So far, I’ve heard that either only helps you if you’re weeks behind on the material and need to stay up all night to gather the basics from the reading material.
Someone also told me that for any task that requires attention to detail or an understanding of how a complex process works, taking adderall or ritalin can actually be self-defeating.
Is there any truth to either of the above claims? What other effects does ritalin or adderall have on studying?
I’ve never been in a situation where I’d need to pull an all-nighter, mainly because I devote massive chunks of time to reading and related activities. I get good grades, but am wondering whether adderall can help boost efficiency. Even though I spend a lot of time studying, I’m a painfully slow reader, so I never get done as much as I want to in a study session. Would adderall enable me to speed through a book and remember it with as much detail as if I had read it at normal pace without the adderall?
Say I need to know how to do something really complex for a test later in the week or how to chain together several arguments for a long paper. Will adderall help me? Is it only good for cramming?
Haven’t done anything with it yet, still waiting on solid information.
IANA doctor, psychiatrist, or other professional, but I’d assume these medicines have a beneficial effect on someone with an actual deficit. That is, a physical need, manifesting as psychological symptoms, that respond to treatment. You’re trying to use them as a nootropic. But if you go to Wikipedia, almost anything can be a “smart drug.” There’s no solid research that anything improves average cognition into “super smart”-- people basically only work to help someone who’s deficient.
Ritalin or similar drugs will help for someone with ADD. If you don’t have ADD, though, then it might help you stay awake, but it won’t help you concentrate. In fact, this is one way to diagnose ADD: Try the patient on Ritalin, and see if it helps.
I have just been put on Aderall for chronic fatigue due to pain medication that I take for FBSS (Failed Back Surgery Syndrome). I was unsure about what to expect and the only thing I have to say about my first day on it is: HOLY CRAP! I was wide awake for almost 36 hours. I couldn’t sleep even though I wanted to.
Now, with that being said I did not get any boost in energy nor did I find that it gave me the ability to hyper-concentrate on tasks. It did make me feel more awake and thankfully after being on it a week now the keeping me up for days has gone away. I am on a low dose, 5mg so maybe that is why I am not getting the energy boost, etc…
That being said I think that anyone who uses perscription meds for recreation is a fool and you are asking for problems. I am on morphine, percocets and adderall everyday and I would give anything not to be taking these drugs. They really mess with your life. Do yourself a favor and get yourself more sleep, use coffee and stay away from the drugs.
I’ve used Adderall for ADS (Attention Deficit --SQUIRREL!).
It had exactly the same effect as a large strong coffee. And messed with my sleep. So I figured, hey, why not just use coffee?
Important point here: I discussed all this with my doctor, and he said “Ritalin and Aderall are just stimulants, so go with coffee if that works.”
So, I’ve prescribed a huge medium roast coffee every morning, and again 5-ish if I have to teach a night class. And for max caffeine, I get GOOD stuff. I doubt MacDonald’s or Kwik Trip coffee would have the kick that a local fair trade place (where they take care roasting and grinding the beans) would.
Hmm, re-reading this thread… the other prescription that’d help is Turn The Internet Off. Maybe then I’d get to bed by midnight…
Care in roasting and grinding the beans won’t make the coffee any stronger. It probably will, however, make it taste better, and if you’re going to be drinking it anyway, it might as well taste good.
There are plenty of studies that show all-night cram sessions do nothing for learning material you need the next day and may in fact damage your memory.
In order to learn something and be able to use the knowledge in a meaningful way, you simply have to have a minimum full night’s sleep for the brain to build the necessary neural connections to solidify memory and knowledge. Cramming the night before and going to the test on three hours sleep is just a really uncomfortable way of doing even worse than not cramming.
If you happen to have ADD (and I do), Adderall will not help you cram for a test any more than it will help someone without ADD cram for a test. This is simply because cramming does not work. Adderall is intended to help people with ADD maintain “normal” attention span in day to day activities.
In fact, if you have ADD, and you have to cram, you’re better off going without your Adderall and praying your hyperfocus kicks in.