While some students rely on caffeine or sugar to help them focus, others turn to using unprescribed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication thinking it will improve their academic performance and concentration in school without considering the consequences.

“I first tried Adderall for finals my sophomore year,” a private high school student, who wishes to remain anonymous, said. “I was told it makes people smarter, more focused and that it would help me perform better on my tests, so I bought some from my friend who was prescribed it.”

Adderall, a stimulant medication for ADHD, has been known to cause adverse side effects in individuals without ADHD, including high blood pressure and feelings of paranoia, according to National Institute of Health.

“The problem is that when people who do not have ADHD take the medication, they tend to use it incorrectly,” Bender said. “They do not recognize the side effects.”

ADHD medication is not addictive when used properly for diagnosed individuals, but repeated abuse can increase risk of addiction in unprescribed users, according to Bender.

“[The medication] can have addiction potential when people are using too much and getting a certain feeling from it that they continue to seek,” Bender said.

Individuals diagnosed with ADHD have lower levels of dopamine in their brains, a neurochemical necessary for focus, according to psychiatrist Eric Bender. Prescription ADHD medications often increase the amount of dopamine in the brain.

Controlled substances may not be dispensed without the written prescription of a practitioner, according to the United States Code Controlled Substances Act. Adderall users who illegally sell their prescribed 20 to 25 mg pills to their friends for $3 to $5 can be charged with a federal crime.

“Some people [who are prescribed ADHD medications] start to take more than they are supposed to,” the anonymous student said. “Some just decide they want to make some money and save the pills and sell them.”

Common ADHD medications, such as Adderall and Ritalin, can cause a loss of appetite, dizziness and anxiety in any users, according to WebMD. More than 1.6 million American teens and young adults misuse ADHD drugs per year, and 75,000 of them become addicted, according to a study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Junior Grace Boudreau, who began taking prescribed Adderall in first grade for ADHD, says the medication suppress her appetite and mood.

“Each medicine affects you differently and I didn’t realize that until I switched [to Concerta],” Boudreau, who changed prescriptions in seventh grade, said. “I would fake hide my medicine and spit it up because even at that age I was able to understand that [Adderall] changed me as a person.”

Boudreau says other students often ask to buy her medication, but she always says no.

“People ask for unprescribed ADHD medicine because they think if you take it, it is automatically a good grade on a test,” Boudreau said. “I don’t think people understand that people like me need the prescription for a reason.”