The Buzz Around Finals

In the final episode of the semester, we address some of the misconceptions about study drugs, and non-medical use of stimulant medications. We also cover a sometimes under the radar stimulant - caffeine - and when it might be time to cut back on coffee consumption.

Transcript

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Sarah: Welcome back to the last call podcast today today's episode are going to be focusing on the non-medical use of stimulant drugs and caffeine use. Maris, can you believe that this is our last episode?

Marissa: I know this semester has flown by pretty quickly. 

Sarah: So, hopefully, you have listened to all of our other podcasts if not, they are available on Spotify and Apple podcast and today we're going to be doing a deep dive into, stimulant medications, also known sometimes as study drugs. So, medications are prescription medication that is used to increase alertness, attention, energy so commonly referred to as study drugs. 

Marissa: So what we're talking about in this episode are Adderall Ritalin, Concerta, Focalin… the non-medicated use of stimulant medications.

Sarah: And we there caffeine in there, too. All right, so the first thing we're going to talk about is what, what exactly does misuse look like?  So the 1st thing is taking it in a way other than it's prescribed by your doctor. So, it's really important to make sure that you're following the recommended dosing size.

No doctor is ever gonna say to, you please crush these up and snort them. So if you're misusing your medication in ways like that, that's a sign that you're not using them correctly. The other the other thing is that no doctor is telling you to double your dose during finals week. So please always take your prescription medication as prescribed and only take the recommended dose that has been talked to you by your pharmacist and your doctor.

One of the other things that misuse looks like is taking someone else's medication. So newsflash, you are not a pharmacist, regardless of if you think that you might have ADHD symptoms. Taking someone else's medication is never a good way to test the waters to see if taking that prescription medication is helpful for your symptoms. So, if you really think that you might be having symptoms of those things, please talk to your primary care doctor. Don't practice or don't test the waters by taking someone else's pills. 

Marissa: Other ways that people can misuse these stimulant medications are sharing your medications with others. I don't think it says for you and a friend on the side of the prescription bottle, and also taking this medication to feel high.

So, that could also go for mixing it with alcohol or with weed and we're gonna talk about it a little more as we talk about caffeine. Um, but mixing alcohol with any sort of stimulant, may feel like you can drink more when you take it. But that's really, really dangerous to do because once that stimulant wears off, alcohol is still in your body, and your BAC will continue to rise. That can lead to blackouts, and really high intoxication levels.

And that doesn’t have to be HIGH high, taking it to feel a little bit more motivated, a little bit more focused…that’s altering your natural state. So be mindful of that if you are taking your medications. 

Sarah: Absolutely, so now we're going to talk a little bit about consequences. So Maris, can you talk to us a little bit about some academic consequences that could come from stimulant misuse?

Marissa: Yes, so academically speaking, both SUNY Cortland and OCC have zero tolerance for selling or sharing prescription medication. And this is not just for finals week. This is all the time… and that can lead into some legal consequences too.

So, sharing, selling and using a prescription medication without a prescription… That's illegal. It's a felony actually to share or to sell a schedule two controlled substance, which is what these prescription medications are. It’s also really interesting because money doesn't have to be involved or exchanged in order for it to be a sale. So simply giving your gifting someone else a pill that's considered selling drugs. So, keep that in mind their money doesn't have to be exchanged. 

Sarah: You know, talking about really interesting that applies to all, you know, all drug sales - money doesn't necessarily have to be exchanged but I think, you know, it's the most clearly seen when we're talking about drugs like cannabis or prescription pills.

If you give your friend a pill in your mind, you're not thinking you're selling it, but under the law, that's literally considered the sale of a drug. So, the, the consequences, legally that could come from that are, you know, could be career altering or ruining.

Marissa: Yeah, and that is, you know, one of those academic consequences too if you're caught doing that, that could be getting kicked out of school. 

Sarah: And if you get kicked out for something like that, your conduct records could transfer with you. So, if you will think that you're gonna apply to another school and have a clean slate, a lot of the time they will ask for your student conduct records before you go somewhere else. So that could follow you wherever you go. That's important to think about.

 So some medical consequences, when simulate drugs are misused, there's cardiovascular and psychiatric side effects. So it's important to think about stimulant drugs in general so some side effects include sleep problems, decreased appetite, dehydration, increased, blood pressure, dizziness, headaches and stomach aches… rebound. So, this is when the medication wears off and people become very irritable, moving us in irritability and then nervousness.

It's also important to know that mixing with other medications and, or alcohol can be fatal. So something a reoccurring theme that we talk about on here is always be aware of kind of what you're taking, and what's on a label of what you're taking. So be very cautious if you're prescribed these medications, and what else you're putting into your system. Because that can have a bad reaction that you won't know about until after it happens.

 Marissa: And if someone's using these substances to manage your studies to manage staying on top of things… misusing something to manage another area. That can lead to dependency or withdrawal as the result of misuse. That might look like fatigue,that might look like depression and sleep problems, which a lot of people report that's why they're using these substances in the 1st place. So, that can really become a vicious cycle. 

Sarah: Repeated use, even within a short period of time, can cause psychosis, anger or paranoia.

Marissa: So, switching gears a little bit. Sarah. True or false. Do you think that using study drugs will help boost someone's GPA? 

Sarah: I think that's false. 

Marissa: What do you do this for a living? Yes, that is false. So actually, studies find that there's no data to support that using prescription medication increases someone's GPA or that it gives students and advantage over their peers.

So, yeah, these substances might help you stay awake or stay focused on a boring task, but it's not going to add any new information or improve your cognition either. Don't confuse the ability to focus with the ability to get smarter.

So now it would be a really good segue to talk about sharing medication and what to do if somebody asks you to share your medicine. So, what would you tell somebody, Sarah if they wanted you to share?

Sarah: Sure, I think the first thing you could say is that your doctor monitors your prescription and then if you share your medication, they'll know and that, and they won't prescribe it to you anymore. Something else you could say is that you're running low, that you really don't have that much left and that, you know, it's not something you can do at this time. 

The last thing you can do is remind them that ADHD is a real disorder, and that you need all the medication that you've been prescribed. Once again, we don't want to hammer or do scare tactics about consequences, but the bottom line is that you could legally be arrested if you're giving someone any of your controlled substance medication. Maris, what are some things that you can do to protect your medication? 

Marissa: Yeah, so if you're taking this medication, make sure you keep your prescription in a safe and a locked place. Don't carry extra pills with you and like we've said a bunch of times today, only take what your doctor prescribes for you. Perhaps maybe take your medicine alone, so you're not asked to share or put in any positions like that… and be aware of how much medication you have, so that nobody else is taking them in between doses. You know, monitor your meds.

Sarah: The next thing that we're going to we're going to touch on is, caffeine. Caffeine can be found in pill form, coffee, food, energy, drinks, soda teas and there's even now alcohol with caffeine in it.

Maris, what are some side effects that can come from, over use of caffeine?

Marissa: Similar to a lot of the things that we just talked about with prescription medications, some side effects from, I guess you could say misusing caffeine: Insomnia. Headache. Irritability, fast heartbeat, nervousness, frequent urination, muscle tremors.

Sarah: So, it's important to think to, you know, we think about holistic health in terms of all the different things that can impact your ability to be successful and to be healthy, and not getting adequate sleep can really put a damper on your health. So, if you are using enough caffeine to disrupt your sleep, this means that your brain isn't able to kind of fully rest and recharge. What impacts could that be having on your school work or other areas of your life?

Marissa: You should also take a look at everything that you're putting in your body, which Sarah just mentioned before, but make sure you're not taking something that already has caffeine in it. Even Excedrin that people take for headaches that has caffeine in it. So, it'd be very mindful, you know, if, if you have a headache and want to go to bed, don't take an Excedrin along with it.

Sarah: So another thing that is becoming more and more popular is, caffeine and the stacking effect that has when mixed with other substances. 

So the first thing that I think is especially popular on college campuses is caffeine and alcohol together. So, Fourloko is an energy drink with alcohol in it that had to be reformulated because when they first made it, there was so much alcohol, sugar, and caffeine in it that it was causing seemingly young, healthy people to have heart attacks and have really bad reactions to it.

And it's unfortunate because the stimulants actually mask the effects of the alcohol. So you're not going to feel drunk until you're multiple drinks in, and by that time, most of the time, unfortunately, it's too late, and you're already blackout or pretty drunk.

Marissa: Also, caffeine and nicotine, so, you know, coffee and a cigarette or coffee and a JUUL. Those are all stimulants too. So you can be thinking that you're taking a break stepping away from the things that are stressing you out. In fact, you might be increasing the effects of both.

Sarah: It's really interesting too, Maris - so in conversations that I've had with the students who are big on like, JUULs or vape pens because a lot of the time they don't connect the 2 together.

So, There'll be, you know, telling me how anxious they are, and how they're really struggling. And then we'll talk about, you know, their tobacco consumption, but they don't necessarily think of that as a stimulant. But it could actually be increasing your anxiety and, you know, anxiousness and without even you being able to connect the 2 dots together.

Marissa: So, let's say, theoretically, I'm asking for someone else, certainly not for myself. Um, what would someone do if they wanted to reduce their caffeine consumption? 

Sarah: Absolutely, so the first thing you can do is slowly cut back. So a good thing to do and, you know, we, we talk about this a lot of the time, with harm reduction trying to cut back 1 thing at a time. So drink 1 less cup of coffee or 1 less energy drink than you normally would, and see how you feel. And then if you still feel good continue to cut back, you know, as you see appropriate. 

It's also good to change the time that you're consuming coffee, so trying not to drink caffeine later on in the afternoon, because this can have negative impacts on your sleep. I know. It's hard when you're a college student, you kind of do things all around the clock. Sometimes, you're up until late hours, but if you do use a lot of coffee, when you're studying, try not to make this a habit, you know, keep it as a once in a while thing. And when you can limit your intake to not consuming it past a certain time, where it would impact your sleep negatively. Maris, you think of anything else? 

Marissa: No, I was just going to say, I knew when I was in, like, full blown adulthood when I can no longer have coffee after, like, two o’clock.

That was a really hard experience to have to realize at 2 in the morning, while you're counting the ceiling tiles, but I, uh, I've hit that point in my life. So if you find yourself in that situation, you could try decaf. I know, it's not quite the same, but you're still getting that coffee feeling, but you're not getting the caffeine effects. Actually decaf is about 97% caffeine free. You could also try some teas. Oftentimes, herbal teas that don't contain any caffeine could be a good substitute, if you just like holding something hot in the morning, or at night.

You're also going to want to keep track of how much caffeine you're consuming and this doesn't necessarily have to be like a tally list, but 1 Yeti coffee mug – That's not 1 coffee. An actual serving of coffee is 6 ounces. So most thermoses that people have, those are 16 to 20 ounces. So right there you've actually had 3 cups of coffee in the morning when you think you just have your 1 to-go cop.

Sarah: So it's always important to look at the label of what you're consuming, so that you can kind of estimate exactly how much caffeine that you're taking into your system.

A lot of the time energy drinks, they should say on there, how much caffeine you're consuming, but also there's products out there now, like, energy bars can be gum also contains caffeine. So, you know, it's important to look at the labels of those things too, because you could accidentally pick up a protein bar and it could contain caffeine and you wouldn't even know it. 

You know, in full disclosure, I am a heavy coffee connoisseur, or for anyone who knows me… it's something that I could I could do with… using some of these tips to cut back but, you know…

Marissa: It’s progress, we're not necessarily working on perfection with this… and just being aware of how much we're having, like, the day. So that's why know what your body's saying, and if you're starting to have heart, palpitations or you can feel your eyebrows moving. Perhaps you've had too much coffee. 

Sarah: Absolutely, and, you know, I think it's interesting, whereas some of these things that we talked about, for reducing or cutting back on caffeine are similar to things that we talk about when cutting down or cutting back on alcohol or cannabis use. It all ties together.

Marissa: Yeah, and regardless of the legal status of things, when it feels that something's out of balance, whether that's caffeine or cannabis, there's nothing wrong with checking in and then taking a break or reducing any consumption at all. Any reduction is better than no reduction at all. 

Sarah: Absolutely. Do you have any final thoughts? So, you know, we talked about this at the very beginning. I can't believe that it's been a whole semester of us doing this podcast. You know, I've had a blast. Do you have any final thoughts you want to share. 

Marissa: Yeah, this has just been so much fun and we're going to continue these episodes into the spring! So thank you so much for tuning in this semester and we will see you all in the fall.

Sarah: Bye!