Adderall Forces Conformity

In today’s world more and more people are being diagnosed with ADD and ADHA.  These are attention deficit disorders.  People that suffer from ADD and ADHA often have difficulty concentrating on tasks and have little impulse control ADD and ADHA medication is used to help people concentrate and focus, like the drug soma can be used for. The most common medication that is prescribed by doctors today to help people that have difficulty concentrating is Adderall.  Adderall is a central nervous system stimulant that affects the chemicals in the brains and nerves that contribute to hyperactivity and impulse control.  Children today, very early, are being diagnosed with this disorder.  Critics of medicating children argue that all children have problems concentrating on work and it is not something that they need to be medicated for (Diller).  Others argue that if medications like Adderall have the ability to help one focus, why shouldn’t they be readily available for everyone to take in situations where they need extra concentration.  Adderall can also be used to treat narcolepsy, because it is a stimulant (Diller).   Adderall is a legal drug, but many people still use it with out a prescription.  Students who want to stay awake and gain extra focus when studying for exams and writing research papers commonly take it.  Like athletes use performance enhancing steroids to gain advantages on the field, students feel like adderall can give them an extra advantage academically.  While students take it thinking that it is good, it can have a number of bad side effects.  Taking Adderall affects the body like taking speed.  Heart rate and breathing increase, there is a loss of appetite, and dehydration commonly occurs.  Many college campuses have problems with students abusing adderall.  This drug could probably be the most commonly related to soma used in Brave New World.  The drug is legalized by the government, and asserts control over the personality of an individual (McInnis).   While soma is intended to execute this control, there is no actual link to our government doing this with ADHD medication, but many people believe there is a link.  McInnis believes that doctors, as a product of society, have a “take this” approach to telling people to take drugs to stop them from experiencing normal emotions.  She believes that the government wants to stop people from being politically minded and instead is moving people towards being heavily medicated.  This might seem like a bit they will become more focused and begin to behave with control.  This medication puts them into the mold that society finds acceptable about how someone should behave.