Whether writing a five page paper or cramming for a midterm, many students don't get the right amount of sleep. Therefore, they often turn to a quick fix to keep them awake in the dawn hours of the morning. Most commonly, drinking caffeine was used as a pick-me-up, but most recently on college campuses, prescription drugs have become more and more popular, particularly a drug called Adderall.
According to Wikipedia Legal, Adderall is a "psycho stimulant medication composed of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine which is thought to work by increasing the amount of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain." It can be given as an instant relsease and is normally prescribed for patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
With this said, it isn't hard to find the drug on college campuses. According to the Houston Chronicle, 23% of people say they have loaned their prescription drug and 27% say they have borrowed someone else's. Many students take it as a one time quick fix because they've heard it helps study, then become addicted. The difficult part about this drug is that there are no stereotypical users on the college campus. Anyone with some sort of academic stress have been said to take this drug. In an interview from the TransWorld News, a student reported, “I don’t know that many kids that have done coke, none that have tried crack, and only a few that have dropped acid. I can’t even count all of the ones who’ve taken Adderall.”
Personally, I think that if students have good time management skills during the semester, it will go a long way to easing the stress come the end of the semester. I have stayed up until four in the morning the night before a paper is due, but I can honestly say that drinking water and taking short breaks every couple of hours gets the job done just as well.
To read more about prescription drugs on campuses:
http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=125454&cat=10
http://adderall.legalview.info/wikipedia/Adderall/
This is a really interesting post Alyssa. I definitely agree with the evidence you have that a lot of kids take adderall that don't need it. Sometimes i feel that it's a "cop-out" drug in the first place. Yes it makes people more focused but a lot of the people that I know that are prescribed it, don't really have bad ADD or ADHD. I know people that do have ADD really bad and don't take the drug and they do fine in school. In addition, to what you said about it being addicting, I feel that the people that get addicted to it like the "feel good" aspect of adderall. Since it's a neurological stimulator it makes people that don't need it feel good and motivates them to do things. Honestly, in my opinion you just need some determination to do your work along with what you said, time management.
ReplyDelete