As a student, I’ve always wanted a magic fix to get more focus. I can’t remember a time when I was focused enough to get a task done with no long breaks. In Netflix’s Take Your Pills, the effects of Adderall are explored and discussed by students, medical professionals, and many other users of the drug. Most of those interviewed for the film highlighted the best effects they had experienced, most notably in the college students. They all praise the heightened focus they achieved while using this stimulant. However, throughout the majority of the hour and a half long show, there was barely any mention of any negative effects. Because large doses of Adderall are so widely used by people without a prescription, there surely has to be tragic abuse stories. Take Your Pills, however, does not find the negative effects to be important enough to analyze.
Based on my own experience, I can understand the attraction to a performance-enhancing drug such as this amphetamine. My friends and I groan even at the thought of having to focus on a single long-term assignment. Empathizing with the students in the documentary was easy for me. Though I had never felt it myself, I could imagine the gratification of getting daunting schoolwork done without any distraction. Yet the fact that they use a drug that some may have gotten illegally to get work done is troubling. It is hard to believe that focus extreme enough to last for hours on end wouldn’t cause any noticeable side effects. Take Your Pills frames this drug use, or abuse, as a nearly inconsequential aspect of many students’ lives. After a bit of research, I found that Adderall can have similar effects to cocaine, though not as strong. The negative effects can include “Fatigue, Feelings of depression and lethargy, Increased irritability, [and] Decreased ability to concentrate” (Patterson). The final symptom would be especially concerning to the user, as the amphetamine is supposed to increase concentration. It may not have been intentional, but the lack of this information makes the Netflix original seem extremely pro-Adderall despite the cases of abuse shown in the film.
Though Adderall is known to help those diagnosed with ADD and ADHD, the number of people who abuse the drug should be concerning enough for some action to be made. However, Take Your Pills seems to dismiss the fact that drug abuse is growing among young adults today. The film makes this prescription drug seem like the solution teachers want to focus their students. But do schools really want this? There are many side effects and consequences of such an intense high that are barely touched in this Netflix original that should be addressed.
“The Effects of Adderall Use.” Edited by Eric Patterson, DrugAbuse.com, 26 Oct. 2017,
drugabuse.com/library/the-effects-of-adderall-use/.
Klayman, Alison, director. Take Your Pills. Netflix, 2018.
Yes, I have heard of students not diagnosed with ADHD using Adderall as a "step up" to enhance academic performance, figuring if it makes ADHD patients "normal," it should make "normal" people super. Like you, Grace, at first I would have jumped at the chance to gain focus and do my work easily without a feeling of effort. But, also like you, I would imagine that such a powerful drug cannot be taken without side effects, whether it was used by prescription or not. I agree that not addressing the negative effects is a disservice in a presentation like this, and simply from a journalistic point of view, undercuts the value by not giving a balanced report.
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