The Dangerous Trend of Workers Using ADHD Medication
Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder has become a cash cow for the pharmaceutical industry. Recent statistics show that ADHD drug sales have been on the rise since 2010 with revenue anticipated to grow in the next few years. Industry projections show that attention deficit meds will rake in $17.5 billion in the year 2020. While ADHD was once a diagnosis that kids too restless to concentrate on school work got, it’s become a condition that just about anyone can co-opt in order to get their hands on the drugs used to control it. A lot of those who fit this description now are adults in the corporate world, surprisingly.
Why is ADHD Taking Over?
The world has been more efficiency oriented. Daily life has become an endless series of tasks performed on high-tech devices as quickly as possible. Drug manufacturers have created new criteria for being prescribed ADHD drugs that make those who want to be more organized and productive valid candidates to be medicated. Experts say that grabbing pills when up against tight deadlines or challenges can be blatant proof of a more realistically sustainable work ethic. While people who once suffered from hyperactivity were referred to mental health practitioners, health insurance guidelines make it easier for them to get ADHD drugs than be referred to a specialist who could decide if popping pills were really necessary.
What Evidence Shows that Adults are Suddenly Using ADHD Drugs?
Between 2007 and 2012, the population of adults taking drugs like Adderall, Ritalin, and Concerta spiked. Fewer than 6 million monthly attention deficit prescriptions for people over 21 were written in 2007. The number shot to 16 million, however, within the next 5 years. More adults and kids are being prescribed for ADHD medicine than ever before. The dots are being connected between those abusing Ritalin and similar drugs while in their offices with the population of students who used ADHD drugs during college and discovered that popping pills could help them to focus better on reading material as well as score higher on grueling exams. Many say it’s a new campus culture whose graduates are bringing their habit of self-medicating with them once they launch careers.
What are the Health Consequences of ADHD Drugs?
ADHD drugs are stimulants that can cause surges in blood pressure. They can negatively affect your circulatory system and blood vessels. They can damage your heart and lead towards strokes. They’re definitely not designed to be taken as if they were vitamins. https://www.businessinsider.com/what-adderall-does-stimulant-side-effects-2016-12#stimulant-related-emergency-room-visits-have-risen-significantly-in-recent-years-8
Isn’t there a Social Stigma to Self-Medicating?
Relying on drugs to function doesn’t usually help someone to acquire greater success and motivation. Taking pills to maintain a high grade point average can be considered a necessary evil by those of recent generations, however. ADHD medication is an exception in the mind of those who abuse it. It’s considered a symbol of ambition. With attention deficit disorder pills being increasingly linked to a millennial college culture in which they were abundant on campuses, many are downplaying the hazards by saying that a wave of pill-popping college students have entered the workforce and simply brought their mechanisms to cope with pressure with them.
Increased Competition
The US has become the most competitive society in the world according to rankings such as the one done recently by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD). Increased competition brings a desire to win with it. The number of those in the workforce striving to be prosperous and have successful careers will be the same as those abusing ADHD drugs, unfortunately, if a task force isn’t created to quell what is fast becoming a white collar drug addiction epidemic.
