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25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

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Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#71
post #27

For anyone who cares, here are the official statistics. > Among U.S. adults, 6.6% (annual average) used prescription stimulants overall; 4.5% used without misuse, 1.9% misused without use disorders, and 0.2% had use disorders. [0] With that as a prior, this anecdata seems far off unless there's something horribly wrong at Stanford. Practically, I'm not sure where kids are getting this stuff to supply amphetamine at a…

At least in Europe, amphetamines are 3/4€ the gram for high quality stuff. The supply, I imagine, is very large.

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#72

If this is actually true, it does seem to be worth asking whether we're doing a good job with how we're structuring secondary education. If someone isn't in a position where they have a medical reason to take this stuff, but they still feel like they need to -- there are a lot of reasons that might be happening, but it also could indicate something may be wrong with the environment they're in, and that should probabl…

It's similar to issues with performance enhancing drugs.

If your course is graded so the top x% get an A, and people are using drugs to get ahead, then there's pressure to take study drugs to level the playing field with your peers.

The end state is everyone taking drugs, and nobody being any better off academically.

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#73

Apparently we have constructed a society in which everyone, including children, has to spend all day doing things they can't care about without pharmaceutical help. When this last happened under the Qin dynasty, it ended in the Taiping Rebellion, and produced nothing of value except those little canned oranges. I hear pornographic performers are on Viagra too. Meanwhile nobody actually has children, and CO2 PPM keeps…

>What the fuck is everyone doing?

They are busy with specializing themselves to keep the society machine going.

The easy part is imagining a future in which all that stress is unnecessary. The hard part is getting there, even if all it takes is the courage to open the door and walk up some stairs.

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#74

Apparently we have constructed a society in which everyone, including children, has to spend all day doing things they can't care about without pharmaceutical help. When this last happened under the Qin dynasty, it ended in the Taiping Rebellion, and produced nothing of value except those little canned oranges. I hear pornographic performers are on Viagra too. Meanwhile nobody actually has children, and CO2 PPM keeps…

Wong Kar-wai might disagree with you.

See, this is why I can't quit my HN addiction. Occasionally someone will post something like this, and I end up going to Wikipedia, and pretty soon I'm adding a bunch of films to my to-watch list.

But I have zero familiarity with his work (maybe I saw The Grandmaster? I saw some movie about Ip Man... actually it was probably just Ip Man...) so I would need some help to actually understand your reference. Given that his parents fled to Hong Kong in advance of the Cultural Revolution (says Wikipedia), I have to assume that they had some resources, would have been more on the Revolution's receiving end, and might have been more sympathetic to meritocratic order -- and maybe their son absorbed some similar opinions? Am I on the right track? (Probably not, simply given my ignorance.)

So, I'd be grateful if you could explain what the heck you meant :-) ... but I'd also just take a film suggestion!

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#75
post #43

Apparently we have constructed a society in which everyone, including children, has to spend all day doing things they can't care about without pharmaceutical help. When this last happened under the Qin dynasty, it ended in the Taiping Rebellion, and produced nothing of value except those little canned oranges. I hear pornographic performers are on Viagra too. Meanwhile nobody actually has children, and CO2 PPM keeps…

Nobody planned this. It’s the result of emergent behavior in complex systems and feedback loops. We are still absolutely at the mercy of such forces. They rule us. We sort of understand them (game theory, complexity, evolutionary dynamics) but have yet to come up with any reliable way of controlling them. Totalitarian government force is the best we can do, and it comes with equally large downsides and is itself subj…

Nobody planned this yet everyone is against changing it. I actually do not believe that there are complex flaws anywhere. The flaws are quite simple and easy to see.

What is becoming increasingly complex is the amount of band-aids you have to apply to achieve a semblance of stability.

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#76

If this is actually true, it does seem to be worth asking whether we're doing a good job with how we're structuring secondary education. If someone isn't in a position where they have a medical reason to take this stuff, but they still feel like they need to -- there are a lot of reasons that might be happening, but it also could indicate something may be wrong with the environment they're in, and that should probabl…

I think that depends on what you mean by "a position where they have a medical reason to take this stuff". I can get by without stimulants, but I'm very tired during the day, and don't get much done. With stimulants, I just feel like I have a normal person output. It also has the side effect of making me have a better mood overall.

I think part of it is due to the pressure to perform, of course. But part of it is also due to feeling terrible when I can't do anything and am tired all the time.

It's not a great situation and I'm slowly trying to change this, but on the other hand it's better than being alcoholic or even a smoker.

Re: 25% of students age 16-32 take Adderall 1-7 times per week, not prescribed

#79
post #69
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Modafinil isn't an amphetamine. The last time I went on a modafinil bender I didn't sleep for a week and ended that with a 12 hour masturbation session involving a lot of blood. That's not really that much different to what happened the one time I did meth, apart from there being a lot less violence. Modafinil should be way more regulated than it is.

I'm sorry but that might be you rather than the chemical.

Given that I don't do that when not on uppers, no it is the drug.
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