April 26th, 2020 at 7:06 PM
For the uninitiated, a nootropic refers to any sort of substance that can be considered to increase mental ability.
Your mind might jump to coffee as an example, and sure enough, caffeine is a nootropic.
And, following definition, since nootropics are banned either by law or by a more silent customs/import seizure, it's actually pretty hard to even buy caffeine pills in the Philippines.
My intro to the world of nootropics was typical, just shitloads of coffee. Then eventually I started buying caffeine pills and decaf coffee to mix together, since decaf was cheaper and I could buy 100x 200mg caffeine pills (100mg is like a normal cup of coffee) for less than ten bucks (7$ for the Americans) and when taken in pill form, your body metabolizes it all at once, so you feel helluva lot more 'rush' than you do when drinking coffee.
Now, problem with this is that caffeine, as most people know, can have some pretty negative effects both mentally and physically, at the cost of alertness. I'd get some pretty nasty jitters and increased heart rate which just wasn't pleasant, and another one of my friends who also took caffeine pills would get really bad anxiety.
Then, that friend discovered a little something called L-Theanine. It's a chemical that's found naturally in Green Tea and you can buy as a supplement in most health-food stores, something like 20$ a bottle for 60x 200mg. A little on the expensive side, but allegedly taking it in a 1:1 ratio with caffeine (basically 1 pill of each) would get rid of all the negative effects of caffeine.
And to this day, I swear by it. It's probably the easiest way to make the most of caffeine without feeling terrible if you ever experience negative effects. I could take em in the morning with my decaf, go about my daily activities, and just sit down and focus without getting jittery or feeling like I'm running on empty but still have that rush of energy from increased heart rate. Just normal wakefulness, even if I only got 4hrs of sleep as students typically do.
If you try this, you won't go back, it really does work wonders. I don't buy into health-food stuff often unless I can actually experience some pretty remarkable results, and this is only one of five things or so that I will shill until I die.
And that's when I started to get into nootropics and researching how the mind is affected by certain substances. I took a few psychology courses early on during first-year so I have at least a basic understanding of how some substances might work, but at the same time, there's all sorts of substances out there that people swear by as the 'best nootropic'.
Thing is, it really does vary based on person and your own chemical balance in your brain. Caffeine might have predictable effects with people, but mileage may vary greatly based on dose, and only like two years ago or something did the U.S. Military claim that they figured out the formula for finding an 'ideal dose' for caffeine, and mind you, they're keeping it a secret.
I haven't tried many nootropics, but I've tried most of the illegal ones.
Amphetamines go either way. I don't have a prescription, and I don't like buying people's prescriptions since they sometimes need it too. That being said, ADHD is the most overdiagnosed disorder in the world right after anxiety, so some people just don't want their scrip, and will make that very explicit that they just sell it off because their insurance covers it anyway so they can get easy beer money. But when I can't do that, I order from other online markets, and quality is really hit or miss. Sometimes it's really clean, just pure focus, but other times it's adulterated with caffeine or other cutting agents, so it's 'dirty' and you do feel a lot more jittery and not as focused. An acetone wash usually fixes that.
Microdosing LSD and Shrooms is one of the more modern ways of thinking, and a lot of Silicon Valley engineers do it, according to some pop-sci news websites. In my experience, it does give one hell of a creativity boost if done right, but if you f*** up your dose, enjoy your trip to the astral plane. Also, it doesn't do much other than alter creativity. Sometimes, that's a bad thing. Sometimes, it's a good thing. It's not something for every scenario.
Most people think of bodybuilding when they hear about creatine, since it allows your muscles to soak up more water thus making your gains bigger and arguably making you stronger. But, little known fact: creatine has been shown to help brain function. In my experience, it's been a pretty subtle effect, but then again, I usually only use it for a week then off again, so maybe I'm just not being consistent enough with it.
So if you're using any nootropics, which ones? Are there others you've had experience with? What's been the most effective for you?
Your mind might jump to coffee as an example, and sure enough, caffeine is a nootropic.
And, following definition, since nootropics are banned either by law or by a more silent customs/import seizure, it's actually pretty hard to even buy caffeine pills in the Philippines.
My intro to the world of nootropics was typical, just shitloads of coffee. Then eventually I started buying caffeine pills and decaf coffee to mix together, since decaf was cheaper and I could buy 100x 200mg caffeine pills (100mg is like a normal cup of coffee) for less than ten bucks (7$ for the Americans) and when taken in pill form, your body metabolizes it all at once, so you feel helluva lot more 'rush' than you do when drinking coffee.
Now, problem with this is that caffeine, as most people know, can have some pretty negative effects both mentally and physically, at the cost of alertness. I'd get some pretty nasty jitters and increased heart rate which just wasn't pleasant, and another one of my friends who also took caffeine pills would get really bad anxiety.
Then, that friend discovered a little something called L-Theanine. It's a chemical that's found naturally in Green Tea and you can buy as a supplement in most health-food stores, something like 20$ a bottle for 60x 200mg. A little on the expensive side, but allegedly taking it in a 1:1 ratio with caffeine (basically 1 pill of each) would get rid of all the negative effects of caffeine.
And to this day, I swear by it. It's probably the easiest way to make the most of caffeine without feeling terrible if you ever experience negative effects. I could take em in the morning with my decaf, go about my daily activities, and just sit down and focus without getting jittery or feeling like I'm running on empty but still have that rush of energy from increased heart rate. Just normal wakefulness, even if I only got 4hrs of sleep as students typically do.
If you try this, you won't go back, it really does work wonders. I don't buy into health-food stuff often unless I can actually experience some pretty remarkable results, and this is only one of five things or so that I will shill until I die.
And that's when I started to get into nootropics and researching how the mind is affected by certain substances. I took a few psychology courses early on during first-year so I have at least a basic understanding of how some substances might work, but at the same time, there's all sorts of substances out there that people swear by as the 'best nootropic'.
Thing is, it really does vary based on person and your own chemical balance in your brain. Caffeine might have predictable effects with people, but mileage may vary greatly based on dose, and only like two years ago or something did the U.S. Military claim that they figured out the formula for finding an 'ideal dose' for caffeine, and mind you, they're keeping it a secret.
I haven't tried many nootropics, but I've tried most of the illegal ones.
- Caffeine (+ L-Theanine)
- Adrafinil
- Amphetamine Sulphate (Adderall, Vyvanse)
- Microdosing LSD + Psilocybin
- L-Tyrosine
- Creatine
- Energy Drink Blends
Amphetamines go either way. I don't have a prescription, and I don't like buying people's prescriptions since they sometimes need it too. That being said, ADHD is the most overdiagnosed disorder in the world right after anxiety, so some people just don't want their scrip, and will make that very explicit that they just sell it off because their insurance covers it anyway so they can get easy beer money. But when I can't do that, I order from other online markets, and quality is really hit or miss. Sometimes it's really clean, just pure focus, but other times it's adulterated with caffeine or other cutting agents, so it's 'dirty' and you do feel a lot more jittery and not as focused. An acetone wash usually fixes that.
Microdosing LSD and Shrooms is one of the more modern ways of thinking, and a lot of Silicon Valley engineers do it, according to some pop-sci news websites. In my experience, it does give one hell of a creativity boost if done right, but if you f*** up your dose, enjoy your trip to the astral plane. Also, it doesn't do much other than alter creativity. Sometimes, that's a bad thing. Sometimes, it's a good thing. It's not something for every scenario.
Most people think of bodybuilding when they hear about creatine, since it allows your muscles to soak up more water thus making your gains bigger and arguably making you stronger. But, little known fact: creatine has been shown to help brain function. In my experience, it's been a pretty subtle effect, but then again, I usually only use it for a week then off again, so maybe I'm just not being consistent enough with it.
So if you're using any nootropics, which ones? Are there others you've had experience with? What's been the most effective for you?
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