What is the problem with prescribing these drugs? I took a similar drug (I think it’s similar–Ritalin), and it was great. It made so many things easy for me that had seemed impossible before. It was, literally, like a wonder drug. I don’t know that it would affect everyone that way, but it sure helped me.
It wasn’t “hyper focus.” It was probably regular focus. An example: a simple thing like updating the car registration was just overwhelming because there seemed to be so many steps, I couldn’t get started. On Ritalin, I just knocked those steps off one by one, no problem. Emissions test, check. Payment, check. Stamp on envelope, check. Done!
(In the absence of drugs I was more like “Oh gosh, I have to renew this license tag, but first I have to get the emissions test, and what if it fails? Also, when can I do it? I don’t have time after work, my lunch hour is probably not long enough, I’ll be late…” Yeah, I know, sounds perfectly idiotic. And then I wouldn’t be able to find a stamp, or I’d have to balance and resolve the checkbook before I dared to write a check, and then when I finally thought I’d got it all together, I’d forget to actually drop the stamped envelope in the mail, and would find it in my purse months later. You know, while getting a ticket for not having a current registration.)
The only side effect was that I had to remember to stop drinking coffee after about two cups in the morning. Or I would get very shaky. That was it. No others. None. No trouble sleeping, no palpitations, no heart attacks, and no addiction. My tendency was to take it on days I worked and not to take it on weekends, and in fact, while I was on it, I worked out a few things that helped me get focused and productive when I wasn’t taking it. So, in defiance of the “addictive” label, I took less and less, and I was on a really small dose anyway.
So, was there really a shortage of Adderall, or did they just decide docs were prescribing too much of it? I’m guessing the latter.
