I find this absolutely startling: "It’s well known that many college students use Adderall to give themselves an extra edge for getting work done whether they’re prescribed or not ... Furthermore, a 2009 study on non-medical use (defined as use of a prescription drug without a doctor’s order) of Adderall among full-time college students showed that subjects aged 18 to 22 were twice as likely as their counterparts, who were not full-time college students, to have used Adderall."

Along with: "Stephanie Lee found her freshman year of college unusually difficult. She had trouble adjusting to the levels of stress she encountered." And: "Without Adderall, you might feel bored by your math homework or unable to focus on the multiple steps needed to reach a solution, but on Adderall you might literally feel like you’re in love with math."

So many people are taking this drug to deal with the fact that they cannot handle the type of work, or the stress. I find it fascinating that people have come to assume that the problem is with them because they find the work uninteresting, or they find school stressful, and not because that is how the systems (colleges) and the work (math, science) are designed. Instead of telling people how they are not designed properly for the work, perhaps we should take some time to reflect on how the work is repetitive and not creative, and not fulfilling, and that is perhaps the issue.

Note: I do think math and science and intellectual work can be creative when at a high level. But at a learning level you're treated more like a machine designed to learn and repeat.

I was recently chatting with another student about how classes here are just becoming increasingly demanding. In looking at computer science classes as an example, the complexity of even the basic computer science classes has grown with time, and nothing has been removed. Every one of our professors expects us to spend 10-15 hours per week just on their class. And it's obviously not possible. Instead of trying to find ways to optimize time, people are trying to optimize their minds to be something that is not creative, but rather very much like a machine. College is not designed around passionate work, it is designed to be a grind on you and force you to do a lot of work you hate. Every four months you take all the previous work you did and throw it out and start over. How is any part of that designed to be gratifying? I don't necessarily share entirely positive views of college. It's an institution designed to meld and mold people to fit into our economic model.

I have spent some time thinking about this trend and have come to the conclusion that it could be a real damage to creativity and individuality when you can medicate your mind into a machine.