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Slave to the stimulants
http://www.purdueexponent.org/index....&story_id=2593
Slave to the stimulants By Joey Marburger Publication Date: 10/26/06 Generation Y lives in a world of 8 ounce energy shots, grande all-night-a-cinos and little productivity pills. In a pressured academic environment, students from the age of 18 to 24 are pressed to succeed. Some have natural motivation, but most turn to stimulants such as caffeine. Sometimes that isn't enough, so students find prescribed stimulants to help them get ahead in this competitive generation. Marty Green, clinical social and addiction specialist for Counseling and Psychological Services, said that the current generation shares a lot of trends with the general public as a whole. But college students are under constant pressure to succeed, a pressure that could cost you. "A lot of research is about the pressure to perform and produce outcome and the level of competition is at higher levels with this current generation," said Green. "So yeah, folks are going to find ways to maintain that level of performance." He said most generations of college students aged 18 to 24 have always experienced stimulant use due to not sleeping enough and the demand of academics. But today there are more ways to receive that extra jolt of energy. "Stimulants have been prominent in our culture for a while," said Green. "It's always been one of those venues that says it can make you feel better. Now, there are just more venues." The venues being the massive increase in the number of energy drinks on the market and prescription stimulants such as Adderall. "There are certainly more options," he said. "There is a market for the energy drinks." Besides energy drinks and coffee, college students use prescription stimulants that are illegal without a prescription. A study was conducted at the University of Michigan that followed undergraduate college students and illicit use of ADD and ADHD medications. The study found that 8 percent of the 689 students sampled used prescription stimulants that were not prescribed to them. The most common uses were cited as the following: 58 percent used it for concentration, 43 percent to get high and 43 percent to increase alertness. "Some of the medications out there, especially for ADD, those are legitimate prescriptions for those that have been diagnosed," said Green. "If you haven't been diagnosed, you are basically taking speed medications and there are implications." Generation Y, however, is not an isolated case. Both Green, and Joyce Micon, coordinator of the drug and alcohol program for CAPS, urged that too much stimulant use can be harmful to anybody but when it occurs in an academic setting it can be viewed as normal. "I think the risks associated with stimulant use certainly increase the more they become viewed as a normal means of providing a competitive edge to academic performance," said Micon. And although Generation Y might not be more stimulated than generations in the past, it has experienced more available ways to receive stimulants through more energy drinks and a high availability of unprescribed Adderall. "I have begun to hear of students being admitted to local emergency rooms because of taking high doses of legal stimulants," said Micon. "If the risks associated with stimulant use aren't widely known, then students assume more is better in terms of using them." If you are experiencing trouble with stimulant use, you may contact CAPS at 494-6995. |
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