John Ruppert

English 15

Kem Crimmins

Maybe it was God who created humans, or maybe is was someone else. Whoever or whatever created humans gave each individual different physical and psychological characteristics. Humans come in a variety of colors, shapes, sizes, and appearances. They also come in varying personalities, tendencies, ambitions, behaviors, and attention spans. “Attention deficit hyper activity disorder” (ADHD) “is a characterized by the presence of a set of chronic and impairing behavior patterns that display abnormal levels of inattention, hyperactivity, or their combination” 4 Today, many adolescences with these tendencies are prescribed to “Adderall xr,” (or a similar pill) which is a powerful stimulate similar to small dose of speed. When on ADHD medicine, the individual is able to concentrate, focus, and complete tasks with more proficiency. Because of the beneficial affects these prescriptions may have on the individual’s ability to survive the demands of today’s education systems, people seem to forget the side-effects or bi-products. The prescribed individual’s personality is altered, their ambitions change, most importantly, their original individuality is lost and forgotten. When someone is on Adderall, they lose their true being or self. The fact is these drugs must be banned.

In addition to the psychological malefactors, ADHD medicine incurs others problems as well. These prescriptions can cause patients to lose significant amounts of weight, disrupt sleeping patterns, and even cause aggressive behaviors. Other problems arise when these medicines are abused, which happens very frequently, especially among high school and college students. Because of the immense amount of ADHD diagnoses, many non-ADHD adolescences are able to attain the drug quite readily. Kids may take them to lose weight, pass courses, or stay awake. Even worse, these prescription pills, are sometimes crushed and snorted to attain a very addictive high similar to speed or cocaine. In college especially, virtually any student can and get a prescription, even if they are without the disorder. In this case, the pills are bought and sold and abused to the maximum.

In order to impose a ban, society as a whole should be informed by the government of the true effects of prescriptions like Adderral. Many Americans are simply unaware or naïve to the problem. There should be a federally funded campaign geared to educate Americans of all ages. The government must explain the stage of adolescence a time period when individuals discover their own identity, further more, drugs such as Adderall, are capable of blinding people from their original and creative self that they were born with.

Once the public is well educated, the doctors must realize they may no longer diagnose such an illness. ADHD would no longer be deemed a disorder; more simply, it could be defined as a characteristic, or at the core, a variation of human nature.

Lastly, to insure, complete temperance, the ones who were prescribed before the abolition of diagnoses, would be allowed to continue their prescription only until the age of eighteen. This should be done instead of withdrawing the drug immediately because, like any other drug, this kind is significantly addictive as well.

This is a long term plan proposition, because it is the only way. The education period should last at least ten years for it will take time to reverse many parents who want their kids to earn good grades, and for the student who wants to feel smarter. There should be another five years allotted for the doctors to make there last diagnoses, and write their last prescriptions. After this, there will be a five to ten year period of time before the last of the “ADHD” patients graduate to the real world, which involves drug abstinence.

Following through with this twenty-five to thirty year plan would absolutely solve many of the problems that are associated with drugs such as Adderrall. Most importantly, society as a whole would become clean of their addiction to unnecessary drugs of this sort. Kids would develop and become the adult who they were meant to become from the beginning. In addition to this, there would be an end of the many misdiagnoses, and because of this there would be a decrease in ADHD drug abuse cases, which are numerous in the United States:

“A study published online in the February 2006 Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, which examined data from a 2002 survey of about 67,000 households, estimated that more than 7 million Americans have misused stimulant drugs meant to treat ADHD, and “substantial numbers of teenagers and young adults appear to show signs of addiction, according to a comprehensive national analysis tracking such abuse.” 5

The United States did not always have this problem. Before the baby boomer generation, virtually no one knew of any such “illness.” In the 1950’s Ritalin was the first drug used by ADHD patients. At that time, it seemed to work for the few children who were having trouble staying still or paying attention in class. Because there is no fine line between ADHD and non-ADHD persons, the amount of dianoses has been increasing ever since. It makes one wonder about the future: will everyone have a prescription someday? Although a bit farfetched, it is still a possibility, especially since almost anyone can attain a prescription if they feel they need or want it. Attention deficit hyper activity disorder is an artificial condition which supplies children who struggle in school with excessive drugs. Many people do not realize that children who are prescribed to these drugs lose unique and interesting character traits that may not be favorable for performance in academics, but may prove importance in other areas of life. Humans were all created differently, and there is no reason why some should take drugs in order to conform to others’ standards.

1 Baily, Eileen. "The History of ADHD." About. 28 Mar. 2006 <http://add.about.com/cs/addthebasics/a/history.htm>.

2 The History of ADHD and Attention Deficit Disorder." Attention Deficit Order Help Center. Nutrition Health Center. 22 Mar. 2006 <http://www.add-adhd-help-center.com/newsletters/newsletter_15july03.htm>.

3 "ADHD Information Library." New Ideas. 25 Mar. 2006 <http://www.newideas.net/>.

4 "Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder." National Association for Special Eduacation Teachers. 20 Mar. 2006 <http://www.naset.org/adhd.0.html?&no_cache=1&tx_newloginbox_pi1%5Bforgot%5D=1>.

5 "News Room." Family Guide. 24 Mar. 2006 <http://family.samhsa.gov/newsroom.aspx>.

6 Pringle, Evelyn. "Health." Legal ADHD Speed Becoming Drug of Choice for Americans. 26 Mar. 2006. Online Journal. 27 Mar. 2006 <http://www.onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/printer_613.shtml>.