‘I couldn’t study without it’: How Cornell students are hooked on Adderall

Adderall. Vyvanse. Ritalin. All three of these prescription amphetamines were taboo in high school, as people assumed users were degenerates too lazy to study in advance.

But one semester into Cornell and these drugs, used to treat those with ADD and ADHD, have transformed into common, necessary study aids, especially during finals week. All stigma around the drugs has been completely eliminated. For example, if there’s a long paper due within a few days, people will take amphetamines to finish a draft within a few hours. Without the help of Adderall or Ritalin, people can usually finish three or four pages over the span of three hours. But with them, one can effortlessly write seven pages, complete with multiple sources and footnotes.

Still, there are those who question the legitimacy of using amphetamines to do schoolwork. About three days after finals started, a friend of mine in community college texted me asking: “Do people actually use Adderall and shit like that?”

“Yeah,” I responded.

“Why?” he asked, never having used the drug.

“Because it helps you focus and actually be interested in the material for a few hours,” I replied. “It’s good for papers and heavy studying, and you become way more efficient.”

Although amphetamine usage is abundant at Cornell, the level of usage varies heavily among people. For example, my friend who tried Vyvanse once to help him write a paper turned to me while he was writing and said: “This is awesome. We need to get a ton of this stuff.” He is yet to use Vyvanse or any other amphetamine since, but this initial reaction shows how strong of an influence these drugs can have on people.

There are others at Cornell who use Adderall more often. I talked to my friend Michael, not his real name, about his usage during finals week. Michael lives a few doors down from me, and I spend extended amounts of time working with him nearly every day. Before finals week, he used Adderall sparingly, as he was a consistently good student without its help. But once finals started, he began taking Adderall every day.

I talked to him ten days into his daily Adderall usage. He had taken it earlier in the day, and it had worn off by the time I spoke to him.

“So why have you been taking Adderall every morning?” I asked him.

“Well, I’ve been getting up at 9 AM every day to study,” Michael replied. “And there’s not a chance I would be able to get up and immediately get to studying without taking it.”

“Do you think it’s addictive?”

“Not really. It focuses me up, but it’s not messing me up in an addictive way.”

Michael was only taking 10 milligrams per day.

“Most people who take Adderall use it for busy work or papers, not to study because they say they have trouble retaining information. Do you think you’re still able to understand everything you’re studying while you’re on Adderall?”

“I’m taking so little, I don’t think it’s much of an issue. Again, I get more focused but nothing else about me changes that much.”

Still, everyday use can have negative effects over time. Michael talked about how one of his brothers has a prescription for Adderall, but he does not actually take it that often because he feels like it significantly changes his personality. Nonetheless, many people have severe enough ADHD that they have to take a lot of medication every day.

For example, the day before my last final, I was studying in our floor’s lounge at 1 AM when a kid named Kevin, also not his real name, approached me. Kevin is a massive athlete, standing at about 6’5” and weighing in around 250 pounds.

“You need Adderall or anything?” he asked.

“Nah, I’m good,” I replied. “Thanks for offering, though.”

“Whenever you need it just ask,” he said.

“Do you have a prescription?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he replied. “It’s not actually for Adderall. I had one for Ritalin, but I maxed out the legal dosage, so I just got switched to Vyvanse.”

“How much do you take?”

“I usually take a 50 milligram extended release in the morning, then in the afternoon, I’ll take another 10 milligrams in the afternoon as a booster.”

“Every day?” I was shocked at the amount he was taking on a daily basis.

“Yep. I’m in kind of a weird situation where I would not have been able to get in here academically, but because I got recruited, I was able to get in. But because of that, I have to take that much Vyvanse every day to get by in school.”

At that point, my other friend Stanley, not his real name, came in. “You have a Vyvanse prescription?” he asked Kevin.

“Yeah,” Kevin replied. “Do you?”

“I have one for Adderall and one for Vyvanse.”

“How much do you take?”

“50 milligrams of Vyvanse and 10 milligrams of Adderall when I take it, but I don’t take it every day,” Stanley said.

Stanley has been on both Adderall and Vyvanse since high school, and he changes drastically when he is not on his medication. Instead of sitting in his room diligently working, he’ll become much more carefree and silly, often unable to stay focused on anything.

Because of the personality change that happens when he takes Adderall or Vyvanse, Stanley tries to avoid taking his medication when he doesn’t need to work, leading to him having a pretty significant surplus of amphetamines. Because he has this surplus, many students on our floor go straight to him when they need a study boost, leading to him selling nearly all of his excess prescription.

“What’s it like to sell your prescription to people?” I asked Stanley.

“It’s kind of annoying to have people constantly asking me for a pill, but I’m selling 10 milligram pills of Adderall for $5 each, so I’m running a pretty good profit. And at least I’m helping people do well in school.” He giggled.

These people are a very small percentage of people I know at Cornell that use ADHD medication to do work. Adderall and amphetamine use is so widespread at this point that it’s not going to stop. But the fact that people view amphetamines as a necessity speaks volumes about the amount of work we are assigned and the stress we are consistently under.