<p>I posted about this in another thread but I want to hear more replies. </p>
<p>I was diagnosed twice as having ADHD by two separate psychiatrists last year, and I am still doubtful as to whether I truly have the disorder or not. I don't really trust those doctors.</p>
<p>Until then I hadn't heard about students taking adderall and other stimulants recreationally as a study aid before big tests or big papers. This sounds to me to be in some way a form of cheating. You're taking away the effort and the struggle that most students go through if they want to get a high grade.</p>
<p>My story - 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 (been away from schooling for a few years). 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. I went to the dr about a problem with focusing and it ultimately led to me being diagnosed with ADHD.</p>
<p>I do feel really 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 like taking steroids someone please explain to me?</p>
<p>Technically, no, it’s not cheating. Cheating is doing something on the test to help you get answers that you haven’t studied to get - like looking at someone else’s test or having the test bank ahead of time. Taking Adderall that isn’t prescribed to you is dangerous and illegal, but it’s not cheating.</p>
<p>However, you taking Adderall that has been prescribed to you is completely different than a student without ADHD taking it. The mechanism of action is different in people with ADHD. For them, the stimulant affect helps them focus - it takes away a disorder or disadvantage that they have. For students without ADHD, the Adderall has effects similar to methamphetamines (since it is, essentially, an amphetamine). As another example - would you begrudge a student with a serious cough taking prescribed cough syrup with codeine in it so that they can stop their racking cough? Or what about a student taking Zoloft to help them get over depression so debilitating that they cannot study. No, of course not. Medication helps people, when used as prescribed. In the same vein, you taking Adderall to counteract your very real learning disorder has nothing wrong with it.</p>
<p>It’s also not universally true that someone who takes Adderall will see an increase in test scores. That person actually has to study. It is often true that students with ADHD who start taking Adderall do better, but that’s because they are getting help for a disorder that was impairing their ability to study.</p>
<p>I think this might depend on your school. I imagine at mine it’s considered a breach of the honor code, so that’s pretty much equivalent to cheating.</p>
<p>Cheating is doing something on the test to help you get answers that you haven’t studied to get</p>
<p>I agree with this. I don’t really consider adderall cheating… students still have to sit down and study. Having used it recreationally before, it’s not like I magically learned the material I was studying. I was simply able to focus for a long, long time. In college, I could generally pull about 3 hours of studying, with a 10 minute break or two, before getting fatigued and needing a longer break. On adderall, I could study for around six hours, with only a few very short breaks. But I still did the six hours of studying. I still had to learn the material, I still had to be able to understand it. I still had to apply the information I learned to the problems on the tests.</p>
<p>With something like writing papers, it’s not going to make you write a brilliant paper. Your paper’s going to be the same quality, but you’re going to sit down and write it without the distractions. </p>
<p>This topic has been debated endlessly on this forum and there will never be an agreement. The reality is that many people think it’s wrong and that it’s cheating, and their reasoning is sound. That isn’t going to effect the reality that many students are still going to abuse the drug and will do so without caring what anyone else thinks.</p>
<p>But I don’t really think it matters. The reality is that a good student will probably do well on a test regardless of whether or not they took adderall-- they’ll just have gotten their studying done in a different time frame than they would have without the drug. Similarly, someone who tries to cram for that chem test while on adderall is going to bomb it just like they would have otherwise.</p>
<p>lastly-- this is about use of unprescribed adderall (which is what this topic ALWAYS turns into). If someone is prescribed ADD drugs, it’s perfectly legitimate to use them. You (probably) have a legitimate neurological disadvantage, and you’re simply correcting that disadvantage. Don’t feel guilty!</p>
<p>I don’t consider it cheating at all, adderall is no different than taking coffee or 5 hour energy shot. It doesn’t make you smarter either. Anyway if I could afford adderall I’d take it, not that I need it since I can already study 10 hours a day with very few breaks, but it can only help. Anything that helps you out, short of looking at another’s test is fair.</p>
<p>I don’t see it as cheating but I do see it as lame if you don’t have ADD. Sort of like non-competitive body builders who use steroids… it’s like, dude, plenty of people have gotten big without that crap. And likewise, plenty of people have gotten degrees in what you’re studying (and even harder ones too) without turning to drugs. Learn to manage your time better. Or maybe ya just can’t hack it, unless you plan on popping an amphetamine every time life gets tough.</p>
<p>It’s not intended to be fair competition. If taking adderall helps, you should use it, especially if it’s been prescribed.</p>
<p>The reason why steroids (and other drugs) are banned from athletic competitions is because it’d ruin the spirit of the competition if people had to load up on drugs and destroy their bodies in order to have a chance at competition.</p>
<p>However, the goal of college is different. It’s to get the best education you can get so you have the skills to succeed at life. Fairness is enforced to preserve academic integrity, not to see who has the best ability.</p>
<p>It’s really no different from using caffeine to stay awake longer or limited amounts of alcohol as a social lubricant.</p>
<p>Now, if you don’t need it and take it to no real studying advantage, that’s just lame. It’s an innate advantage to be able to function without drugs. But even then, not cheating.</p>
<p>I’m so glad to read all the positive comments. It really helps to hear it.</p>
<p>It’s true that I got my pills through a prescription, but there’s that really cynical voice inside of me that says all the psychiatrists I ever saw were just in it to get money out of me. I’ve seen 3, including the one I’m with at the moment. </p>
<p>I’m partly doubtful about the diagnosis because there are many things I don’t have trouble focusing on, like sitting down to type a long post, watching a TV show, or doing some light cleaning. It’s when I have to sit down to study or write a big paper, which both require that I be able to organize my action steps and make connections between pieces of information that I encounter massive trouble. Invariably some errant thought will shatter my focus over and over, and finally I just wonder what the point of all this was anyway. It really feels like I have no control over these intrusions and my focus is totally at their mercy.</p>
<p>Without the pills, my ability to focus is at the bottom; but with the pills it will be at the top. I don’t want to be at the bottom so the only choice left is to choose the top. If I could finely calibrate it so that it matchess the rest of society, I guess I would, but… well, like what was said above, there is no such thing as a level playing field in academics. Following that line of logic you could accuse a less intelligent student of having “cheated” when they scored a higher mark on a test than a more naturally intelligent student because the former studied a topic longer and by doing so threatened to overthrow the “natural” order of things.</p>
<p>ADHD meds will not do the work for you. You will not make the decision to procrastinate and then suddenly feel motivated to do your schoolwork instead when you take ADHD medication. You will, however, feel the symptoms of your ADHD (if you have them) slip away so that you are CAPABLE of consistently making good choices. If you still decided you wanted to screw around and blow off your homework, you would, adderall or not. Adderall is not a substitute for discipline. It just makes it easier for you to use the academic skills you DO have ALREADY. If you have the diagnosis and the meds are helping you, I wouldn’t feel bad. You’re basically saying you feel bad because the meds are helping you… that’s what they’re for, that’s like feeling bad that an aspirin took your muscle ache away before a sporting event. You can always get a third opinion and do your own research if that would make you feel better. Have you talked about your doubts with your doctor? What did they tell you?</p>
<p>Since you have a prescription, I wouldn’t consider it cheating. I think it’s a gray area for people who take it without a prescription, honestly. However, if you are bothered by it, try not taking it for a while but really work hard within yourself to gain motivation. If you can’t do that, clearly you need the medication and you shouldn’t feel bad about it, because it is something you need to help you function well. Another thing is that if you’ve been taking it for a while, you come to depend on it in a way, not so much physically as psychologically. You just rely on it to help you get whatever you need to do done, when at least some of the time you could probably just do it without the Adderall. Taking a break would also dissolve those associations a little and maybe make you feel more confident in your abilities when you don’t want to take Adderall.</p>
<p>I personally take it occasionally in preparation for big tests, projects, or finals, mostly when I’m not getting things done at the pace I need. I think it helps, but I do try to keep it to a minimum. I don’t want to have to depend on it, and I like amphetamines maybe a little more than I should so I have to be extra careful with them. I think it’s probably not the most ethical thing I could possibly be doing, but I’m okay with it since I use it so rarely for studying.</p>
<p>However, if you want to keep taking it, I don’t think anyone would fault you, nor do I think it is cheating. If you want to stop taking it, that is also fine. It’s really a personal choice I think at this point.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone would consider it cheating if you have a diagnosis. Nobody would consider it cheating to take an antibiotic if you had an infection.</p>
<p>I’m on the fence personally if the person doesn’t ‘need’ it. I wouldn’t call it cheating per se, but that doesn’t mean it is good for you. I honestly haven’t looked into it enough to know if there are bad side effects, long or short term, but in general taking medication you don’t need doesn’t lead to good things.</p>
<p>I don’t think the advantage it gives you is ‘unfair’ though. Is it unfair that I would cram multiple redbulls down so I could stay up studying later? Most would say no. Was it unfair that I would pop a psuedo-ephedrine when I needed to write a paper quickly? Many would say yes. But what’s the difference?</p>
<p>It has not been defined as cheating but if you are taking this drug without a medical prescription, you are breaking the law. It is substance abuse, and the category into which Adderall falls is one that can get you into a lot of trouble with the law and if the school finds out, in trouble there as well. There was a poster of CC whose daughter was expelled from prep school for Adderall use without a prescription.</p>
<p>Emaheevul07 - My psychiatrist has said the same thing as everyone here, but me being the huge skeptic that I am, I feel like he’s just saying it to keep me as a patient because I see him privately. I KNOW it’s so cynical of me to think like that. Basically he said that I would be cheating myself if I didn’t get treatment for my ADHD/mood disorder symptoms, not the other way around.</p>
<p>Redsox - Yes, I’ve been trying my best to “train” myself to get things done. In fact, I’ve been doing that for most of my life before I discovered ADHD and psychostimulants. I know what you mean about psychological rather than physical dependency. Motivational issues aren’t the hardest to get a hold of, it’s the focusing issues. </p>
<p>I’d always managed “all right” through high school but it wasn’t until after starting college that things started to snowball. It could be that I’d always had these symptoms and it was the change in life circumstances that triggered them. That could be it. Independent adult life demands more than living at home with your parents.</p>