[chimpinee]

>She had a substance abuse problem

This is true. However, a lot of people will take away the message 'stay off adderall' whereas

(1) some people apparently benefit from it, (2) some people whom doctors wouldn't prescribe to may benefit (e.g. the mathematician Paul Erdös took ritalin, a similar drug), (3) all people who abuse drugs do so because of personality problems -- thus if she hadn't taken adderall then she may well have gotten into some other drug or obsession leading to some other addiction or disorder

[kristofferR]

She isn't saying that people should stay off adderall, she is saying that people should be careful and not think of it as something totally harmless and risk-free. Obviously adderall can be very useful both on- and off-label, but that doesn't mean it can't be harmful too.

And saying that "all people who abuse drugs do so because of personality problems" is obviously quite ignorant. Genetical factors are often important of course, no doubt about it, but to suggest that everyone physically addicted to really addictive substances do it purely because of personality problems, and not the addictiveness of the drugs, is really strange.

You seem to think that being addicted is a simple choice. That might be true for psychological addictions (although I doubt it), but it is certainly not true for physical addictions.

[chimpinee]

>She isn't saying that people should stay off adderall

Indeed.

>And saying that "all people who abuse drugs do so because of personality problems" is obviously quite ignorant

Nah. The truth in this whole drugs business is far from obvious. Check out Gabor Maté on youtube, he has some interesting things to say. Apart from that, perhaps when we have a theory of consciousness we will be able to re-frame mental disorders as disorders of consciousness.

Meanwhile 'addiction' and 'abuse' are problems -- are you saying they're not to do with personality? Some people do talk about genes in this context, but they have no explanatory theory connecting genes to specific mental traits, so I think they're mistaken. And, if they did, those genes would then be part of the personality

>You seem to think that being addicted is a simple choice

No, I think addictions are a form of unconscious behaviour, so not a matter of choice, although the cure might entail making a choice