// Written with ChatGPT

Ah, the joys of modern healthcare! If you’ve ever had the pleasure of refilling an Adderall XR prescription, you know it’s not just a simple task—it’s an epic quest. Each month, as the number of pills in my bottle dwindles, I brace myself for the inevitable journey through the labyrinthine process of getting my prescription refilled. Spoiler alert: it’s not for the faint of heart.

First, let’s talk about the automated systems that pharmacies like Walgreens have in place. For most medications, you can simply tap a few buttons on your phone and voilà, your prescription is on its way. But not for Adderall XR. Oh no, this medication is classified as a controlled substance, which means you have to bypass the automated phone tree and wait on hold to speak with a real-life pharmacist. It’s like trying to reach a celebrity—except instead of an autograph, you’re just trying to get the medication you need to function.

Once you finally get through, you might be told that it’s too early to refill your prescription. Insurance companies have a strict timeline, and if you’re not within a couple of days of running out, you’ll have to call back later. It’s a delicate dance of timing, patience, and persistence.

But wait, there’s more! Even if you’re within the refill window, there’s no guarantee that the pharmacy will have Adderall XR in stock. Since COVID, it’s been a bit like hunting for a rare treasure. If your usual pharmacy is out, you can’t just ask them to transfer it from another location. Instead, you have to call around to other pharmacies, hoping to find one that has it. Once you do, you need to contact your doctor to send a new prescription to this new pharmacy. It’s a logistical nightmare that can leave you feeling like a character in a Kafka novel.

And let’s not forget the delightful surprise of discovering that your refills have run out. You won’t know until you call the pharmacy, usually just days before you’re out of medication. Then it’s a mad dash to schedule an appointment with your doctor, who is, of course, incredibly busy. It’s a race against time to get your prescription renewed and sent to a pharmacy that may or may not have it in stock.

Now, I understand the need for regulations to prevent abuse of medications like Adderall. But for those of us who rely on it to manage ADHD, the process feels unnecessarily complicated and stressful. Why isn’t there more of this drug available? Why isn’t refilling it easier? These are questions that remain unanswered in the convoluted world of U.S. healthcare.

In the end, all we can do is navigate this monthly adventure with as much grace and humor as possible. After all, laughter is the best medicine—right after Adderall, of course.

// Original text for prompt:

Every month when I am running out of my Adderall XR prescription I need to get it refilled. Unfortunately Walgreens doesn’t let you use the normal automated experience to refill this particular drug (because I think it’s classified as a controlled substance?), so you have to call to manually ask a pharmacist to refill it for you for some reason. You have to bypass all the automated phone tree and wait on hold for someone. Then if it’s not within a couple days of running out of pills they will tell you there is nothing they can do until insurance releases it to be refilled and you have to call back in a couple days. Then if you call and they don’t have it in stock you can’t just ask them to get it from a nearby pharmacy, it’s been out of stock since COVID, you have to call around to other pharmacies to ask if they have it in stock, then call your doctor and ask them to send a new prescription to that pharmacy all over again. There seems to be no automated way to do this. WHich is wild. Now your prescription is at a different pharmacy maybe not as close to your house as the first one until you ask your doctor to change it. If that pharmacy runs out of pills then you have to try calling another one etc. Now you can ask your doctor to send, say 6 months of prescriptions to the pharmacy at a time, but again you have to manually call them every month and wait on hold and go through the song and dance of checking if they are out of stock all within 3 days or something of you running out of the medication you take every day and need to be a normal human in this world. There is also no way of knowing when your renewals from your doctor will run out until you call the pharmacy one day (3 days before you run out) and find out that your refills are out and you now need to schedule an appointment to meet with your very busy doctor to get checked up on to get your medicine refilled and sent to a pharmacy that may be out of stock. Now I get that people out there do abuse Adderall but I have the extended release kind and not the instant release kind that is usually used to get homework done. Why isn’t there more of this drug? Why isn’t refilling it easier? Why is this such a nightmare put on patients to figure out? I will never understand healthcare in the United States.

Written by Matt Gregg, a UI engineer who lives and works in Minneapolis, MN

Have something to say about this post? Tweet at me @itwasmattgregg