Omes 1

Gabby Omes

Professor Coco

English 1001

26 November 2018

“How Adderall effects students with ADHD and students without ADHD”

During my research of Adderall, I have found some very interesting information about

this drug. I found scientific studies, peer-review journals and also articles. I have personal

experience with Adderall, so I was very intrigued to see what it actually is and how it works.

Most of the research, I read through was mostly the negative effects of it. There was also a lot of

information about how students use it the wrong way. However, I did find positive information

on the drug when treating people with ADHD. The main reason, I am writing about this topic is

to educate people on the misusage of Adderall and to explain how the drug works.

In my paper, I have set it up to have four main parts and two subtopics. The first part, I

explain the components of Adderall and I also have a subtopic of how it can become addictive.

Second, I will be talking about people that have ADHD and how their brains are chemical

imbalanced and why they use prescribed stimulants to treat ADHD. The third part, I will talk

using Adderall as a study enhancer and how it might not be beneficial at all. Lastly, I will talk

about how Adderall is overprescribed and how easy it is to get a prescription. The subtopic talks

about other ways we can treat ADHD besides medication.

ADHD also known as Attention-deficit/hyperactivity is a disorder that many people

suffer from. When people suffer from ADHD, they have a chemical imbalance in their brain

causing them to lack dopamine and norepinephrine. Adderall is made up of amphetamine salts
 Omes 2

that go to your neurotransmitters. Then the neurotransmitters release more dopamine and

norepinephrine to your brain to reach a regular level of stimulation (Abelman 1).

Dopamine and norepinephrine are what everyone wants a little more of in their life.

Dopamine releases motivation therefore, when someone receives more dopamine, they become

extra motivated. Norepinephrine helps you to stay focused and alerted. Adderall can also cause

users who have ADHD to slow down and become more focused and detailed articulate. Over

time students who take Adderall can become immune to the drug and it won’t affect them

anymore. This causes doctors to prescribe more amounts of it making addiction much more

frequent.

My personal experience with Adderall is scary I do not feel like myself when I am taking

this drug and feel like my personality is gone. In the New York Times, I read about how this is

teen had a similar experience to me. Emotional lability is when someone has quick mood

changes and their emotions that they are showing on the outside is different from what they are

actually feeling which Adderall can cause users to be like that. Although, I use the medication for

school occasionally I do not take it unless I absolutely need it because of the way it makes me

feel.

Adderall effects all users differently depending on a number of aspects but one of the

biggest factors is if the user suffers from ADHD or not. If the user suffers from ADHD Adderall

will make the user reach a regular level of stimulation but when students do not have this

chemical imbalance, so they are able to work at extremely fast paces getting loads of work done.

However, for those who do not suffer from ADHD the additional chemicals overload the brain

with artificial chemicals producing a sense of pleasure resembling the effects of cocaine and

speed (Abelman 2 ). A student from brown university actually called Adderall a “robotic drug”
 Omes 3

and it made her so focused on her schoolwork that she actually forgot to do anything else

(Clemmitt 16). Adderall can also be used as to help people feel less stressed and it tends to make

people more confident and relaxed. When Adderall can help users to speed up and fell this way,

people can become dependent on it (Abelman 3).

The drug Adderall is also classified as a controlled substance and is in the Substance II

group which means it has a very high risk for abuse. Adderall is typically known as a safe drug to

people because it is a prescribed mediation but some of the side effects it can cause are very

serious such as psychosis, paranoia, anxiety and depression (Abelman 3). The serious side effects

of these drugs are often not brought up because many people and the mass media are for

medicating people who have ADHD. Increased access to stimulants has not led to better things,

increased access has actually led to not completing higher level education, committing crimes

and spike in depression only for girls taking the medication (Abelman 3).

Adderall limits distractions and if psychologists believe creativity is the process of

irrelevant information and making it have a purpose(Farah) If Adderall focuses one’s mind that

brings up the question if it does limit creativity. If the brain is not allowed to roam free, then

Adderall can potentially limit creativity, but they did not have strong results to prove this

hypothesis.

Adderall has become a rising epidemic in the past few years. A study was done in 2008 of

1,550 people at Louisiana State University found that about 43% of students have used a

prescription stimulant without a prescription (Maahs et al 148). This drug has become huge

amongst college campuses. Being on a college campus I hear all the time how life changing

Adderall is and what it can do for your grades, but I never understood this while taking the drug.
 Omes 4

Students now face more pressure to get the best grades and maintain a social life and

Adderall makes this possible. Studies show that the students who participate in Greek life are

much more inclined to use this a stimulant as a performance enhancer (Maahs et al 149). When

students take Adderall, they can study hours on end being able to cram their work into one night,

so they can still maintain a social life. Studies show that Adderall does not necessarily raise your

GPA for non-prescribed users (Abelman 2 ). Often, students can abuse this drug by using it too

much of it to where it actually slows creates memorization problems. A heath professor told The

Crimson that if a student “takes a little too much, he will fall into a delusional or ‘euphoric state

in which he does everything wrong without ever realizing it.”

Adderall is not only being abused to help with academics, but it also helps with sports.

Adderall releases the feeling to stay motivated and alerted which can make a big difference in

sports. The education system has become very competitive and many students are struggling.

This drug offers them a boost to keep them in the game. As Rodger Cohan wrote in The New

York Times, “Adderall is becoming to college what steroids are to baseball an illicit performance

enhancer drug” (Wertheim 61). Adderall is often very easy to find on a college campus since

many people are prescribed it most people are able to get it from their friends. Our generation is

also the first to use Adderall and the first to abuse it, so we do not know truly know much about

the longer-term effects of this drug yet.

For a student athlete, Adderall can also be very useful. It can allow them to be energized

for longer periods of time and helps them stay focused. All athletes would be able to benefit from

Adderall if it helps you to stay more focused and alerted it would make every player better.

Student athletes often struggle with time management. Often many students think it’s impossible

to balance practice, studying and sleeping. Taking a drug such as Adderall allows them to get
 Omes 5

good grades and improve on the field since it can keep them up for long periods of time and

make them faster.

ADHD is often over diagnosed because the term is so broad and free ranging that many

other disorders can fall under the description. When a small child, is hyperactive it can mean

multiple things and not just that he has ADHD. ADHD cannot be tested by medical tests and is

often diagnosed in a quick visit to the pediatrician (Clemmitt 4).

The demographic of the people that use abuse Adderall are typically white people. White

people are about two times more likely to abuse it than people from a Black and Hispanic

background (Maahs et al. 147). Students who come from a wealth family are also much more

likely to get diagnosed early in life because they typically have more resources and their parents

are much more eager for their kids to be over achievers.

People that are diagnosed with ADHD often have this stigma about them. They are

known to have poor self-control and act a lot younger than they actually are. Many people feel

the need to take medication, so they can fit into the society’s norms. During my high school

years, I felt the need to take my medicine every day, so I could sit in the class and not be

disruptive. My friends were always able to pick up if I was on my medicine or not. Whenever I

was not on my medicine, they would always ask me “did you forget to take your meds today”.

That always hurt me more than anything because I felt like my normal self when I was not on

medication. ADHD has not stopped people from being successful such as Justin Timberlake and

Michael Philips. ADHD does not stop anyone or make them less intelligence it is just a small

barrier that most are able to overcome when they get a job in something, they are interested in.

(Clemmitt 3).
 Omes 6

Boys are much more common to be diagnosed with ADHD because during the

diagnostics they are more focused on the hyper active part and not as much on the organizational

and attention part of the disorder. About 13 percent of boys have had an ADHD diagnosis

compared to only about 5.6 percent of girls. The signs are much more vital in boys because they

typically show the hyper activity but now, they have changed the test to be more about the other

traits that make up the disorder and not just hyper activity (Clemmitt 2)

Adderall is often overprescribed because it is a quick and easy fix to a problem that is

much more than that. Is medicating actually beneficial to users who suffer from ADHD? ADHD

was known to be a lifelong disorder, but some experts are saying you can grow out of it when

you get in something that you are interested in. I am ADHD and I believe you are able to grow

out of it if you find something you have a passion for and it can keep your interest.

Prescribing stimulants is like putting a band aid over something but not actually fixing it.

When a user takes a stimulant, they become “normal” for 8 hours but when the medicine starts to

wear off nothing actually helped them. Hinshaw says “It’s so easy to prescribe a stimulant”.

Parents and Doctors think that medicating is the easy way out, so they just jump straight to that

before looking at other alternatives. One of the treatments that is known to have the best long-

term effects is called the “Multimodal” treatment (Clemmitt 6). This treatment is when you take

medication but also work on social skills and other learning strategies. This will not only help

short term but also long term unlike just taking the medication.

Is Adderall helping us or making things worse for us? Is ADHD becoming more

widespread and diagnosed because of the medication? Does everyone who suffers from ADHD

need to be medicated? Should doctors be stricter on who they give it to? Should the process to be

diagnosed be more detailed? Will we one day realize that giving all ADHD kids prescription
 Omes 7

stimulants will be a bad idea one day? Will the rising epidemic be slowed down when people

realize the side effects it has and how powerful of a drug it is?
 Omes 8

Works Citied

Abelman, Dor David. “Mitigating Risks of Students Use of Study Drugs through Understanding

Motivations for Use and Applying Harm Reduction Theory: A Literature Review.” Harm

Reduction Journal, vol. 14, Oct. 2017, pp. 1–7. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1186/s12954-017-

0194-6.

Castro, Jessi. “‘I Am a Different Person.’” Time, vol. 162, no. 18, Nov. 2003, p. 58.

EBSCOhost,libezp.lib.lsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=

true&db=a9h&AN=11195546&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Clemmitt, Marcia. "Treating ADHD." CQ Researcher, 3 Aug. 2012, pp. 669-92,

library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2012080300.

Farah, Martha, et al. “When We Enhance Cognition with Adderall, Do We Sacrifice Creativity?

A Preliminary Study.” Psychopharmacology, vol. 202, no. 1–3, Jan. 2009, pp. 541–547.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s00213-008-1369-3.

Maahs, Jeffrey R., et al. “Prescribing Some Criminological Theory: An Examination of the Illicit

Use of Prescription Stimulants Among College Students.” International Journal of

Offender Therapy & Comparative Criminology, vol. 60, no. 2, Feb. 2016, pp. 146–164.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/0306624X14548530

Wertheim, L.Jon. “Attention Deficit.” Sports Illustrated, vol. 127, no. 17, Dec. 2017, pp. 58–63.

EBSCOhost,libezp.lib.lsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr

ue&db=a9h&AN=126471498&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

http://libezp.lib.lsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=126471498&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Omes 9