have to keep up to date on i try to understand that family and friends might not get it adhd is a really hard thing to understand even for those of us who have it and i understand that meds are expensive when there's no generic for them but right now i'm really angry and i just need to talk about it because

0:42adhd treatment is not adhd friendly at all and i think we can do better [Music] the first doctor i went to said that i couldn't have adhd because i was too smart it turns out you can be gifted and have adhd when i did get my diagnosis i was told what my label was and i was given medication years later i talked to another psychiatrist who took me off of my stimulant medication which was working really well for me and tried me on a non-stimulant which i understand now aren't typically as effective and there was no reason for him to switch me if my medication was working fine which

1:22it was i've had interruptions in treatment because i missed appointments because i lost my prescription back when the prescriptions had to be a hard copy and you had to take them physically from one place to another i've been unable to get my medication because the pharmacy i went to was out and i've had to drive around to pharmacy after pharmacy looking for some place that had my medication because you can't call because it's a controlled substance i've had incredible trouble navigating new mental health systems trying to find a provider most recently i moved to seattle i tried to sign up for health insurance saying i moved

1:58they needed proof that i had health insurance before i moved which i didn't find out until a couple weeks later when i got that information in the mail they needed proof that i had moved and they needed proof that i had had insurance before i moved which i didn't sign up for because i knew i was about to move with coronavirus there was another window of opportunity to sign up for health insurance outside the typical window and i took advantage of it but when i called they said that i was already on health insurance because they hadn't taken me off of the other one even though i didn't qualify

2:26so i had to wait for that to happen i had to set reminders and alarms and stuff in my calendar and and stay on top of stuff in a way that is not easy for somebody with adhd but i signed up for health insurance again when i could and then i couldn't find a provider i talked to several nurse practitioners who were great for me in new york and here several of them told me that they didn't treat adhd and i found out from somebody local that there's been a lot of abuse of medication here and that might be why i tried so hard to find somebody i was

2:59suggested by one nurse practitioner who did treat it that she wouldn't be able to give me a prescription on my first visit i didn't have extras stimulant medication you can only get a month at a time so i didn't have extras and so she suggested that i talk to a general practitioner so i tried that they didn't have an appointment available until august it's may i was so frustrated with this process that i reached out on twitter to ask if anybody knew a doctor that would give me my medication because that's all i needed i've been study on the same medication for years i've had a

3:33diagnosis for 25 years and some people reached out but i shouldn't have had to go to twitter and what about the people who can't what about the people who would post on twitter and nobody following them would know i'm really lucky that i was able to do that but what if i couldn't i had to go out of network for a doctor i had to pay a lot of money get reevaluated even though i was just reevaluated a few months ago in a different state and i was able to but it was a financial hit and i went to this doctor he was great i had a couple of days worth of meds

4:04left and by the time he was able to call in a prescription for me i was on my last day of pills so i went to the pharmacy just now and the insurance needs a pre-authorization on this medication which means they have to even though i've been on this medication for years even though i've had this condition my entire life and have been diagnosed for 25 years the insurance needs to decide that it's okay that i take this medication even though a doctor has just prescribed it for me or they won't pay for it so i had to decide do i pay for this medication for which there is no generic

4:43out of pocket which is hundreds of dollars or do i wait until the middle of next week maybe later for the insurance to decide that it's okay that i can have it and i didn't know what to say because i don't know if my mental health is worth an extra 50 a day how am i supposed to decide that that is not something they teach you when you get your diagnosis and i feel like i've been fighting my whole life to learn how my brain works and to do my best and to be productive even when my brain doesn't want to cooperate but i need support

5:18we all do and the process of getting adhd treatment should be more adhd friendly i'm not exactly sure how but i know it shouldn't look like this i was diagnosed for 20 years going to doctors getting a prescription every month before i realized this isn't enough this medication is not enough it's the only tool i have and it's effective it's really helpful but my life is still a mess i need tools i need strategies i need i don't know therapy i didn't know and i had to start a youtube channel to find out i had to have a place where i could learn stuff and put it and so i wouldn't

5:54lose it again and it was so hard and i was doing it on top of everything else that was going on in my life which was a lot and i had to learn this stuff myself no doctor ever told me no therapist ever understood and so i was on my own which being in the medical system i shouldn't have been i should have had more guidance than that i should have been asked more than is the medication working and are there any side effects i should have been told about cbt i should have been told how my brain worked and i wasn't i had to learn on my

6:26own and probably a lot of you watching this channel have had to learn on your own or by watching youtube videos and that's not right i'm doing the best i can but medical providers health care systems need to do better the very things that lead us to getting diagnosed and getting adhd treatment are the very things that get in the way of us actually getting it last year i did not do well because i had trouble navigating a health care system and had to go off my meds for a while and i don't know if it's a good idea for me to wait until mid next week to get back on my meds

7:01so right now i don't know what i'm gonna do i don't know if i'm gonna spend hundreds of dollars out of pocket just to get my medication because my insurance decided that you needed a pre-authorization i don't know how do you decide if your mental health is worth an extra 50 a day and what about the people who don't have that option i don't know how we do better but i know we need to for those of you just starting your journey don't give up don't give up if the first doctor you see tells you you don't have adhd if you think they're wrong get a second

7:32opinion don't give up if they dismiss you because you're smart or because you've succeeded so far when you know what it's done to you on the inside to be able to get this far don't give up if the first medication you try doesn't work for you it can take time to find the right one don't give up if the strategies you try don't work right away because part of adhd makes implementing those strategies really challenging in the end i think it's worth it it's made an incredible difference for me to be able to treat my adhd and to be able to understand how my brain works

8:05and to learn the strategies that work for me but it is not easy it is not easy i have a youtube channel about adhd i've done a ted talk and still every time i go to see a new provider i'm afraid of being dismissed thanks for letting me rant and thank you to my patreon brains because this is definitely not a a monetizable video i don't think i have a decision to make and a lot of work to do whatever you're struggling with with your treatment you're not alone we're here with you and we will support you because we face this struggle too bye brains [Music]

9:02you