Monday, February 6, 2012

Letter: Students abuse Adderall because they're lazy

Posted by Paul Bowers on Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 4:00 AM

Remember our Addiction Issue last month? It struck a nerve with a few readers, including College of Charleston student Justin Brewer.

Brewer, a junior double-majoring in mass communications and studio art, had this to say in response to the Adderall stories:

I'm tired of this talk about Adderall.

College kids pop these like M&Ms. This is evident, or there would not be an article about a "near-freak-out among CofC students."

I'm typing this in the college library. If I wanted to get some Adderall, I guarantee there is someone in this building right now that would sell it to me. I've been offered it more times that I can count, and I never complained about studying to any of them. I think people take Adderall because they want to, not as an ends to a means, and certainly not to boost their GPA.

The student specifically mentioned ("The Pharmacy Next Door") said he was getting it from "friends" at first and then liked it so much he wanted to take it legally. Of course his mom obliged and let her son get a prescription. It's that easy until, dum dum dum, the great Adderall shortage! No worries, though, he just bought the drug from his friends when CVS ran out, just like everyone else did ... That's called dealing drugs, by the way. Of course he functioned better on the drug than off, just like people don’t perform well without their morning addiction of coffee. It’s called a withdrawal.

I think this is all a case of laziness among our generation. Students use their studies as an excuse for an addiction to Adderall because it gives you a rush and keeps you up, so you can write a paper or play Call of Duty all night or go to the after-after party. All I'm saying is, if you're doing Adderall and your grades are as low as my friends who do Adderall for “school,” then save your money and invest in a tutor, because the drug isn’t going to help you.

Agree? Disagree? Reading this at 4 a.m. on an Adderall high?

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While I can agree that there are some students who use school as an excuse to abuse adderall, I definitely don't agree that this student's letter applies to everyone. I'm a student at the College double majoring in biology and discovery informatics and I can certainly say that I haven't been taking adderall because I am lazy. Prior to this semester, I have earned a 3.85 GPA or greater in both of my majors and still managed to have a life and a job as a research assistant. I should mention that I also didn't eat my prescription like candy. This is my last semester at the College and I've been feeling the effects of not having adderall and I just hope I make it through without bombing my GPA. Also, I haven't ever been offered adderall 'under the table.' Maybe it's the company I keep, but the writer's experience has certainly not been my experience.

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Posted by Katherine V Klimkeit on February 6, 2012 at 9:14 AM

I agree with the previous comment. The writer obviously has a very strong and biased opinion on this top. I don't take, adderall, but I have plenty of friends that do. And most of them don't take it because they are lazy. They take it because are trying to work a full time job to pay their rent and still have enough time to do multiple hours of school work every night. Not to mention how crazy they tend to get around mid-terms and finals. Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day. I see these people every day and I see the kind of pressure that they are under. Maybe while writing a ranting article to the city paper you should look at a topic from all sides before forming a personal "OPINION" and assuming that's the truth for EVERYONE.

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Posted by anonymous opinion on February 6, 2012 at 10:48 AM

"Anonymous" - it is not meant for students to stay awake and get things done. It is for people who have an attention deficit disorder. For generations now, students have been going to class and working fulltime on top of having active social lives, interships and anything else that goes into being a college student. And they have done it without taking a drug to which they are not perscribed. Society enormously over medicates these days and it is a joke that you think college kids who are not perscribed to adderall actually NEED it to get by. You think life is stressful now. Wait until you enter the real world. The shortage is going to be very, very difficult for those people who actually need this drug to function properly, no one cares about your buddies that need it to stay awake because they they "get crazy" around mid-terms.

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Posted by Emily on February 6, 2012 at 12:26 PM

this thread makes me think of "Babe Ruth did it on hotdogs and beer."

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Posted by kmacky on February 6, 2012 at 1:04 PM

If "Anonymous" is correct about the reason, then Emily is correct about her assessment. There aren't even engineering majors at CofC... don't talk to me about "hectic schedules!"

Admit they're abusing the drug to make life easier and move on. Don't create some fantasy about 18 credits being a "disorder-level" lifestyle.

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Posted by factoryconnection on February 6, 2012 at 1:20 PM

I was diagnosed with ADD as an adult. I worked with a specialist and expressed that I did not wish to be medicated and so I changed my diet several times, took every vitamin you could imagine, rode my bike 10-20 miles a day, gave up wine with dinner and beers with friends and even designed and made a custom visual day planner (and used it religiously.) After a year, things had certainly improved. But I still could not read. I still had to go back and re-read upon realizing (every ten pages or so) that my mind was merely scanning the words but not absorbing them. My home was a disaster because whenever I cleaned I would go inch by inch picking up each object, opening and reorganizing every little container, going through all the old photos, trying to finish half-done projects. These are just but two examples from my own experience but, for me, when I did decide to try medication it was not to stay up at night (in fact, I can actually take a better nap after taking adderall). Imagine you're organizing a marching band and they have to do fancy choreography and letters, etc. For those of us with ADD, we are trying to do this in the middle of an infinitely flat field with tall grass. Adderall is not necessarily like getting a nice stadium to practice in, as much as a hill popping up in the field from which you might see your band and how each member relates to one and other. Those kids using adderall recreationaly are just assholes digging up the stadium they're already in, filling the hole with a hose and doing cannonballs off the hill.

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Posted by Tabitha on February 7, 2012 at 8:19 PM

what a generation ! and these are the ones that are going to be the leaders of the Nation ? please tell me , NO. !

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Posted by Clarkie on February 7, 2012 at 10:06 PM
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