My child’s health care provider did not identify his addiction
Health care providers receive minimal training to address addiction and are unequipped to identify, treat and manage this common life-threatening disease.
By Alice
In high school, his psychiatrist decided to try ADHD stimulant medications. My son began to assertively campaign to administer these meds himself or ask the psychiatrist for an increased dosage. It was a constant battle to keep him from intentionally misusing them; I knew then that stimulants were his drug of choice. This was one of my earliest mistakes — that I didn’t take him to an addiction specialist.
“An otherwise competent psychiatrist, who attended a top medical school and trained in New York City, couldn’t recognize a budding substance use disorder.”
