Introduction
As the person progress through his educational career, things become tougher. It becomes difficult gradually to cope up with the increasing pressure of studies. The parents in most of the cases do not put pressure on their children which means they are on their own to take care of their studies. In this difficult time, most of the students turn into the habit of taking a drug names Adderall. It is a medication normally used for the cure of ADHD that is an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It helps in increasing the focus of person and hinder all the other activities that are becoming a hurdle in studying. In other words, it turns the person into a robot, which focuses on nothing else than the task at hand. The students normally justify it as a mean of self-medication that is used to get rid of distractions. Though they know, it is dangerous, but it is taken similarly as they take smoking or drinking. It is commonly available, and as it is used to focus on studying or anything productive rather than just sleeping all day, this is perceived as good. The increase in the intake of this drug has increased over the past decade. Here is the discussion taking in the literature research to see whether it is the right thing to do and what type of effect it has on the college students.
Literature review
There are about 2.5 million people in America that are prescribed with Adderall to cure ADHD. It is a brain disorder which takes away the ability to concentrate. In recent years, the use of this drug for non-medical uses has increased. It is commonly seen in college students who buy this drug from the prescription of a friend and use it for studying till long hours. These stimulants are also used for recreation purposes along with alcohol. Study proves that about 35.5 percent of college undergraduates use this drug without any prescription (Low & Gendaszek). It shows that it is common for most of the college students to use illegal stimulants. Various social media channels also help to observe the behavior of students. The general behavior of tweets in college students shows that they often mention this drug in their social media activities. There is a contribution to the normative behavior in college students that can be observed through its use on the social media channel of Twitter (Hanson et al.). This use is completely non-medical because it increase the prevalence rate and it is taken without any prescription. However, this use is common in some of the specific groups and colleges. It depicts a behavior of high risk that should be monitored carefully and then steps should be taken to remove this drug abuse (McCabe et al.).
The abuse of these stimulants without any prescription has a significant effect on the behavior depicted by young college students. It also affects the GPA of students, and the rate of skipping classes seems to be increased because abusing this drug (Aria et al.). However, this stimulant is used by students to augment their cognitive performance. It has a direct effect on the brain functioning because the misuse results in performance problems (Weyandt et al.). Another area that is affected by the misuse of these stimulant drugs includes habits and perceptions of college students. It alters the way in which students perceive their academic performance. Such as, when a person is an illicit user, while providing justifications and frames of use, he perceives his efficacy differently and this as an effect on the academic performance (Aikins). All these things show that the illegal users of the drug Adderall affect their body and thinking patterns in multiple ways.
Discussion
This fact is of no surprise that about 75 percent of drug abusers use it for academic drives. It helps them in staying awake, study and focus on the exams for which they are preparing. However, it is not true that the medications used for ADHD disorder boost the intelligence level of students. It is not helpful in any way to have a positive effect on their study results by producing better papers and studying complex material easily. Not only for education, but this drug is also used to stay awake for general or social reasons. Such as some people also claim that taking Adderall in routine make them talk more and become a better company for others. A large proportion of students taking this are men. Some use it just for high times while the others using it regularly take this for educational motives.
Another important behavior noted in women regarding the use of this drug is that they take this drug to lose weight (Teter et al.). It is done because this drug reduces all the other temptations and the person focus on only one thing. Women do not feel hungry, so this is used to be in shape. It is an unhealthy reason to take this medicine. It hinders the nutrition value that the body should have. There are also students who distribute this drug to other students in their communities and take it as a good way of making money. However, this is an addictive drug, and the punishment for selling addictive drug illegally results in the imprisonment of five years. Most of the people are not aware of this fact, and this is even not enforced in most of the settings.
It is also not considered as an unethical perspective because normally students take it as a mean of self-medication which is used to cure an attention deficit disorder. They do not know that it has dangerous consequences both from physical and ethical perspective. The benefits of using this drug should be weighed against the negative consequences. The common side effects of taking this medicine include insomnia that also seems like an attraction to the students. They think that it will give them more time to work and study for exams. The other side effects on the physical body are in the form of blurriness in vision, increase in body temperature, gastrointestinal problems, and increase in heart rate, blood pressure, irritability and reduction in circulation of blood. These are the serious consequences that may not arise at the moment but later in life. It is a deadly condition for adults especially the ones with heart disease. The likelihood of having all these side effects increase if a person uses Adderall without prescription.
It is also becoming common in college students because it is not difficult for them to get it. It is easily available, and now it has become an everyday thing. When the students are occupied with a lot of things to do during exams, they have many things to worry about. This thing has a negative effect on them, and they waste a great amount of time. Time is the only thing that they do not have at such time. So, to make this time more productive, they search for alternatives like Adderall that keeps them focused on their task. When the time to sleep and eat is taken off the schedule because of this medicine, the student saves a lot of time. The task can be done quickly, and this makes the whole scenario easy for the students who have to manage jobs with studies. Adderall provides escape from all the pressure, and the student can work for long hours with complete focus. It is even seen from research that the brain functioning improves more than 50 percent by using Adderall. However, the effects of this active mind lead to negative consequences if this is done too often and for long intervals. This will result in overall burnout and leave the brain tired because it is not having any rest.
No matter what the justifications be, using this drug repeatedly without any medical disorder is the way of going against the natural procedure. Nature has set a particular routine in which sleep is made necessary. Not sleeping for long hours will affect the body functioning. Now to control the use of this drug, regulations are made by FDA on the yearly production of this drug. There are many harmful ingredients including Amphetamines that is a common ingredient used in Meth which is another addictive drug.
One of the common reason behind the increase in consumption of this drug is its low price. However, because of the limit that is now imposed on its production and flow in the market, the prices are increasing. This result in jeopardizing the fame of this drug among college students. It is used as a strategy to reduce its use that has become excessive in past few years. It is charged as a felony if the student is caught taking Adderall to improve his grades. It will all be a waste at the end of the day because the grades taken by studying long hours will be of no use to having a felony claim in the record.
Taking this drug may not show any effects right at the moment. However, the symptoms of the crash are visible after a time being. Even if this is taken only once in a while, after it has worn off, this will result in depression and exhaustion. There is also the possibility of having hallucinations, paranoia, and impulsive behavior. Other than these effects on health, the legal consequences of taking this drug are also huge. It can lead the person to suffer from suspension in school, fine and jail time. Out of all these things, the most important effect that the person should worry about is addiction and dependence. This addiction can lead to serious consequences that may also be dead in few cases. It starts with symptoms of depression and then ultimately leads towards suicidal activities (Zullig & Divin). This addiction is not planned as the addiction from other drugs and alcohol. It happens over the course of time as the person start depending on the drug in routine and cannot spend his days without taking it.
In society, the attitudes of parents, doctors, administration of the college and even law enforcement is not strict towards the use of drugs like Adderall. They think that as it is taken for studying, this is enough to justify the use of an addictive drug. It is also considered as an alternative to caffeine. They are not aware that in case of serious issues of attention, the students should better go and see a doctor rather than self-medicating themselves. Some of the important steps should be taken to make these parties including students aware of the consequences of using such addictive drugs. Putting legislation and increasing prices is not a solution to this problem, but creating awareness can change the thinking and lead to positive consequences. It is true that facing serious consequences is rare, but this may occur to anyone. So, it is good to be safe than sorry afterward. The students mostly get encouragement from their friends and sometimes from family also, this thing is dangerous. It should be made clear that rather than using these unfair means, it is good to take the right path and study more diligently. After all, this does not have any effect on the intelligence level, the competency of the brain remains the same. So, instead of taking medication to get more time, the routine activities should be scheduled in a way that they find enough time to study and relax.
Conclusions
From all the discussion mentioned above and review of the literature, it is evident that the erroneous effect of using Adderall outnumbers the benefits. Though it is helpful in providing support in meeting the targets at the right time and taking out more time for studying, the negative effects it has on the personality are huge. It may not occur at the current time or in youth, but later on, in life, the serious consequences raised by Adderall will prove that it is a mistake. To keep the dear ones safe, it is good to create awareness about the negative effects of using this drug in routine. Healthcare professionals should also take care in handing over the prescriptions of this drug. This may seem fun for the time being, but considering all the consequences, it is evident to have a healthy lifestyle the use of this drug should be eliminated from routine.
Works Cited
Low, K. Graff, and A. E. Gendaszek. “Illicit use of psychostimulants among college students: a preliminary study.” Psychology, Health & Medicine 7.3 (2010): 283-287.
Hanson, Carl L., et al. “Tweaking and tweeting: exploring Twitter for nonmedical use of a psychostimulant drug (Adderall) among college students.” Journal of medical Internet research 15.4 (2013).
McCabe, Sean Esteban, et al. “Non‐medical use of prescription stimulants among US college students: Prevalence and correlates from a national survey.” Addiction100.1 (2005): 96-106.
Arria, Amelia M., et al. “Nonmedical use of prescription stimulants and analgesics: Associations with social and academic behaviors among college students.” Journal of drug issues 38.4 (2008): 1045-1060.
Weyandt, Lisa L., et al. “Misuse of prescription stimulants among college students: a review of the literature and implications for morphological and cognitive effects on brain functioning.” Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology21.5 (2013): 385.
Aikins, Ross D. “Academic performance enhancement: a qualitative study of the perceptions and habits of prescription stimulant–using college students.” Journal of College Student Development 52.5 (2011): 560-576.
Teter, Christian J., et al. “Illicit use of specific prescription stimulants among college students: prevalence, motives, and routes of administration.” Pharmacotherapy: The Journal of Human Pharmacology and Drug Therapy 26.10 (2006): 1501-1510.
Zullig, Keith J., and Amanda L. Divin. “The association between non-medical prescription drug use, depressive symptoms, and suicidality among college students.” Addictive behaviors 37.8 (2012): 890-899
