Drug-induced performance enhancement goes academic

[Guest guest]

" WC Douglass " <realhealth

Daily Dose - Doping for the Dean's list

Mon, 24 Oct 2005 07:15:00 -0400

 

 

Daily Dose

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Drug-induced performance enhancement goes academic

 

With all the coverage and controversy over Olympic and professional

athletes using performance-enhancing drugs, is it really any wonder

that the use of controlled substances to increase performance has gone

mainstream? Of course not. But what's really mind-boggling is that I'm

not just talking about athletics, here.

 

Nowadays, some folks are misusing prescription medications to help

enhance their test performance and grade point averages.

 

According to an ABC News online report, the newest drug craze among

college-age students isn't Ecstasy, cocaine, or hash, but

mind-altering ADHD drugs like Aderall or Ritalin - the same ones that

are turning our kids into mind-numbed zombies (or worse, suicidal or

murderous psychopaths). And it isn't even to get high, like in the old

days. It's to get an edge up on other students applying for coveted

spots in universities and graduate schools across the country.

 

Now, I'm all for competition, but let's set some limits, huh? Like

those dictated by common sense (not to mention the law)?

 

Apparently, this is far from an isolated incident. One college student

interviewed for the article claimed that at least two-thirds of the

student body have tried the stimulants at least once - obtained, of

course, by purchasing pills from a fellow student with a " legitimate "

prescription. If this claim is true, it means many prescriptions for

Ritalin, Aderall, or any number of other ADHD drugs are nothing more

than fronts for illegal drug trafficking!

 

What do these drugs do, you're asking? Those that take them claim they

help them to tune everything else out and focus on reading, studying,

or writing papers. It also helps them to stay awake for those

all-nighters. Jeez - whatever happened to coffee?

 

Don't these collegians realize that they're taking chances with their

health, or even their lives? ADHD drugs have been shown to carry with

them some serious heart risks - not to mention impotence, nervous

tics, mood swings and psychosis. And these are only the ones we know

about from the mainstream press!

 

The scariest part of the story is this: According to the piece, a

spokesperson for a major standardized-test tutoring company claimed

that HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS are increasingly using these drugs to help

them prepare for the SAT. How does the firm know this?

 

Keep reading and I'll tell you, but make sure you're sitting down first...

 

 

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Doc, are you SURE my kid doesn't have ADHD?

 

I wonder on how many occasions in the past I've talked about ADHD and

the poisons they prescribe for it. To say it's been numerous times

would be the understatement of the century. But it seems like every

time I write about it, at least a few readers write in and lambaste me

for being too hard on the parents of kids with this made-up malady.

 

They say I'm not compassionate enough - that some kids REALLY NEED

those stimulants to be healthy and well developed. They say that no

parent in their right mind would ever allow their child or children to

take any kind of drugs unless they were absolutely necessary...

 

And in a perfect world, this would be the case.

 

But we live in a hyper-competitive society, and also one in which the

self-esteem of some adults is so weak that the achievements of their

children have become vicarious validation for parents - so much so

that they're willing to pump their teenagers full of mind-altering

drugs just to be able to say " My kid did better than your kid on the SAT. "

 

Yes, you read that right: Parents have begun to put their adolescents

on highly addictive ADHD drugs just to help them get better scores on

the SAT test, according to the ABC News article I cited above. They do

this despite the fact that there isn't even any proof that it helps at

all!

 

I've always said that poor parenting is at least as much to blame for

not only ADHD (whether legitimate or imagined), but obesity,

depression and so many other challenges to health our children face.

 

And because more and more parents are medicating their kids in the

name of success, we can add prescription drug addiction to that list.

 

Staying dedicated without being medicated,

 

William Campbell Douglass II, MD