Her.meneutics: Adderall Arrives at Christian Colleges

back to Christianity Today

RSS Feed | Help

email to a friend

twitter updates

Follow Her.meneutics on Twitter

What Is Her.meneutics?

The Christianity Today women's blog provides news and analysis from the perspective of evangelical women. We cover news stories and books related to international justice and evangelism, pregnancy and sexual ethics, marriage, parenting, and celibacy, pop culture, health and body image, raising girls, and women in the church and parachurch.

Her.meneutics is edited by associate editor Katelyn Beaty and online editor Sarah Pulliam Bailey.

interests

books and media

church life

justice and politics

relationships and family

sexuality and health

spirituality

theology

women of note

writers

More ...

Free Newsletters

books we're reading

blogs we're watching

« 'One Thousand Gifts,' Reconsidered | Main | Christ and My Curly Hair »

August 29, 2011

Adderall Arrives at Christian Colleges

Are well-meaning evangelical faculty and administration in part to blame?

Marlena Graves

Like any university campus, Christian colleges/universities have their share of students who abuse street drugs. But in my work with Christian college students over the past few years, I’ve noticed more and more over-the-counter and prescription drug abuse. One of the newest and seemingly innocuous (from the students’ perspective) drugs of choice is Adderall.

Adderall is prescribed to those suffering from ADHD. However, students who feel pressure to achieve high grades and maintain the requisite college experience are turning to Adderall, known as the "study buddy," for a boost. As an "academic steroid," it gives students the energy and focus they need to pull all-nighters or study for long periods during the day. And it's easy to get. A student can buy it on campus from other students or lie about their condition in order to obtain a prescription from a medical provider. Inside Higher Ed reports that nationally, the number of students who are using Adderall and Ritalin as “study aids” is close to10 percent. In a New Yorker article titled “Brain Gain,” Margaret Talbot writes:

. . . in recent years Adderall and Ritalin, another stimulant, have been adopted as cognitive enhancers: drugs that high-functioning, overcommitted people take to become higher-functioning and more overcommitted. (Such use is “off label,” meaning that it does not have the approval of either the drug’s manufacturer or the Food and Drug Administration.) College campuses have become laboratories for experimentation with neuroenhancement . . . .

I first heard about Adderall a few years ago when a sharp, highly involved, and winsome student sent me an e-mail asking me “to keep her accountable.” This precious student confessed to using Adderall during finals week and on a few other occasions when pressures piled up. When I asked her where she procured it, she told me that she got it off of another student.

This student looks and acts like an upstanding member of any youth or young adult group — she could be a ministry leader in church. In fact, I love her dearly. And that is often the case with students who are abusing neuro-enhancing drugs; most of the time you can’t tell they’re abusing by just looking at them.

As I already mentioned, for many, abusing these drugs is a means to a tangible end. Students are concerned with getting into grad school, pleasing their parents, and getting the coveted internship that lands them the desired job in this precarious economy. To do that, they need an impressive resume. Balancing a social life, academic pressures, and over-involvement in organizations and campus ministries can be overwhelming. Thus the temptation to abuse a tiny neuro-enhancing pill.

What can Christian campuses do? First, it’s imperative that we not incite an over-commitment and false guilt frenzy by explicitly or implicitly placing too many demands on our students. We need to examine our spoken and unspoken rules about academic performance and ministry involvement.

Second, we (as well as churches and parents) need to lead the way in modeling the natural rhythms of worship in our common life — rhythms of work, prayer, Sabbath, service, and play. As Her.meneutics editor Katelyn Beaty pointed out to me, “Christian colleges in particular should incorporate a spirit of Sabbath and worship into their common life, and should thus be distinct from their diploma-generating secular counterparts.” I couldn’t agree more.

That’s why I repeatedly remind my resident assistants, students, and myself that we don’t have to be involved in a lifetime of ministry in one semester, or in four years. We don’t have to take every opportunity that comes our way. Not even Jesus Christ, God incarnate, did that. There are seasons in life — seasons with differing levels of involvement. As Lauren Winner once noted in Christianity Today magazine, getting eight hours of sleep may very well be the most holy thing we do as followers of Jesus. It’ll help keep us from making ourselves and everyone around us miserable. Busyness, hurry, and over-commitment are not badges of honor. On the contrary, they are indicative of a sick soul. (In this vein, I highly recommend reading Jan Johnson’s newest book (IVP 2011) Abundant Simplicity: Discovering The Unhurried Rhythms of Grace; look for fellow Her.meneutics writer Amy Julia Becker's review in the next couple weeks.)

Surely no doubt parents, Christian college campuses, and churches need to address the danger of abusing neuro-enhancing drugs like Adderall. We dare not assume the stance that “my student would never do such a thing.” But we can go further than raising awareness. We can curb the demands and expectations we place on students and diffuse the temptation to take these drugs through learning and modeling “unhurried rhythms of grace."

Comments

Amen! Even if our students don't take this drug, they are tempted to do way too much because activity is considered a good thing, especially in the church. Adults not in school fall prey to this too. Just because we are doing lots of ministry activities doesn't mean we're doing what God wants us to do. Anything can be done for the Lord: studying, befriending that student who is always alone, eating healthy.

What if we taught our kids and helped them experience true fellowship -- the honest, open, vulnerable building-up of fellow Believers? Once you experience nothing else compares. That isn't found in tons of activity.

And we parents also shouldn't pressure our kids -- oh boy,

never mind...thanks for the article.

The pressure to succeed can be crippling and, as you've pointed out, the cure is too often sought in the wrong place. The only success that counts, of course, is the life God provides (John 10:10 comes to mind). I have two kids in college and while they are quite different in their attitudes toward studying and attending class, they both deal with the pressures that come from being there. I try my best not to do anything that would increase that pressure the slightest smidge, and to point the way to God as the only one they really need to please.

Cheers,
Tim

P.S. Maybe it's because my kids are both at major public research universities, but this phrase in your article seems unduly perjorative: "diploma-generating secular counterparts." Diploma generating? Was that meant in a good way? In any case, as a product of three other major public research universities (undergard and grad here in the States plus a stint in England) I think I can say that I got more than a mere piece of paper out of my time in each.

I suspect that the "diploma-generating" phrase was meant more along the lines of - a secular college gives you a diploma and a Christian college not only gives you a diploma but gives you tools to use in your Christian life. At least I hope that's what was meant by it.

Having gone to a Christian school I know how stressful it was to do "everything". I love the idea that Christian colleges should be teaching a "Sabbath rest"

Raising awareness of these ongoing and increasingly creative yet dangerous ways to "succeed" is critical to our mentoring/parenting of students, and I hope this article is a springboard for us to explore this more deeply. Specifically, what is at the root of these decisions? I did not see your phrase of "diploma-generating" as perjorative, but rather a descriptor for a more "consumer-based" mentality in higher education. While we can't downplay the importance of GPA as a prominent evaluative tool for future study and successful fulfillment of one's current program, we cannot allow it to become a priority over the innate value of learning and growing in wisdom, knowledge, understanding, insight and discernment. I don't recall any quality learning experiences the day or even days after pulling an all nighter. As my students would say, "I'm just sayin'..." Motives are key, and misguided motives can be fueled so easily by those that students respect and desire to please or impress.

Back in my day a lot of classmates took caffine pills. They were even in our welcome packets when we arrived in the dorms. Some of the girls had some bad side effects, racing heartbeat, sleeplessness (for days), etc. Yikes. I can't imagine what people would face with prescrption drugs.

A minor correction: Adderall is not a steroid. It is an amphetamine derivative. Really dangerous and easy to abuse.

A picky retired chemistry professor.

Thanks for the article, Marlena. This is a problem we all need to know about. We need to rethink our expectations of others and to major on what Jesus has called us to be and do. Looking forward to reading Jan Johnson's new book. Thanks for including the source in your article. It's an excellent work.

I hope you do understand that the Sabbath was an OT shadow fulfilled in the reality of Jesus Christ who has now become our spiritual Sabbath rest. We no longer labour to keep the OT law for salvation, but rest in Him because He has fulfilled the requirements of the law. If you are advocating adequate rest and recreation, then call it that. Let's call Bible things by Bible names and not confuse Bible teaching by applying Bible names to other things and return people to OT legalism. This is a real problem.

A steroid? Oh my word. I had to go back up and re-read the article because I'd skimmed over that reference the first time.

And after a third reading, I can't see how you can infer anything BUT a perjorative from the "diploma generating" comment in reference to non-Christian colleges. As if that "something extra" was only a part of the Christian college experience.

My thoughts, however, went to an earlier time and "Mother's Little Helper" or what we might now refer to as speed or Meth or just uppers. In this country, there is no less push from "church" to do and be everything. I simply can't imagine deciding one Sunday to take a day of rest with my family and skip church. I am afraid of what the rest of the ladies at church would say.

There is a ton of drivenness among high-achieving evangelicals, and it begins in leading Christian colleges and "elite" Christian secondary schools. Then it goes on to making the right marriage, having a successful career, raising accomplished kids who in turn . . . Of course, hard work and ambition are laudable, but not at the expense of overmedicating our young.

Unfortunately, the easiest path in life, if not the most tragic path in life, is the path of least resistance.

I want to make a clarification. Thank you to Tim and TM for pointing out that the statement about Christian and secular universities struck them as perjorative. I didn't intend it to. My husband is a philosophy professor who received his graduate degrees from secular research universities. There are wonderful public and private non-Christian institutions that do more than generate diplomas. What I believed Katelyn to be getting at and what I was hoping to express is that a Christian education (especially) is supposed to be more wholistic. It is to be academic for sure, but we also strive to teach our students how to live gospel lives. Fueling overcommitment is not healthy. I should've contextualized that sentence more. Thank you both for pointing that out.

Adderall isn't a steroid (a synthetic male hormone), it is a stimulant (an amphetamine variant).

I went to a Christian college for a year-and-a-half. While there were many good thing about it, I ended up having an eating disorder, severe (at times suicidal) depression and a nervous breakdown and dropping out, in part because of the pressure to not only have wonderful grades but also to be the "perfect Christian girl". I didn't abuse drugs per se, but mega doses of Diet Coke were my fuel and I never, ever had a Sabbath rest.

I'll add that I ended up at a secular university and while I had some bad experiences (the depression worsened), I was overall less stressed out academically after a certain point. I finally figured out that I had won my professors' respect and I enjoyed my coursework more.

Not enough here about the DANGER. My daughter was a different person on this drug. Different and much, much worse. It destroyed her relatioships with the rest of the family and she only recovered when she, with great difficulty, quit the adderall

Just because something is prescribed by a doctor does not mean that it is a good thing. Prescription drug abuse is the forgotten frontier in the War on Drugs.

“Christian colleges in particular should incorporate a spirit of Sabbath and worship into their common life, and should thus be distinct from their diploma-generating secular counterparts.”

I know this isn't intended to say something negative about the academic side of Christian education, but one thing we should all take note of.....it is the fragmented Christian life that leads to the justification of poor behaviors and decisions, like the use of Adderall. So when we communicate a fragmented/segmented understanding of the nature of our education (the Christian aspects pitted against the "secular" aspects of education) we give the fragmented life credibility. Having and living a Christian worldview is the key to answering these dilemmas.

So sorry, the above comment belongs to me...I didn't mean to post anonymously.

Marlena: Thank you for the clarification on comparing Christian and secular universities (the whole "pejorative" or not issue, and I'm sorry for having misspelled it initially too!).

I have first-hand experience in the difference you pointed out (one of my kids started at a Christian university and was very well supported as a person compared to what we saw at the public school), and agree that we should expect that universities established by and for Christians to help avoid pressure problems and not add to them. On the other hand, since the universities are populated by young adults who are (for the most part) away from home for the first time, I think we are going to see these types of missteps to one extent or another. It seems to be inherent in the students, since they are just people trying to do their best.

Cheers,
Tim

Anne, prescription drug abuse is not a forgotten frontier. It's actually the front lines today.

Actually, I started out at a religious school, then moved to state schools to finish my degrees. I had the opposite experience. I felt my time at the state school was enriching to my whole person in a way that the religious school did not touch.

I profited from a secular university as a young Christian. However, my active involvement with a dynamic evangelical church gave balance to my academic and spiritual development.

As a recently graduated law student I am intimately aware of the pressure to do and be committed to too much as a college and/or graduate student. However, I cringe at the solution offered here that these students should simply be taught (and expected) to commit to less. College students seem to have more discretionary time at their disposal than any other group of people – and there is pressure to fill all of that time with various activities and commitments that lead to stress. The hard thing is that college kids want do to it all, or at least I did anyway. Instead of telling them to say no (because they won’t), I think the Church, Christian colleges, and even secular schools need to offer better resources for dealing with stress and heavy workloads so that students don’t turn to unhealthy behaviors like using Adderall.Within the Christian community we need to remember and remind each other that we are defined by Christ; that our worth comes solely from God. Truly understanding and believing this has huge ramifications for how we experience success and prioritize our lives. This does not necessarily solve the problem of feeling over whelmed or over committed at times, but it completely changes what we turn to in those times. Practically speaking, I think this plays out in the church through mentoring relationships, families opening their homes up to college students to offer a sense of normalcy, and accountability and discipleship among peers.

I am a failure: at school,at college,and at most jobs that required reading and writing.'Lazy', 'needs to apply himself', 'his own worse enemy'. no matter how much I've tried - the results never came. So I concluded the labels others had given me were true. As the years passed I added to them with increasing self loathing: 'looser', 'fraud, - but mostly labels I can't repeat. My life is one contiguous collection of unfinished projects.

6 days after my 47th birthday I was put on Adderall. Suddenly I can focus without having 100 radio stations playing simultaneously in the head. Suddenly I could hear my daughter as she spoke to me - without every other ambient sound drowning her out. And in just 3 weeks I am starting to enjoy my company. To be easier on myself. And the fits of rage that my family have undeservedly put up from me are diminishing.

Rest, diet, exercise help. But now I no longer hate the man in the mirror.

Regarding Sabbath being an OT legalism. Sabbath is much older than the OT Law. It’s in Gen 1—part of the divine rhythm of creation. God rested because it’s a good idea—to celebrate and reflect. Sabbath was reinforced by OT law, which Jesus by practicing solitude fulfilled the law of Sabbath. Jesus’ coming doesn’t mean Sabbath is no longer a good idea.
Also, Jesus’ objections to Sabbath-keeping were that they turned it into legalisms, using it to violate more of the tender law: do not withhold help (Dt. 22:3). Jesus did not rip Ps 119 out of the OT and he quoted the law for the Great Commandments: to love God, to love neighbor as self. Paul also decried the legalisms people read into the law and said that he delighted in the law in his inner being (Rom 7:22). We are not saved or justified by keeping the law but studying those OT books and understanding how God used it to form a holy nation in the midst of ancient pagan cultures gives us beautiful insights about God, who both treasures us and guides us.

I'd like to highlight AV's comment above - it's important to recognize that for students who actually have ADD/ADHD, Adderall, Ritalin, etc. can be legitimate helps.

Other than that, thanks for the article. Jesus did not set us free from sin and death so we could be slaves to the tyrannies of perfectionism and appearances.

@those who can't recognize figurative language: Note the phrase "academic steroid". The quotation marks in front of the phrase and after it tell you it is being used in a special way. We call that special way "figurative language", specifically it is a metaphor.

Thank you for a great article.

Regarding the use of the word "steroid" in the article: If you click on the link it leads to, it is referencing an article from the Yale News of 2005. Another eye-opening article. I recommend reading it to all who have criticized the use of the word.

I used to hold to Jan Johnson's view of the Sabbath. After much Scripture study, reading of expert commentary, and prayer I have come around to the view advocated by The G. There is Scriptural support on both sides of the issue and I promise it won't be settled here, as good and Bible-believing Christians have disagreed about it for at least centuries.

We need to teach students to rest in Jesus Christ as their salvation alone - which Hebrews 4 teaches IS the message of the Sabbath, whether or not you believe the fourth commandment requires a day of rest for Christians today - and then they will learn to work hard, trust the results to him, and stop trying things on the performance treadmill that are dangerous.

I love what Sarah Flashing had to say. There are so many spoken and unspoken messages in the church about what a Christian "should" be; but far less often, we're actually taught HOW to live a life that truly pleases God rather than trying to live up to those human-imposed standards. This leaves some Christians in the precarious position of trying to reach these people-imposed standards through people-created means (e.g., Adderall, other drugs) -- rather than drawing on God's strength to do the work He's designed you to accomplish.

Work hard, lean on His strength, and relinquish the results to Him. Would that I could live by that myself! :) Praise God, He's helping me. It's a shame that so few voices teach how to accomplish this, however, so we get stuck in the performance trap. I'm grateful for people like Jan Johnson and Dallas Willard, who are providing help in learning these lessons.

I was blessed to go to a Christian college where Sabbath rest and wholistic life in Christ was exalted above grades and ever-increasing responsibilities. I heard this both in chapels and from mentors on campus. That said, I'm sure others who attended this college would say they felt otherwise, which leads me to conclude that we all ultimately have to find peace in our identity in Christ, regardless of the environment.

I also wonder if there's a link between our consideration of Sabbath rest as "an Old Testament thing," and our own stress levels, which seemingly reflect the surrounding culture instead of a rejection of its ideals.

I'm not advocating legalistic observance of the Sabbath; but I do think that, in tossing aside the legalism, we've also abandoned a very healthy practice that helps us be more rested (and ultimately more productive), and places us outside of the crazed American lifestyle.

There are many excellent insights here, but I just have to say that I have been preaching the "get plenty of sleep" sermon to my students for years. I missed that excellent point made by Lauren Winner, so thanks for including that here. I couldn't agree more.

At Dallas Theological Seminary I was deeply impacted by one of the profs saying to us in class: "getting an A can be a sin, and not getting an A can be a sin". He was talking about priorities (when you're in grad school and have a job and a family, neglecting them for the sake of a grade is sinful) and also about Christian excellency - if you're blessed to have a season in your life in which the main thing you do is study, it is a sin to do it poorly.

As a teacher here in Beijing, I am not quite sure where to begin. My first college was an evangelical college (King's,then in Briarcliff Manor). While I enjoyed my year there, it was not exactly a pressure cooker. When I then transferred to a "secular" college, the academic demands were greater, and the students no doubt more adept overall, but I don't remember them being anguished and pulling all-nighters. Indeed, even way back then I remember working very hard during the week so as to create free time, time not to be filled by "things", come the weekend. After a relaxed Sunday, I would, on Sunday evening, return to a more academic frame of mind. This has been my pattern therein after, at Yale, Penn and MacMaster University in Canada. No amount of stimulants can take the place of practiced self-discipline.

Still, academic demands are oftein in the eye of the beholder. One of my former students, who is now in her 4th year of medical school, showed no interest in Wheaton, not because of its Christian character, but because the sophomore biology majors there were doing what she had done in her sophomore year in high school. For her, Wheaton would not have provided much in the way of academic friction. For others, it may in fact pose a challenge. Even so, if students would get away from "busyness," what one commentator has described as a modern form of sloth,and focus on their calling/vocation as students, that alone would provide much in the way of academic, social and spiritual equilibrium.

Thanks for sharing this. I didn't know much about this issue but the article was very helpful and informative.

All I'm going to say is, given the condition of our current American (global?) culture in academe, what do you expect? This has been coming for a long, long time, and YOU, readers in general, are to blame for it.

This article has much to say about the abuse of ADHD stimulants on Christian college campuses. I would have loved to have seen statistics that pertain to Christian colleges alone and not just Christian colleges/universities, which lumps all colleges together, yet manages to emphasize the word, "Christian" (no attack there, right?). I would venture to say that the statistics would be much lower than the 10% reported "Inside Higher Ed" reported; however, I cannot say for sure because I have not performed the necessary research either.

Let's not forget there are many, like myself, who actually need ADHD medicine just to have everyday normal conversations with people, let alone study for hours on end. It is easy to lump all users of such medicines in with abusers.

I would suggest to the author that deeper research and/or statistical analysis needs to be completed before writing an article like this.

This is noting new to any college campus, Christian or or not. It is not about abusing a drug, it is about trying to better yourself mentally. All the stigma that has been attached to the use of smart drugs seems to come from the issue of using prescription ADD/ADHD medication. Using prescription drugs any way other than prescribed is going to cause issues, but the idea of taking supplements to increase mental performance is certainly not unethical... and in fact is beginning to become as much a part of a healthy diet as taking your vitamins. In fact, there are products now like PROFIDERALL, which is being called the Adderall Alternative, that are over the counter nutritional supplements that are designed to help healthy over achievers increase focus and mental performance. Healthy body. Healthy mind. Where's the controversy with that...

I love AddieUP, it gives me 6 hours of clear focus and clean energy. I am such a fan. Are you in Florida by any chance?

Thanks for a worthwhile discussion of the pressure to compete at modern universities -- and the damaging methods some are using to perform to unrealistic standards.

If you think about it, anyone who gets into a habit of using amphetamines to do their best work is forging a habit that will require them to use those destructive means to replicate their best work in the future. Dress this up in a suit and tie or a minister's collar, it is still essentially addiction.

But, where do we draw the line? Isn't coffee a stimulant? Well yes, but coffee and tea are herbal stimulants that have thousands of years of safe use -- if not overused to the exclusion of sleep, food, etc.

God gave us herbs, such as coffee and tea, but Hitler and the Nazis gave us methedrine. There are nutrients in herbal stimulants that help our body deal with the increased energy produced. In meth or Adderall, there is no redeeming nutrition, just an unnatural chemical the body doesn't recognize as it does caffeine.

I agree with some of the comments that there are those with ADHD, who need something to help them focus and get projects done. I am one of these.

What I think has caused this problem is the conflict between the pharmaceutical industry's desire for profits of 10,000% and more. This lust for over-sized profits drives them to change natural herbal substances so they can be patented -- and thus, owned.

Big pharmaceutical corporations do not promote natural, God-given, healthy nutrition and herbs to heal our illnesses, they give us unnatural chemicals which cause us unknown side-effects and produce an addiction that is very hard to replace.

All this being said, I have found no harm in aiding my natural abilities with herbs and nootropic substances to prod my mental abilities. The problems come when we begin to rely on unnatural chemicals that don't exist in Nature -- and these are only created for the greed of the drug manufacturers.

Starting children as young as 3 on Adderall or Ritalin, when coffee would in most cases have done the job, is just criminal. Once started on pharmaceuticals, it is hard to go back to less-powerful(but kinder to the body) natural stimulants like coffee.

I hope this contributes to the discussion by giving the background of why these unnatural, addictive, side-effect-creating substances are the ones many students have come to expect.

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Hermenuetics

twitter updates

What Is Her.meneutics?

interests

writers

Free Newsletters

books we're reading

blogs we're watching

Adderall Arrives at Christian Colleges

Comments

recent posts

Archives

Hermenuetics

twitter updates

What Is Her.meneutics?

interests

writers

Free Newsletters

books we're reading

blogs we're watching

Adderall Arrives at Christian Colleges

Comments

recent posts

tags

Archives