Twenty percent of the 54 million school-aged children in the United States have learning difficulties, which means that LDs affect approximately 10.8 million children. The most common are Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Conduct Disorder (CD)-types of learning difficulties that go hand-in-hand with many of the factors that put adolescents at risk of substance abuse, including difficulty succeeding in school, reduced self-esteem, depression, loneliness, and the desire for acceptance by their peers. People with learning difficulties are twice as likely to abuse substances, and studies show that up to half of people suffering from ADHD medicate themselves with alcohol and drugs. Sue Keith, Director of the Academic Skills Center, has seen evidence of this first-hand. “It’s been my experience that many students with LD and ADD ‘self-medicate,’ adding other drugs and/or alcohol to their prescribed medications or just misusing their medications,” Keith said. “Depression has a similar high incidence of self-medicating, of course. Self-medicating is a dangerous habit, obviously, not only often making matters worse (work goes undone, relationships fly apart, self image goes down the tubes) but leading to considerable danger for the individual.” This risk is especially high among students with ADD and ADHD. Research done by the National Institute of Health shows that students with ADHD have a 25% higher rate of substance abuse than those without. “Those on medications for ADHD are less likely to abuse substances if they take their medications responsibly,” Tinsley said. “However, if the student is taking both prescription medications in combination with other drugs or alcohol, it can be deadly or lead to negative side effects. “Some students with undiagnosed learning disabilities or attentional problems turn to substances as a way to deal with their difficulties,” she continued. “Most research has not focused on the direct connection between L.D. and substance abuse.” Students who suffer from both substance abuse and learning difficulties not only deal with the normal pressure from the media, their peers, and stress from school; they also face chronic medical problems and have to take the medication prescribed to them. “Often it’s the college environment and its seeming approval of experimentation that leads a student to self-medicating,” Keith said. “A sidebar issue, of course, is students allowing other students to use (and thus misuse and abuse) their own prescribed medications.” According to junior Margaret Osborne, students with ADD and ADHD often abuse their own medications or take marijuana to self-medicate. “In high school, nobody took their Ritalin,” Osborned said. “Everybody snorted it.” Even though materials and classes on substance abuse and how to prevent it have improved in the past ten years, people with learning difficulties have often been overlooked, and public high schools are rarely able to focus attention or resources on students with learning difficulties. “I do believe that this topic is not given adequate attention in college,” Tinsley said. “There is not enough research in this area, but clearly a need for it.