I know that look people give me at 3 a.m. in the library: I’m practically dying, trying to hammer out a paper I put off until the last night, and reach into my bag to pull out an Adderall. Despite the fact that it’s legally prescribed to me, the guy at the next table over looks at me like I’m shooting up heroin.
Why is there all this stigma surrounding Adderall? Yes, there are a lot of people out there who abuse it, take massive quantities as an excuse to procrastinate or just add it to the list of drugs they’re always on anyway. But there are also a lot of people like me, who have serious ADD and can’t get through college without it.
But even I’ve been told that using Adderall is basically like cheating in school. One girl I did a group project with ranted to me that if people with ADD can have it, why can’t everyone, just to level the playing field? Apparently, the A I got on my midterm is cheapened because I took academic steroids.
Let me promise you, this is not giving me an unfair advantage. In fact, ADD is a massive handicap. In high school, my parents and teachers gave me every single lecture they could think of on “time management” and “distraction-free workspaces” and “studying efficiently.” But even with all of those, I’ll still choose drawing moustaches on the people in my textbook over actually reading them.
But with Adderall, I actually kind of enjoy school. It’s still hard, don’t get me wrong. When I have readings on things like, say, poststructuralism, I still suffer through them like everyone else. The difference is that I don’t give up like I would have otherwise. I’m not any smarter on Adderall, just a functional student.
That being said, recreational Adderall use is a disaster waiting to happen. Adderall is not a miracle drug. It makes it impossible to sleep or eat like a normal person, and your mouth tastes like you’ve been sucking on a rusty spoon. Plus, it’s pretty addictive — write one paper on Adderall and you’ll never want to go back to just Red Bull again.
Adderall is a Schedule II drug, and what people tend to forget is that those of us with ADD actually have doctors and psychiatrists to help us out. We need it. It sucks to admit that, and you should consider yourself lucky if you don’t have to. But for us, Adderall is an essential part of how we’re able to function in school, and there’s no reason to attach all of this stigma to it.
Emi Ruff-Wilkinson is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences and the winner of The Eagle’s Next Great Ranter contest.
