By Elisabeth Turner
Columnist
Twenty years ago, a child reported to have been acting up in class while experiencing difficulty listening to directions or sitting still might be referred to a psychologist, go through a series of tests and interviews and, as a last resort, be prescribed a drug like Ritalin or Adderall. In 2012, a hyperactive child, especially one from a lower-income neighborhood, may be taken to a psychiatrist and prescribed such a drug almost immediately – extensive testing bypassed, counseling not considered.
Dr. Michael Anderson, a pediatrician, was quoted in The New York Times saying: “We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.” The quote refers to the present commonality of fabricating diagnoses, a method that is the easiest and most cost-effective way to ‘remedy’ the factors of restlessness and trouble concentrating in children of low-income neighborhoods.
In reality, the issue is not that the children are suffering from a personality or mental malfunction; the focus problems that the children are having could be corrected with adequate tutoring or proper counseling, solutions that cost more up front than a plastic bottle of pills.
It’s well known that at wealthy universities and schools across the country, students indulge in psychostimulants like Adderall, for purposes like grade boosting. The load of homework is often high, along with the pressure to succeed. Drugs like Adderall are helpful to college students because they seem to provide long-lasting energy. If pulling an all-nighter enables us to complete that ten-page paper due the next morning, then why shouldn’t we indulge? Drugs like Adderall help us stay focused and less likely to be distracted.
I wonder, however, what will happen when our generation gets older.
All night study parties for that Western Civilization midterm will become all night meetings with marketing team members, right? Adderall got us through college, so why can’t it get us through the beginning of our careers and the rest of our lives?
Adderall’s been on the market for barely 20 years. Studies have been conducted, and both positive and negative reactions from users have been reported. However, 20 years really isn’t that long. Thus, I wonder about the minor side effects – what if, in the future, they turned into large-scale problems, affecting our health? I wonder what will happen if we continue to rely on such drugs for the trivialities of daily existence. What should we think of a child that gets Adderall to merely help with grades?
College students, including some here at Hofstra, do the same thing. One might think: “Why not take the pills if they will help me ace this test?”
The problem lies in the artificial nature of the act. If we are to be a society that is real and full of meaning, then perhaps we might stop to reflect on the faux nature of our pill popping.
As students at a university that is rapidly expanding its appeal throughout the nation, we might be wise to set a good example. We might do well to refocus the lens of our reality by being something authentic, something that succeeds through tenacity, instead of through chemicals. Perhaps we could start by taking one less pill, and perhaps, we could start today.
A call to do good in a society that doesn’t