Adderall, for when caffeine doesn't cut it

The rustling of pages and pages worth of notes, keyboards being typed on, the smell of caffeine, and no it is not a busy news room, it is a school library.

It’s after 2 a.m. and the library is still full with students whose demeanor illustrates stress, nervousness, and mental fatigue. If someone took a picture of the library at this moment it would be hard to believe that it was so late in the night with students wide awake. The coffee and energy drinks all over the desks would give away the fact that it is quite late in the night.

As students, we can all relate to exam week, whether it is midterms, or finals. These stressful times are inevitable and are never easy to overcome. Sometimes caffeinated drinks and/or energy drinks do not cut it, so more and more students have turned to the use of taking Adderall. It is not hard to notice that Adderall is becoming more and more popular with students as they seek to improve their academic performance and grades.

It was not until my second year at LMU that I became familiar with Adderall and what it was being used for on campus. I transferred to LMU as a Sophomore in between .Junior, and my second semester I was offered a pill known as Adderall that would aid me in studying for the final. I was sitting at the same computer during finals for the entire day. I finished a research paper, made a study guide, and began studying for the actual exam roughly at midnight. I bumped into a fellow classmate who asked me how I was doing with the study guide, and since I had complete it, I was more than happy to help him out by giving him what I had. In return he pulled out a small prescription bottle and offered me a pill that I was very unfamiliar with. I was both shocked, and embarrassed of not knowing what it really was. I knew the drug was used for attention deficit disorder and hyperactive kids, but I was not willing to take something I was not completely sure of its affects.

Since my first encounter with the drug, I have noticed that it is quite popular on campus, and It’s use has even become a recreational drug for students who are planning on partying all night. Leaving aside the ethical debate, the fact that it is a drug means it is a dangerous habit. The question that first arises is if it is considered cheating, but more in depth, we should evaluate if this is an outcome of LMU, and other schools pushing students too far. It is true that students, including myself, do tend to procrastinate, some more than others, however the amount of pressure is still intense. When studying, we tend to not only worry about our grade on the exam, but the larger picture is our entire class grade, GPA, and transcript when applying for internships and post graduate level education. So is Adderall a miracle drug for studying, or a dangerous endeavor?

-Erik