<p>Just wondering the prevalence of its (ab)use among college students...</p>
<p>I hear its abused often in college, but personally, I have not seen this at my university at all. I don’t think its as prevalant at top universities (its competitive but I think students also pride themselves on their own work ethic).</p>
<p>I know one female friend who takes it because she has been diagnosed with ADD. Apparently ADD has been scientifically proven to exist and is accepted in the medical community, but for some reason it still doesn’t sit well with me. I apologize if that offends someone who has ADD. I guess it’s because it’s diagnosed based on a spectrum of qualities, similar to saying someone has a disorder of because they act like an “excessive a-hole” or an “a-hole” more often than others. Of course, if you are genetically more inattentive or hyperactive than others, perhaps taking a drug like Adderall is necessary.</p>
<p>Okay, but forget topic-jacking this thread.</p>
<p>I only know one other friend who has tried Adderall, but it was in no way in the context of studying or cramming. He took it because he’s also enjoyed things like weed and ecstasy and wanted to see what it was like. I don’t believe I was there at the time but apparently he said all it did was make him pretty irritable in general. In other words, it’s not that fun as a recreational drug, lol.</p>
<p>EDIT: I just realized there’s already an extensive thread on this topic. Whoops. The word neuroenhancers dissuaded me from reading it lol.</p>
<p>I don’t use it personally, but I have quite a few friends who use it to study for tests and they all say it helps immensely. I don’t know if it’s more of a placebo effect (they THINK it’s supposed to help so they study more) or really enhances their ability to focus, but they have seen better grades because of it.</p>
<p>I have never used focus enhancing drugs or know anyone that uses them, but there are a lot of drug-trading right now during final exams. In fact, yesterday, an idiot from my dorm accidentally sent an email to one of his friends, but accidentally forward it to the entire dorm asking to buy some Adderralls.</p>
<p>If he really thought the plural of Adderall was Adderalls, then no pill is going to solve his mental deficiencies.</p>
<p>Haha what a sap! I wonder how many responses he got. But i’ve never actually tried adderall and have only seen it in the party scene rather than the academic scene so far. If its anything like those energy pills that we used to take in high school that consisted of Ephedrine (chemically similar to amphetamines) and caffeine, then I can in no way study while on them. My friend’s parents sold them as weight-loss supplements and my friend gave samples out to all of us. I took two and could not stop moving or concentrate on any singular thing for longer than a minute. I actually failed a test that day because of the energy pills. Luckily the teacher was young and said if we didn’t take them at school again then we could make it up the next day. The worst thing was the Diarrhea thought :(</p>
<p>They DO work. They won’t make you “smarter” per se, but they will allow to focus for HOURS without becoming mentally fatigued or distracted. In that sense, they enable to you intensely study material which of course will lead to the higher grades, but it won’t make you any “smarter”. </p>
<p>If you’re going to use them, be very carful about the amount you take, and do not use them regularly, as there are weird side effects like a extreme loss of appetite.</p>