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[quote]
A young man Ill call Alex recently graduated from Harvard. As a history major, Alex wrote about a dozen papers a semester. He also ran a student organization, for which he often worked more than forty hours a week; when he wasnt on the job, he had classes. Weeknights were devoted to all the schoolwork that he couldnt finish during the day, and weekend nights were spent drinking with friends and going to dance parties. Trite as it sounds, he told me, it seemed important to maybe appreciate my own youth. Since, in essence, this life was impossible, Alex began taking Adderall to make it possible.
<p>These neuroenhancers don’t make you smarter, don’t teach you anything. They simply allow you to stay up longer and concentrate better. In the end, you’re still studying and learning, the difference is you can get things done faster. I haven’t tried them but I’m not morally opposed to them. I have a feeling people morally opposed to them major in things like fashion design and/or don’t have jobs/internships in addition to classes.</p>
<p>This is ridiculous. How is taking these type of performance enhancing drugs any different than taking steroids for physical performance enhancement? And no, it’s not different because you still need to study, athletes that take steroids still need to work out like crazy for the steroids to do anything.</p>
<p>If you have no attention span problem, what does the drug actually do? If you’re studying either way, does it really help your memory or reasoning speed?</p>
<p>i’ve never used cognitive-enhancing drugs and, frankly, would never want to (google the side effects of adderall and ritalin [sp?] abuse: off-putting to say the least!), but at my school it has now become scarily prevalent among high achievers, with more than a few kids actually afflicted with ADHD happily peddling out their meds for the right price. very sad, but more than anything it’s the unfair advantage these drugs give that ****es me off- once you’re past a certain level of intelligence, success in school depends upon efficiency, the amount of studying/achieving you can fit into a 24-hour day. the person who can stuff the most in there wins. it doesn’t seem fair to take drugs that expand the “efficiency window,” as the non-abusing students who do actually need sleep would be at a severe disadvantage.</p>
<p>ugh i hate the utter nonsense our current education system encourages! less cramming in of useless facts and more actual analysis, with an emphasis on critical thinking, is what we really need.</p>
<p>Is it morally wrong for me to start taking Adderall or Ritalin to enhance my performance (once I get into college) when I actually have diagnosed ADHD? I haven’t taken medication for probably 10 years (but it worked out for me I’m going to Wharton!), but I’m thinking I might need it in college.</p>
<p>Like the article says Adderall only works as much as your attention span is. If you drift off and start watching a movie…well…you’re gonna be very focused on watching that movie. When I tried it I really had to push myself to keep studying and not start some other project. </p>
<p>It isn’t a miracle drug. Although I will agree that it kind of…I guess transplants your energy. For example once I got into the groove I worked on chemistry for 12 hours straight and afterward I didn’t feel tired at all. It took me another 5-7 hours to start feeling as tired as I should have been.</p>
<p>How useful adderal or ritalin (these are not nearly the same thing. Adderal is essentially speed aka tweak aka amphetamines but ritalin is another drug alttogether, called methylphenidate) depends on your brain chemistry. Most people usually respond to one or the other, while some people may have no real effect at all and others may find it harder get work done. In the end all it can really do is make you A) Feel good (if youre a responder) B) focus attention more or C) Be more alert.</p>
<p>The comedown can also be absolutely terrible sometimes, but thats why the ones who know what theyre doing stack it with some sort of downer when they are coming down, like xanax or perhaps opiates.</p>
<p>Really though, if you dont have ADD (i mean really have ADD) and need something stimulating, just drink coffee or take nodoz. Unless you dont respont to caffine at all…</p>
<p>I consider taking adderal as cheating. If someone can’t study as hard as someone else, well, then maybe they don’t deserve as good of a grade. Imagine if everyone took adderal…everyone would get the same grades because the classes are curved. All it does is allow less talented people to pull ahead.</p>
But look at it from the other side of things. Academia isn’t professional baseball. The point isn’t to get ahead of someone else - the point is to contribute to the total sum of human knowledge. If every scientist was using mind-enhancing drugs, maybe all kinds of research would move faster. Maybe we’d have some more diseased cured by now.</p>