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.

A Few Theories on the Rise of Teen Pregnancies

I have some convincing theories about the rise of teen pregnancy and AIDS cases, Hanna! Let's start with the increased percentage of pregnant adolescents. In an article that "XX Factor" friend Margaret Talbot wrote for The New Yorker last year called "Red Sex, Blue Sex" she quotes sociologist Mark Regnerus on teens who delay sexual activity:

They are interested in remaining free from the burden of teenage pregnancy and the sorrows and embarrassments of sexually transmitted diseases. They perceive a bright future for themselves, one with college, advanced degrees, a career, and a family. Simply put, too much seems at stake. Sexual intercourse is not worth the risks.

Hanna, you note that the Latino population has seen a particularly notable spike in teen pregnancy, and that doesn't surprise me. As an article in Sunday's New York Times about the education of nonnative English speakers showed, there are near-impossible barriers for recent immigrants that prevent them from the "bright futures" Regnerus speaks of. The Times article quotes a 19-year-old Guatemalan woman named Amalia Raymundo, who "was a rising star in her remote village in Guatemala, the region’s beauty queen and a candidate for college scholarships." Because of her experiences in American public school, Amalia saw that her dreams of becoming a doctor were so far out of her reach, she thought about dropping out. “If I am going to end up cleaning houses with my mother ... why go to high school?”

If that's the reality for most recent immigrant women, why would they delay sex or prevent pregnancy? What's the motivation? Which brings me to my next point: I think AIDS is on the rise because condom promotion has all but disappeared and AIDS is no longer seen as a death sentence. If you don't believe you're going to die, and many think sex feels better without a condom, what's the motivation for use? In addition, as Talbot wrote in her New Yorker article, "many evangelicals are steeped in the abstinence movement’s warnings that condoms won’t actually protect them from pregnancy or venereal disease." So you have informed people who choose to take the risk because they think AIDS won't happen to them, and you have underinformed people who think that condoms don't work. Those taken together seem like enough to cause a statistical increase.