Miriam Parkinson

Now before you start thinking I’m some typical drug addled youth I do legitimately have ADD and I have been prescribed Ritalin. I went off it 6 months ago for the simple reason that I ran out and its a really big pain in the butt to get some more.

The reason that I ran out is that whilst I was preserved an amount of ritalin that would keep me going every week-day of the year this was exactly the problem. The ‘two month supply’ that was the first two boxes of Ritalin I brought home from the chemist actually lasted me 6 months and by the time I got around to getting a new box the repeat prescription had expired (for controlled substances they chuck them out after 6months)

But 6 months into my ‘lets see if I actually need the stuff’ experiment I have realised that I kinda do. And lets face it – ritalin is way cheaper than caffeine now that its been put on the PBS scheme and its way more effective.

So now I’m sitting trying to study, caffeine racing through my system trying to speed up those little frontal lobe signals so that I regain some executive control (don’t laugh that’s the neurobiology/psychological term) and its not fucking working properly. Any stimulant strictly speaking can help someone with ADD the only problem is caffeine has very uneven results sometimes resulting in a racing pulse, the shakes and a mind that gets stuck in infinite loops.

I have four little Ritalin tablets sitting downstairs and four exams – so these are already assigned. Now all I can do is try my best to concentrate and get onto getting me some more of those little tablets of concentration for next semester.