It helps a lot. I've used it many times this semester and on a few occasions, I wouldn't have possibly finished the work without staying up for three days or however long.

It's probably not very healthy to stay up like that, but it enhances your desire to focus.

Take it.

school isn't that important.

i'm sure your life isn't as well

zinkplus, how old are you?

If I could go back and do it again, I wouldn't take a single drug until after I turned 25. There's all kinds of research now about how our brains change as we age. I'm certain the "experimenting" I did in my youth made me stupider.

Very simplistically explained, until 25-ish your brain is still forming the connections that make it function well. After that, the connections start to evolve, no longer growing but changing. Also simplistically explained: middle aged brains are better at seeing big picture ideas, while younger brains are better at taking in new information.

I don't know anything specifically about how Adderall affects the brain, but it's a Schedule 2 narcotic meaning it's dangerous enough that it needs to be highly controlled.

I think LML's brief comment is meant to imply "schoolwork isn't as important as your physical and mental health." I completely agree. No project is worth making yourself ill. Yes, I did it many times in school: no sleep for days, Jolt Cola (is it still around?) with Jolly Ranchers melted in it for a major sugar high, coffee practically intravenously. My sister the med student forced me to bed one day - I think I slept for close to 24 hours, woke up and did a ton of work in the next 24 because I was so rested. But none of that Herculean effort really made my projects better, just more complete.

My advice: don't risk it, both for the addiction possibility, the potential long-term effects on your neurons, and - not to be taken lightly - the potential feelings later that you weren't strong enough to do the work on your own.

I took ritalin for a while...

you might as well do blow - same side effects - heart attack, stroke, psychosis, etc... scary stuff.

for me, it made me a production machine, but when I was on it I learned/remembered nothing, lost most of my creative ability, and my work was really boring and unoriginal. once I stopped taking it, the quality of my work improved immensely.

you're better off struggling through assignments because then you'll be able to make larger cognitive leaps - and your work will be much stronger later on. as you get older, it's easier to deal with the procrastination that causes you to spend late nights on assignments. once you figure out how to do something, you can get it done much quicker and move on. that stuff in school you thought was so hard and took forever? much faster and easy once you've been working for a while

besides school should be about what you learn, not getting shit done. taking drugs is like admitting you don't really want to take control over your own education... I mean, you are paying for what - an A? is that it? an "A" is meaningless if it's just about quantity - what matters is what you learn, what skills you develop, and the experiences you have. don't go through school as a zombie.

Take it - keep taking it. Take it some more. All of you.

Take it?
That's a terrible (and irresponsible) advise. Adderall is a serious amphetamine.
Listen, if you can't do the project without any drugs, get out now when you still have time.

This is terrible, especially to get a student project done. If you can pull nighters with your own bodily strength, then do not. It will not help in the long run.

Hitler gave his armies meth too.

What happened to good old fashion drive and copious amounts of coffee?

You don't need pills to produces a lot of stuff in school.

usually at that late hour the 75,000 holes you need to punch out of your laser cut chip board doesn't require a high level of sustained brain activity...now if your trying to catch up on all those theory readings you put off for a month, that's another story.

you guys are going to think i'm crazy but i build everything by hand. same with drawings.

Back in the day the best stuff was "Mini-thins". The best part was you could buy them at a gas station.... $1.99 for 6

And this is the reason it gets harder for people that have actually been diagnosed with ADD and need these meds to function properly. So while you're high as a kite feeling on top of the world I'm going to go focus on a few tasks at hand b/c I took my meds this morning and wouldn't be able to do so without them.

Thanks dude... you're awesome. Because that A you get, even though you probably won't really have learned anything was totally worth it.

melt for the win! and for raising a very serious aspect of the discussion. Adderall is NOT a recreational drug, it's a serious narcotic that can actually help the people who need it *when* it's delivered in monitored circumstances.

zinkplus, the fact that you're actually considering - i.e., thinking about the pros and cons of - taking the pills instead of popping them like candy leads me to believe you're smart enough to know you shouldn't.

Architecture (and Architecture School) is a marathon, not a hundred yard dash. I guarantee that if you look at your production over a longer time period (say a week or two) in two ways, (1) in which you sleep 8 hours a night and (2) in which you do several all-nighters, that you will find (1) will win every time.

Also, one of the most important things to learn in school is HOW to work. The more you focus on how you work, the more productive you will become (and subsequently, you will see how un-productive those around you are). Then, although others in your studio are putting in longer hours, you will get more done and sleep more. This will have a direct translation into the working world.

If you think about it, it is just intellectual steroids.

It's using a tool to increase the viability and performance of one's body temporarily. In terms of ethics from a sports standpoint, this would be acceptable to do if you force everyone to do it.

However, like many practices in sport, it is about gaining a competitive advancement rather than increasing the overall playing field. A similar case study would be to look at why sports like football have only become more damaging to the body despite the numerous safety advances made in the sport. Compared to rugby, football seems to cause more injury over a sample group.

That could be because by increasing the perceived safety, individuals are more willing to perform riskier and more dangerous actions. In short, individuals are being valued at simply winning thean they are being valued as athletes using their bodies.

There was a study where a number of athletes were given the option of not doing anything significant but never achieving greatness or taking a drug, winning a major competition and dying in a few years. Most of the athletes choose the death inducing drug.

But when it comes down to it:



You're the intellectual version of this for abusing a performance-enhancing drug for minimal short-term gain.

There are advantages and disadvantages to adderall. The disadvantages being that it is an intense drug with extreme side effects as well as the moral dilemma that is analogous to performance enhancing drugs.

I found out about adderall my thesis year in school and tried it a few times. I will admit that it is far superior than any amount of coffee or energy drink I've ever taken. Would I take it again? Probably not because one thing that I would be worried about and I don't think has been addressed yet in this discussion is becoming dependant on the drug and thinking that the only way you can finish a project on time is through using it.

I was able to get by for 4 1/2 years of architecture school without it. This is your decision and I'm not going to persuade you either way. Just realize that if you do decide on taking it that you be careful not to get hooked on it because I feel like it can happen fairly easily.

Doesn't anybody actually like architecture anymore?

I mean, that we're debating this seems ridiculous.

If you need to be artificially passionate about your work at the expense of your health, maybe you're better off in another field.

Jacob, I wouldn't consider using adderall as being artifically passionate. Is it not just a stronger alternative to coffee or energy drinks? I didn't meet a single other architecture student who didn't drink coffee and energy drinks to help them stay up to finish a project. How about a student who goes through a pack of red bull in an evening. They are using a substance at the expense of their health to stay awake. Where do you draw the line of what's acceptable?

You could also make the case that if you'd risk your health in order stay awake and complete your work rather than giving up and getting a healthy nights rest then are they not more passionate. I have known students who say they are passionate and do the latter and drop out of school because of poor work and grades.

In an ideal world passion alone should be enough to stay up and work but in a demanding field like architecture, where multiple all nighters are common, sometimes a boost can be helpful.

Everything's a slippery slope...draw the line where you like.

I drink coffee but not to stay awake (I like the taste). When I'm cruisin' on a late night or two, fruit and nuts are what keeps me crash-free the longest...but only as long as my head's in the game.

Baseball players use HGH, Popeye used spinach.