Love A.D.D.erall

At 21 they diagnosed me with AD/HD & gave me smart pills. My grades shot up & my future brightened & some said I was better. But I am numb inside of this drug. People I love become distant strangers sometimes, so proud of me for victories I didn’t earn. How do I tell them I am not what I do or have done. I’ll never be happy on this drug, but I’ll never be successful without it. If only I could Love Adderall.

Ode to the Anonymous Pharmacy Clerk

Gradually, my my lack of confidence in the pharmaceutical industry has extended from the less-than-forthright “experts”, to the franchises like Walgreen’s, and now, to the foot-soldiers behind the counters.  Most of them are just good folks trying to make an honest buck; when I myself was a corporate foot-soldier at Six Flags Amusement Parks, my goal was to get through the day using as little effort as possible. I wanted it to be mindless and I hated it when fatasses bitched because their ice cream cones had too few or too many sprinkles.  So in a way I can understand the frustration, when you’re expecting to have a mindless day and get paid for it, and then some unconventional jerk has to come along with a customized dilemma that makes it unpredictable.  Unfortunately though there’s a difference between fussy Food Court nitpickers, and medical patients with legit concerns about their medications. Maybe, when it comes to sprinkles and ketchup packets, the customers should occasionally take one for the team.  But with regard to the legal production and sales of Class II narcotics, it feels more like the team is taking one for “The Man” & corporate America. Somehow the industry even turned our foot-soldiers against us, as the behind-the-counter pharmacists-in-training have grown impatient towards the clientele, much like my disdain for the sprinkle-demanders.

A recent comment by the boldly-named “Anonymous” demonstrates their dismissive mentality.

In response to my post Today’s Inquiry about Barr Laboratories and CorePharma LLC…, Anonymous writes:

“You’re all fucking idiots, if I you came to the pharmacy counter bitching about this I’d tell you to get lost before I call the cops.”

Good idea.  I’m sure they’d love to hear from you, especially if your town is as dull as your ignorance suggests.

Dispatcher: “East Backwater P.D. What is your location?”
Anonymous Minion: “Uh… wuh… I’m at the Walgreen’s on Hillbilly Road.”
Dispatcher: “Okay. And what’s your emergency?”
Anonymous Minion: “Um, I have a grad student here, and…”
Dispatcher: “… are you being robbed?!”
Anonymous Minion: “No, but…”
Dispatcher: “Do you feel threatened?”
Anon. Minion: “No, well, sort of… he’s… asking me questions.”
Dispatcher: (pause) “Pardon?”
Dispatcher: (pause) “As in, sexually inappropriate/creepy stalker questions?”
Anon. Minion: “Well no, just… questions about his medication that I find annoying.  Can you arrest him?”
Dispatcher: “You’ll have to be more specific.  What is the emergency?”
Anon. Minion: “He’s claiming based on his experiences with two different brands that one’s different than the other. I personally disagree. This customer’s questions are too hard, and I get very scared when people aren’t satisfied with the generic responses I’ve been ordered to memorize. eel insecure  Can you please send someone immediately?”
Dispatcher:“Alright… well, right now our lone ranger Officer Billy Bob’s gone to rescue a cat from a tree. But if you stay on the line I’ll try to talk you through this.”
Anon. Minion:“Okay, good. Thankyouthankyouthankyou.”
Dispatcher:“Now, do you see that name tag on your Walgreen’s uniform?”
Anon. Minion:“The one that says ‘Happy to Answer Your Questions.’”
Dispatcher: “Yes, that one. I need you to take it off.”
Anon. Minion:“Okay, it’s off. Now what?”
Dispatcher: “Now, look around for the dumbest-looking person in the store that you can find.”
Anon. Minion: “I see a toddler. I bet he’s pretty dumb, prolly.”
Dispatcher:“Excellent, give your pharmacy badge to the two-year-old!”
Anon. Minion: “Why?”
Dispatcher:“Because he’s more qualified to wear it than you are!”

Usually people who leave thoughtless, nonconstructive comments are just “trolls” who pop in to stir things up and never bother to come back and follow-up on their shit-talk.  But I really hope this troll comes back and reads this, even if he or she concludes (as I myself have) that I am lame for devoting several paragraphs to a single sentence of prattle.

It’s true; this post was basically pointless. A colossal waste of time.  Instead of being productive this morning, I’ve scripted a dialog between a stranger I’ll never meet and a dispatcher who doesn’t exist.

But in a bizarre way it does prove my point.

I have A.D.D., remember, and tend to get sidetracked easily. And while they have medicines for that, unfortunately the pink Adderall sold to me by corporations like the one this simpleton probably works for, does not work. The CorePharma higher-ups know it already. Some of the psychiatrists who prescribe these drugs must undoubtedly have their suspicions.  Consumer “feedback” is a bitch, but a quite powerful one. And when the shit hits the fan for this industry,as it no-doubt soon will, even the anonymous shit-for-brain clerks at the bottom of the pharmaceutical totum pole will have to start doing their jobs again.

9 Comments »

  Charity wrote @

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hah a haha! I wish everyone had ADD! Because the blogs I love to read the most are the ones that are written by people with ADD! I mean, who else can come up with an entire fictional conversation between a person he hasn’t met and a nonexistent dispatcher, just to push a dumb commenter deeper and deeper into the dirt that he/she/ is already sinking in? LOL! I love it! I’m going to share this post on my blog in my what I’m reading box! LOL! This is my fav post from you! Love it!

  Charity wrote @

p.s.

Nobody can push a dumb person deeper and deeper into the dirt with the use of fictional, imaginary characters, better than an ADDer! :) I’m proud! Yeah! :)

  Charity wrote @

Just wanted to let you know… I have added you to my “roll call” on my blog! Yeah! I finally got me a blog roll! :)

  GenericAdderallTaker wrote @

” But with regard to the legal production and sales of Class II narcotics, it feels more like the team is taking one for “The Man” & corporate America. Somehow the industry even turned our foot-soldiers against us, as the behind-the-counter pharmacists-in-training have grown impatient towards the clientele, much like my disdain for the sprinkle-demanders.”

Just a pregnant thought as the last bit of “focus” from the day’s last 15mg dose of generic Addy fades into the memory of the day…

The thought occurs to me that in addition to being agents of Corporate Pharma, docs and pharmacists, and even the $11.50-an-hour pharmacy techs seem to have also become duly deputized agents for the “War on Drugs”…

When a friend of mine who is ADD finally convinced me that I was pretty much a text-book case of ADD (it took a few months for him to get through to me… 30 years of simply accepting the explination that I am “bright but just undisciplined/don’t apply myself” takes some time to chip away!)…

Well on his gentle prodding (and after he – I admit it – tossed a few 20mg AddyXRs my way) I took what I thought was the next step – I found a doctor covered by my insurance, made an appointment, and went in to plead my case as competently as my little addled mind can (or at least COULD) when alone in a windowless room with a doctor I never met.

After telling my situation, I got an apprehensive stare from the doc who – only a few years out of med school – scurried out of the room to talk to his boss before returning and telling me that I needed to call my insurance provider to find out what coverage I had for psychological counseling so he could get back to me – at an undetermined later date – with a referral to see someone competent to diagnose me.

It only occured to me well after leaving what just had happened… I was the potential “meds seeker” that he had been warned about in some seminar in med school… If he was too easy to dispense some amphetimine salts my way, chances are, I would be sending all my friends his way, and the FDA would note that he had a “lightening pen” for writing prescriptions… And he would be looking for a job selling carpet!

It was only after researching counselors, paying for two sessions out of pocket, and bringing in a diagnosis from a counselor who went to night school as far as I could tell that the tension melted of Doc’s shoulders and a lightbulb went off in his head “What the hell, give this 30-year-old-waiter with messy hair 5mg of generic addy a day… I can always blame this counselor fellow I never met but who wrote a letter if it turns out he is the Pablo Escobar of Pills!”

And so the first paltry 5mg a day are approved.

2 weeks later, in follow-up for an accident, the doctor concedes 10mg would be the next step, so in 2 more weeks he will write me a script for that.

ME: “Why not today?”

Doc: “Well you are still in the 30 days of your last script”

ME: “Why not just let me take TWO at a time of the 5’s for the next 7 days rather than wait 14 for 10s?”

Doc: “Well we could, but being that this is a narcotic, it is going to look funny if you get a new prescription before the 30 days are up on the 5s…”

ME: “Well, maybe you could write the script for 10s today, I could take it to my pharmacist with my last fourteen 5s, give the pharmacist the new script, explain you upped the dosed, show him I am going to take two 5s a day for the next 7 days, and come back on day 8 for 10s, and in the mean time if there is any question, he can call you and you can confirm, and it is all documented…”

(new lightbulb!)

Doc: “That would work!”

(At this point, I am wondering why he does not pay me for the visits…)

So he writes the script, I leave, I go to my CVS, I turn in the script, and the pharmacy tech…

… the pharmacy tech (standing in front of a sign that explains the pharmacy needs 24 hours to fill OxyContin scrpts and doesn’t have any on the premises overnight!) starts to explain that I can’t get fill this one till my old one is up….. blah, blah, blah.

So now docs are a first line of defense against us crazy “med-seekers” who are just trying to get high, and pharmacy techs and pharmacists are auditing them and giving you the “once over” when you come to fill a script because maybe they will catch what the doc you fooled did not..

Such bullshit.

The clincher? i actually DID investigate illegally buying meds online (I didn’t), “scoring meds” from folks who DO sell their prescription (I did once), and I am sure I have been testy enough with pharmacy techs who are “making sure” that all I did was re-enforce their suspicions I was an addict.

(Withhold or threaten to withhold food from a hungry person, and they will start to act like a real “food addict” too – impatient, rude, nervous…)

Ultimately, the burden of “hoop jumping” to satisfy the concearns of docs and pharmacists is put on the shoulders of people who can hardly come up with strategies to sort, wash, dry, fold and put away laundry in less than a week. To get meds we need to focus, we first must focus on getting meds.

And non-chalantly act like we are NOT med-seekers. But I am the first to admit, I AM seeking the meds because I NEED them.

Little wonder some folks who know or suspect they have ADD continue just to self-medicate.

  John wrote @

Some (most?) drugstores have the idea, as you experienced, that if you bring a new prescription to them before 30 days of your old one have elapsed, that they can’t fill it, citing the “we have to wait 30 days before refilling your prescription.” As one friendly pharmacist told me, “this is a NEW prescription. I am not ‘refilling’ an existing prescription, I’m filling a NEW prescription.” He proceeded to fill the NEW prescription. The local/state narc squad usually is responsible for this in that they often seem to have to prove their power and one way to do this is to force their own interpretation onto the pharmacies. With the power that their tin-horn badge gives them, the pharmacies usually buckle. When the tech refuses to take the prescription and the customer asks for the pharmacist, the tech is usually covered for by the pharmacist because they don’t want to risk the wrath of the narc investigator and they don’t want the tech retaliating against them.

The signs are up in my state that say a picture ID is ALWAYS required for the purchase of any controlled substance. When that first happened, I questioned that the legislature would pass a bill that would require a pharmacist that I’ve known for 20 years to demand a picture ID of me before I could purchase my prescription. They told me the state narc guy told them that interpretation.
Sure enough, when I looked up the code on the Internet, the law actually read that the pharmacy must only be sure of the identity of the customer and if they didn’t know the customer, they should ask to see a picture ID.

These holier-than-thou people are in the wrong field. The name for the general collection is “helping professions,” not “hindering professions.” Somehow our society has screwed that all around. When I think of events like these, I remember the Bible warning us of days when right is considered wrong and wrong is considered right.

Maintaining our dignity and calm when confronted by such behavior is the best route, of course, but it’s difficult oft times. Being firm and working our way up the chain is the best way and if that doesn’t work, then using our feet is the next. I’ve been impressed by the willingness of people on here to go the extra mile(s) and do the thinking for others in order to come up with solutions when they, the so-called providers, are too lazy, apathetic, scared and/or prejudiced to do their own thinking.

  Autumn wrote @

This may be redundant info by now as I don’t have time to read through everything here.
But I’ve researched at ton because I want to switch from Concerta 18mg (costs me $50 copay/month) to the new Adderall XR generic by Barr. My Walgreens here in Wilsonville, OR DOES carry it. My copay would be $10/month, or $5/month if my Dr. will prescribe 10mg to be taken 1 or 2 times a day, so I get 60 caps (max my insurance will do) per month. I’d probably only take 10mg, thus cutting my $10/month cost in half. So maybe y’all discovered this by now, but at least I don’t have to go through a long lament over pink versus orange with Walgreens. And maybe your laments will be over too!
Autumn

  Martina-Müller wrote @

Great idea, but will this work over the long run?

[...] I also  figured he’d just have the same blind faith in the pharmaceutical industries as the mindless clerks behind the counter, the difference being my doctor has the power to stop writing prescriptions if I get to be too much [...]

  Anonymous wrote @

god, its kind of pathetic how obsessed you are with “getting answers” from random pharmacists who were clearly all fed the same bullshit by the pharmaceutical companies. Either way, the only way you’ll accomplish anything is by going to the source. I’m pretty sure your doc didnt put you on these meds so you could concentrate on making a master plan to get america’s “precious brand name adderall” back in the hands of mainly children. It’s clear you’re addicted and trying to get that ‘perfect high’ you got a couple years ago, when you first started. Unfortunately, most drug addicts are after the same nostalgia, and unfortunately it’s long gone. Please stop feeding the sheep, er, the people who come here to post carbon copy replies of what you say in your post, reworded and applied to their list of “negative symptoms” they got from whatever you’ve chosen next to complain about.


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