Should SDSU Students Use ADHD Drugs to Help Them Study - Essay Example

Should SDSU use ADHD drugs to help them study? Should SDSU use ADHD drugs to help them study? Introduction Many SDSU students make use of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) drugs to help them improve their performance in exams. Although the drugs are purposely for those people with disabilities, many students use them as a brain-enhancement drugs especially for those who are about to sit for tough exams. Professionals and other academics, however, make use of these drugs especially those who are preparing for big representations. Some of these stimulants include metadata, Ritalin, Concerta, Vyvanse, Addrell, and many others. The most abused drugs by students are Ritalin, Provigil, and Aricept (Barbara & Nora, 2008). This leads to the question of whether usage of ADHD drugs in schools is cheating or not? Does this negatively or positively affect there life, and should students use ADHD drugs to assist in studying? This persuasive essay describes why SDSU students should not use ADHD drugs to help them study by outlining the side effects of such drugs to their health. Reasons why people use ADHD drugs Most overachievers are making use of Adderall to prosper in their daily chores. These drugs help many people to do their jobs more diligently and for long hours than they could without the aid of the drugs. These drugs also increase the opportunities that they will easily remember things (Will, 2013). This habit can only be legal for those with ADHD diagnosis, although researches show that in the past years many people who are non-ADHD diagnosis use Adderall for different purposes. For instance, studies point out that in every three students of SDSU one have used ADHD stimulant, especially as a learning aid (Will, 2013). Additionally, others use ADHD drugs for jetlag. For instance, if a tutor have to take students through a big lecture and they have jetlag, they use these drugs, which in turn help them improve their cooperation, influence their capability to attend, and notes finding. For a lecture, this is quite important (Barbara & Nora, 2008). However, findings indicate that Ritalin use is widespread in all USA campuses such as SDSU University. For example, students are supposed to sit for SATs as the university entrance test. Many students start consuming these drugs to help them gain excellent performance in their exams. This influences those who do not use the drugs to start using them. Factors influencing the use of these drugs in SDSU University According to students who take these brain-enhancing drugs, they find it difficult to abstain since it seems that those who perform well in their exams are those who make use of the drugs. Students find it difficult to compete in such a busy learning condition without making use of the drugs. There are so many students in the school, who are affecting their health standards by using these drugs to better their performance. When students find themselves in a situation whereby they have too much work to do, they tend to use these drugs since it is the easy way out. The students mostly use these drugs during their final exams to help them stay awake for long hours to write paper. The use of these stimulants helps the students to stay awake for long and be able to concentrate on a particular activity with no distractions. This makes it easy for students to study especially when surrounded by a group of other students (Barbara & Nora, 2008). Another factor influencing the use of these drugs in SDSU is the availability of the drugs. There are many open ways of acquiring the drugs in the campus. There many retailers selling these drugs and getting is not hard. Ritalin and Adderall are the only drugs, which are more available for treatment that any other stimulant. Doctors experience hard time in distinguishing those who has ADHD from those who are just faking the symptoms to get fix with the drugs. These give many students in SDSU opportunities of using these drugs without knowing their side effects (Will, 2013). Side effects of using ADHD stimulants Students’ use of stimulants brings forth many ethical issues. Use of drugs gives fewer advantages to students, just that they help them accomplish more work when they are under pressure. Some find use of these drugs unnecessary since they cause jitters and make one feel uncomfortable afterwards. Stimulants used by students have negative effects similar to those of drug abuse. Therefore, all drugs used by students as brain enhancement has the possibility of causing dependency (Barbara & Nora, 2008). Moreover, responses to these drugs enormously vary and the effects caused by one stimulant may be different from those of the others. For example, amphetamine has more potential and its effects are longer lasting than Ritalin. Moreover, since it is a brain chemical, students as causing restlessness and jitteriness hence feeling uncomfortable allege this. Such side effects also make students lack energy and be unable to concentrate in class (Barbara & Nora, 2008). Therefore, why should students make use of these drugs to assist in passing exams and later affect their class concentration? Furthermore, when students use these drugs, they create alteration changes in their brains, which can deleteriously affect their academic performance. Besides, not all students improve their performance after taking these stimulants. Findings indicate that for many students and academic tasks, performance can essentially decline. This eventually makes a student to focus on studying a particular subject and be unable to shift to another subject. Taking these stimulants is ethically uncertain for students who do not have ADHD diagnosis to allow him consume such drugs (Barbara & Nora, 2008). According to the laws of USA, Adderall is a stimulant and is under the same category with methamphetamine and cocaine. Many SDSU students do not consider it that way. Student take Adderall as a study aid forgetting that it has similar side effects to those of cocaine and these effects can cause harmful ethical issues to their lives (Will, 2013). These drugs are potential stimulants and can cause euphoria, and have effective drug abuse potential. The use of these drugs also can lead to addiction, which may result in many school dropouts. For university students it is not advisable to use such harmful drugs, which affects their brains since they are the leaders of tomorrow (Will, 2013). Many SDSU students have gone through the Feb.3 New York Times article, which had a tale of a promising college student who after using stimulant drugs for long time; he got many depressions, mental defect, and finally committed suicide (Will, 2013). In fact, a lot of evidence indicates that Adderall is harmful and addictive if used by adults like students. These dangers include weight loss, dizziness, and heart attack. Due to these healthy effects, people should think twice when consuming such drugs without doctor’s consultation. Although Adderall is much safer than taking nicotine and alcohol, students’ use of the drug without doctor’s consultation is deliberately foolish (Will, 2013). Conclusion In conclusion, SDSU students should not use ADHD drugs as study aid. This is because continuous use of the drugs may cause harmful ethical issues to their health. Use of these drugs may lead to health issues such as dizziness, mental disorder, and heart attack. Although many students use the drugs to improve their exams performance, there are those who perform much better without the aid of these drugs. Use of these brain drugs can be termed as cheating in exams as it is the case with athletes (Will, 2013). These drugs gives unfair advantages to the students hence making those who do not use them feel that they are in a higher competing environment. Brains drugs only aid in improving concentration and cramming during end terms and final exams hence, they will be unable to remember what they really learned in future. References Barbara Sahakian & Nora Volkow. (2008). Professor’s Little Helper? Will Oremus. (2013). Are ADHD Drugs Dangerous? Can They Make You Smarter? Read More