I Took A Prescription Pill To Get A Lot Of Work Done Speedily. Here's What Happened | Brigid Delaney

With the use of smart medications on the rise, I supposed Id try it out to help with a looming deadline. I did a lot of work but I also bought a lot of furniture

A few years ago I went to my doctor to prepare for a fast I was doing for a publication article.

Is there anything you can suggest to help my body adjust to not eating? I asked my doctor. She wrote out a prescription and told, This.

This was expensive. It expensed $100 to get it filled but my doctor assured me it would repress my appetite and get me used to a period of time without food.

I only took one pill but it freaked me out so badly I shoved the rest to the back of the medicine cabinet. What was this horrific stuff? I couldnt believe that my doctor had prescribed it. Lines of speed snorted from the cistern in a nightclub lavatory apparently provided a smoother ride than this pill that I could buy legally.

What happened to your pupils? asked one friend I met at the theatre two days later. They were still the size of dinner plates.

This medication not only stimulated my appetite disappear but it made me hyper-focused, energetic and uncharacteristically enthusiastic about cleaning.

Yet it also made me feel terrible. I was under a cloud of neg. I couldnt imagine anyone taking these pills for a good time. In fact, they nearly guaranteed you would have an awful time. The nervousnes was the worst. Everything became suffused with a kind of swampy dread.

Yet despite detesting them, I sensed the pills were filled with secret powers for uses they were not intended for. I chose perhaps unwisely not to throw them out.

And now I read that I was not alone in this thinking. The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that prescription drug use by students before exams are rising, a trend first seen in the US. Chris Seton, a paediatric and adolescent sleep physician at the Woolcock Institute and Westmead Childrens Hospital, told Fairfax that drugs such as ritalin and modafinil were being used in Australian classrooms. An increase in the use of the same narcotics has been reported in the UK.

Ritalin is used to treat attention deficit disorders while modafinil is used to treat sleep ailments such as narcolepsy. Their employ as survey aids, or smart medications, shows that many students now think ofthem as performance-enhancing narcotics for the brain.

Last Monday, with the manuscript of a book due in three weeks and my pace and energy flagging, I decided to break open my in case of emergency stash of pills.While the drug I was prescribed was not ritalin or modafinil, it shares some similar side effects.

This is what happened.

I got all my work done

This part of writing a book is largely organisational, and Id been putting it off. The task involves a large amount of focus being able to hold lots of information about the project in my head at once and discarding the bits I do not need or are repetition. Ordinarily I would apportion a couple of weeks to this grim task but this time I am going to try and transgress the back of it in two days.

In a bizarre coincidence, just after I took the pill, I heard a segment about abuse of prescription drug on the radio. The program interviewed a number of people who just like me are misusing prescription drugs to get a large amount of work done in a short sum of time.

Users describe feeling a speedy high that helps them concentrate for hours on the task at hand, whether that be a uni assignment, major work project or remaining awake at gigs, read the programs promo .

I wonder what it tells about this moment in history, that we are abusing narcotics so we can get more run done? I did get a lot of work done.

I got no sleep

Before I took the pill, I define my alarm for 5am because I knew from previously taking it that it lasts and lasts, and unless I took it it really early in the morning, I would not get any sleep.

At the end of day one, I was still working on the project at around midnight and did not feeling fatigued. I achieved a lot. I woke around 4am the following day, full of energy. I sent dozens of emails, including answering tricky emails I had put off, then decided to buy some outdoor furniture. Its a big purchase that I had been considering for months. But in action-mode on my smart narcotic I decided to finally tick it off my list and bought a six-seater outdoor table with cushions and an umbrella.

Prescription drug forums are really interesting

Since my doctor didnt tell me much about the narcotic she had prescribed me, I Googled it and detected a forum. People who are taking the drug as an craving suppressant were reporting mood swings, anxiety, sleeplessness, weight loss and the urge to clean. Every now and again person jumped on the thread and issued warnings in caps such as, STAY AWAY FROM THIS DRUG IT MADE ME A SLEEPLESS AND CRAZY MONSTER.

The energy is false

On day one, I was well on my route to doing a weeks worth of work. Plus Id cleaned the house! I swept and mopped. Then I went to the gym. The trainer gave me the 6kg weights to lift and I could only manage four reps. Before taking the pill, I was lifting 8kg.

Youre much weaker today, she told, appearing concerned.

I havent had much to eat, I acknowledged. I did not tell her about the pill.

I slunk out of the gym. Some things cant be manipulated muscles require protein for fuel.

What goes up must come down

On the second day, I called a friend to tell her about all the great things I bought online during my day of unbound energy.It was a weird list: a bicycle helmet, tennis racquet, a foam roller, two bookshelves, a wardrobe, boxes for shoes, an outdoor table decided, a shade cloth, an umbrella, 12 cushions.

You bought a helmet? she asked. I do not have a bike.

Then I noticed I had purchased two six-piece outdoor furniture situates. It was like I was setting up a cafe or something. I called the store, embarrassed, and cancelled the entire order.

Yeah, I dont need two lots of outdoor furniture. It was a mistake.

By about 4pm, my energy was fading. I had been working on the same sentence for an hour, and then a colleague advised: Close the computer. You need to sleep. Your brain needs respite for a while.

I slept for a couple of hours, then headed back to the gym. I was still weak, so I abandoned my workout.

By day three, my appetite was back to normal, and I returned to my usual unfocused ego. My magical powers had deserted me. But were they actually magic or were they the equivalent of taking out a payday loan? Itll get you through what you need to get through today but youll pay through the nose, with interest, tomorrow.

It turns out you cant sleep for four hours in two days without paying a price.

I was fast asleep by 6pm, which entailed losing precious hours that I could be working on my manuscript. I vowed not to take the pills again.

I took a prescription pill to get a lot of work done speedily. Here’s what happened | Brigid Delaney

I Took A Prescription Pill To Get A Lot Of Work Done Speedily. Here's What Happened | Brigid Delaney

I got all my work done

I got no sleep

Prescription drug forums are really interesting

The energy is false

What goes up must come down

I Took A Prescription Pill To Get A Lot Of Work Done Speedily. Here's What Happened | Brigid Delaney

I Took A Prescription Pill To Get A Lot Of Work Done Speedily. Here's What Happened | Brigid Delaney

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