[kayodelycaon]

The world also existed before antibiotics...

Also, a lot of people with mental health issues can survive without their medication, it can significantly decrease their quality of life or ability to function.

I can survive without my ADHD being treated but I can't work. Fortunately for me, I am on a different type of medication so this shortage doesn't affect me, but I can see what's happening to my coworkers. My team is going to lose people due to this bullshit.

[chuckhendo]

This right here. I'm prescribed Adderall off-label for excessive daytime sleepiness, and have been for over a decade. I have tried multiple times to come off of it because of my concerns with long term effects (especially with my heart).

Can I survive? Absolutely. But without it, I am a zombie; a complete shell of myself. Even with concerns over long term side effects, the tradeoff isn't worth it for me.

[swatcoder]

That some "work" requires lifelong consumption of a stimulant with a fragile supply chain maybe reflects a deeper problem than any shortage itself.

Why are your coworkers so committed to this work if it suits them so poorly? Are they really unable to perform any work without a drug?

It's a little wild that people would sooner see themselves as "ill" and in need of $xx/mo of side effects and shortages for the rest of their lives than think that maybe the expectations they've put on themselves aren't right.

Maybe the work is not a good suit for them. Maybe their lives are structured poorly. Maybe your whole industry or social class is broken and is demanding more from people than they can deliver without drugs. A shortage is a really good opportunity to look more closely at those possibilities, especially the last one.

[anon84873628]

This sounds like something I would have said before living with someone with ADHD.

It would take a long time to explain adequately. But to summarize, neurodivergence can be a pervasive, debilitating problem for people, and medication is in many ways a miracle cure. And the solutions you suggest require the exact type of executive function that sufferers are lacking.

Of course it would be nice to wave a wand and change society instead, but that's not going to happen.

[kayodelycaon]

Agreed. You really have to experience or see something to truly understand it. Recently, every time I’ve had a serious medical issue, I’ve learned how people who are permanently disabled live.

[piva00]

You are conflating ADHD as something strictly affecting work. It does not only affect work, it affects your whole life.

You wake up and need to make your bed, but then you also have to take a shower, and brush your teeth, there's also laundry to do, and coffee. Maybe breakfast if you are hungry, but there's also mail to pick up, and emails to read, and plants to water, you also need to schedule a thing after work, and there's also a message from your parents to reply.

All of those things are ringing out loud "I need to be done" at the same time, with the same priority, you know you should just start with one thing but you can't, you simply can't, the other things are like loud alarms going in your head to not be forgotten. You feel overwhelmed, you take a shower. One thing done, you make coffee, you drink it and feel you need to go for a walk to clear your head, you come back home and drink a bit more coffee, oh, but I forgot to brush my teeth when I was in the bathroom, and now I know I shouldn't brush right after drinking coffee, you wait a little bit for the sake of your teeth, you forget about it again.

You go through your day, you remember you forgot to pick up the mail, you go to pick up the mail, you see your front yard a bit disorganised, you start putting things in place, you go back inside the house and remember you forgot to pick up the mail.

You don't make breakfast because many distractions took your time, you start working, you force yourself to focus, you do the work even though other things ring in your head all the time, you finish work and now you're exhausted.

You do other day-to-day things, you cook, etc., time for bed, now you remember all the things you forgot to do: you didn't do laundry, you forgot to reply your parents' message, you forgot that you booked an appointment for tomorrow morning. Oh, you also forgot laundry, for the 2nd week in a row, you do it because tomorrow you won't have clothes, so the urgency makes you focus and prioritise it.

It's a constant, never-ending stream of remembering, forgetting, overcommitting, self-guilty, no matter what kind of organisation ritual/system you try you eventually fail, each failure feeds back into the guilty, into the shame.

And it's constant, every single day of your life, in every single activity you do. In conversations, at work, doing daily chores, everything takes a lot of effort to be focused, to do what you are supposed to do.

So maybe life isn't for me, should I just off myself?