The XX Factor: What women really think.

Adderall Nation

Ann,like you, I was fascinated by Margaret Talbot’s piece in The New Yorker about Adderall, Ritalin, Provigil and other so-called“cognitive enhancers.” My curiosity wasn’t entirely vicarious. I’ve taken bothProvigil and Adderall for precisely the reasons the overworked Harvard seniorin her piece says he takes it: to get more done. As Margaret put it, whileAdderall and Ritalin were once drugs mainly used to treat ADD and ADHD, nowthey’re “drugs that high-functioning, overcommitted people take to becomehigher-functioning and more overcommitted.” What she so astutely gets at are thecultural implications and ramifications, noting that “every era, it seems, hasits own defining drug.” Her piece reveals, as you say, the fact that we’re notquite enamored of our own need for these stimulants, though one could have imagined a piece some yearsback that would romanticize these stimulants the way the media used toromanticize businessmen who slept less than 4 hours a night. Instead, Margaretquotes many users who point out that these drugs don’t necessarily “enhance.” Infact, in my experience—and as Joshua Foer memorably wrote about for Slate—theycan bring a certain tunnel vision with them. They do not make you more likelyto be astute. Adderall, I found, was perfect for itemizing a year’s worth ofreceipts the day before you have to file your taxes; it was not useful forwriting a piece. (This is another good essay onAdderall, from N+1.)

But I think there’s a deeper irony here. Adderall is a drug for our Information Age notbecause it actually works as a “cognitive enhancer,” it strikes me, but becauseit merely makes it possible to do what we once used to take for granted, beforeinstant-messaging technology and mobile email started to make our brains gohaywire. That is, they make it possible to ignore that blinking light on the “CrackBerry”and finish a task. Studies have actually shown that multitasking and using emailat the office all day leadsto fall in IQ larger than if you smoked a joint at work. From that perspective,Adderall isn’t an enhancer. It’s just a corrective that gets you back to normal. Only it’s not really "normal," just as drinking a VitaminWater and eating apower bar is not the same as drinking water and eating vitamin-packed fruitsand vegetables.