image via livescience.com
It’s the week of you’re biggest final exam, and if you do not get an A, you will end up failing the course. All week you sit and stare at your notes, feeling like you are accomplishing something but really nothing is happening. Then you remember the dude down the hall has adderall and sells it for just a few bucks a pill. You go and buy some and after taking the pill you become much more focused on studying. Then you begin buying regularly from the dude down the hall until you need to take it every day. When you don’t take it, you feel tired and unfocused. This is the process of your brain developing a dependency on the drug. Up front, I would like to say that this post is neither condoning or promoting the use of non-prescribed adderall.
Adderall’s intended use
image via forbes.com
Adderall is a drug that contains a mixture of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine (Dodson). It is used to treat ADHD. ADHD, Attention-Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, is pretty much what it’s name describes it as; affected individuals have trouble keeping their attention focused on one thing and may also be disruptive. It is found in mostly children, only about 5%, and this is when the first diagnosis usually occurs. An individual diagnosed with ADHD will most likely receive a prescription for adderall. At first, the individual may start out on a very small dose but may have to increase dose size if a tolerance builds up. Adderall is a very effective drug when used properly. It contains chemicals to stimulate the brain in a way that replaces the chemicals the brain fails to produce (the lack of these chemicals is what causes ADHD). Use of adderall causes the complications associated with ADHD to be dulled and for the effected individual to function at a normal cognitive level. For this purpose, adderall is a very helpful drug.
Non-Prescribed Uses
Because of adderall’s benefit to bettering focus, many people, who are not prescribed the drug, take it for personal use. Some do so for the high, but most are using adderall to better focus on school work. In fact, A study at the University of Kentucky found 30% of students reported using adderall as a way to study better. While it may be very helpful, it is very illegal for someone to take adderall that is not prescribed it and for someone who is prescribed to distribute it.
Complications with non-prescribed use
People are prescribed adderall because they lack certain chemicals in their brain. The drug is used, in these individuals, to bring the chemicals back to a normal level. An individual who is not diagnosed with ADHD normally has sufficient levels of these chemicals in the brain. When they take an adderall, or when someone prescribed takes more than recommended, the levels of these chemicals in the brain rises above normal. This induces a state of high attention and ability to focus on certain tasks, or just a kick ass high. There is a problem associated with this process. The human body works to regulate chemicals in the body, producing more of something you need and less of things you don’t. When an individual continually uses adderall to boost chemical levels in the brain, the brain will begin to produce less of those chemicals. This process of regulation in the body lowers the amount of chemicals produced because the adderall is acting as a supplement. Therefore, when the individual stops taking the adderall, they may lack the chemicals in the brain that the adderall was boosting, leading them to need more adderall.
Comment opinions/suggestions below.
Sources
https://www.drugs.com/health-guide/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd.html
http://www.additudemag.com/adhd-web/article/11070.html
This is a great post. Like several people before me have said, this is actually a pretty big problem on a lot of college campuses. With that being said, your post also reminded me of another medicine-related topic that has recently been growing in popularity. It is the issue of over-diagnosing children for things like ADHD and ADD. The article, attached =” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12189369/ADHD-is-vastly-overdiagnosed-and-many-children-are-just-immature-say-scientists.html”>HERE, analyzes the increased number of children in the UK diagnosed with ADHD. The drug used in this study is Ritalin, which is very similar to Adderall, as shown HERE. The strength of these drugs at any age can create unhealthy dependence that can live on throughout the course of a person’s life.
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This is a great post. Like several people before me have said, this is actually a pretty big problem on a lot of college campuses. With that being said, your post also reminded me of another medicine-related topic that has recently been growing in popularity. It is the issue of over-diagnosing children for things like ADHD and ADD. The article, attached HERE, analyzes the increased number of children in the UK diagnosed with ADHD. The drug used in this study is Ritalin, which is very similar to Adderall, as shown HERE. The strength of these drugs at any age can create unhealthy dependence that can live on throughout the course of a person’s life.
This is a very prevalent topic in college. I didn’t even know what adderall was until freshman year and it popped out of no where when my friend said it helped him study for 12 hours straight. I was amazed and conflicted because I was curious why everyone didn’t use it and why it wasn’t allowed. And that is where your blog post comes into play. I’ve seen adderall be used affectively and i’ve seen it abused. One kid on my floor freshman year had 80 grams and was so focused that he began to count my roommates hair. Yes, one by one. I’ve seen it help people who have a difficult time focusing medically and its been able to help them. If anyone is really interested in this topic, I would watch the movie “Limitless”. It’s about a similar fictional drug that allows you to access the majority of your brain, making you super smart. I won’t spoil the ending but definitely recommend watching it.
I enjoy reading this article. Glad you share this blog with us. It is crazy to see from the image that how crazy the adderall could affect the brain. It literally activated almost every parts of the brain, and I’m sure this could brought up people’s learning memory to a new level. But also, if we think about all those chemicals in the pill which causes this extraordinary effect, probably it isn’t a good idea to take pills at the first time after all. Also, addiction would be a sever problem during the aftermath.
I like the topic you chose a lot! I think that the use of adderall is an increasing problem on college campuses. An article I found on this problem stated that, “30% of students use stimulants non-medically.” I would like to say I am surprised by this, but I definitely am not. I myself have never taken adderall but I would be lying if I said I haven’t been tempted. I have a lot of trouble focusing on classes that do not interest me, which is basically every single one of my math classes. I would begin to read my textbook and I could read pages and pages of it and not retain a single fact or sentence. This become so frustrating. I find it disheartening that colleges put so much pressure on the students that they feel like their talents need to be medically enhanced to get good grades. Drugs are a slippery slope. Once you get started, it’s hard to go back.
While there may be a correlation between adderall use and the amount of work a professor gives, i think this is one of those things that you cannot conduct an experiment on. This topic would definitely be a direct causality where the amount of work caused students to use adderall but there is no way of finding this out ethically.
I enjoyed reading this article because I have always wondered how this drug works. I have heard of students using this drug saying it is the best thing they have ever done, and they continue to use it for studying and tests that last long periods of time. I would really like to know what drives people to use a supplement such as this one when they can have a real “study buddy” such as a classmate, TA, or friend. This past summer here at Penn State my first college test ever, which I studied by myself for, I took and got about and 80% (not what I had desired). I then met a girl in my class and we studied for hours quizzing each other, talking out hard concepts, and just conversing. After using this study method, I had scored 10% higher on the next two tests. So I agree with this post, adderall is not something to be involved with, but I am proof that studying with a friend works!
I thought this blog was so good and definitely relevant to college students! Most people don’t understand the effects of taking unprescribed adderall, or even what it is doing to the brain and why it helps us focus, so i thought this was very helpful and informative. Very interesting topic!
Great blog! I think you pointed out a look of great points. I’ve heard of people using it and I think it’s unfortunate that some people who aren’t prescribed it have to go to such extreme measures to get either high or extremely focused. I think it’s also unfortunate how easily people can get this drug.
I really like this article because it can be seen all through campus. One question that I was wondering is what exactly causes most college students to use adderall? I have a few friends who are prescribed adderall and actually need it and a few friends who aren’t prescribed it an use it. In my opinion, based off of some of my friends’ experiences, I think there might be a correlation between the amount of work a professor assigns and the use of adderall by college students.
I think there are many factors that affect a students decision to use adderall. I would agree with you that there is most likely, if studied, a correlation between the amount of work a professor assigns and the use of adderall among college students. While this may be a factor I also think there are many other factories that go in to it. It would be great to just be able to blame professors for why students are taking adderall but I think it has more to do with the student. If a student has good time management skills and is not wasting their time, there should normally be little reason to take adderall. I am not saying that the adderall is not beneficial and could make things easier, but good time management should solve the issues that students resolve with adderall. Like the study I found said that 30% of students abuse adderall. Now there could be more students that use adderall that don’t report abusing it, but for this purpose let’s say that 30% is the exact number. That means that every 3 in 10 people in a class are using adderall to get by while another 7 in 10 do not use adderall. Seeing as there would be more students not using adderall than using adderall, I believe it would be safe to say that it is more up to the student to have good time management. But who knows, that 30% of students could be getting much better grades and be involved in more activities than the other 70%- those things are all unknown.
I agree with your point here. Since this is my second week in university, I already discover that college is very different from high school. So as Andrew mentioned about, time management is an important thing we need to learn for college studies. Taking adderall is defiantly a short cut for things, but as an adult already. We should have the ability to cope with things. Also the data you given out shows that only a minority are involved with pills, so that means normally people uses their own ability to solve problems. So what I think is that, since everyone can manage their studies and life, why you can’t?