<p>This is from the current New Yorker. I understand that it is going on at many elite colleges in the NE. Is anyone concerned that the lunatic obsession to get an edge, any edge by any means, is resulting in use at the secondary school level? And is it any different than taking a lot of caffeine? In the interest of honest disclosure, I confess that I found this on a thread in one of the main forums on cc. Please, reassure me that my son is not up against this madness!</p>
<p>A</a> Reporter at Large: Brain Gain: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker</p>
<p>I read this the other day. I take ritalin and vyvanse with a prescription. I don’t know if it’s like the article suggests at boarding school. Hard to say.</p>
<p>That happens fairly extensively at my current school - I don’t do it, but I know that it happens. In contrast, however, it’s usually the lower-performing students who buy the drug from someone who is prescribed it.</p>
<p>In an ethical sense (not in a health-related sense), is it equivalent to ingesting a lot of caffeine, and if so, am I grossly overreacting?</p>
<p>I ingest a pretty tremendous amount of caffeine during the week to keep up with my work, mainly because teachers at my school don’t communicate with each other and seem to think their classes are each the most important and that their individual classes are the only ones that homework is assigned in. I sometimes drink three or four Monsters or large Red Bulls a week, one a night on the tougher nights - and the symptoms that this Alex described seem pretty similar to the “Monster manic” symptoms that I get.</p>
<p>I’d wager, however, that my caffeine-consuming habits may be significantly less damaging than Alex’s use of prescription medication…</p>
<p>I think it’s a little overreacting.
I wouldn’t buy prescription drugs, but a couple energy drinks on a late-nighter is pretty much the same as that.</p>
<p>The next morning certainly feels the same as Alex described!</p>
<p>lol yeah. babysat last night and had coffee. felt DEAD this morning and my mom still made me go to church.</p>
<p>Please, give up some of the things you think you must do, don’t be a perfectionist, prioritize your work, start early on time-consuming projects, and most importantly don’t be too hard on yourself… it can be overwhelming at times, but please try not to use too much coffaine and defintely not off label use of prescription drugs. This is worrysome.</p>
<p>Haha, take that feeling and multiply it by 50 after drinking a 500ml Monster the night before… seriously, those things are disgusting</p>
<p>Full Throttle is WAY better</p>
<p>With all due respect to those who take this stuff, whether prescribed or bought under the table, WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE LONG TERM EFFECTS ON A YOUNG BRAIN ARE. I would NEVER, EVER give any of this stuff to my son. I do not even believe that ADHD exists! There is an industry of psychologists and psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies selling this lemon to gullible people who believe that there is a pill for every malady. A huge amount of money is being made off of this and off of all the other putative maladies that are marketed to people: fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic EBV. I am in awe at what people are willing to swallow!</p>
<p>Hmm - don’t think I’ve tried that. Maybe this coming week as I continue to study for my AP European History exam I’ll try some, haha</p>
<p>Pan, you’re right - statistically speaking, ADD is the most over-diagnosed malady in existence.</p>
<p>And my last post had nothing to do with Adderall or Ritalin, btw, I would have for it to read like that haha</p>
<p>same here. there’s a few things that I’m thinking,“you just have a hyperactive child. don’t drug them! or, your kid just isn’t the sharpest crayon in the box. let it go, no need to attach a disorder to it and give her drugs”</p>
<p>Tom,
Overdiagnosed? Really? So, how is something overdiagnosed? Maybe you mean misdiagnosed? I can tell you that it’s neither of these things. But it very frequently diagnosed. Sorry me = a little nit-picky.</p>
<p>Overdiagnosed: the label is attached to individuals who have no illness, but rather are somewhere along the spectrum of what we call normal. Overdiagnosed: the opportunity to sustain an industry, employ people performing useless functions, and earn oodles of money for pharmaceutical companies that have taught gullible people that there is a pill available for everything.</p>
<p>I mean over-diagnosed. It’s diagnosed as needing medication in kids who barely have it - and kids who don’t have it, for that matter.</p>
<p>waywayWAY overdiagnosed.</p>
<p>K so if this is true, that it’s overdiagnosed, how would they possibly even know how many kids are overdiagnosed? I think both of you are talking about things that you don’t have much experience with. It took me 2 and a half months of therapy sessions + an IQ test to get the prescription. For some reason there is this rumor that it’s handed out like candy, it’s not.</p>