Madison LaRocque

Madison LaRocque

 

Dr. Jaxon

 

English 130i

           

Adderall: Beneficial or Destructive in a College Environment?

 

            Imagine sitting down the night before your ten page paper was due, staring at a blank screen. Now imagine feeling motivated and productive and distraction free. You crank out that paper within two hours, and before you know it you have a flawless piece of work. At the same time, you are not tired or hungry so you don’t even need to hit the gym that day. In fact, you want to clean your room and do your laundry instead. You feel on top of your game and you want to get things done. Tomorrow comes around and your professor marvels over your work, and shares with the class your amazing paper. A plus.

 

            These are the expectations college students hold when it comes to the prescription drug Adderall. Unfortunately, students only hear an exaggerated, positive review of the drug, and like many other prescription pills, the side effects and addiction are brutal. The use of Adderall in a college environment is increasing rapidly and I must ask, is this drug beneficial or destructive?

 

            There are two ways to explain what Adderall is. The literal way, and the figurative way. Literally, Adderall is a prescription drug made with amphetamine combined with dextroamphetamine. Doctors prescribe this pill to patients that suffer from Narcolepsy and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). When someone who is truly diagnosed with ADHD is prescribed to Adderall, they are still cautioned about the drug and its side effects. It is designed to help users focus and stay on task, but still remains highly addictive and doctors watch over the dosage amount.The figurative definition to Adderall could be described as “steroids for the brain” according to David Parfitt. 30% of college students across the nation abuse this drug and they reveal that it is “a pill that makes you get good grades and makes you concentrate.” Generally starting as a freshman, college students learn about Adderall and begin using frequently. They claim to start using because of the amount of workload and stress within a college environment. In society today, teenagers are expected to get good grades in high school, graduate, and then attend a four year college to lead into their futures. The pressure is unreal and students feel that if they fail any one of these tasks, their futures are damaged. Young adults will go to extreme measures to stay on the path to success in order to prove to themselves as well as society that they have achieved all their goals. Students hear about a pill with all these positive effects such as ability to stay on task and get work done without distractions. Who is taking it, how easy it is to obtain, and how well the drug works are all factors as to why college students turn to this pill. Students who are prescribed will start earning extra cash by selling to their friends. In fact according to Medical News Daily, 53.5% of students admit to getting their Adderall from a friend. This may be the cause of the 96% of pharmacies that reported having an Adderall shortage in 2012. When a student sees they can make money off selling the drug to their friends, they constantly need refills. And if thousands of prescribed students realize this, chances are there will probably be shortages of the pill. If a student constantly hears others boasting about how well Adderall helped them with their paper or assignment, they will feel the desire to try it for themselves. Once the student sees how it works, they will generally start to abuse it.

 

        Pablo Manriquez revealed his experience when he first started using Adderall. Manriquez was a freshman at Notre Dame with an intense schedule that included wrestling, his social life, and his academic life. Unfortunately, with all the stress and not enough time, he couldn’t succeed at all three of these things. Thats when his upperclassman friend offered him a drug that could make the stress vanish and the good grades reappear once again. Manriquez says the pill made him feel outstanding and competitive. The drug assisted him with not only finishing his essay but also cleaning his entire room spotless. After Manriquez went to the doctor to get prescribed (addiction already settling in) the doctor was unsure because he said once you take Adderall there was no going back. The doctor claimed “Adderall is forever.” According to an online article “The Other Side of Adderall” author Laskowski informs readers that Adderall is classified as a Schedule II drug. Under this classification also includes Cocaine, PCP, and Oxycontin. It is known to be extremely addictive if abused. This is where the negative side effects come in. Manriquez claims that after some time using the drug  that for years he had little sleep. The positive effects of Adderall started to wear off. The drug started making him feel angry and annoyed. He became paranoid and rude due to lack of sleep and agitation.

 

        Kate Miller, a young journalist from the New York Times reveals her negative effects after taking Adderall in her article “The Last All-Nighter.”  Miller’s problem started a few years after Manriquez. She was a senior at UCLA and was willing to do anything to finish up her final year strong as she entered the real world. She began buying Adderall off a friend, but realized she needed more than just a few pills a week. After getting prescribed to Adderall, she realized she couldn’t do anything without her new medication. She couldn’t socialize without it, or maintain her energy. And Miller claims the meds had no “off switch.” She was starting to lose control. When Miller left her law firm career and became an assistant at a women’s magazine, she found herself buying more and more refills to her prescription. She would spend her grocery money on Adderall refills. She would start taking more than the suggested dosage which resulted in sleepless nights. She admits it benefited her professional life but not her personal life. Miller tried to tell herself she had her life balanced out, but in the back of her mind she knew her life was starting to spiral out of control. She even admitted she thought she was becoming schizophrenic. In the end, Miller described herself as uninspired, unproductive, and miserable.

 

           There seems to be valid effects of Adderall, positive and negative. It could create less of a stressful college environment but also leads to abuse. And then the abuse could lead to addiction and dependence. College students don’t view this abuse as a bad thing because they believe they are getting tasks done, but they tend to avoid admitting the negative side effects which also include lack of appetite and lack of sleep. Some may view these as positive traits, like if a girl wants to lose weight or a student needs to stay up all night finishing an essay, but they are very unhealthy, especially when being repeated over and over. The pill starts to take a toll on the human body. Students also become addicted, whether they realize it or not. David Parfitt reveals that when he interviewed students at a college campus, they didn’t view using Adderall as anything worse than abusing alcohol. A student admits it is “equivalent to getting groceries.” The pill is only one phone call and 3-10 dollars away and almost too easy to get a hold of.

 

          If students constantly rely on this drug, when do they decide to get off? How do they get off? Manriquez explains what happens when he tried to quit. After getting off the pill he says his routine consisted merely of work and sleep. Nothing more. All his energy disappeared. To bounce back, he tried to exercise and diet. Very slowly, he began to get his energy back and stay off the pill. Manriquez reveals that studies show that a large portion of hospital related incidents involve ADHD medication. Other cases like Millers were similar. When she tried to quit she admits it was not easy. She was constantly tired and upset. She felt stupid without the drug and unable to focus and follow through. She was shy and lost her sociable wit. After months of depression and slow healing, the author started to go back to her normal self. But overall, it wasn’t worth the pill to begin with.

 

         Some may wonder how to get off this pill. Is it really that addictive, and if so what must users go through to stay off? According to Katie McLaughlin in her article "Adderall Addiction Treatment and Adderall Drug Rehab Announced”, there are a variety of ways to get off the drug. Some have the willpower to just stay off, but that includes several weeks to months of suffering. Fatigue, headaches, withdrawals, depression, cravings, and other symptoms are reported. Some users decide to go to recovery centers to get professional help, which of course can cost a bundle of money. There, treatments include detoxification which eliminates the drug from the body and reduces addiction and cravings. Before this process starts, the patient is given small doses of Adderall and until the dosage is almost nothing. It goes until the body can no longer sense a withdrawal. After this treatment is complete, users go to therapy and other drug programs until doctors know the patient is ready to go back to the real world. This is a process and not every abuser choses or can afford it. Some people get off on their own but many tend to relapse. Because Adderall is a schedule II drug, it is highly addictive. Addiction can lead to overdose and overdose can result in heart failure, it can alter brain chemistry forever, and in the worst cases, lead to death. Although these are extremely rare cases with Adderall, it is still a possibility and abusers should seek help and rehab immediately.

 

         In this society, with the amount of pressure a young adult must endure, it is understandable as to why they turn to this drug. Although I do think students see the negative effects, I believe that in the moment, they think that getting over the stress is more important. Students believe that if they don’t do well academically, they won’t have as good as a future and they turn to this drug that is cheap, effective, and easy to get. Adderall is spoken positively within a college environment, but negatively within an adult environment. But if adults aren’t in college and aren’t experiencing this society and its expectations, then maybe they don’t understand the pressure college students feel these days. Maybe if they were back in college, they would understand or even take Adderall. But college students must understand that many of them are abusing the drug and it is highly addictive. The aftermath of being addicted to Adderall is said to be not worth it.

 

        Overall, I think Adderall in a college setting is not healthy. Surviving college without the pill is doable, considering thousands of students achieve that goal each year. It all comes down to determination and the want to succeed. If students want to succeed, they would not feel the need to turn to a prescription drug to achieve their goals. The side effects and aftermath are not worth it. Addiction, health, and safety are all put in jeopardy if a student abuses Adderall. I think it isn’t a known issue yet but over the next couple of years, I hope to see awareness of the effects of this drug spread throughout college campuses. Like Manriquez’s doctor said, Adderall is forever and that is not what we want the future of our nation to look like.