<p>Doesn’t seem like a ■■■■■ to me. I just don’t think that some of the other posters are in a position to comment on the effect of ADHD meds because they took them without an Rx.</p>
<p>Doesn’t anyone here feel like what they are doing is effectively cheating?</p>
<p>I was diagnosed twice as having ADHD by two separate psychiatrists, and I am still doubtful as to whether I truly have the disorder or not. </p>
<p>I’ve been taking Adderall/Vyvanse/Dexedrine for the past four months and it has most certainly helped me stay focused and study. I’m a returning student (after a few years away from school). In the past I had never been able to start assignments until the last minute, never ever. Now, I am taking one course where I have been getting straight perfect scores on every test and assignment. But all this has left me with considerable feelings of guilt and doubt as to whether any of this is attributable to ME or the MEDS. </p>
<p>I’ve tried going off the meds to see how I would fare, and I invariably fall into a apathetic stupor of sorts. I start wondering what the point of doing all this school work is, and I’ll feel less and less inclined to go to class. Once I pop an adderall, however, within 30 minutes I am at my desk, and focused on whatever it was that I found so hard to sit down long enough to start working on</p>
<p>I do feel awfully guilty, especially as seeing how it’s almost universally true that anyone who takes adderall will see an increase in test scores. How is this not taking steroids?</p>
<p>Let me make it very clear to anyone reading this that taking Adderall, Ritalin or any ADHD drug if you do not have ADHD is an absolutely awful idea. These drugs are stimulants, and for students who don’t have ADHD they will make you jittery, anxious, overconfident, wired and generally unfocused…the opposite of what you want them to do. Caffeine in large doses does the same thing. Other stimulants include nicotine, methamphetamines and cocaine and no one is ever suggesting you take them to help you study or test!</p>
<p>However, if the drug helps you (like orangemarmalade), that’s a pretty good sign you do have the disorder. Occasionally folks that are really depressed instead of ADHD will have a positive response to a stimulant, but that’s rare. If you do have the disorder, try not to feel guilty about it or that you have an unfair advantage. No one thinks that taking meds for diabetes gives anyone an unfair advantage, even though uncontrolled blood sugar can seriously impact your ability to learn and perform in school. It is absolutely not true that “everyone” taking Adderall benefits from it. You either need it or you don’t. The drug simply makes your brain better able to focus if you need it. If you don’t have ADHD, the drugs don’t make you hyper-focused.</p>
<p>^ Very true. I don’t have ADHD, and I took Adderall for the SAT, and almost all of the aforementioned side effects were present, ESPECIALLY the overconfidence. I was confident in every single answer, and came out of the test feeling like I had scored near a 2400, and I ended up scoring 210 less than I did without Adderall.</p>
<p>To the person accusing people who take ADD meds of cheating, you should be ashamed of yourself. ADD is a REAL and PROVEN condition that effects millions of people worldwide. When people who have it take medicine that was prescribed to them such as Adderall or Vyvanse, they are then able to preform at a level consistent with EVERYONE ELSE. The medication does not suddenly turn you into a genius, although it may feel that way to a person who has been living with ADD their entire life and who has become used to it.</p>
<p>Also, your intelligence has NOTHING to do with it. There are a ton of brilliant people who have ADD who take medicine to help with it (as they SHOULD). On the other hand, there are a lot of not so smart people without ADD who do not take the meds. Is this fair? Absolutely. All this medication does is it allows a person with ADD to perform how THEY would if they did not have the condition. Their intelligence, or the lack thereof, stays they same, but they are then suddenly able to CONCENTRATE at the level that they would without ADD. This is in no way cheating or, in my mind, even the slightest amount “unfair.”</p>
<p>In many cases, the people have not been diagnosed with ADD until their middle years of high school, particularly if they are smart since that is generally the time that their ability to get As without studying goes away and their condition begins to arise. EVEN <em>IF</em> they had a very slight advantage over other students, this would still not make up for the higher grades that they should have received if they had been diagnosed earlier.</p>
<p>As for people who take it WITHOUT a prescription, if they don’t have ADD it will not help them at all 9 times out of 10 as can been seen by some of the posters above. In that 1/10 case, the person typically has ADD but has simply not been diagnosed. These medications are STIMULANTS. For people without ADD, it does just that: stimulate. They will make you jittery and sweaty to the point that you will not be able to sit still for more than 3 seconds. For people WITH ADD, it actually does the opposite. Although no one really knows for certain why this occurs, these stimulants actually calm people with ADD and allow them to concentrate.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long rant. It just (excuse my slang) ****es me off when I hear people complaining about the “advantage” that people with ADD receive. If only you guys could live with ADD, you would realize how much of an advantage that you all have had over us our entire lives.</p>
<p>Vyvanse made all of the difference for my SAT scores. I took a prep class and scored a two part score of 1140. I went back without studying and scored a 1300. ADHD meds are crucial</p>
<p>agreed. For kids who have ADHD, def take meds day of testing</p>