Adderall Addiction at Auburn: A Fad or An Epidemic?

Mary Patterson, a 22-year-old student at Auburn University, blames societal pressure for killing her brain cells.

Patterson is a frequent consumer of brain stimulant drugs, such as Adderall. She recalls taking a pill every day for the last four years. Even though she is aware of the negative effects, such as “zombie-like” personality and sleep issues, she would rather continue to take the medicine than deal with the aftereffects that Adderall has on her physical and mental state.

Adderall is a common stimulant medication prescribed to patients with ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and sometimes a treatment for narcolepsy. The medication boosts the levels of dopamine causing the consumer’s motivation to increase, but it also reduces the serotonin, a mood-boosting brain chemical, levels.

People, specifically students, use Adderall to improve their academic or professional performance. Dr. Mallory Willis, a family health and medicine doctor in the Auburn area, explained that “more than half of my patients who are in college are prescribed Adderall.”

Many students like Patterson have taken Adderall for years knowing the risks involved. The most common side effect for Patterson was a loss of appetite. However, for Trey Jones, a male who was once addicted to Adderall for five years, his most common side effect was a personality regressor, or acting like a “zombie.”

The epidemic of addiction to Adderall within Auburn University’s student body has significantly grown in recent years. Through a private survey conducted involving Auburn University students, 67 out of 100 are currently taking Adderall every day. About 30 percent of the students taking the drug admitted to using it recreationally.

Atlanta Recovery Place divides Adderall abusers into two groups. The first group being those who are prescribed due to a medical condition. The second group are people who buy Adderall illegally.

“Recreational use is more common than not,” said Lee Foreman, a pharmacist in the Auburn area. He explained that students have always mixed drugs and alcohol with their prescription Adderall and, of course, that is dangerous.

Foreman said, “But what’s really dangerous is when they take a prescription Adderall that’s not their own mixed with drugs and alcohol.”

Patterson explained she never means to mix her alcohol with Adderall on purpose. Jones, however, was a frequent consumer of Adderall from the time he was 15 years old until he was 19. “Almost every weekend from 2018 to 2019, I mixed alcohol and sometimes drugs with my 70 milligram Adderall prescription,” said Jones.

“I was a freshman guy, living on my own for the first time. I wanted to party, so I’d purposely take my Adderall before going to the bars so I wouldn’t get sleepy,” Jones said.

It is casual now to buy black market stimulant drugs like Adderall on school campuses if you know who sells or have connections to who sells. However, the dangers of buying black market drugs have become recently apparent to students.

According to Arya Sundaram, a journalist for The New York Times, two students at Ohio State University died in what the police said were overdoses but were caused by the consumption of fake Adderall pills. Officials said the fake pills could have been laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is stronger than heroin and is cheaper to produce and distribute.

The two students are a part of the 90 percent of overdose deaths in central Ohio related to street drugs blended with fentanyl. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration seized over 9.5 million counterfeit pills, in which two of every five pills seized contained lethal amounts of fentanyl.

Jones used to sell his prescribed Adderall when he was in high school. According to Jones, “Depending on who you were, I would sell it for $10 to $25 a pill.”

When he first started selling Adderall to his close friends, he was only 15. He got caught selling his Adderall by his high school history teacher a month before his 16th birthday. Jones said, “I got grounded for six months. I couldn’t get my license, drive my new truck, and definitely wasn’t allowed to take Adderall.”

The reason he quit taking Adderall completely in 2019 was because he felt the medicine was affecting his personality off the medicine. He also mentioned he was thinking about selling again after hearing how much they sold for at Auburn University. Jones said, “Friends of mine sold on Auburn’s campus for $30 to $50 a pill, depending on the dosage. They brought home about $300 to $500 on a regular week but about $2,000 during finals just selling Adderall on campus.” He knew it was time to stop taking the pills before he went down the wrong path again.

The current generation of college students are susceptible to addiction, but they lack the guilt for being addicted to deadly items. It seems that they do not care about the consequences.

Just like a vaping addiction can cause lung cancer and alcohol addiction can cause liver disease, recent studies show that an addiction to Adderall can cause brain damage.

There is some evidence to suggest that releasers like Adderall, a proprietary formulation of amphetamine salts, can cause damage to dopamine receptors with long term, high dosage use.

After reviewing the research, Dr. Willis offered her professional opinion. She said, “By brain damage, it doesn’t mean it’ll put you in a coma. It just means it affects your personality, and essentially, the ability to full express your feelings.” However, this is not a permanent side effect, but it could last up to three years after stopping the medication.

Dr. Willis also confirms that taking an incorrect dosage can have many side effects, like headaches, lack of focus, and depression. Consistently taking Adderall for a prolonged period can cause the neurotransmitter in the brain to counter react with the medicine.

“The medicine can cause the dopamine levels in the brain to decrease. That is the body’s natural drug of happiness. This causes the depression rate to rise, in which Generation Z is known for being,” said Foreman.

This is thought-provoking because, as mentioned earlier, the rising death toll of drug overdoses reached a record high of more than 100,000 deaths in a 12-month period. Therefore, does the rise in depression in Generation Z coincide with the death rate increase?

Is it a generational addiction like marijuana was with the 1970s? Dr. Willis said, “I don’t think there is any other explanation. Parents believe if their child is loud, Adderall. If their child is wild, Adderall. If their child is lazy, Adderall.” Medication developments have become the safety net of our lives so much that there isn’t enough.

The universal addiction to Adderall is causing a shortage of the drug. According to a recent New York Times article by Dani Blum, Michael Kenneally, a local of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been without his Adderall for 25 days. He said, “It’s been so long for me that I’ve been on it that it’s difficult to function without it.”

Thomas Mandat, a source for The New York Times, was diagnosed with A.D.H.D. in the third grade, couldn’t refill is prescription for a month. He said he was so exhausted he couldn’t eat and had to force himself to choke down protein shakes. He described his “zombified state” as if you slept for eight hours but feels like you only got three.

The demand for the prescription stimulants to treat A.D.H.D. has doubled from 2006 to 2016. It is an epidemic that has crept up on our society and completely taken over. Margaret Sibley, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavior sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, told New York Times that during the pandemic, more people sought out the medication to cope with the stress.

Patterson said that once she graduates from college, she will continue to take it. She added, “If I don’t take it, I’ll lose focus. Then, I’ll be obsessively counting squares in the carpet or light bulbs on the ceiling for hours.”

Jones claimed there was a time he accidentally took three of his 70 milligram prescription Adderall. He said he felt the blood pumping in his tongue and his heart racing. “I was in math class taking notes on a new lesson and another student asked the teacher a question. Before I realized what I was doing, I wrote down their entire conversation. I was wired,” said Jones.

Dr. Willis explained there aren’t many students in the Auburn area who seek help in Adderall addiction. However, Atlanta Recovery Place offers signs to watch for in college students if you believe they’re an Adderall abuser.

Atlanta Recovery Place said the most obvious signs of an Adderall addiction include nausea and vomiting, anxiety, panic and nervousness, sleeping difficulties, weight loss and malnutrition. The signs that are the most detrimental, but not as obvious, is shrinking important responsibilities that are related to core spheres of life. These core spheres of life include family, work, or school.

Dr. Willis said, “Although, we can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped, I didn’t go to medical school for someone to kill themselves while I watch. Be supportive and offer a helping hand.”

Death by Adderall

This chart explains the overdose death rate between men and women. They are separated by age groups: men 15-24, women 15-24, men 25-50, and women 25-50. It shows which gender and age group is most common to overdose. Most of the overdose deaths in the 25-50 age category come from men with 70 percent of deaths caused by laced drugs being sold illegally. The older generation being most susceptible to overdose death could be because younger people are introduced to drugs at a young age. The reason given in The New York Times article by Roni Caryn Rabin, was that teenagers are routinely given opioids from the day their wisdom teeth come out. Women in the 25-50 age group made up the other 30 percent of laced drug overdoses. Women in the 15-24 age group made up 65 percent of laced drug overdose deaths, while the men in the 15-24 age group made of 35 percent of laced drug overdose deaths.

This chart to the left makes up the average rate of students at Auburn University that take Adderall and that do not take Adderall. The chart to the right shows students who are prescribed Adderall and the ones who buy it illegally. After surveying 100 students, 67 out of 100 are currently taking Adderall. But in the right chart, it shows that 30 percent of the 67 students buy it illegally and 70 percent of the 67 students are prescribed.