Do you know what Concerta is? No, it’s not a midsized sedan that consistently wins awards for its dependability.
Concerta is the brand name for a drug known as methylphenidate. You might be more familiar with another brand name for methylphenidate, Ritalin. Doctors prescribe Concerta, Ritalin, and similar drugs to people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), and narcolepsy, a condition that affects a person’s sleep cycles.
The drugs do this by treating the places in the brain that deal with paying attention and focusing. As the name hints, Concerta can help people concentrate. Those are the prescribed uses for Concerta, anyway.
People abuse Concerta just as they abuse other drugs. They take it in ways manufacturers and doctors never intended. College students sometimes take great quantities of Concerta to help them study for exams and complete projects. Others use it to lose weight, because Concerta affects the appetite.
But methylphenidate is a stimulant. Do you know what other drugs are stimulants? Meth (methamphetamine) and cocaine. We all know the damage those drugs can do. As their name indicates, stimulants stimulate. They can elevate the heart rate, placing strain on that important organ. Stimulants also can raise a user’s body temperature to dangerously high levels.
Stimulants also stimulate behavior. Taking too much of a drug like Concerta can make people feel paranoid. Paranoid people don’t always make the best decisions. Their paranoia could cause them to make decisions based on information that is only partly correct or wholly incorrect.
As with other drugs, Concerta might help people, if used correctly. Using Concerta, Ritalin, and other drugs incorrectly is another story entirely. People might call it a smart drug because it helps them study, but abusing Concerta is a very unwise move. It could be very dangerous to your physical and mental health.
