To fellow adderolics in college: it probably isn't helping :)

[Speeder906]

http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/12/28/adderall-risks-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/

As someone who was prescribed adderall just before starting college (and heavily abused it all throughout) I found this a very interesting read. It's pretty rare to find something so recently published so figured I would share this with everyone here. 

Stumbled across this when looking for some articles to use for an essay I have to write for my addiction studies class. I'm choosing to write about stimulant drugs in general and how they impact college students. Best part of this class is that one of my other assignments is to attend an NA meeting, one of the things I've been postponing for a long time. So without going into too much detail, I haven't posted in months but things are slowly getting better. I'm no longer using up my month supply in less than a week. 

Take care everyone!  

[SleepyStupid]

very interesting article! thanks for sharing.

i agree mostly with his conclusions. all of the direct side-effects and long term risks of adderall use at a therapeutic dosage are probably minimal. of course, abuse can change all of that (which i define as beyond prescribed dosage).

his discussion on potential for addiction was pretty lacking, but to be fair, he did say that the data was poor there. i think it's important to tease apart addiction and dependence. it's true that adderall might not produce a physical dependence like heroin or alcohol would- it's relatively safe to quit cold turkey, unlike the latter. that makes it tempting to say that adderall is "less addictive", but i think we'd all agree that there is a psychological dependence that rivals any other drug. as i've said in other posts, i think adderall is unique in that most people don't take it to get high, they take it to be productive. at some point, you become dependent on it to "succeed", then to just "perform". you might have abused your way into a program or job that demands more and more energy (Vice President of Staring at Giant Spreadsheets!).. rather than risk dropping out or being laid off, we dig ourselves deeper into dependence. so yea- there's ABSOLUTELY a lot of risk for dependency.

and as for addiction, it's just a stepping stone away. the thing that turns it into addiction, in my opinion, is the compulsion to use / acquire the drug despite obvious consequences and harmful behavior. you prioritize the drug in your life, so much so that the rest of your life falls apart as a result..