Rant about Adderall and other ADD/ADHD drugs...

You know, I already don't agree with people using drugs or alcohol in life. Drugs by prescription, don't fall under this heading however. If someone has a legitimate problem then they have every right to have relief from the issue.

Today, my rant is about the abusers of Adderall and the people who spew off random thoughts, ideas or mixed up facts about the need to take this and other similar drugs. What started this? That's easy. My mom watches "Boston Legal" and they had a show about a girl that doesn't have ADD/ADHD using Ritalin/Adderall prior to taking a test and aced it. My mother then felt it was a show I just 'needed' to see because since I take Adderall, perhaps I shouldn't let people know this so that there is no chance to have my degrees/certificates/test scores questioned.

Here is the bottom line about what I think:

I take Adderall because I have ADD. I've had ADD all my life and it has been a VERY rough battle but I have never been one to give up easily or to resort to drug taking to solve my problems (I've NEVER used any drugs and have NEVER abused alcohol). I got my BS degree WITHOUT the drug and I had a C average yet I was always on the 99th percentile when it came to overall testing areas such as SATs, etc.. I also was in a program for the gifted when younger. So how can I have an overall GPA so low? It was because of the ADD. I would study for hours, faithfully do my work and yet I couldn't retain information, I couldn't concentrate during lectures in order to gather the vital information I would need and one thing that people don't mention much of is that ADD HURTS! I woke up every day tired and achy and it was only because of my naturally bubbly personality was I able to function daily without anyone really knowing the deadness I felt inside.

Then in June of 2008, I was talking to my son's psychologist (my son has bi-polar, ADD and Asperger traits) about my untreated ADD. She asked me if I had ever considered being medicated. At that time I said no way, that I liked being this way because I felt I could multi-task, it was the only thing that kept me from staying forever in bed, because when my mind gets going, I can't stay in bed. However, when she pressed the issue, the truth came out. Yeah I could multi-task and start 5 different things at once but the problem came when I could finish NONE of them. Not only that, but a typical ADD person (adult or child) has issues with having a clean house or room. We are so disorganized we can't finish anything! My son's doctor then at that point became my doctor and she prescribed me Adderall.

I then started to go back for my Masters now and I am SHOCKED at the vast difference in how well I am able to concentrate, study and actually retain the information I spend hours studying. In the past, before the medication, I would study just as hard for just as long and retain very little. But now my grades are already in the A/B category. For me, Adderall brings me up to the level that others without ADD can be at with just hard work and effort and therefore levels the playing field.

I can get up in the morning now and not feel so dead. I actually am happier and not so achy. I remember saying "Wow, this is what normal people must feel like when they wake up". I wasn't 'jittery' or 'spun' or 'tweaking' like some people have described. I have just enough of the drug left in my system so I'm not so utterly low.

Imagine it like this. Normal people wake up and their energy level in the mind, body and soul is let's say an 80 out of 100 (only because they just are waking up). Eventually the level will be a 100 once they get showered and moving. I, however, wake up at easily a 30 out of 100 and when I finally get going and out, I am maybe a 50 for the entire day, wanting to go back to bed really early in the evening because I was so worn out. Now, I wake up on a more normal range (still sometimes lower than normal depending on when I took my medication the night/day before) and it's changed everything!

I have been reading articles on line and publishing my comments about the concept that people out there are using ADD/ADHD drugs to take tests with when they don't need the drug and so I decided to post my first blog about it here as well.

If you use these drugs and you don't need them, your test scores aren't a reflection of how smart you are, or how well you behaved responsibly by studying, or by doing all your work, or really understanding the concepts, or especially how worthy you are of the job your degree gets you. Your grade is really a reflection of how good the cheat method is that you used over another. So that 'A' someone may get is an 'A' for the method of cheating they used (hidden notes, copying from another student, using Adderall) rather than their true worth.