Wellness Influencers Are Pushing ‘Natural’ and Unproven Alternatives to Adderall
Wellness Influencers Are Pushing ‘Natural’ and Unproven Alternatives to Adderall
健康网红正在推销“天然”且未经证实的阿得拉（Adderall）替代品
In May 2025, Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” Commission released a report that sought to identify key drivers of childhood chronic disease. The last was by far the most controversial: “The Overmedicalization of Our Kids.” 2025年5月，美国卫生与公众服务部部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪（Robert F. Kennedy Jr.）领导的“让美国再次健康”（Make America Healthy Again）委员会发布了一份报告，旨在确定儿童慢性疾病的主要诱因。其中最后一点最具争议：“我们孩子的过度医疗化”。
Beyond his anti-vaccine position, Kennedy has a history of inflammatory opinions on common prescription drugs. He has sought to blame the national epidemic of mass shootings on antidepressants, for example, and claims that people have been “poisoned” by psychiatric drugs, including stimulants used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, such as Adderall and Vyvanse. 除了反疫苗立场外，肯尼迪在常见处方药方面也一直持有煽动性观点。例如，他曾试图将全国范围内的大规模枪击事件归咎于抗抑郁药，并声称人们受到了精神类药物的“毒害”，其中包括用于治疗注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）的兴奋剂，如阿得拉（Adderall）和维万斯（Vyvanse）。
It so happens that as the HHS moves to further restrict access to these stimulants, a host of alternative medicine brands are flooding social media with advertisements that cast them in a negative light—and suggest they can be replaced with, or at least aided by, supplements that promise mental clarity, calmness, and emotional balance. The companies include Graymatter Labs, Stasis, Magic Mind, Thesis, and Nello, and they tout the supposed cognitive benefits of nootropic pills and drinks containing the amino acid L-theanine, the herb ashwagandha, turmeric, B vitamins, and much more. 正值美国卫生与公众服务部采取行动进一步限制这些兴奋剂的获取渠道之际，大量替代医学品牌正通过社交媒体投放广告，将这些药物描绘成负面形象，并暗示可以用承诺提供思维清晰度、平静感和情绪平衡的补充剂来替代，或至少作为辅助。这些公司包括 Graymatter Labs、Stasis、Magic Mind、Thesis 和 Nello，它们大肆宣传含有氨基酸 L-茶氨酸、南非醉茄、姜黄、B族维生素等成分的促智药丸和饮料所谓的认知益处。
Across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, influencers hype the biohacking treatments in paid partnership videos, often comparing them favorably to stimulants, which they characterize as having disruptive negative side effects. The gray-market dietary supplements they offer as alternatives, unlike psychiatric medications, don’t have to be evaluated and approved by the Food and Drug Administration before they’re marketed. 在 Instagram、TikTok 和 YouTube 上，网红们在付费合作视频中大肆炒作这些“生物黑客”疗法，并经常将其与兴奋剂进行对比，称兴奋剂具有破坏性的副作用。与精神类药物不同，他们作为替代品提供的这些灰色市场膳食补充剂在上市前无需经过美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）的评估和批准。
“I was on Adderall from college to my late twenties,” says a content creator named Katie Silbar in a March video endorsing Thesis, which sells pills with varied formulas like “Motivation” and “Neuroprotection” for $59 a jar. “And somewhere in there, I decided I didn’t want to be on a stimulant anymore.” Silbar goes on to say that she has been on Thesis for several weeks and feels “way less jittery” and “focused” in a way that “isn’t forced.” She adds that while the price for Thesis supplements may be steep, she’d gladly pay double for the results she has seen. “我从大学到二十多岁后期一直在服用阿得拉，”一位名叫凯蒂·西尔巴（Katie Silbar）的内容创作者在三月份的一段视频中这样说道，她当时正在为 Thesis 做代言。Thesis 以每瓶 59 美元的价格销售配方各异的药丸，如“动力”和“神经保护”系列。“在某个阶段，我决定不再服用兴奋剂了。”西尔巴接着说，她已经服用 Thesis 几周了，感觉“没那么焦虑”了，而且这种“专注”感“并不勉强”。她补充说，虽然 Thesis 补充剂的价格可能很高，但为了看到这样的效果，她愿意支付双倍的价格。
Magic Mind, which counts comedian Pete Holmes and Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford as spokesmen, shares video clips in which Adderall is described as addictive. (Stimulants can be misused, which is why Adderall and Vyvanse are federally classified Schedule II controlled substances, but medical experts emphasize that they are safe and effective if taken as directed under medical supervision.) On Graymatter Labs’ socials, you can hear from a father who says that its Bright Mind drink mix (containing 27 plant-based nootropics and adaptogens) helped him overcome mood swings caused by Adderall and made him more patient with他的 young son. Magic Mind 的代言人包括喜剧演员皮特·霍姆斯（Pete Holmes）和洛杉矶公羊队四分卫马修·斯塔福德（Matthew Stafford），该公司分享的视频片段将阿得拉描述为具有成瘾性。（兴奋剂确实可能被滥用，这就是为什么阿得拉和维万斯被联邦政府列为二级管制药物的原因，但医学专家强调，如果在医疗监督下按医嘱服用，它们是安全有效的。）在 Graymatter Labs 的社交媒体上，你可以听到一位父亲说，其 Bright Mind 饮料混合物（含有 27 种植物性促智药和适应原）帮助他克服了阿得拉引起的情绪波动，并使他对年幼的儿子更有耐心。
None of the companies mentioned in this article returned a request for comment on their scientific claims or the risk of potentially steering people away from ADHD medications. Meta declined to comment on the record, as did TikTok, though a US spokesperson said that several of the brand accounts were taken down in accordance with their guidelines against health-related misinformation. YouTube spokesperson Boot Bullwinkle said in a statement that the same brand accounts on that platform were not in violation of guidelines. 本文提到的所有公司均未回应关于其科学声明或可能诱导人们放弃 ADHD 药物治疗风险的置评请求。Meta 和 TikTok 均拒绝发表正式评论，不过 TikTok 的一位美国发言人表示，根据其针对健康相关虚假信息的准则，该平台已封禁了其中几个品牌账号。YouTube 发言人布特·布尔温克尔（Boot Bullwinkle）在一份声明中表示，这些品牌账号在该平台上并未违反准则。
A spokesperson from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures Vyvanse and extended-release Adderall, told WIRED in a statement: “As with any medication, decisions regarding the management of individual patients and their treatment must be made by the treating health care provider.” 生产维万斯和缓释阿得拉的武田制药（Takeda Pharmaceuticals）的一位发言人在给《连线》（WIRED）的声明中表示：“与任何药物一样，关于个体患者的管理及其治疗的决定必须由主治医疗保健提供者做出。”
Many online testimonials mention an “afternoon crash” from stimulants that leads to irritability and brain fog. “Gentle reminder that if Adderall has you crashing at 3:47 pm, snapping at your kids, and feeling guilty and ashamed for it, scientists at Yale created Stasis,” reads an Instagram post from that company, which offers pill subscription bundles for as much as $79 per month. Stasis markets its supplements as a helpful complement to stimulants prescribed for ADHD rather than a replacement, but it consistently portrays those drugs as insufficient. 许多在线评价提到了兴奋剂带来的“午后崩溃”，这会导致易怒和脑雾。“温馨提示：如果阿得拉让你在下午 3:47 感到崩溃、对孩子发火，并因此感到内疚和羞愧，耶鲁大学的科学家们创造了 Stasis，”Stasis 公司的一篇 Instagram 帖子这样写道。该公司提供每月高达 79 美元的药丸订阅套餐。Stasis 将其补充剂作为 ADHD 处方兴奋剂的有效补充而非替代品进行营销，但它始终将这些药物描述为“不足够”。
This messaging is cause for concern, according to ADHD specialists who spoke with WIRED. 据接受《连线》采访的 ADHD 专家称，这种宣传令人担忧。
“Stimulant medications have been in existence for nearly 100 years, and approved for use in children since the 1960s,” says Kristen Leinung, a mental health nurse practitioner and director of psychiatric services at the Northwest ADHD Treatment Center in Portland, Oregon. The drugs are well-studied for efficacy and have predictable side effects, she adds, but because they can be misused, they’re often stigmatized online. “This style of advertising does further that stigma.” “兴奋剂药物已经存在了近 100 年，自 20 世纪 60 年代以来就被批准用于儿童，”俄勒冈州波特兰市西北 ADHD 治疗中心（Northwest ADHD Treatment Center）的精神健康执业护士兼精神科服务主任克里斯汀·莱农（Kristen Leinung）说。她补充道，这些药物的疗效经过了充分研究，副作用也是可预测的，但由于它们可能被滥用，因此在网上经常受到污名化。“这种广告风格进一步加剧了这种污名化。”
Leinung believes that with their pessimistic framing of Adderall and similar pharmaceuticals, these supplement ads could lead people to go off their medication, which can be dangerous. “We know untreated or under-treated ADHD carries a high mortality and morbidity risk,” Leinung says, decreasing life expectancy and doubling the risk of premature death; it’s associated with factors that range from less exercise and worse sleep to riskier driving and a higher likelihood of smoking. 莱农认为，由于这些补充剂广告对阿得拉及类似药物持悲观态度，可能会导致人们停药，这非常危险。“我们知道，未经治疗或治疗不足的 ADHD 具有很高的死亡率和发病率风险，”莱农说，这会降低预期寿命，并将过早死亡的风险增加一倍；它还与多种因素相关，从运动量减少、睡眠质量变差，到驾驶风险增加以及吸烟可能性提高等。
US pharmacies have seen shortages of the stimulants Adderall, Vyvanse, Ritalin, and Concerta since 2022. Though the Drug Enforcement Administration increased production quotas last fall, various production bottlenecks have continued to create supply problems, according to the nonprofit Understood, which supports Americans with learning and thinking differences including dyslexia and ADHD. 自 2022 年以来，美国药房一直面临阿得拉、维万斯、利他林（Ritalin）和专注达（Concerta）等兴奋剂的短缺。据支持包括阅读障碍和 ADHD 在内的学习与思维差异美国人的非营利组织 Understood 称，尽管美国缉毒局（DEA）去年秋天提高了生产配额，但各种生产瓶颈持续导致供应问题。
The difficulty of accessing these medications may factor into someone’s decision to try unproven alternative treatments instead, says Cindy Goldrich, a mental health counselor, educator, and ADHD coach in Boulder, Colorado. That’s what makes the supplement ads feel “exploitative.” 科罗拉多州博尔德市的心理健康咨询师、教育家兼 ADHD 教练辛迪·戈德里奇（Cindy Goldrich）表示，获取这些药物的困难可能是导致人们尝试未经证实的替代疗法的原因之一。这就是为什么这些补充剂广告让人感到“具有剥削性”。