I was extremely annoyed by the column by Jennifer Mitchell in Tuesday’s issue entitled, “Seek Professional Help”. Jennifer wrote about her ADD:”Not a huge problem in my life, but I figured that if I could get some kind of drugs out of the deal, why not?”I don’t even have to say why this is a stupid statement. But wait, it gets worse:”The drug he gave me, for instance, great stuff?if you don’t have ADD. Apparently, the drug I take… would make anyone without ADD feel like they were on cloud nine.” Uh, first of all, cloud nine? More like a high speed car chase. She obviously has never been around a meth addict, which is hard not to do in this state. Second of all, who doesn’t already know that? A good portion of the people who make up this school were at one time druggies or pill poppers. The rest either have ADD, know someone who does, or have probably seen “Dead Man on Campus”. You don’t have to be a chemistry major to know that ADD drugs are powerful stimulants, most of which are forms of amphetamine. Not the sort of thing to take so lightly. Although she did include a small, garbled disclaimer about the effects of the drug on people without the disorder, I still feel that it is childish and irresponsible of her to take a public stance on the idea of medicating herself for something she describes as “not a huge problem.” Also, when you take into consideration how many people here are studying to become members of the psychiatric profession, it has to be pretty depressing to them that people have such little respect for what they do.I happen to have ADD and have been receiving treatment for it since junior high. Had it not been for the stimulants prescribed to me, I can honestly say that I would not be here. However, I am now in the difficult situation of trying to get off of them. It’s like not having your daily 2 pots of coffee. You’ve made it this far, Jennifer. Stay off the drugs.
Erin ChaneyFreshmanFilm [email protected]