Ah, Adderall, the miracle drug!!!

Can I please have some?  Why?  Because it will help me work better, study better, be more calm, be more focused, get more stuff done.  I need it because I have ADHD.  Or, more accurately, I have been DIAGNOSED with ADHD.

College – land of milk and honey for many.  The best time of your life.  A time that you will never forget.  Or a time when you were working 2 jobs and praying that your car wouldn’t quit on the 30 minute commute from home.  Whatever your story is, it is a justifiable fact that Adderall and College go GREAT together!

No doubt about it, Adderall is a wonder drug.  Regardless if you have been diagnosed by the wonderfully intelligent doctors, Adderall WILL:

• Make your studying faster and more efficient
• Get you focused and even interested in your work
• Provide you with an amazing ability to retain information

Adderall will also:

• Gradually lose it’s miracle effect as your body develops a tolerance to it and you hit your dosage/spending limit
• Be damn near impossible to quit without seeing a noticeable drop in performance that is very difficult to deal with
• Make you prone to more “mental conditions” such as anxiety, etc. that require other great medications like Xanax

We are a fairly young group over here at Cave Chow and we were on the college campuses in 2001-2004 when eating Adderall for breakfast, lunch, and dinner was the norm for many college students, legitimate prescription or not.  We also know many of those same people, who almost 10 years later, are still maintaining the same, or increased, dosage.  And guess what – yep, no noticeable performance advantage compared to their peers.  But a slam dunk for Teva Pharmaceuticals, the current owner/producer.

Some Cave Chow thinking for your thoughts:

• ADHD is a made-up disease for 95% of people diagnosed with it.  EVERY single one of us has dealt with depression, anxiety, lack of interest/focus, and everything else that there is a “recommended” treatment for.
• These mental challenges are very simply, part of life, and should be conquered accordingly, by us, just like everything else.  Some of us have bigger mountains to climb than others, but everybody must face down their demons, and popping 40mg of pills per day is not the right way to do it.
• Lastly, and most worrisome, is that NOBODY can know for sure what the long-term effects of these drugs are going to be.  Sure, there are estimates, but don’t tell me that somebody taking Adderall from age 20 to 60 is not going to have some pretty serious side effects, other than their 100% dependence on the drug to function.  So sad to think about this.

This line of thought can be applied to many of the drugs that are regularly prescribed today for everything from depression to weight loss.  But just like anything else, there are very few shortcuts at the end of the day, and few of us are born happy.  We’ve got to climb our mountains and make it so ourselves, with a little help from our friends and family (if we’re lucky).

Cave Crew