BeHereNow Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 Basically, this article talks about the high pressure environment students today face, the astronomical rates of stimulant use and abuse, and the fact that study aids don't help most people actually learn: they only keep people awake, alert, and focused for awhile. And as it mentions, even kids with 'legitimate' ADHD/ dopamine deficiencies experience the same nasty side effects everyone else does. Lastly, the article has me wondering: Is adderall a form of cheating? http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/02/teaching-kids-to-learn-without-study-drugs/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerokewl Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 Basically, this article talks about the high pressure environment students today face, the astronomical rates of stimulant use and abuse, and the fact that study aids don't help most people actually learn: they only keep people awake, alert, and focused for awhile. And as it mentions, even kids with 'legitimate' ADHD/ dopamine deficiencies experience the same nasty side effects everyone else does. Lastly, the article has me wondering: Is adderall a form of cheating? http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/02/teaching-kids-to-learn-without-study-drugs/ If I have children and teacher/doctor recommends some stimulant based approach. I'd punch em' in the face. I think my reaction would be the least absurd. Do the teachers and administrators think this is the best approach? The entire system can't be that fundamentally flawed. “I’m not smarter when I’m using these drugs,†Aiden said. “It simply allows me to focus in a system with such stress on excellence.†I'm beginning to understand the trend towards homeschooling etc. The competitive academic climate makes little sense. Like why pay to go to college so you can spend 4 years in the library shivering cold and under nourished fucked up on stims. Your supposed to develop your brain in college not destroy it. College cost lots of money and really doesn't guarantee anything. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quit-once Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 Is adderall a form of cheating? In my opinion, Using Adderall in an academic environment = using anabolic steroids for athletic competition. Both are performance-enhancing drugs. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerokewl Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 In my opinion, Using Adderall in an academic environment = using anabolic steroids for athletic competition. Both are performance-enhancing drugs. I agree but what do you win? Grades? Who cares? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassie Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 I've been on a lot of job interviews in my life, and not once has an interviewer asked or cared what grades I got in college. They care about your skills, your ability to learn, and your attitude. I guess the exception would be students trying to get into medical school, but for the most part, these students are being sold a bill of goods, and they'll realize it as soon as they're in the real working world. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quit-once Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 I agree but what do you win? Grades? Who cares? In the long run, nobody wins when taking performance-enhancing drugs, not even Lance A. And in response to Cassie's comment, I agree that life skills and problem solving ability are much more important than a high GPA. However, there are a lot of companies or industries or institutions that over-emphasize the importance of one's GPA or academic performance (i.e. law school). Personally, I would not choose to work or study in such environments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LILTEX41 Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 I always felt I was cheating at work, lol. Everyone treated me like I was this super dedicated employee and some of the people there thought I would never leave the company (as they later told me). Of course, back in those times they did not realize the pharmie I was taking had turned me into that machine and the person without the drugs was nothing like that, lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeHereNow Posted March 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2015 I'm beginning to understand the trend towards homeschooling etc. The competitive academic climate makes little sense. Like why pay to go to college so you can spend 4 years in the library shivering cold and under nourished fucked up on stims. Your supposed to develop your brain in college not destroy it. College cost lots of money and really doesn't guarantee anything. Totally agree with you here ZK, and your post had me cracking up. There's really no reason to spend all that money to spend some of the prime years of your life messed up on adderall, obsessing over grade points and perfection. And the shivering in the library while being undernourished and staying up all night...... Yeah. Glad those days are over. What was the point? And what can people learn in that kind of environment? Nothing! I have a huge problem with the standards these drugs are setting, both for kids and for adults. They are inhuman standards that result from a drug that can cause psychosis, lack of empathy, lack of emotional engagement, antisociality, and that cause people to behave in compulsive, robot-like ways. So it's not just that the standards are higher.... (Though they are higher, at least in terms of GPA and so forth.) The standards set by a society on adderall are also qualitatively different. Not to mention boring. And when people who aren't on stims interact with people who are on them, the bar for harsh criticism goes down. Because who or what can be good enough in the eyes of a tweaked-out adderallic? Apparently a lot of teachers take that stuff, too. So if you have both kids and teachers on stims, what kind of environment does that create? Not a very friendly one, and not one that's conducive to actual, genuine learning and growth. A lot of the pressure on these kids comes from their parents. Look up the concept of "helicopter parenting" if you're interested in this. I deal with it a lot at work. It's almost always expressed in the form of students being obsessed with their GPA's and getting in huge trouble with their parents for getting an A- let alone a B+. I also see a lot of cheating and plagiarism, and I have to wonder if those forms of cheating are proliferating too because of this high pressure environment. Parents now more than ever put enormous amounts of pressure on kids to get good grades, seeing it as a return on an investment, which kind of makes sense...but they aren't seeing the whole picture. People are so anxious and concerned about the economy and whether their kids will have jobs on the other side, they think grades are the key to success. But maybe they don't know that such a high pressure environment is creating a culture of tweaked out speed freaks. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerokewl Posted March 4, 2015 Report Share Posted March 4, 2015 Couldn't agree more Occasional. I think we all have advantage of perspective on the topic. Being able to see our lives before/after adderall and the mess it made. Hindsight is 20/20 If I were to do college all over again, I would take fewer classes work more part-time and generally just take my time. I was in such a hurry to do this or that by the time I was 25 (ritalin was my poison in 90's). Especially since I was studying technology those abstract concepts can't be rushed. I really wish I spent more time just seriously dorking around in college and less time being so serious about everything. Career wise it just hasn't paid off in any significant way. I'm doing that now just dorking around going to interesting meetups, taking classes that interest me, working a dumb job part-time. Adderall got me fired, dumped and banished from certain social circles has afforded me some freedom. Cue the Bob Marley music. Adderall did feel like cheating at first untill the psychosis set in. I deeply regret a lot of the things I did on Adderall. Mostly just relationships I messed up because instead of going to a bday party I wanted to smoke cigarettes and tweak on some stupid project. Arggh! I was such a total loser on Adderall. I wish these articles made this point that Adderall use is usually abuse and there is an Ocean of pills out there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
better_morgan Posted March 4, 2015 Report Share Posted March 4, 2015 I just clicked the link and read the whole article and commented on their site as well as this one. This is a tough subject due to the news media not paying much attention to it and many people are unaware of what they are doing to themselves. Here is what I posted on the original website: Wow, I would like 9 or 9.5 hrs of sleep. Good recommendation but not practical. High school aged kids have to not only attend school, but then have their clubs or sports teams to go to after school. When they finally come home for dinner it is homework time. Seems like not enough hours in a day. I can see why students may resort to Adderall, not that I recommend it. I think only those properly diagnosed with ADD or ADHD should take that class of drugs. The world has become or does it just appear to have become so competitive...is it the teachers or parents making it more challenging. I don't know? Are the parents pushing the kids to achieve more and do more...all to get their resume for college to look more appealing. Do we have ourselves to blame? We are a new generation of helicopter parents, we are so involved unlike any group of parents ever has been. Then we let our kids go off the college and pray they survive...can they exist without us telling them what to do every step of the way. Lots of them can't....they don't know how to think for themselves or make decisions. If you are not used to making decisions and weighing pros vs cons, I can see someone out of desperation seeking help from pills. Once on Adderall it is very hard to get off...and that I can talk about for hours. Seen it up close and personal so to speak. This article does not really address that part of the problem. But other places on the forum do and many other websites online. Here is one place for that sort of info if you need it...I have visited it several times http://adderalladdictionsupport.com/adderall-information/ So what is the right answer?? To take it or not....I would say "not" unless clinically diagnosed and it is a qualify of life issue and then maybe take a newer drug not Adderall with all the side effects. I wish doctors would explain to parents and patients how hard it is to get off the medication. The process one has to endure to try to find their "normal" life back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doge Posted March 5, 2015 Report Share Posted March 5, 2015 Yeah as far as the doctors are concerned it takes "a few weeks" to get off of the drug and then everything should be back to normal. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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