ephemera

November 26, 2012

Okay I know we do this every finals season, and I know it gets a few notes and then is mostly ignored because nobody outside of the ADHD community cares all that much, but I care so I’m doing this now.

This is your friendly reminder that stimulant medication is technology created to help people manage a disability. It is not the crutch you use so you can get away with partying all of finals week. It is not there so that you can compensate for your own lack of priorities. If you know that you do not have ADHD, taking this medication to help you study is morally wrong and cheating. You are getting an unfair advantage.

I just overheard someone saying “I’ll just party through most of reading period, then talk to some friends and take a couple adderall and stay up all night the night before the test.”

Do you have any idea how upsetting that is? I once tried to take an extra pill of my stimulant during finals once the first wore off to help me stay up studying- I wanted the advantage you guys get when you use my medication recreationally. I went tachycardic (heart racing dangerously high), and became so anxious that I could not focus my eyes. I seriously called my dad crying because I couldn’t read the page in front of me.

Here’s the thing. Recreational use of medication—> Stricter regulations of that medication. Strict regulations of medication—> People who actually need it having a hard time getting it. Basically by using ADHD medication recreationally, you are responsible for the fact that someone with ADHD has to have a paper prescription every month to bring in. We can’t, like, have it phoned in or get a 3 month supply or have refills on the bottle. Paper script. Every month. I keep mine literally under lock and key because it’s at such a high risk of being stolen. Do you get how fucked up that is? Can you think of any other long term medication where even the paper script is likely to get stolen?

And yes, I will hold you personally responsible. If you say things like that to me, I will hold you personally responsible for the panic I’m in when I can’t find my scripts, or the stress of having to run in to the pharmacy the day I run out and hope they have any or I’m screwed.

Non-ADHDers, I know I’m asking you to stop something you think is totally harmless. I’m trying to tell you that is harmful- it is immensely harmful. If you understand that, can you please try to call people out when they say shit like this, or do this? Because it’s really fucking exhausting to be the only one doing it. And ADHD babies, please be safe with your medication. <3

A lot of this came as news to me. I have some learning to do.

8:54pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZnopayY7Zmo-

(Notes: 216)

August 11, 2012

On the passing of things.

It is very strange how a change in your life can affect your perception of the world. Objects and ideas that only a month or two ago were freighted with infinite meaning can suddenly seem fragile and empty and purposeless.

New trees of thought will grow up to replace them, stronger and more gnarled and stubborn than before, but the pillars of your heaven have been shaken. It seems as though at any minute the sky will fall, or perhaps the curtain, and the play will be over and it will be time to go home. The things that changed around you will be revealed to have been only props and scenery, and the friends who put on new faces or disappeared will be waiting for you laughing in the hallway behind the stage, incredulous that you believed they would be so easily changed or lost. The months you spent struggling with the changes in your life have in reality only been minutes—it was all a dream, in fact, play and all, and you are waking up to a robin’s hoarse plaint and the sun sneaking in with a breeze through your bedroom window…

But that isn’t going to happen.

The world has changed, and sooner or later you find that you’ve changed with it. The pangs of loss and disbelief become less and less frequent, the feeling that the camera crew is going to leap out from behind a building or a bush comes less and less often, and eventually you find yourself walking along in a new town with new friends that you made without realising it while you were busy feeling as though you would never make a new friend again. A crisp autumn breeze is blowing, and your new jeans and shoes match the excitement you’ve begun to feel about the pretty young woman with the pencil behind her ear and the well-read hardback in her hand, or the handsome twenty-something with his backpack carelessly slung over one shoulder.

Sooner or later you realise that life goes on, whether you want to go with it or not.

Seasons change.

6:52pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZnopayRDohdQ

(Notes: 2)

Filed under: autumn love loss nostalgia school back to school mono no aware friendship disbelief

January 9, 2012

The US schools with their own police | The Guardian

Children with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of police in schools. Simpkins describes the case of a boy with attention deficit disorder who as a 12-year-old tipped a desk over in class in a rage. He was charged with threatening behaviour and sent to a juvenile prison where he was required to earn his release by meeting certain educational and behavioural standards.

“But he can’t,” she said. “Because of that he is turning 18 within the juvenile justice system for something that happened when he was 12. It’s a real trap. A lot of these kids do have disabilities and that’s how they end up there and can’t get out. Instead of dealing with it within school system like we used to, we have these school police, they come in and it escalates from there.”

Sometimes that escalation involves force. “We had one young man with an IQ well below 70 who was pepper-sprayed in the hallway because he didn’t understand what the police were saying,” said Simpkins. “After they pepper-sprayed him he started swinging his arms around in pain and he hit one of the police officers – it’s on video, his eyes were shut – and they charged him with assault of a public servant. He was 16. He was charged with two counts of assault of a public servant and he is still awaiting trial. He could end up in prison.”

Well, this is thoroughly unacceptable on every possible level. You need to read this, and then you need to find out if this is happening in your hometown. And if it is, you need to throw out your elected officials until this stops happening in your hometown.

Give the police state a child until he’s eighteen, and he’s the police state’s ward for life.

9:17pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZnopayEXjiVn

(Notes: 22)

Filed under: education school schools America USA violence police state

September 6, 2011

eush:

oberlin-college:

Happy first day of classes, students! Charles Martin Hall wishes you well.

Photo by Ma’ayan Plaut ‘10.

I’m going to be one of those people who never shuts up about their undergrad, but I can’t help it. Especially now when I’m missing the fall season and going back to school something fierce.

COME VISIT.

6:34pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/Znopay9DfZ6l

(Notes: 8)

Filed under: oberlin oberlin college charles martin hall classes school 2011-12 school year photo

April 20, 2009

An Interesting Year

It’s funny how I never realize until just before something ends exactly how wonderful it’s been. Watching Bridge on the River Kwai tonight opened me up to a pile of emotions I hadn’t even been aware were bearing down on me.

I can’t imagine not being here next year. I can’t imagine not going to Oberlin College anymore. This has been my life for the last four years, and I don’t really know how I’ll cope with being an Oberlin alum, instead of an Oberlin student. And more than anything else, I can’t imagine not being in school anymore.

It’s going to be an interesting year.

10:23pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/Znopay5tEF1

Filed under: school learning education

RSS feed: http://ephemera.wisser.me/rss