You’ve heard the names: Adderall, Ritalin, Dexedrine, Concerta. Need we go on? Did you happen to see the episode of Desperate Housewives, where one of its characters, Lynette, began taking her kids’ Adderall so that she could have more energy needed to keep up with three boys? It got a lot of people talking about the misuse of ADD medications.

Example of an ADD abuse case.

Mike is a thriving attorney, trying to make partner at the firm he works in. To do this would mean contributing more hours and energy. How will he be able to do this with an already busy schedule?

He was having drinks with a pal and telling his friend how he is not sure if he can keep up with his hectic schedule let alone working towards making partner. His friend told him that he too was in Mike’s condition a not so long ago but ever since he started taking Adderall few months back, life has taken a positive turn. It was easy to get his physician to prescribe him the medication as all he needed to do was confess that he can’t pay attention as well as stay organized at work. All this was worth it even if he did felt a little jittery.

Mike took his pal’s advice and was easily able to score his very own prescription for Ritalin. For the first few weeks, Mike thought he felt better. He didn’t seem to tire as easily and he was winning his cases like crazy! Moreover, he had lost those extra 8 pounds he’d never been able to shed. Mike thought he’d found the perfect solution.

Three month down the road, Mike began experiencing problems. He was loosing sleep and had often slept for no more than three hours at night. His moods became unpredictable and he was also becoming bad tempered. He had often taken this out on his wife and kids for no apparent reason and refuses to listen to his wife when she tries to point this out to him.

At work, things don’t seem to be same anymore. Mike’s coworkers are puzzled at his change of temperament. He was now treating other attorneys, which whom he had close working relationship with, like they are his nemesis. He is convinced that they only want to bring him down and sabotage his cases.

Mike finally went to a physician and it needless to say the cause was unveiled. He was immediately taken off the medication which was causing these symptoms and a few weeks later things went back to normal for Mike.

First, you need to know that chemically, the drugs prescribed for ADD are very similar to cocaine. And like cocaine, they increase the amount of dopamine available to receptors and that translates into a calming effect on the body. These drugs are dangerous, not only for those who don’t have ADD, but also for those that do!!

Even if the main objective of using these drugs is to get the calming effect as experienced by those who suffer from ADD, the effect is actually completely opposite.

Non-medical users of these stimulants are college students and housewives. This is very much tied to their strong need to be more energized, get more attention as well as get high. The methods of taking them are like normal drugs or, for better effects of the drug, crushed and snorted.

Because the use of stimulants is reaching epidemic proportions, it is important to know the long-term effects of using such substances.

Abusing stimulants for even short amounts of time alter the brain and its chemistry. These same drugs that are thought to produce that calming effect (remember the dopamine?) actually begin to destroy the receptors for dopamine, which in turn makes dopamine less effective for calming! Other side effects of using these drugs can include:

- Significant losses of grey matter in the brain – what does that mean? This is stuff in your brain that surrounds the corpus callosum, which is responsible for the communication between the two hemispheres of your brain.

- Deficits in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that takes care of functions like feeding, drinking, activity level, etc.

- Associated with a pattern of abnormal brain structure that looks like the deficits in early dementia and schizophrenia seen on MRIs.

What has been mentioned might not be enough to convince you so here are more side-effects:

- Paranoia

- Insomnia

- Extreme feelings of hostility

- Anorexia

- Depression

- Short temper

- Poor attention span

- A feeling of “being on the edge"

- Psychosis

- Memory loss

- Hallucinations

- Severe mood problems

Once you are dependent on these drugs, there is no turning back. You will find yourself taking more and more dose of them to get the same effect. This just proves that it is not worth it to get involve in the first place.