I’m saying this out of a place of wanting to encourage better understanding. Your statement comes across as extremely insensitive and judgemental towards people who are impacted by mental illnesses. ADHD is a very real condition that impacts people of all ages and is one of the most studied and neurobiologically understood forms of mental illness that there is. But despite this, people afflicted by it are regularly dismissed or treated like drug addicts for simply trying to fill a prescription for a medication scientifically proven as effective in treating their condition. As someone diagnosed in my 30s, I have experienced this first hand and it only got worse with this shortage.

Getting therapy and medication was life-changing and life-saving.

The non stimulants aren’t going to put you in what it sounds suspiciously like an addict going through a drug withdrawal, as you described it.

To someone who lived most of their childhood and adult life struggling to do things that should be easy like turning in homework, not overlooking minor details on important tests that one knows the answers to, losing jobs and relationships, being incapable of readily quantifying or describing one’s emotions, and being consumed by anxiety, shame, and depression because of this and having no idea why it’s all so hard until being diagnosed and receiving treatment, this statement comes across like Immortan Joe warning of the dangers of becoming addicted to water.

The non-stimulant meds are significantly worse for most in terms of efficacy. Just to be clear we’re talking about over 80% efficacy rate in stimulants vs closer to 60% or lower for non-stimulants. Pushing people off of effective medications and all but outright calling them junkies is pretty offensive. It’s certainly neither kind nor helpful, nor is it coming from a place that is supported by data.

If you didn’t mean to come across that way, I might suggest taking a step back and considering it. Would you feel good about telling a cancer patient that they need to use a medication that is less effective and might not improve their chances of survival because some well-off college students might abuse the medication that works to get high?

Is it still a drug withdrawal if that’s how someone was before they started the drug? Because people with severe adhd are just like that.