I never took anything in school and rarely did all nighters. I didnt even drink coffee then. Occasionally smoked ciggarettes. But I do recall people taking of all things xtc and then having spontaneous dance parties and then they would just go to the club and not do their work

adderall was HUGE at my school. Everyone who took it "couldn't do their work without it" I averaged one or two all-nighters a year and tried that stuff once or twice.

I guess it kept me awake? It made me do low quality/lazy work.

Not good if you're trying to create something thought provoking emphasized through craft. To successfully display a theoretical idea physically, you've really got to be on point- that stuff just fucks you up. If you can't stay awake to finish a project, it's probably not worth finishing (boring).

There's definitely long term side effects/dependency I had some friends that appeared addicted to it-they talked about how much they needed it and all hung out together trading their pills around- Pretty sad. Doctor's should not prescribe this stuff as often as they do, they should suggest more natural alternatives first (eat better, sleep regularly, exercise, etc.) Pumping chemicals into yourself to "fix" all your problems is a mentality that should have died a long time ago and it's sad that people are still being sold on it.

In school I stayed up because I wanted to finish my work for me, because I loved what I was doing and excited to share my ideas with my peers. That's all the intensive people who are in school should need. They don't have to be there. It's a choice that they made. I think architecture schools are hard on their students, but I think that the students should realize that it's a challenge to push you to you creative limit-not to torture you or to encourage you to permanently endanger your well being with a chemical dependency.

Never occurred to me that the drug users were being "unfair". Immature and self-destructive -- yes. A shame too, because some really talented student felt like they needed to pop pills to perform better or to have crazy train life styles.

I never begrudged them their success because I pitied them so much that they were trashing themselves in the process.

in my limited experience it's not the drug of choice for purely creative tasks, but very helpful for extended bouts of academic reading.

The blonde at 10:00 now she was a real stimulant in our studio...

she?

For the last week I've been taking melatonin to help me sleep, because I've always had trouble getting enough (quality) sleep..... so kind of the opposite of what some other people do. Does that count?

ppl on adderall are rarely better designers. I would not want o mess with my Mind's creative ability..doesn't make sense... no matter how sleepey you get

I've used it twice in my life, back during undergrad, and it helped me study for an exam. My study partners (pre meds) were used it frequently. In M.Arch now and I wouldn't consider anything but Soda or Coffee. I don't think it's unethical or unfair practice. I don't know how it would affect our "creativity" and I wouldn't care to try.

I guess adderall is a different story than caffeine pills, but I took vivarin once in undergrad and threw up all day the next day. Prior to that a drank a lot of Jolt cola and some coffee. After the vivarin incident I swore off coffee etc and limited myself to tea, trail mix, and Sobe energy drinks.

I went to Harvard and knew a guy struggling in school, and his academic advisor actually suggested that he go on adderall and said over half the students on campus were on it (this was at the college level). No one else I know talked about taking pills so I don't know how true this statement was. After he began taking adderall his grades did significantly improve, but he wasn't an architecture student. He claims that he really thought he had ADD, but who knows. No one at the GSD talked about taking pills to my knowledge, but I think I graduated before this stuff became main stream at architecture schools.

I agree that adderol might not be helpful with creative tasks, but I could see it giving an advantage once all the ideas are in place and you just need to stay up and crank things out. It's addictive though, and can't possibly be good for you. Totally not worth it.

As far as non architecture is concerned I do think it gives a competitive advantage and to a certain extent liken it to intellectual doping. My husband went on ritalin once after college because he supposedly has ADD (I still don't believe he does) and we have discussions about how ethical it is to take these types of drugs to improve performance. He disagrees with me. He also said that he actually found one quarter of the dose his doctor prescribed to be effective.

Basically he says that the drugs don't make you any more intelligent, but give you the ability to sit down and plow through whatever it is you're doing no matter how tired you might be or how much you'd rather be doing something else. Perfect for finals week. Personally, for classes that are graded on a curve, I think it's unfair to have to go up against someone that was able to read all the required texts TWO or THREE times because they frickin' popped provigil. Basically it allows you to train harder, which is the same thing that steroids do. And for people applying to architecture grad school, it might not help their portfolios, but it could help their overall GPA, so I do think it poses an ethical dilemma.

Did anyone see the Law and Order SVU where the college girl at an elite school took provigil, didn't sleep for 7 days, and ended up killing someone?

You can do the same things on caffeine that you can on ritalin or provigil, they are just easier/last longer.

Either pills only last a few hours, although ritalin comes in more varieties (delayed release, short term, etc.).


Oh, and I agree with your husband. The suggested doses of both of these is quite high.

I don't use it.
I rarely consume caffeine (for purposes of staying awake).

It's funny how architecture can spiral towards self-abuse to achieve bigger and better results.

but, some say you can't be a rock star without sex, drugs, and alcohol.

I'm surprised nobody's brought up the old discussion about drug eras and the architecture they've inspired. LSD--->Archigram, coke--->postmodernism, etc. In my experience stimulants negatively affect my ability to think laterally, and so while my project might get done, it's usually not fully resolved, or very interesting.

I agree, you might be "awake", but you'll be wired and unable to think clearly. No way could I memorize a book at 3am after drinking 3 pots of coffee.

My solution [in school] was to drink tons of coffee, then switch to beer for a few hours, then back to coffee. As long as you remember to eat, drink a little water, etc., it works quite well. You stay awake and have fun (well, kinda).

trace,
I agree the coffee to beer to coffee regiment is great.

I recall a lot of people taking speed, but mainly most of us just drank...so I guess that's really no apropo to this topic - they're depressants.

There was that stairway at the end of the bldg that was kinda the 'f***-zone' - that was stimulating.

someone should really do a study of architecture students under laboratory conditions. What is the ideal regimen for boosting both productivity and creativity.

the weight of a severe insecurity?

fear, blinding fear, that chases you down grassy slopes at night?

faith in some objective values untrammeled by rationality?

focus pills= great

triple espresso=acid reflux

Architects should only use recreational drugs. Performance enhancing drugs should be reserved for superstar athletes pulling superstar athlete salaries. I mean, seriously - all this to impress your studio instructor?

alexi - i agree with you, very good points

As someone who's been prescribed these 'focus pills' for 6 years, I can't see the creative benefit of taking a couple of adderall/ritalin. Often, if I have a day off, treat myself to not being on the medication. I enjoy music more, stop overthinking, enjoy food more, and most importantly come up with a lot of ideas. I won't say you can't be creative while on the medications, but in my experience the interesting ideas come more fluidly when off the medication.

That being said, I can see the benefit when it comes to actual assembly of the idea. I prefer to write off-pill and edit on-pill. Likewise, I could see the benefit of starting a project off-pill and tweaking mechanical details on-pill.

... Then again, I know people who have very different experiences with these pills. Maybe it is worthwhile to pound back 5, get cottonmouth, and glue 3 things together really precisely, then look up and realize you wasted 5 hours of time. That's another thing with the pills: your time management and prioritization can go down the drain.

if you are not medically prescribed to actually needing medication, you shouldnt take it

you dont need pills to finish your schoolwork, and you definitely dont need them to be a better designer

i found that architecture students who whined that they needed to be up all night to finish their project really just put themselves in a bad position where they left too much to the last minute

if you manage your time correctly, you dont need pills to finish your work

i always found it is an easy cop out for those who just wasted too much time up until a deadline

Same people who used stimulants in studio are the recreational drug users outside of studio. It's "partier" posturing. You don't need drugs, and you don't need all-nighters to do well in architectural school.

I prefer using time-management. The people I know who used it often did their worst work when they were on stimulants. I remember one occurrence where a classmate was awake for two days on some upper (she did a number of them so it was hard to tell what she was really on) and had a nasty run in with a utility blade. Blood all over the model at the crit the next day and removed a "chunk" off of her finger. It's not worth it, just pull your all-nighters early

i once stayed awake for 10 days straight taking nothing more than a few shakes of dog tail dander, a drop of cactus juice and toejam shavings from Cameron Diaz's life-size figure at Madame Tussauds'...

just give me a good sativa

I recently also heard that more and more students are taking pills in order to cope with their daily duties. In this connection I found Modalert which I guess is quite the same as Provigil. I also found out that Provigil is actually used to treat sleep apnea, shift work disorder and narcolepsy. I also heard about Adderall but I do not know for which diseases this medication is actually used. Would be interesting to know. Feel free to post it here.

I honestly can't even drink a cup of coffee in the morning at work. Between the headphones on my head for 4 hours at a time, sitting in a chair all day, and staring at a computer screen the added caffeine buzz pushes me over the top and I start to have anxiety attacks. There's nothing worse, IMO, than the feeling of artificial energy when you're body is tired.

That said, I'm naturally a night person and have no problem pushing late into the night, whether school or work-it's the mornings I struggle with.

i never really understood this

perhaps some people just shouldnt be in architecture school if they have to resort to using stimulents or drugs just to get their work done

a big push before a review is when maybe you just dip into the coffee more at night that normal

but if you cant even manage your day to day work without stimulents then you are clearly doing something wrong
it really is all about time management, and to be honest, its not work that everyone is cut out for

just like not everyone is cut out to be a teacher, or a doctor, or whatever else

Michelle - Adderall is used to treat people with ADD/ADHD.