Adderol

[k714]

my son is entering 2nd year of college and is asking his doctor for a prescription for adderol.  swears it helps him study better.  what are benefits, what are side affects, what are dangers, what can i say to convince him to change his study habits so he doesn't need drugs?

[SueNYC]

Have him evaluated.  I wish I was on Aderall when I was getting my PHd - I made it to ABD - All But Dissertation.  

Honestly, I don't function well without it but I have never found it addicting.  I don't usually take it on the wekends or when we are  on vacation.  It does make my stomach very sick - which sometimes makes me skip it.

Be warned - ADHD drugs never work on some people.  My son was diagnosed and then I was.  None of them ever worked on him - he is 9 - and he goes to a special school designed for ADHD.  He has no learning disorders and is for the most part a very advanced student (in fact they are jumping him 2 grades).  Luckily he loves to do math and loves to read (but try to get him to write an essay and the whole thing falls apart.

[portuguese mom]

Your child needs to be evaluated for ADD or ADHD by a psycholigist or doctor that specializes in the care of ADD.  If the evaluation shows that he has ADD, he should be treated with Aderall, Ritalin or Stratera or any other medication that helps these disabilities. Diet also helps to manage ADD.  I suggest that you get him evealuated first. If he has ADD and can not focus, he will have a hard time finishing college and have good self estime. Sounds like he already tried Aderall during his first year of college.  He must be obtaining this medication throught some source other than his doctor (friend or black market). This could be dangerous and expensive (if black market).  If he takes Aderall, he needs to be monitored by his doctor also on a regular basis (about tow to four times per year he needs to go see the doctor for a check up).  I suggest that you find a doctor that specilizes in ADD and go with him.  You can look at the CHADD web site for more information. If he has ADD, he needs to be treated. If he does not have ADD, he should not take these medications and he needs to understand the risks that he is taking by obtaining them from a non-standard source. Good luck.

[everyminutelive]

just to be clear, who knows the validity of both of the studies and adderal can be addictive and is a controled substance.

[everyminutelive]

I saw a report where almost 60 percent of harvard students reported using Adderal and ritilan to enhance their studying. I also read that like 50 percent of doctors used and thought it was okay to use stimulants to enhance brain function.

[wishforchange]

Hi.  Briefly googled Adderol as I did not know what it was.  It is apparently in the same class as Speed or Crystal Meth, and used either as a medication for children with ADHD, or by adults as a recreational drug.  My research is very brief and poor, so I may be wrong, so apologies if this is so.
This does sound somewhat suspicious, that your son is asking his doctor for this drug specifically.  Generally if a symptom is new genuine patients do not ask such for such specific drugs, particularly if they can be abused.  It may be that your son has medical knowledge and his requesting this medicine is entirely legitimate based on his own research.  But for some reason I do not think this is the whole story.
There are many controlled drugs that can be abused which patients genuinely need.  I myself use a number of such drugs and have been put through the mill by doctors again and again questioning the real reason I am taking them.  The truth is though that I am not taking them for recreational purposes, and enough doctors, who have extensive experience of all sorts of patients, have recognized that.  I am grateful for every prescription.  However, I would assert that asking for a potentially very dangerous medication for the reasons that it helps your son study better does not warrent the use of this drug he is requesting.  Think of how we react to athletes taking steroids.  Not only do we see them as cheating but they do terrible damage to their bodies.  The only way to study better is to learn how to study better.  Colleges now are so much ahead with this, and most if not all have terrific support networks to help those with study problems, from dyslexia to lack of motivation to struggling with difficult assignments to boredom to working with fatigue from chronic illness....etc.  There is simply no justification for using such a dangerous drug for this purpose.
The problem with being young, and I'm assuming your son is in his twenties, is that it is hard to see the long term damage of lifestyle choices.  If you fast forward the lives of say all the young glamorous drug abusing celebrities, assuming they live that long, you will see the ravages to their minds and bodies - premature ageing, mental illness, neurological problems, dementia.  The body will only forgive such abuse ocassionally, and sometimes even just one dose of the wrong drug can damage a young life for the duration.  I am sure, or I sincerely hope, your son will not be prescribed this.  I am concerned that he may seek it out recreationally in response.  He will not study better as a result.  Drugs cost money, and he will have to sacrifice his studies to finance them, they destroy the mind, he will lose his intelligence and motivation, they become the focus of the users life, he will spend his days simply seeking more and more.  As a potentially successful man in college he has the option of choosing a successful future, or declining into nothing through experimenting with chemicals he doesn't need.
I am as I said medically dependant on controlled drugs, and for reasons not of choice am caught in the cycle of need and withdrawal, with no option to come off them because my conditions are so painful they necessitate these medicines.  Yet even with my medical need, drugs have changed me and turned me into a person who I would rather not be.  The drugs I take are not as mentally damaging as Speed, so for any person to put themselves deliberately in such a situation is distressing to read.  
Drugs are not a game.  We are all made up of similar chemistry, and medications alter that chemistry.  We only have one body, one mind, and to throw it all away for the sake of a pill is the ultimate stupidity.
Like I said, I do not know the whole story, and may have picked up the wrong end of the stick, but if so just ignore this answer.  If I am right though, take it very seriously.