[shortnsouthern]

~i am suffering so badly at this very moment, i want to say all thats going through my mind but the damn ADD says to me, that will take too long!! i hope that made sense to any of you out there!! Part of me is relieved and empowered by knowing im not "alone" yet as i look around i am! im bipolar, generalized anxiety disorder, ADD, and have been taken off my adderall after being on it for 4 years, with the same doc. Finding that medication was a God send, just as was my lithium!! and i am to blame, because i smoked a marijuana cig at a family Christmas Party,and when i went for my lithium level check at a local clinic instead of the lab i usually go they did a drug screen, my doc never asked 4 one in 4yrs, had i known i WOULD SO have chosen my medication!! i am disabled and thus live on a very fixed income and explained to him i didnt do this regularly by no means, heck i can barely afford my cigs and internet, my entertainments if you will!! he says there's no way he will prescribe a controlled substance to me ever again. and first spoke of strattera even tho i told him of the possibility of going manic as anti-depressants have a tendacy to do w/ bipolars, so i gather info on the strattera and on my next visit, he says he cant precribe that because im bipolar! i told him of the deep depression i am dealing w/ and how the adderall helped me to focus and lessen 200 trains of thought down to about 6 or 8! therefore being able to focus i could utilize the cognitive behavioral techniques i've learned throughout the yrs to "fight" the bipolar ups and downs. he said that we mainly focus on the bipolar and that he would add another mood stabilizer but thats all he could and or would do for me!! and this is a mental health facility and he said i could switch doc's but none there would differ with the medicine issues!! i feel hopeless LIKE IM GOING DOWN THE DRAIN AND THUS DROWNING AND IM HOLDING UP MY HANDS SIGNALING FOR HELP BUT THEY JUST THINK IM WAVING AND WAVE BACK AND MOVE ALONG!!!! Wow cant believe i actually sat here long enough to say all that, must have been the prayer i said asking for help to convey all this!! My Heart Goes Out to Any and All that Deal w/ this or related issues!!!!!!!!! ~Mandi LaShea~ aka Shortnsouthern...

[bipolarmedstudent]

Find a new pdoc. He's lying when he says noone else would prescribe adderall to you. But just in case, don't tell the new pdoc that you have smoked marijuana. And decline to have your medial records transferred.

By the way -- the lab did a drug screen without your consent? I don't get it -- was the drug screen on the lab requisition? Did you look at the lab requisition before you went for the lithium test?

[sunrise]

The connection between the marijuana and the Adderall seems tenuous to me. Marijuana is not addictive. It's not like because you smoked a joint you will now suddenly become addicted to your Adderall. I tend to agree with what BPMedStudent wrote, especially the part about the drug test. They just can't test you for drugs unless they inform you. At least they are supposed to...

Your reaction seems very desperate--your capital letters as if shouting and the going down the drain comments. A caution: if you present as that desperate when you go to a new pdoc to get meds, he/she will think you are reacting out of proportion and so may be addicted to the Adderall. It would be better to not seem to be overreacting, because that suggests a person desperate for their drugs, and that suggests addiction. Does that make sense? I wish you well.