The prescription of Adderall will lead to a lifetime of addiction, and many other social problems
In today’s society, we trust everything that a doctor tells us. We follow their prescriptions, and advice because we were paying them to give us the best answers to our illnesses. In most cases, doctors want what is best for their patents, but doctors unfortunately do not make their money from treating healthy patients. Also, unfortunately, our society’s view of what truly helps is medication. The prescription of medication gives us reassurance, and in many cases, the medication works for the prescribed individual. Once medication is perceived to be this sort of “Miracle pill” to the user, who thinks the medication is a necessary part of their daily success, a whole new can of worms is popped open with its own problems. Looking at the prescription of Adderall, an ADHD ( Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ) medication, the drugs Addictive properties, and perceivable superhuman brain ability is just what doctors want in the medication.
A child who has symptoms of ADHD, may blurt out the answers before the questions have been completed, has difficulty awaiting turn, or intrudes and interrupts others. Temperaments that can simply be the result of bad teachings, and immaturity. Describing ADHD as a made up mental illness would be wrong, since there are definitely cases of people whose problems cannot be subdued thorough punishment, and behavioral teaching. The problem is, a doctor, or a parent (sometimes both) agree on the prescription of medication as the solution to their child’s classroom disturbances. What they should realize, is that with these amazing results of astounding performance, and a quilled, drugged up child, brings nothing but harm in the future.
We cannot idly sit by to a prescription that changes our immature youths brain. The Recovery village, which specializes in addiction awareness/education, put an article up on their website titled, “Is Adderall Safe? | Safe for Adults and Children?” describing the true risk of the drug. As a parent, we want what’s best for our kid. We cannot deny the therapeutic effects of Adderall onto those with ADHD. In return, we must also realize that these symptoms of ADHD can disappear over time. The article describing the pills purpose as, “… not meant to be a long-term treatment because symptoms of ADHD often get better in children as they get older”. The problem with this thinking of solving the problem at the beginning, or first signs of ADHD, is that the prescription can be fully avoided by letting a child figure out the consequences of their actions. As their symptoms perceivably get better, an ADHD diagnosed person is already on that daily regiment of popping that miracle pill each day. Someone who is reliant on this pill, and who has been brought up entrusting that pill with their normality in society cannot simply say goodbye to the pill when symptoms vanish.
The love of Adderall is not just due to Adderall’s unnatural performance enhancing, but its extremely addictive properties as well. The devastating effects of addiction should be enough to deter anyone from approaching any drug, but people tend to overlook, and outweigh addiction with all of the miracle works of said drug. In a first person account of one womans Adderall downfall published by The Washburn Review, in an article titled, ”The real effects of Adderall: a personal testimony” Taylor Evans goes in depth in her experiences. Evans knew that she did not have ADHD, but a simple visit to the doctors office with descriptions of problems with paying attention, and whatever other fluff she needed to embellish on to get the Adderall prescription. Evans loved the drug, comparing taking Adderall to “being superwoman.” She could get all of her homework done, write papers longer than the required length, clean her house until it was spotless and still pick up extra hours at work. Amazing right? Why would someone want to throw this superhuman opportunity away. Simple, they can’t. Once someone builds up this notion of only achieving that success from the medication, they will make the connection of pill = success, and no pill = no success. As time went on, Evans addiction to the drug worsened. The author says, “…Evans started accomplishing less at school and work and shifted her main focus to finding more pills. This disrupted both her studies and home life”. The drug will turn the user into them fully depending on the medication.
The matter of originally classifying a child’s temperaments, and immature qualities as ADHD stigmatizes a child, and puts them in a category different from others who are perceived to be “normal”. Once this connotation is put around an adolescent, they will start to think they need medication to be normal. In a YouTube video titled, “CCHR Co-Founder Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus” Dr. Thomas Szasz describes the connotation an illness or disease has now. He believes that any disease cannot be not based on behavior, its something in the body that malfunctions. The stigma and connotation ADHD has around it is socially constructed. By diagnosing a child with ADHD and classifying it as a disease, or disorder stigmatizes a child, and puts them in a category that they should not be in. Parents should not think that their kid has an illness based on behavior, and should not jump to try to treat it. Instead, society, and doctors push to treat immediately. When you make a child feel like he is sick, and needs the medication to be normal, this messes up the kid for the rest of his life. Putting him in the pill cycle till they don’t have any more pills to take… and when they don’t have the pills, they believe they cannot be normal.
This topic first spiked my interest when I started living with an Adderall addict. Seeing how dependent he was on the drug to be able to wake up, go to class, maintain his appetite, and stay focused scared me. It is not natural to have something change your performance so much. The benefits of the prescription (which there are many positive effects of the drug) should not even be considered if there is potential for a lifetime or dependency.
Work cited
https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/adderall/adderall-safe/#gref
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1715703263?pq-origsite=summon
Rowan Counterintuitive 
Hey, Dude, this is a fine first draft. I do have recommendations, but I want to encourage you first that you’re arguing a strong case and providing good evidence.
P1. (Paragraph 1) You start out bold, which is good. But you depend on pure rhetoric to carry a VERY BIG and VERY NEGATIVE argument through your entire first paragraph. Readers already suspicious of doctors might be happy to rally to your point of view. But you drive away anyone who has respect for doctors if you make criminal allegations in your introduction without evidence. You might want to back off a bit. You can accuse cigarette makers of deliberately addicting their customers for the sake of repeat business, but before you accuse doctors of similar behavior, you need to offer some evidence. Otherwise, readers will distrust you and likely bail.
Specifically, when you call Adderall “just what doctors want in a medication” because of its “addictive properties,” you’re slinging mud. Prove it and we’ll join you in your outrage. For now, it’s better to demonstrate that there are perverse motivations to consider. Most doctors will resist those motivations. Be outraged at the real criminals.
Also, once you’ve followed a causal chain to its conclusion, don’t resort to cliche. Draw your conclusion clearly. Your Chain:
1. We trust doctors
2. We have a fiduciary relationship with them:
2a. We pay them to do us only good.
3. But healthy patients aren’t profitable.
4. And drug companies have convinced us that Healthcare=pills.
5. Usually, the pills work.
6. But we overdepend on them.
7. The result of all that causal thinking: “a whole new can of worms is popped open with its own problems.”
Not very satisfying.
One way out of both the problems I’ve observed above is to share the blame. You appear ready to do so, but you back off.
7. Patients who think pills are the solution will shop around until they find doctors willing to prescribe them, even to their own detriment.
8. We pay them to do us only good and then demand treatment that hazards our health.
What do you think?
I have observations about the rest of your essay too.
Respond to these, then put your post back in the Feedback Please category.
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