<p>The other thread on ADD meds was quite informative. Apparently this sort of thing is pretty common in MA high schools and colleges according to the linked article. I'd imagine that's among competitive institutions - but there are a lot of them in MA.</p>
<p>This generation may not see anything wrong with taking prescription meds without a prescription. What else (besides taking prescription meds illegally) will a kid who says that be doing in college that he/she "doesn't see anything wrong with"?</p>
<p>The stress in college is higher, the supervision very low, the temptation greater. What if the kid decides that his/her current "dose", that was sufficient for high school, isn't sufficient for college?</p>
<p>^^ You think supervision is going to prevent this behavior? Not a chance. It's not like drinking a six pack or smoking pot- it is undetectable by most observors.</p>
<p>^ Another reason to find banning water bottles, a bit pointless. Kids can just change the substance. I guess where there is a will, there is a way.</p>
<p>I am almost 70 and attended college during the 50s. I was at a religious school and few people drank, but many of us took the bennies to stay awake to study for mid-terms and finals (they were supposedly handed out regularly during WW II to pilots and crews making night runs and truckers were taking them then - so this is nothing new to this generation). My mom, who was horrified, had me talk with our doctor about it - he told me to tell her not to worry - that they all took them to study for exams in med school.</p>
<p>That said, by the end of college, I learned that I could do just as well without the bennies or tanking up on coffee (not as good as bennies - made me more shaky) as long as I got four hours of sleep - and that the bennies without four hours of sleep didn't work as well.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, I did get "hooked" on diet pills sometime in my late twenties and had a terrible time withdrawing (I took them for three months) - was scared to death that I would be caught not performing in my job.</p>
<p>My granddaughter has SVT, a heart problem, and should never touch them. She has been told and I hope she understands. Also, I hope that those who share the pills understand that they could be sharing with someone who has a problem.</p>
<p>That is indeed one thing I find very odd. Using stimulants of all sorts to enhance performance is a longstanding tradition in our culture; it has created a lot of horrible situations for people and so has rightly earned stigma, but I really think this issue is being overblown quite a bit. College students who take an Adderall XR to stay alert and concentrated while studying for a big final aren't turning into hollow-eyed speed addicts left and right here, you know.</p>
<p>The problem that I see is that, without more information and knowing both the kid and her family, it is equally fallacious to say, "It's not a problem, lots of kids are doing it" as it is to say, "Quick, get her into rehab, she's a drug addict!" And both positions have been taken on this thread.</p>
<p>Either position requires investigation and discussions of the sort that cannot be had on discussion boards. Either position may be true, or there may be a middle ground that is true. We cannot know that.</p>
<p>That being said, I would rather overestimate the problem and draw back from it than underestimate it and assume that there is no problem. The fact that this happened a week before graduation, after the specific student had been told that there would be such testing, underscores the possibility of a problem for me. </p>
<p>My attitude would be (I think, and I thank my lucky stars that I have never been in this position), "OK, prove to me that you do not have a problem." Because the risks of underestimation can be devastating, I err on the side of caution.</p>
<p>What particularly concerns me about the original situation is the fact that the second offense occurred despite numerous warnings and the credible promise of draconian consequences. In my child, this event would lead me to believe that there is something fundamentally amiss psychologically, the felt need for performance is so intense, that my child feels the necessity or compulsion to run such irresponsible risks.</p>
<p>MomofWildChild is of course correct in her previous posts when she stated that posters not seeing the OP's D and not being in the situation cannot say what should be done. But, personally, I'm pretty confident that I would need a professional assessment of the situation, I would need to see some sort of change in my child and, no doubt, in myself and family (as OP alluded to, I think in the other thread), before I could take the great risk of putting him/her into a high-stress, unsupervised environment rife with temptations and irresponsible behaviors.</p>
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<p>Obviously, no supervision is perfect, and someone who is bound and determined to do something dangerous is going to do it. Nevertheless, supervision will be far more attentive and far more loving at my house than it will be at a college. If my child is behaving irresponsibly, I'm going to opt for the attentive, loving supervision.</p>
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<p>(cross-posted with Chedva)</p>
<p>I think there is a big difference between drinking at school (a social thing) and popping an adderall pill for finals and papers (a high stress achievement thing). There are a lot of kids who take those danged things, more than most of us realize and they do share them freely. I wonder if the school leaned on the OP's D for the culprit. </p>
<p>At college, this is particularly a problem. As a previous poster noted, kids with heart issues or other health problems can be in serious trouble taking this stuff. It seems to me a lot of healthy kids are dropping dead in college from heart failure. They say it is from undetected heart issues, but I think that something may have exascerbated the problem, like drugs. In may high performance requiring jobs, these drugs are a problem too. It's not just the athletes taking performance enhancing drugs.</p>
<p>Speaking of water bottles...middle schoolers getting drunk at 7:30 in the morning!
9</a> Middle-Schoolers Nabbed With Alcohol - washingtonpost.com</p>
<p>My biggest concern is what ADad stated above- she took this incredible risk knowing the school was serious about this stuff. I can hear the argument my son would make, which would be "I haven't been drug tested in over a year. How was I supposed to even imagine they would drug test me the last week of school! What's the big deal, anyway? What do they care? I was about to graduate and they wouldn't have to deal with me anymore. What about all the other kids who took the same pills? Why should I be the one that gets kicked out? I just wanted to be able to concentrate on my studying with all the distractions of graduation and parties. I just had one more week and then I was never going to take any sort of pills again!"</p>
<p>OMG- Can you imagine drinking that stuff (the 7th graders with the alcohol)? </p>
<p>That is why I can't get very excited about the OP's daughter's drinking violation at age 15-16. Just doesn't make it on the radar anymore, except to alert her that she better not screw up again.</p>
<p>Has the OP stated that the drug was used to aid in studying? If so, I missed that; where was it?</p>
<p>Not sure if the OP expressly state that, but that is the usual use of this drug. It isn't a "party" drug.</p>
<p>It seems I know more about the drinking and partying that goes on among my kids' peers than they do. I remember being that naive -- and I wound up in a car with BF who had drunk a pint of vodka and swore he could drive. To me, he was just acting goofy. I had no idea he was impaired. They have been in situations where alcohol would likely be available and have chosen not to attend said events or, on a college visit, simply declined.</p>
<p>The Ss and I have been chatting this week about meds and parties and the consequences of poor choices, as well as the no-tolerance enforcement that seems prevalent these days. It's a fine line between wanting the kids to make their own decisions and have them deal with the good or bad consequences of those actions, vs. the one-strike-and-your-life-is-ruined mentality. Not speaking to OP's situation here, just a general parental concern.</p>
<p>The HS party mentioned in that Post article didn't surprise me so much. The middle schoolers having vodka for breakfast did.</p>
<p>"Not sure if the OP expressly state that, but that is the usual use of this drug. It isn't a "party" drug."</p>
<p>I read that one can get high, however, by snorting drugs like the type we're assuming the OP's student had.</p>
<p>OK- here we go again. You can conclude that she was snorting it to get high, and I'll conclude that during the last week of school she had some finals and papers and was using the drug for enhanced academic concentration.</p>
<p>I haven't concluded anything because I don't have all of the facts nor does anyone except the student involved.</p>
<p>None of us even know what the drug is because the OP hasn't stated it.</p>
<p>Consequently, it's wise to stay open to all possibilities.</p>
<p>I also don't conclude what many have indicated here: That due to the high pressure of prep schools or elite colleges, students are virtually forced to illegally use drugs in order to survive.</p>
<p>I went to an Ivy, and did many all nighters that were fueled by caffeine, not speed.</p>
<p>The stress of grades, exams, etc. no more forces students to illegally use drugs than it forces them to cheat, something else that some people -- especially some students -- use competitiveness and stress to justify doing.</p>
<p>To NSM:</p>
<p>I have not read one single post that states, indicates, or even intimates that students at elite schools "are virtually forced to illegally use drugs in order to survive." They merely state that such use is common and that you should not jump to the conclusion that the kids who are using stimulants during finals have some sort of CD issue and need to stay home and attend community college. I used to illegally drink on weekends during HS with a buddy of mine who went on to Harvard undergrad and Yale Law School. I guess someone forgot to tell him that he had a drinking problem and should have gone to community college.</p>
<p>For every one of your few anecdotes about kids who crashed and burned I can give you dozens of examples of kids who partied and became responsible, tax-paying professionals with advanced degrees. Now, of course, no one knows ahead of time which path they will end up on and that is a legitimate argument against using illegal substances in the first place. But the Chicken Little argument that the sky is falling every time an underage kid drinks or smokes a joint is simply not warranted by the facts.</p>
<p>And, this may come as a total shock to some, but there are even responsible, tax-paying professionals with advanced degrees who still light up now and again. (And no, I am not one of them.)</p>
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My biggest concern is what ADad stated above- she took this incredible risk knowing the school was serious about this stuff.
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</p>
<p>I wonder if this is part of being a teen and brain development,</p>
<p>or is it that they just think that they can get away with it because they're smarter than adults, or is this part of the excitement of the activity? Perhaps it is a little of all of the above.</p>