Oh man. I'd like to write a novel about use and abuse of ADHD medication.
This is based on a combination of personal experience and research. Because if you know me you know I do my research, okay? But, that being said, I don't have sources for you, so feel free to assume this is all anedcotal and biased. My recollection is not perfect. I'm going to refer to Adderal because it's what I have the most personal experience with. 1) I think it's insanely easy to get an Adderal prescription. 2) I think a lot of people know that and obtain scripts for the main purpose of abusing the script - either abusing it themselves or selling it for money. 3) I think abuse is incredibly widespread across college campuses and informal work environments, especially call-center types, with lower wages, younger workers, fewer drug tests, and more drug friendliness in said workforces as a whole. 4) I think that Adderal is a drug that makes you feel like a super human. It makes you capable of doing all those things you know you should do but just don't feel like doing. That means: 6) I think Adderal can make you feel like your emotions are suppressed which is yet again great for control freaks and type A personalities 7) I think Adderal can be and is abused by people not just for the attention benefits it gives you but because of the appetite control and weight loss you can derive from the drug. And by the way if you read reports about it "not being approved" for such use that is BULL. It may not have been approved for such use but physicians HAVE prescribed it for this use. 8) I think even people with ADD who have valid scripts abuse both the medicine and the scripts. I am not aware of anyone in my personal life who has had a script who has used it as recommended or who has not sold at least a part of that script routinely. 9) That psychosis side effect they talk about? That shit's real. 10) THat hallucination side effect they talk about? That shit's real. 11) I think Adderal is insidiously addictive. At first it makes you feel like you are just being you, the best possible you. Then it becomes, "I can't be me without this drug." 12) Did you know that a minute amount of adderal stays in your system after the 8-12 hours it's supposed to last for? And if you take another dosage after that, the adderal in your system will get "kicked back up again" essentially giving you more power for the punch? Did you know that aspirin will decrease the effects of Adderal? Did you know that cigarettes will increase it? Did you know that long-term abuse of Adderal will make you more sensitive to Adderal over time? (THis last is a phenomena of addiction.) 13. I have been on so much adderal at once that other abusers of the drug do not believe my claims and think I should be dead. (210 mg and counting.) 14. I was an addict. I know about the hallucinations because I've had them, I know about the psychosis because I've had them, I know about the heightened sensitivity because I've had it. I stopped having dreams for six months. I have been awake for five days in a row. In college I would be able to find adderal at the drop of a hat. I used to deal sometimes I would have 3 bottles in month I'd be supposed to be dealing. 15. People snort it, chew it, take it whole. I've heard you can shoot it but why would you, haha. 16. On the streets they call it "kiddie coke." 17. I think paying attention is a skill. I think that abusing adderal destroys that skill and at the end of it you feel like you need adderal because you've completely forgotten how to pay attention and it takes a really really long time to learn it back. I think abusing adderal makes you forget how to eat (eat right, anyway). Next I'll give you guys a poem I wrote once. - it's deadly to type A personalities - it's deadly to procrastinators
5) I think Adderal's psychological potential for addiction is way underrated. I think that it is a drug that basically sets itself up to encourage addiction. If you could take a drug and become a better version of yourself but still feel like you wouldn't you? - it's deadly to anyone who receives satisfaction through success or feeling as if they have succeeded
Yeah, but it sure does help when you're hungover as fuck, and you need to get to drinking again, like, for example, at a weekend long bachelor party. Shit's a godsend in that environment. (But let's be real; adderal is just another name for methamphetamine. Any attempt by drug manufacturers to call it anything else is super dishonest. They only call it adderal, because saying that they're giving your kids the stuff that Jesse Pinkman sells wouldn't be quite so good for the bottom line, would it?)
b, I don't know if I would have graduated college without it to be honest. My addiction happened for a reason. my life was very ugly at the time. Yes I was addicted to adderal and it was, ultimately, terrible, but at the time it also helped me get through. Like, adderal was frankly the least of my problems by far when i was in college. It was really after college when I was like, ugly-hooked on it that was bad. I am very ambivalent about adderal even today. using the word in the true sense of "torn."
Dated a girl for a long time whose dad was a psychoanalyst (and whose grandfather was a psychoanalyst). Dad had a standing prescription from grandpa for amphetamine... and another for thorazine when he needed to come down. That's one way to get through medical school.
Shit's a straight up hard drug. Like I said, it is literally an amphetamine. It's Breaking Bad, brought to you by Big Pharma. Were I a parent, I'd be equally likely to let my kid toot lines of blow as adderal. That is, fat chance.I am very ambivalent about adderal even today. using the word in the true sense of "torn."