Prescription drugs: do they actually help students in school?
High stress times cause teens to abuse prescription drugs
The majority of teenagers would agree that high school is one of the most stressful times of their lives. This stress comes from the massive amount of school work being piled on each day, demanding sports, and attempting to have somewhat of a social life, all within a twenty-four hour day. Along with pressure from parents to excel in everything, teens are faced with the difficulties and struggles of realizing that they will never be able to get everything done, live up to their parents expectations, and be happy with their life all at the same time. Instead of accepting that fact, they try to do everything, even if that involves multiple all-nighters, tons of coffee, and maybe even a couple 5-hour energies. But recently, prescription drugs have come into play in many high schools in the United States.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse for Teens, prescription and over-the-counter drugs are the second most commonly abused substances after alcohol and marijuana, for Americans aged fourteen and over. The most common misconception among young people today is that prescription drugs are not harmful because they are prescribed to other people on a daily basis. However, even though other people take these drugs, they take them because they have a chemical imbalance in their brain that needs to be fixed. Therefore, those who take these drugs and do not need them can be harmed because they do not have that chemical imbalance.
Prescription drugs, such as Adderall, that are normally prescribed to people are most commonly abused among high schoolers who are feeling stressed out because they cannot get all of their work done. Teenagers take these medications because they believe it will help them concentrate and be more productive while they are working, enabling them to get more work done in a shorter period of time. Medications for ADHD are stimulants, meaning they increase energy and alertness. This is definitely appealing to teens, who try to fit as much as they can in a single day.
Studies by The National Institute on Drug Abuse in 2015 have shown that about 7.5% of twelfth graders have used Adderall in the past year, and 42% have said that prescription drugs are easy to obtain.
There are a lot of side effects of these stimulant drugs for people who shouldn’t be taking them. These include high body temperatures, fast heart beats, and feelings of paranoia. The side effects for these types of medications increase when taken in large doses or when mixed with alcohol, marijuana, or other drugs. Prescription drug overdoses amount to about half of the drug overdoses deaths in the United States, shown by studies done by The National Institute on Drug Abuse.
There are many problems with teens abusing prescription medications. One is that people are not being educated on the adverse effects of taking unprescribed drugs. In school, teens are usually taught more about illegal drugs and how harmful they are, while prescription medications are usually forgotten about. As these topics get swept under the rug, teens do not realize that they are actually harming themselves by taking these drugs. In reality, they are not helping them at all. Taking these medications creates somewhat of a placebo effect. The students believe that the drug is helping them be more focused and alert, thus getting more work done. However, since they think they are being helped by these drugs, they continue taking them time after time.
Students who resort to taking prescription drugs to do better in school or get more work done each day, should know what they are doing to their body. It does not seem right that they are taking them so that they can get ahead in life and compete with everyone else, but because they are not educated enough, they are hindering themselves and can completely destroy the life they were trying to make for themselves. High schoolers need to learn about the dangers of prescription medication before they turn their lives upside down.
