VMPA Senior Thesis

Lauren Carbone

Photography

Artist Statement 

As a graduate, I wanted to create my final project based on my time on Adderall. Every single day I wake up to take one single dosage of Adderall was diagnosed with ADHD when I was in elementary school. I didn’t think much of it. Though, thinking much of it now, it has affected me my entire life. No one talks about medication, they think it is “weird” or “not normal”. Those expressions live in our heads to not speak about it. What is not “correct” to bring it up in a conversation will be expressed today. Pills affect the user, in ways only the user can feel. 

Now as I leave Adderall behind, I am able to feel what it’s like to be who I truly am, I can finally express myself. Leaving all those feelings of being on Adderall, the worn out, the tired, the energetic power through days, and the times I was most confused with myself. Those feelings have stained my days as they go by, ever changing. I wished to be normal, to not be on Adderall so I could live my life as it was meant to be. Now my wish is coming true, I will no longer be on Adderall, and I will entirely be a different human being.