For many college students, going home for the weekend means eating a home-cooked meal and spending time with family and old friends. But for one ASU student, going home for the weekend means getting a fix.
When her family isn't paying attention, Emily -- who requested SPM not use her real name -- sneaks into the family medicine cabinet and looks for the prescription made out to her younger brother. When she finds the Adderall bottle, she opens it up and takes just enough to last her a while without her family becoming suspicious.
"When his dosage goes up, so does mine," she says.
Dr. Stefanie Schroeder, chief of the medical staff at ASU's Health and Wellness Center, says Adderall is an amphetamine commonly used to treat people with attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or narcolepsy, but she says it has become the drug of choice among college students.
"It's amazing what young people find as drugs of abuse," she says. "You think its safe, and then you hear about them selling it."
In people with ADD or ADHD, she says, Adderall allows the mind to focus. People with ADD have a neurotransmitter imbalance, and Adderall balances them out. For a person without the disorder, that imbalance is not there, so Adderall use results in side effects that those who need the drug don't experience.
"It's a great drug for people that have ADD or ADHD, just like Vicodin is a great drug for someone who just broke their leg," Schroeder says. "But if you take it just to feel good, then it becomes a drug of abuse."
Because of widespread abuse, ASU Health and Wellness does not prescribe Adderall unless the patient has documented ADD. To do that, a psychologist or psychiatrist must administer a test.
"I deal with students who are unhappy that we won't prescribe it for them. I've had parents call me up irate that we wouldn't give it to their child," Schroeder says. "But if Adderall is what you want, and you don't have a test, you're not getting it."
Emily says she started taking Adderall her first semester in college when it became a big thing in her group of friends. They began taking it, either in its pill form or by crushing it up and snorting it, for the same reasons she says people decide to drink alcohol.
"At first it was curiosity, then it was another way to help me get messed up," she says. "It was also out of boredom, and it was a way to escape the realities of life and school."
Unlike some students who take Adderall, Emily says she doesn't use it to be able to stay awake or focus on homework.
"The majority of the time we take it at a party just to get messed up, but I know people that use it anytime they have it," she says. "Like, if they were going to school, they would take it to focus in class. Then they'd be messed up all day, but would still be able to drive and function without getting arrested like you would for alcohol."
Schroeder says that students who think they always will be able to function on Adderall are wrong. She compares it to those who say they are functional alcoholics and can't perform properly in work or school unless they have a drink or two.
"At some point, it's going to impair you," she says. "Nobody sticks within a certain moderation. You will eventually desire more or need more to get the same feeling like you do with other drugs like cocaine."
Emily says she's not afraid of becoming addicted to Adderall, though. It helps her stay awake and allows her to do things she couldn't do without it.
"Sometimes I'll come home from a long day at work, but I really want to go out and stay out all night with friends, and taking Adderall is the only way for me to do that," she says. "It depends on your tolerance and how many milligrams the pill is, but one time I took it at 9 p.m. and was up until noon the next day."
Emily says being on Adderall makes her feel jittery, but gives her energy and makes her "intensely focus" on things, which she likes.
"If you're just sitting there, you have to move something," she says. "You can't just sit still. My friends and I went to a concert one time after taking Adderall, and I stared at the drum the entire time. If you're having a really intense conversation, you're into it, and you talk really fast, and that's the only thing you focus on.
But she says the comedown from Adderall is intense.
"When it wears off, you're dead," she says. "It doesn't wear off slowly; you skip the getting tired phase, and you crash hard. It hits you all at once."
And although the thought of abusing prescription drugs brings up images of desperate housewives taking Vicodin and Valium to escape their soccer-mom lives, Emily says Adderall is a drug that "hardcore druggies" like taking.
"It's not a wussy drug like it sounds," she says. "I knew a guy who had been addicted to all kinds of drugs -- heroin and everything like that, and he had such a high tolerance for them. When he heard that I had Adderall, he was so excited, he made me go all the way home and get it for him."
To get a stronger effect without a higher dosage, Emily says she and her friends occasionally mix Adderall with other drugs or alcohol. These are the only time she says she has experienced bad side effects.
"I took it with Vicodin and wine one time and puked and then blacked out," she says. "One time I was drinking alcohol, which is a downer, and then I took Adderall, which is an upper, and I just started crying and I couldn't stop. It was uncontrollable."
Brent, whose last name also has been withheld for anonymity, says he has also experienced negative side effects after taking Adderall for recreational purposes.
"My hands turned blue one time, and I couldn't get them to move correctly," says the ASU undeclared sophomore. "I felt like I was going to pass out. My hands just kept twitching."
Since that incident, he has taken Adderall once.
"I had just taken it too much when I got the bad side effects, so I wasn't really scared to do it again," he says.
Schroeder says students should be more cautious if they use Adderall. Like any drug, overdosing and even death are possibilities.
"Any time you over-stimulate your brain, something bad can happen; nobody knows," she says. "At some point, your body ratio will be off, and your body will rebel. You're playing with your body chemistry."
Side effects vary, she says. Adderall can be habit-forming, and it may increase blood pressure, cause dizziness, dry mouth, suppressed appetite, insomnia and anxiety. There are also more serious side effects.
"You may become psychotic at some point, just like with cocaine," she says. "Like anybody who is sleep deprived."
Emily admits she and her friends don't think twice before taking Adderall.
"We know that a lot of little kids take it, so we think it's safe," she says. "But we should probably be more worried about it than we are. Since it's prescribed, I guess people don't realize how harsh it can be. It's not like heroin or something where people actually think about it and think about the consequences before taking it."
Schroeder points out that in some countries, however, heroin is prescribed.
"In the Netherlands, heroin is used as part of a drug to treat terminal cancer," she says. "Any prescription should never be shared. You never know what's in it."
Reach the reporter at heather.wells@asu.edu
