“I just popped an ‘addy’ so I’ll be ready to grind in T-15 minutes.”
Adderall is a drug used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. It was originally created to treat patients who couldn’t focus, stay still or get any work done. But the use of Adderall has shifted drastically to college students trying to achieve in the competitive cultures of today’s universities. Urban Dictionary’s definition of the drug states that Adderall is “the only way to finish homework. When I take Adderall, homework's a breeze!”
College students in this day and age find themselves constantly distracted by technology and social media, bombarded with homework and constantly dragged into nights out filled with too much to drink and maybe a few too many drugs. We live in a culture of “blacking out,” of wanting not to remember a night. Or rather, pretending not to have remembered a night to seem cool. The amount of times that I’ve heard: “Oh, I don't remember, I was so blacked out last night I couldn’t even handle myself,” at Saturday brunches or morning classes is countless.
Our going-out culture has cultivated an environment that surpassed the doors of Shooters, Devine’s and central late nights. The constant blacking out and drug use at night has led to the need to turn to other drugs during the day. And because Adderall is a prescription, people call it “safe” or even “helpful,” when, in reality, it’s not. It is still the type of drug that you take when partying and trying to blackout, the same drug that you use to alter the way your brain functions at a given point.
So, when Sunday morning hits you hard in the face after a long night of drinking, smoking, snorting and dancing, and you realize you have to crank out an entire week’s worth of homework in one day, what else do you do but ask a friend for a pill of their prescribed Adderall to keep you focused and on track. You see it everywhere, with those that actually suffer from ADHD, with athletes, with frat bros, with overachieving students taking six-course loads. The feeling of hopelessness and incapability of completing all of the work assigned to them pressures them to pop the pill.
“I have to hit up the GroupMe to see if anyone has Adderall in Perkins, I’m DYING here.”
But the pill doesn’t just keep you focused and able to do work for extended hours of time without any breaks. It makes your heart pound vigorously, subsides any twinges of hunger, keeps your body completely awake until the drug has left your system and focuses your brain on the work in front of you. People have frequently exclaimed fear whilst under the influence of Adderall, worried that their heart was going to beat right out of their chest or that they were going to sweat out all the water in their body. It’s not a harmless drug. And yet, we find an overbearing amount of people taking them daily, weekly or “just before a big test.”
“I am on an ‘addy’ trip and am cranking out a lot of work so I’m not sure I can see you later.”
So, why is that so many people take the pill to finish work that other people can do sans brain stimulants? Why has it become such a fad, one that everyday new people are trying to hop on in order to keep up?
It could be that the elite universities like Duke are choosing to throw more and more work at their students. New information and opportunities are constantly advertised to students that want to take everything they can here. It could be that universities don’t understand the sheer amount of homework/clubs/jobs/organizations that their students have, so they try to keep pushing them, pushing them until there is nothing left to give. A university putting so much pressure on its students that they are physically incapable of turning out the work given to them without some “help.” It could be the reason that students turn to drugs to help them achieve here.
Another possible reason could be that this same academic pressure leads students to the current culture of heavy drinking and partying four times a week. And that this partying, or escape from real life, depletes students’ stamina and desire to do their work, forcing them to resort yet again to substances.
“If you have too much work to do, just go out tonight and take Adderall tomorrow.”
It could be that our technological world has distracted us completely so students find themselves incapable of unplugging, not responding to the latest Groupme or closing the Netflix tab. It could be that our technology has shifted the way students do their work. Instead of sitting down at the library and doing even just two hours of solid work, they sit for six, seven, fifteen hours on end, half scrolling through social media and half writing an essay. It could be that this type of studying forces people to turn to the substance so they don’t turn to social media, so they don’t succumb to the fascinations within their telephone screen. It could be that students are incapable of controlling their desires to stay in the loop and technologically up to date that they must use a synthetic restraint.
Or maybe it’s the fact that being a student at a top university, the stress that comes with that title, the technological world we live in, and the need to get intoxicated has forced many students to turn to drug use to help them survive the hardships of the academic college experience.
Then we see the students who can excel without the drug. Why is it that these students can achieve while others feel the need to do drugs to keep up?
These students probably don’t drink as much, don’t go out as much and could possibly do their homework ahead of time. They don’t wait until the last moments of the week to complete assignments due for Monday. They don’t stay up until five in the morning, they look over notes after class and they put away their phones while they are in the library. They are the students you want to be. You want to be a studious and timely student but must leave that lifestyle, give up sleep and productivity in order to sustain a major social life, involvement in several organizations and substance abuse. So now, finals week is among us and the hibernation period deep within Perkins has begun. So has the scramble to get a hold of enough Adderall to sustain this lifestyle throughout the end of the year.
“I better refill my prescription, finals are around the corner and people will definitely be looking to fiend my Adderall.”
Columnist’s note: All of these are from experiences of Duke students whom I’ve interviewed. These are not medically-confirmed drug experiences.
Lizi Byrnes-Mandelbaum is a Trinity sophomore. Her column, “dear dystopia” runs on alternate Mondays.
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Lizi Byrnes-Mandelbaum is a Trinity junior. Her column runs on alternate Tuesdays.