Author: Jack McHenry
As the current school year comes to a close, the student body once again finds itself nestled in the temporary shelter of the valley between the daunting peaks of midterms and finals. For some unfortunate souls, this sanctuary does not even exist, as comps bombard the lives of seniors, and late nights and early mornings string themselves together into sickening schoolwork benders. The pressure of extraordinary amounts of work over a limited period of time is something every student will face and approach differently.
The efficiency experts use their common sense to pace themselves, and while they have some late nights, they never end up in a Highland Park IHOP at five in the morning staring down the barrel of an incomplete project and a due date in eight hours. For those individuals, the final push is everything, and the lion’s share of work is accomplished alone in the wee hours of the morning. Others call on willpower, and many reach for caffeine.
But more and more students are turning to stimulants found in prescription drugs to stay awake and complete their work against the age-old Dufresnian opponents of pressure and time. Though the workload is ultimately beyond a student’s control, resorting to prescription drugs for an academic edge is a distinct choice and demonstrates a misguided priority on schoolwork and an ill-advised decision by students who choose this fickle chemical advantage to their own detriment.
Adderall is the study drug of choice across campus as students find the amphetamine useful for avoiding fatigue from lack of sleep and finding exceptional levels of focus, without falling victim to Facebook or YouTube. But Adderall has to be taken when the work is at hand; there are many stories of students who took a pill and began one quick game of Halo before studying, only to find themselves racking up all-time high kill counts four hours later, locked onto their TV screens with unprecedented attention to detail. In all seriousness, however, this anecdote draws more important concern towards Adderall’s effect on the brain and the cost students are willing to pay just to get a slight edge on some school work.
There are some students with ADD, ADHD or other disorders who use Adderall in a safe and medically sound fashion. But for those without a doctor’s prescription, it is essentially a heavy-duty stimulant. Adderall increases dopamine and norepinephrine levels in the brain and has detrimental side effects like dehydration, lack of appetite, depression and insomnia. At the end of the day, a school assignment is not worth one’s health. The predictable pattern of sleep deprivation and hour after sedentary hour is enough of a blow to an individual’s well-being, but introducing an amphetamine into the equation elevates health risks to an unacceptably high level.
The problem is a two headed monster, in which serious amounts of school work lead a significant number of students into the compromised choice to use Adderall. The volume of work at Occidental is often grueling, but it has generated many quality students over the years by preparing them for the high-stress challenges later in their professional lives. It’s a struggle, but this is the nature of academics and the college experience. Thus, that part of the monster is going to be hard to conquer.
That leaves the work habits that students make for themselves, and it is more than reasonable to expect students to bite the bullet, drink some tea or coffee and rely on willpower to finish their assignments.
Adderall may not disappear from campus, and students are ultimately in control of their own fate and their own decisions when it comes to consuming Adderall. That being said, the spike in non-clinical Adderall sales around midterms and finals is unacceptable, and the student body is in the best position to step up and simply stop consuming the drug.
Jack McHenry is a senior Diplomacy and World Affairs major. He can be reached jmchenry@oxy.edu.
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