According to a 2005 study conducted by the University of Michigan Substance Abuse Research Center, Adderall non-medical usage rates were higher at Northeastern colleges and universities, and colleges with more stringent admission standards. The competitive culture of these schools offers a perfect breeding ground for abuse; healthy students find themselves surrounded by wealthy (and generous) cohorts who have been heavily medicated since their adolescence. In fact, Adderall can be nearly as accessible on many campuses as alcohol.
Though certainly not one of the most serious side effects health-wise, one of the scariest side effects of Adderall for college males might be an increased sexual desire ironically frustrated by impotence. A student who calls herself “Anna” attends a prestigious small liberal arts school in the Northeast. She recounts an incident when the “hot guy” she was routinely hooking up with, who happened to be particularly prone to procrastination, had taken about three times the recommended dosage of the drug to pull an all-nighter. They started having sex, but he lost his erection.
She then went to sleep while he continued working. She awakened to find him tapping away at his computer. He told her he was going to print out his paper, and when he got back, they started going at it again, only to experience the same lethargic reaction. Later on that same week (exam week), they went to Anna’s room during a party to hook up again, and the same thing, err, befell him. Needless to say, she was frustrated with his Adderall fix because it kept ruining her good time.
“It was a problem I imagined should be happening to an 80-year-old man,” she admits. “I knew it was because of the Adderall, but I got tired of trying to figure out whether he’d be able to get the job done or not, so to speak.”
On a much more serious note, there are life-threatening symptoms of Adderall abuse, including nausea, vertigo, severe headaches, sweating, heart palpitations and insomnia. You might lie down to go to sleep only to find your mind—and heart—racing uncontrollably. Many students then turn to sleep aids to help them drift off, which starts a vicious cycle of stimulating and depressing their systems.
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