<p>Everybody is overblowing the effects, both positive and negative. 999 times out of 1000 there will be ZERO negative side effects and certainly no physical addiction.</p>
<p>However, this drug will not make your SAT score go up by 300 points. Either the ability is there or not. The benefit is just to make you be able to keep your mind from wandering.</p>
<p>i took one to study the day before the sat iis. it just makes you focus really deeply for a really long time - i didnt even want to get up to go to the bathroom or eat or anything. it helped me a lot. i havent used any since (because i havent had the need to study that much), but it was all positives for me.</p>
<p>Bigp9998: I know it wouldn't make a person go up 300 points. The reason I bring it up is that i got 720's on Math and CR, which sounds good expect for the fact that until the last section in each i was pulling towards 800s. That sounds cocky but I checked both over a zillion times, but by section 7 I was pooped and didn't finish the last CR section and had to skip loads of (2-3) questions in the last math. Test fatigue really took a toll on me and I since I've found out about this I think it could really help.</p>
<p>OK, in that situation you would benefit from it. I wasn't trying to insult your intelligence or anything if that's how you took it. I just didn't want like fifteen year olds on here to be like 'I don't have to study if I can just find me this miracle drug'. I'm sure you understand my meaning.</p>
<p>Taken only on rare occasions for huge tests or all-nighters Adderall can be very effective.</p>
<p>Didn't Jimmy take it before a basketball tryout on Degrassi? I seem to recall it having a negative impact on him...he didn't make the team and then he got shot in the spinal cord.</p>
<p>I may need it one day for a PhD dissertation. :p </p>
<p>
[quote]
However, this drug will not make your SAT score go up by 300 points. Either the ability is there or not. The benefit is just to make you be able to keep your mind from wandering.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Math will probably see the biggest increase.</p>
<p>Self-diagnosis is not to be relied upon, but I suspect for a lot of people they could do better if they could stay on task. For example, even if you're staring at a single problem for half an hour trying to work on a proof and you don't even look up, your mind could be wandering subconsciously.</p>
<p>I love abstract and linear algebra, but on exams I have major issues with keeping track of all the steps without being disoriented. "There, I finally normalised the vectors. Now ... I want to rotate .... do a linear transformation .... damn, what was I trying to originally do again?" If I can keep my mind from wandering off of minitangents (mental computation consists of basically thousands of different "minitasks" going on within several seconds; usually the process too fast for you to consciously be aware of what you're doing -- but try doing it when you're groggy -- you can catch your thought processes in the act). </p>
<p>On the SAT, fatigue wasn't the issue -- it was time management. I suspect Adderall would be a major help with that.</p>
<p>Everyone has the circuitry for math -- it's just that the circuitry might not be as less efficient. Try giving Adderall to a kid who's flunking a math class. I suspect you might see a significant difference. </p>
<p>And why should intelligence be "innate"? Why can't it be something that is engineered into individuals?</p>
<p>Substance abuse for now, maybe. But in the future, with the advent of safe gene therapy, it will be the zeitgeist behind transhumanism. I'm all for gene "doping" -- if you can engineer the heart of the biological processes, then there shouldn't be any ethical concerns. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Why do you insist that the human genetic code is "sacred" or "taboo"? It is a chemical process and nothing more. For that matter -we- are chemical processes and nothing more. If you deny yourself a useful tool simply because it reminds you uncomfortably of your mortality, you have uselessly and pointlessly crippled yourself.
[/quote]
[quote]
We hold life to be sacred, but we also know the foundation of life consists in a stream of codes not so different from the successive frames of a watchvid. Why then cannot we cut one code short here, and start another there? Is life so fragile that it can withstand no tampering? Does the sacred brook no improvement?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Cookies if you can guess the reference.</p>
<p>bigp9998: No, no, no...no offense taken. Sorry if i made it seem as though I was offended.</p>
<p>sheng-ji yang</p>
<p>Adderall is a controlled substance so if you are caught with it in your system or carrying it, there are penalities for this. Bear in mind that the financial aid system is very hard on those who have drug conviction. You'd be better off murdering someone in terms of consequences.</p>
<p>Also, Adderall has a number of side effects that can be detrimental. One of them is a mental paranoia that can be a tipping point for kids who may have mild mood disorders (very prevalent in college and for young adults in general) and it is also a problem for those who have heart issues. There has been an increase in healthy young adults having heart problems lately, and some of it may be due to use of some of these drugs that can cause heart problems. It is surprising how many of us have hidden heart weaknesses that may surface when using certain drugs, Adderall being one of them. Those on Adderall are generally under close medical observation, often by a psychiatrist seeing them every week, especially when the med is first prescribed. To take the thing without any medical oversight is foolish. </p>
<p>Also for those kids supplying Adderall to friends and classmates, bear in mind, that makes you a drug dealer/pusher. Not a good label to have. If something happens to someone who takes the drug you provided, you can be in big trouble.</p>
<p>But they can't arrest you if you naturally make the substance because of gene therapy, can they?</p>
<p>Wait a few more decades I suppose, and we'll see...</p>
<p>These days they can tell if if you naturally make blood or hormones from what I understand about some of the doping trials for sports. </p>
<p>Though the chances of getting caught can be small with some drugs, the problem is that the consequences can be as severe as they come: death, disability, mental breakdown, loss of financial aid, loss of future opportunites, loss of reputation, expulsion, etc. That list is awfully drastic to me, given the small boost you can get in mental prowess. Can't get much worse, actually.</p>
<p>cpt: im getting a sports physical this summer...wouldn't they check my heart for any irregularities?</p>
<p>Yes they will. But it takes a lot more than that to find the irregularities. There have been a number of elite athletes that have been found to have had hidden heart troubles, and those kids were checked very thoroughly and often. I have known a number of folks who were found at autopsy to have had a congenital heart problem that they never knew until they died of sudden heart failure. </p>
<p>It just seems to me that fooling around with illegal drugs is just not worth it, given the severity of consequences. I know two great kids who are in so much trouble, and their families ever so hurt because of drugs. The consequences are waay out of line for what they did, and it sounds much, much worse when hearing the short version of what happened, then what occurred which is very common among young people these days. Bad luck getting caught really makes the divide between those kids indulging 10 fold more than they were in these very activities with wild abandon, and the situation of these kids who are caught. It's a deep crevice there. I am particularly concerned with those kids who are giving/selling their meds to others, as those consequences are far more severe than these kids imagine.</p>