Marissa Weaver ENC 1101 Jeff Naftzinger November 19, 2013 Adderall Many young individuals complete high school, but that’s not the end of their educational years. Most young adults continue on to college and gain even more stress that accompanies the unfamiliar area and course load. Most kids crumble under the stress, but many have turned to Adderall to help maintain A’s. Many young adults that consume Adderall do not have a prescription or have even been diagnosed with ADHD. The young individuals of the current generation always look for the easy way out. Instead of sitting down and spending more time studying, college students would rather pop an Adderall or two and cram the night before a huge exam or final paper. Adderall is easy to obtain and does not cost much. A pill on average costs about $6-$8 and can be obtained from at least one person in each dorm. Adderall abuse is on the rise and is projected to continue to rise through the next five years. There has also been a rise in emergency room visits among college students for overdoses of Adderall. Taking Adderall isn’t always to a stressful day or assignment, there are many risks that students are chancing by popping a pill or two. The most known risk of partaking in these actions is the chance of becoming addicted. It can be a physical or psychological addiction, depending on the individual. When questioned, students don’t believe they are addicted, but they say they don’t know how they would pass classes if they didn’t have Adderall. Cody, a current Florida State University student, says that Adderall is
extremely addicting as he retells his own addiction story. He believes that it is more of a psychological addiction stating, “no matter how terrible it made me feel, I loved the way it made my head feel.” Studies have in fact shown that actually in fact students are becoming addicted to Adderall and that they can’t live without the high that it leaves them with. Is a mental high really worth it to accomplish a good grade on a test or a paper? Another risk that students face when taking Adderall is the inability to have a creative mind. Doctors have proven that an affect of Adderall is to make one’s brain more structured and rigid. Sure that doesn’t seem like it could be a huge setback, but when one’s mind already works at a standard average this becomes a major setback. How is one supposed to write a paper when there are no creative thoughts flowing through an individual’s brain? When a person’s mind becomes rigid, they tend to not think as intricate as one’s mind does when creativity is present. So how does Adderall really help you get the grade if it shuts off the creative juices? It helps focus your mind on specific parts of the assignment such as the grammar aspect or the information present. Compared to a individual that isn’t on Adderall who would look at the overall picture while attempting to make the essay interesting. Though, if you were to read one’s essay written while on Adderall, it would not be audience captivating but more concise and to the point. Not only does it make one’s mind rigid, it also tends to leave students with a high metabolism and without an appetite. After providing current college students with this fact, they were asked if they would use Adderall to lose excess unwanted weight. Most individuals said that if they had serious weight problems that they
would, but if they were average weight they would not. One student in particular, Steven who has struggled with weight loss throughout his life, says, “I am currently using Adderall as a weight stimulant and it seems to be working.” After being told that the weight tends to come back after the use of Adderall stops, he told me that has no effect on his decisions. Steven stated, “If it is working for me right now then that is all that matters so I don’t get picked on.” Many other students have learned of this new “method” of losing the freshman 15 and there has been a more than usual abuse of Adderall. Adderall also alters one’s mind into a rigid state making it stay fixated on one task and one task only. Even though your body might be telling you that it is hungry, you would never know because your mind ignores it since it is not associated with the task you were focused on to begin with. Katelyn, a sophomore at Florida State, says, “There have been times that I know I would normally be hungry, but in the moment it doesn’t seem to effect me.” She also stated that once the Adderall had worn off she would be hungry and want to eat multiple plates of food. The more pills you consume at one time, the longer the effects of them last. Some individuals have experienced a loss of appetite for up to 38 hours. If you don’t value your body’s health than this isn’t a hurdle, but for those of you that do, this could be a bit of a complication. A lack of sleep makes an individual irritable and cranky. Adderall also has that same effect. Individuals become irritable after consuming Adderall because most students don’t take it until later in the evening and end up staying up all night. Adderall stimulates the mind to stay focused so you lose your sense of sleep deprivation and in turn you don’t go to sleep at all or until extremely late. One also becomes
irritable because as your mind is focusing so intently on the topic, it doesn’t like to be interrupted by any other situations. Katelyn stated, “I once threw my book at my roommate because she kept asking me questions while I was trying to do my work.” She said that the next day her roommate wouldn’t speak to her and she almost lost a friendship over a pill. In your opinion, is that kind of behavior acceptable just because they were on a drug? As one becomes irritable, it tends to turn people off and give the impression that one is rude. Is that grade actually worth upsetting a friend? Not only are there risks to Adderall, there are also moral values being broken. Is it fair for a person to use a mind-stimulating drug to receive a good grade? An individual diagnosed with ADHD performs at an average level along with other individuals in the same class when consuming Adderall. An individual that already performs at an average level increases their performance level to an above average level on the other hand. Is that honestly fair to those individuals diagnosed with ADHD because no matter if they take the pill or not, they still won’t be able to perform at the same level as those individuals that are consuming unprescribed Adderall. It leaves ADHD diagnosed individuals at an unfair advantage in the situation. Kayla, a freshman at Florida State that doesn’t use Adderall, states, “ I don’t see how there could be any moral wrong by taking it. It is just a personal preference not to.” On the other hand, Cody says, “I believe it is completely morally wrong to do it, but if you really like it, you’ll do it anyways.” I believe that individuals taking unpresribed Adderall should be punished if found out they were under the influence because they are simply cheating the system. Many individuals at prestigious schools around the country take Adderall to help them stay there. It is unfair to all of those individuals
that didn’t get in as well as the people that worked their butts off to get there the fair way. Sure they didn’t actually cheat by coping someone’s work, but they still have an unfair advantage. They are consuming the academic version of steroids. Athletes are extremely ridiculed and punished for using steroids because they are shown to have an unfair advantage, so what is the difference here? There is simply no difference. Individuals found of selling or using unprescribed Adderrall should have some sort of disciplinary action whether it be put on academic probation or getting kicked out completely. ADHD diagnosed individuals feel as if they are never going to be able to outdo an individual just taking Adderall because they need a good grade on their exam. William, a Freshman at Florida State who is diagnosed with ADHD, says, “It sucks always being below them. I can never catch up with them even when I do take my pills. I even tried taking multiple pills at one time and I still couldn’t compare to those kids. I just wish I actually had a chance to be as good as them.” Individuals diagnosed with ADHD shouldn’t have to ever feel like this considering that they are the one that actually has the problem, not the unprescribed users. Is it fair that we allow individuals to academically have an unfair advantage, but when it comes to sports one is kicked off the team or completely banned from the sport if found guilty of that? Many college students have at least experimented with Adderall once before and have said that it has worked miracles. There is no legal wrong to consuming Adderall, but consider the risks and the moral wrongs. Is getting that A really worth the chance of addiction, loss of creativity, the loss of weight if consuming too much Adderall, or the chance of creating tension among friends? If you were an individual with ADHD would you be happy with always having the unfair advantage? Sure you
get things done faster because you get less distracted, but do the benefits really outweigh the cost of consuming unprescribed Adderall to achieve those A’s? Don’t try to let me persuade you in to a certain direction, but question your morals the next time you think about grabbing the bottle and popping a couple in your mouth.
Sources Getchell, Katelyn. Personal Interview. 16 Nov. 2013. Hicks, Kayla. Personal Interview. 18 Nov. 2013.
Hom, Elaine J. "Adderall: Uses, Abuses & Side Effects." LiveScience.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Jenkins, Kristin. "Adderall: College Students' Best Friend-- Or Worst Enemy??" Web log post. Serendip Studio. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Munce, Cody. Personal Interview. 18 Nov. 2013 Peelish, Steven. Phone interview. 18 Nov. 2013. Schureck, William. Personal Interview. 18 Nov. 2013. "The Effects of Adderall Use." The Effects of Adderall Use. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.