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Naltrexone
I will start with naltrexone, which can help people who have difficulty regulating their drinking have a more natural and sustainable relationship with alcohol should they choose to not cut it out of their lives entirely.
Pramipexole
It’s used for Parkinson’s and restless legs, I use it for restless legs. I’ve suffered with this condition as far back as I can remember, I’ve always referred to myself as a part time insomniac because this would keep me up a lot of the time.
I had a period of mental health problems and was prescribed Metazapine for it, which kicked up the RLS a notch. Despite being off them now for nearly a year, the Restless Legs are still kicked up.
Pramipexole, when taken at the right time, sorts the RLS out, I can finally sleep and when I do sleep I don’t kick my wife up the arse.
Side affects include hypersexualality and compulsive gambling, but I haven’t experienced this yet. I have warned my workmates that it could come up in the future though so if I ever say “I bet you a fiver you can’t wank me off” they know why.
Edited to bold Pramipexole
Have you noticed any issues with induced impulsivity from med, there’s crazy stories of folks getting on dopamine agonists like that who go wild and end up with gambling and porn addictions, criminal charges, etc. Really wild stuff
From my reading on Pramipexole it’s about 10% of people that have these side effects. It worried me when I started taking the pills.
I read the documentation that came with them and it had in bold DO NOT TAKE THIS MEDICATION WITH ALCOHOL AS THIS CAN MAKE SIDE EFFECTS WORSE so I read the side effects and it was compulsive gambling and hypersexuality.
So I gave up my nightly rum for a few weeks. Then I thought “Meh, let’s see what happens” and reintroduced my nightly rum and coke before bed. Honestly I’ve not had anything noticeable.
Nothing compulsive. But I can spend an hour or more solving Rubik’s cubes or playing the guitar without even noticing. I had that before the pills though.
Just be careful yo. I wonder if its always either an immediate development or it in sets over time. It could also be that your dopamine receptor destruction/loss over time could attenuate the motivating aspect of the meds I would conjecture.
I shall! Gambling has never been my thing anyway, I lucked out finding my Wife at the age of 17. Hypersexuality? Well I may have been with her for over 20 years but she still puts out, so I should be fine with that. Drugs? I have a rule that I don’t buy em unless I can afford em after all my bills have gone out, it’s a spare change rule.
I think I’ll be fine.
Unexpectedly wholesome personal drug policy. This is how rec users can be functional and living best life.
As an aside, I wish more people would calculate total monthly expenses and set aside 1/2 that amount every paycheque. Over time they would always be saving substantially without even knowing/missing it and always have a bit of cushion float to accomodate them at any point
I’m weekly paid and have monthly bills, so I saved up a month’s worth of bills money and set up a second account. Then I worked out what each monthly bills costs me a week, added it all up and set a direct debit from my main account on pay day every week. That way I always have a month of money for bills as a buffer in case anything stops me getting a pay check.
Then I set up a little bit into a savings account every week too.
Now when I get paid I know that money is for food, petrol and fun because my bills are deducted before I even get out of bed.
When I run out of weed I go “Oh no I can’t afford weed” then look at my savings account and go “Oh yes I can!”
This shit should be taught in schools.
I got myself debt free at the beginning of the year for the first time in a while. Slipped into my overdraft last month (cars suck!) and I’ve been hitting the overtime to whittle it back down. Goal is to start the new year debt free again.
I use my drugs policy for me-time too. Jobs get done before me-time. I’m trying to teach this to my kids then I can hit them with the Drugs Policy when they’re older and just tell them it’s the Me-time policy for money.
I have zero fucking idea how I would ever approach drugs if I had kids… Like, I would be so worried about setting them on a bullshit path that I really shouldn’t have even survived lol. But its something they need to be educated on and exposed to at the right dose because its so crazy out there
Edit: k, I sort of want to back up on this and say that I would likely develop a Dexter-style
Drugtaking Code
Omeprazole
Got stomach bad acid? Want it go away for days or weeks on end without antacid? Omeprazole works like a dream and is available without prescription in most countries except Japan.
You don’t, like, take that chronically do ya? I’ve heard that vigorously warned against…
Thanks for bringing this up, I’m curious about folks’ experiences/thoughts regarding Proton Pump Inhibitors
I was warned not to use it chronically. I use it perhaps 2 days each month. You need to be aware of your triggers, such as fatty or spicey foods and alcohol. Also try and self diagnose stomach acid symptoms as early as possible.
Ya that sounds better. I pop a Tums once in a blue moon but my diet is much cleaner to the effect I rarely need it anymore.
It may be prescribed long term if the benefits outweigh the possible risks. If someone is taking it in their own, it’s probably better to talk to their doc about it. My understanding is that it’s safe but can have long term effects and needs to be stepped down if you stop after taking it a while
Is that overseen by a GI specialist or your family dr? No offense to general practitioners?l
I was initially prescribed this by my doctor.
Have you considered getting a second more specialized opinion from GI?
I did, from a specialist in Japan. It really helps me as I can get extreme symptoms such as nausia, vomiting, insane back pain and inability to eat anything. No other medicines have helped me like this.
Either can prescribe it. Depends on the person’s situation- other symptoms, severity, etc.
I mean in your case or is this all academic/hypothetical? I assumed you were describing your personal use case. Did your dr prescribe and refill it or was it specialist?
I was in Japan this year and I had run out of omeprazole, in JP you cannot buy it over the counter. Ofc cue a bad few days of acid and luckily there was a GI specialist near my hotel. He noted that I had used PPI before and gave me a prescription for 60 tablets
Esomeprazole works way better for me.
Isn’t that an inversion of the same?
They’re obviously closely related but they work differently.
https://www.healthline.com/health/gerd/nexium-vs-prilosec#differences
Melatonin
I can’t do sleep hygiene. My cell phone is the first and last thing I see every day. I stare at screens all day for work and for leisure. With moderate melatonin use I can somehow maintain regular and restful sleep.
No side effects if you use it responsibly (e.g. 5 days on, 2 days off, stick with low doses). Very safe. Can improve sleep even if you’re already sleeping well. I don’t know why more people aren’t on it.
A fun hack for melatonin is that smaller doses work better than larger doses.
Yes! Scientific trials have shown that for most people, 0.3mg of melatonin gives better quality of sleep than 3mg.
I’ve seen pills as high as 10mg on the shelf and have to wonder wtf they’re for. If you take too much your body becomes less sensitive to it and you become dependent on supplementation. 10mg is definitely too much.
What about in those with ADHD?
I think the big difference between people benefiting at small doses (~0.3mg) and large doses (2+mg) is that the 0.3mg group use it for sleep quality through the night, whereas the 3+mg people just need the sudden shock to get to sleep in the first place.
The drawback with big doses is that your brain becomes less sensitive so your naturally-produced melatonin might not be enough to keep you asleep for the whole night after the pill wears off. It has a very short half-life in the body (under 1 hour), so there’s no way for a single dose before sleeping to last 8 hours. We naturally produce only 0.06-0.08mg per night, so it’s easy to see how supplementing melatonin could desensitize someone and cause them to wake up after just 4-6 hours of sleep.
I have ADHD and am in the large-dose category and use 2-3mg of melatonin to help me fall asleep. Without it, I can’t sleep reliably because my brain often won’t shut up. Sleep reliably is so much more important to me than sleep quality.
Using it only 5 nights a week, I’m not significantly dependent. I can still sleep without melatonin, just less reliably. I’ve tried 0.3mg, but it felt the same as taking nothing.
For me, 10mg would be excessive and probably harmful in a desensitizing way. The most I’ve taken is 6mg, but it only helped in 2 out of 6 times. The other 4 times my brain just wouldn’t stop. If doubling my usual dose didn’t help, I don’t think doubling it again would be any different.
There are however studies with higher doses, e.g. this one about kids with ADHD that says:
two-third of the patients responded to relatively medium doses (2.5–6 mg/d), whereas doses above 6 mg added further benefit only in a small percentage of children.
so I guess it’s different for everyone.
It’s crazy isn’t it, 10mg.
I was prescribed (it’s prescription-only in my country) 2mg but after I read up on it I cut it to 0.5.
Yep, this seems to the magic number; I shudder when I hear people taking like 5-10mg. How can that be safe unless most of it is destroyed via digestion
Since it’s a natural hormone the body already has ways to get rid of it. It has a half-life of less than an hour. The lethal dose is so high we haven’t been able to intentionally kill animals with it: “Melatonin is not fatal even at a dose of 800 mg/kg in animal studies”.
The big risk of ongoing high doses is becoming so dependent on it that you wake up as soon as it wears off (e.g. after only 4 hours of sleep). At this level you basically can’t sleep without it and have to slowly wean yourself off to get back to normality.
I found my dreams were extremely vivid and often extra-disturbing when my dose was high to the extent Im implying. Also, because it was so vivid and palpable, I just didnt feel rested cuz I was so engaged/engrossed by it
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Nifedipine - vasodilator
This cheap and common calcium channel blocker has an effect more localized to the peripheral vessels than most other calcium channel blockers.
I started taking it as a cure for chilblains, which it was remarkably effective at despite not being officially listed for. Did my research and asked my doctor for it. Never had one since.
However I soon realized the joy of never feeling cold again. Gone are the days of taking swigs from a flask to keep my fingers thawed out while working on a stalled tractor at -30C. Gone are cold/numb feet in ski boots and rubber boots, frozen thumbs on quads and snowmobiles. I can work in my unheated shop all day!
Of course its main function is to drop blood pressure by decreasing arterial resistance, which I found provided a significant performance boost in someone with only high normal blood pressure. I box and jump rope, and realized a few days after taking nifedipine that I had been jumping so long that my legs were getting sore, but my endurance still felt limitless.
My blood pressure is down to totally normal too. So drop your blood pressure, boost your endurance and never feel cold again for under $30/month… It’s a deal
Yerba Mate
Honestly, I think Yerba Mate is probably the most pleasant and cleanest caffeinated beverage around. I’ve pretty much entirely replaced coffee at this point, as Yerba Mate seems to have all around superior effects. The unique blend of methylxanthine stimulants present (caffeine, theobromine, theophylline) in Mate provides incredibly clean stimulation with no crash and little anxiety (for me anyway). It doesn’t make my stomach feel nasty after multiple cups, which I appreciate as well. The guayaki canned drinks initially got me into it, but I’ve since graduated to brewing the unsmoked loose leaf tea.
What are the products to look for, brand-wise and things to look out for in terms of anything else to know when considering a product
Personally, I prefer the unsmoked varieties of the loose leaf tea (although it is traditionally smoked). I do however prefer the traditional cut, which includes the stems and makes it less bitter. I get the “Eco Teas” brand, just because it seems to be available at one of the local, ritzy grocery stores. There are a million brands out there, I’ve only tried a few. Guayaki sells their loose leaf Mate at whole foods, but I have not tried it myself. I think the canned drinks are a good place to start to see if you like the effects, they just have a significant amount of sugar in them.
I don’t like sugar in my tea or most things so i’ll prolly ditto your recommendations for the simple tea :)
Metamucil (psyillium fibre)
It’s kinda simple, but Metamucil. I would get terrible stomach aches, bloating and constipation whenever I had greasy food. Now, if I have 1-2 servings of Metamucil a day, then 1 extra right as I eat greasy food, I don’t feel terrible!
Psyllium husk changed my freaking life. Probably TMI, but I used to have very severe hemorrhoid pain. I basically almost never do anymore, it’s that drastic.
DXM/dextromethorphan (Robitussin Cough Gels)
Its technically a dissociative and NMDA-antagonist, anaesthetic.
DXM can be an amazing agent for inducing what I would term a
hard reset, that is dissociating you the f-out to the extent you may be able to reevaluate and see things in a new light. You will need to take care it doesnt react with other ingested substances you take and there are different thresholds (plateaus) that purportedly have distinct characteristics.The best source is Robitussin Cough Gels, take care it is a single-ingredient product that you are considering trying. Have a pan to throw up in (you will vomit to some extent) and do not trust any farts.
If you have urinary retention, take a super hot bath but be very careful, maybe have someone check in on you. The hot water will relax your muscles and basically force you to have to and be able to get it out. Limit liquid consumption before/during/after to avoid an unduly full bladder
Edit: it might be a secret antidepressant akin to ketamine (similar profile) and the music euphoria is incredible
Fly agaric / Amanita muscaria
is the only thing that is actually mucus dissolving. You are stoned as fuck but when dried slowly they are nontoxic anymore.
They are also very funny, perfect party drug. Actually stoned, without head paranoia etc. dancing is really fun, you can lie down or move its all very funny. And no alcohol 70%-directly-in-the-liver pain the next morning.
Cannabis
is a very complex substance and not for just chilling in my experience. It can be very helpful with stress, it is like soothing the brain with this other entity. I am sure it is not, but it feels like your subconsciousness taking control. Helps a lot understanding yourself and breaking free from toxic Adrenaline-Stress-Coffee-Capitalist thinking.
It is not just for chilling, it is not “an alternative to alcohol” and it is extremely abused, especially in the US. These “roll a blunt” amounts are simply not possible with todays potent weed, and mixing with tobacco while pretending you are not addicted to that ugly goblin clinging to your brain (for me tobacco feels like that) is absurd.
I think it is immensely powerful and its by far my favourite cozy drug, it saved my psyche when I didnt even know it lol (had an unrelated accident when stoned, got stitched up without anesthesia and my ears where fucked up for over a year after that).
LSD
is also great. Its such a shame it was banned immediately. There where so many studies and psychotherapeutic sessions, it is such an intense magnifier of these therapies.
Instead you now either sit there and talk, which is only effective after a year or so (while in Germany it is extremely hard to find a place); or you work with symptoms which is more effective but can easily result in the expression of your illness just switching to another symptom.
LSD is fucking magic. The lack of the nasty body effects of Psilocybin mushrooms is very good, as these can get extremely uncomfortable. And what it does with your brain, and how you think, is just so enriching. I already cried in front of my family, had great conversations with my then still alive grandparents, and I am so thankful for the existence of this drug.
Basically all the common ones suck, Alcohol, Tobacco, Nicotine, Stimulants. They are extremely unhealthy and have no beneficial effect at all. They only help you keep running, but you can easily break during this.
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Propranolol
It’s a blood pressure medication that acts pretty fast. They give it to people who experience anxiety. If you sometimes get overwhelmed or have anxiety, just pop one of these bad boys and in 30 minutes you’re calmed the fuck down and you can deal with it rationally. 
I use nebivolol instead which is highly cardioselective, I recommend it. It has a longer half-life, too. My stress and panic response is a lot more reasonable now.
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Why, you trying to scrape it? ;)
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Fiiiiiiine bolder.
I’ve read studies claiming it can be used to address traumatic memories as well, because of the chemical calm and how memory works, when you visit one your brain basically opens the file, runs it on your braon, and then re-stores your memory of the current run, where you were chill through the reenactment.
Would love to hear more about this in particular. Chime in folks
Escitalopram - Lexapro It took my anxiety from the point where I was having severe panic attacks for simple issues to where I was able to put down my problems.
Meanwhile it screwwed my body up. It caused a cascade that resulted in nearly losing my feet.
Lexapro has been amazing for me as well, went from smoking weed everyday to deal with my depression and stomach issues, to not even smoking anymore, coming up on a month pot free. Its crazy how much better you feel with the appropriate amount of serotonin in your system.
oh weird, Lexapro failed entirely at managing my anxiety. worked great on the depression side, which meant that dampener of the anxiety wasn’t in effect. spiraled quick, had to email the doc for an emergency appointment.
Effexor (venlaxafine) is the first SNRI I’ve tried and it’s been like magic.
Can you modify so its like
Escitalopram (Lexapro)
Body of text
Thanks, it helps keep everything consistent and easily readable/comparable
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Dramamine!!
Oh, man.
You ever wake up on a day you want to do nothing but sleep in, but you’re awake and you hate it?
Take one, rip the bong, watch some bs and take a nap 😴
Thats like Benedryl/diphenhydramine, right?
L-theanine and caffeine
It’s a combination that gives me energy and allows me to focus for a couple hours at a time without jitters or anxiety.
Ritalin
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symbicort
It’s an inhaler corticosteroid and anti inflammatory often used for asthma but incredible for post infection cough.
If I’m ever sick and have a cough, this puts a stop to that symptom and recovery is so much faster. Don’t even touch any over the counter cough medicine over this imo.
That could be a game changer for me! I’m using Advil Cold & Sinus to pop my lungs open as needed.
You are in for a treat, it (Symbicort) is efficacious as fuck for breathing issues/wheezing etc. Make the appointment
Edit: that’s just ibuprofen + pseudoephedrine btw. Might be the vasoconstricting effect of pseudoephedrine
Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine).
I know a lot of folks don’t like it for a multitude of reasons, but it works well for me. I take it about an hour before I get to work and I’m actually able to focus on work as opposed to why I don’t wanna be there. It’s great. Also helps that my job is pretty great overall, but being able to focus on actually getting up and doing stuff is great.
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