Issues with Adderall

Amanda only had to take a 30 milligram pill of Adderall (a type of amphetamine) to realize that it wasn't worth the risk. She was constantly anxious and trying to get homework done even when there was nothing else that she had to finish for classes.

She was not prescribed Adderall by a doctor and was using the drug to study and do her homework. After taking the drug, she didn't sleep for two straight days, and felt unbalanced and tired when it finally wore off.

"I felt like I was going to go crazy because I had no appetite and I was just stressed about getting things done," she said. Amanda is a Norwich junior who requested anonymity.

Many students take Adderall because they want to stay focused and finish assignments on time, according to Gail Mears, director of the office of substance abuse education prevention at Norwich.

Adderall is prescribed to patients who have either ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) or narcolepsy in order for them to function on a day-to-day basis, according to Mears.

"ADHD is an organizational disease that makes it difficult for people who have it to get the right information to do the right assignment they need to complete for a class on time," Mears said. "Adderall sort of slows down the thinking process so that they are able to line up what they need to accomplish for a class."

Most NU students do not use Adderall.

Kylie Pratt, 19, a freshman nursing major from Hyde Park, Vt., said that she does not take Adderall because she was never prescribed it by her doctor and she has no interest in trying the drug.

"I felt that I needed it, I just don't like things that I can't control," said Sarah Scardino, 23, a senior communications major from Stoughton, Mass. "I feel like if I was on Adderall my body would just be running on like 10,000 gallons of caffeine."

There are students on campus who use Adderall, either now or in the past.

"I have to in order to focus on school work because I couldn't focus," said Mary, a Norwich freshman who requested anonymity. She says it does not bother her to take the drug because she has so many other friends who use Adderall for similar reasons.

According to Treatment4Addiction, an online recovery resource directory, many believe Adderall is a safe prescription drug and therefore less harmful to snort or inject than street drugs. Adderall, however, is not sterile and injecting or snorting the potent stimulant directly into the blood stream could result in infection or a fatal overdose, the website reports.

Collin Hyte, a 20-year-old junior communications major from Marblehead, Mass., said he used Adderall in high school because he thought that it would help him stay focused. But it just made him angry.

"I didn't really eat that much and I didn't really enjoy it, it just kind of tweeked me out in class and then my parents took me off of it," Hyte said.

"I don't think that you should use Adderall because it's something that you depend on and in life you can't depend on drugs," Hyte said. He said taking Adderall is similar to taking speed and people shouldn't be using these kinds of drugs thinking that it will make their lives better.

Students who use Adderall on the NU campus do so for a variety reasons.

"I know a lot of people that use Adderall; they say it helps them focus and write papers if they needed to pull an all nighter," Scardino said. "That's

or exams and stuff like that."

Some students use Adderall to help them study for exams and do their homework for class, Amanda said.

"There's two types; there's the Adderall that's short acting, short release into the blood stream and you might have to take a couple of times a day, and then there's Adderall, it's time release over a period of a day," Mears said. Abusers take it because it acts "like a form of speed to someone who doesn't have ADHD."

"I don't think (taking Adderall) is bad because it helps you. It's not like a drug that gets you messed up," Mary said.

Pratt said she knows people on campus who use Adderall but they only use it to stay awake and only if their doctor prescribed it.

Other students don't think that Adderall should be used at all and if people do they should look into the side effects.

Anyone prescribed Adderall should look at the list of side effects because sometimes the side effects are "worse than what you're taking the drug for and I know with Adderall there is a very long list of side effects that go with taking that drug," Mears said.

According to Drug Information Online, Adderall's side effects can include "severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); blurred vision or other vision problems, chest pain, confusion, and fainting."

Some students argue that people should be allowed to take Adderall and say they don't have issues with people who do.

College is difficult and if taking Adderall to stay awake and get homework done helps the person they should use it. "It doesn't affect me so I don't really care," Pratt said.

"I don't think any different of people who use Adderall. I think that everyone has their own reasons for doing it," Amanda said. She said if taking Adderall helps the student focus on school better, then that's great.

"I don't think any differently of (people who use Adderall) than anybody else," Scardino said. "If it helps them so much then they should get a prescription for it, it's not hurting them in any way and I don't have a problem with people who use (Adderall)."

Students say that Adderall affects people in different ways.

When people with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) or ADHD take Adderall, it is supposed to slow the person down and help them stay calm, but "people who aren't prescribed to it and don't need (Adderall) for that, it wires you and makes you stay up. It's like a caffeine," Scardino said.

Explained Amanda, Adderall makes students focus more, like what happened to her. She said she "knows someone who takes (Adderall) on a daily basis and drinks some later at night but never mixes the two."

"What happens is sometimes ADHD is over diagnosed and I think that students feel that taking some sort of drug for ADHD will help them focus," according to Mears. "What I have seen on this campus is students are more likely to take (Adderall) thinking that they will be able to focus on a test or bring in better results than" just using Adderall to abuse it.

According to some studies, between 1996 and 1999, the number of Adderall prescriptions increased by 460 percent. One study showed that one in five college students admits to using Adderall without having ADHD

Hyte said that Adderall helps many students concentrate but people can become dependent on this drug and then it becomes a problem.

Adderall is an easy drug for many students to get on campus if they want to use it.

"I haven't ever tried (Adderall) here at Norwich but when I was at (another Vermont college) it was really easy to get your hands on. I know a lot of people here who have the pills so I don't think it would be hard (to get it)," Amanda said.

Mary said that if she wanted Adderall on this campus it would not be hard to get because like Amanda she knows a lot of people who have Adderall.