6 replies to this topic

[snazzhands]

Hello all. This is a post to introduce myself, explain why I'm investigating nootropics and to give a run-down of the effects I've experienced in the last six days on Noopept.

I'm a musician. I earn money as a school teacher and used to live and work full-time in London. My partner and I realised that the earnings from teaching in London did not balance living expenses and we both felt like we wanted to get back to a similar situation as our childhoods - living closer to the countryside, taking more exercise etc. So we spent a lot of time and energy finding work and organising a move to a town in the north of England, which we did last August. Since then, I have worked part time and taken a LOT more exercise. However, the nature of my new place of work (more relaxed, older staff who I feel less connection with) combined with the additional free time surprisingly made me quite depressed. I've found I lack motivation and often wish to be in a different situation, which has in turn given me quite significant anxiety.

About a week ago I saw an article in The Guardian about modafinil and decided to investigate. From research on here and other websites, I decided to give a few things a shot and see which I preferred, or if there may be some suitable combinations. The first to arrive was Noopept, so I started on that on Wednesday. Here's a short diary of my experience since then:

Wednesday evening - 1x10mg Noopept oral

With no idea what effect it would have, I took the pill and headed off to a concert. Almost immediately started experiencing significant short term memory loss, slight euphoria, and a feeling of increased desire to socialise. This was further enhanced with an alcoholic drink, which made me feel almost giggly, far quicker than normal, and driving was quite dangerous (I will not repeat this!). Noopept didn't seem to have an effect on my aesthetic judgement - the concert was completely not to my taste and I left at the interval (I was there because my friend was playing - thankfully he was in the first half). Talking to my girlfriend after the concert was very interesting - when I was giving her my full attention I felt very connected and in love with her, however I couldn't half-participate at all, it was like I'd completely dropped out and she was quite surprised at how quickly I seemed to lose interest!

Thursday morning - 2x10mg Noopept oral (taken morning and evening from here on)

Similar effects (as expected). Short term memory impaired by about the same amount. Was a risk taking this as I had to teach students all day - I found that I often had no idea what was going to happen next, yet everything seemed to run smoothly. Definite increase in focus and productivity, and significantly reduced inner monologue. General good mood and a feeling of the anxiety being 'washed away'.

Thursday evening

Friends came round for supper. Felt pretty inventive and made some decent food, combining with alcohol didn't seem to have the same intense effect as previously. Short term memory impairment not as pronounced, although I did leave some pasta in the pan with the heat on and no water...!

Friday morning

Negative short term memory effect and feeling of euphoria definitely weakened, however anxiety and inner monologue are still almost completely absent.

Friday evening - 2x10mg Noopept + a lot of alcohol

Absolutely banging night. Extremely social feeling and energetic. Can barely remember a thing, though not an enormous amount of alcohol consumed.

Saturday

Not much to say about Saturday, lack of sleep meant that it was a bit of a wash out. Noopept didn't help with this at all.

Sunday

Quite creative feeling, composed some music for a video game project I'm working on. Felt focused and lack of self-judgement that impairs composition process usually. Similar effects on conversation with girlfriend - full attention feels great, absolutely impossible to hold conversation while attention on other matters. Quite intolerant of being interrupted while doing other things.

Today

Feeling of anxiety in morning about significant work event this week, as well as return of feelings of social alienation having moved away from London. Noopept washes them away and I feel motivated to write this post.



Conclusions so far

Initial effects: slight euphoria, significant short term memory loss (though only when I am not fully concentrating), loss of anxiety, increased desire to socialise (if not competence at doing so!). Also some mildly psychedelic effects, possibly a result of the impaired memory (feeling of 'surprise' at certain things).

After a few days: Euphoric and memory effects have become weaker so I assume there is a build up of tolerance there. 'Anxiolytic', positive social effect, lack of internal monologue (self-criticising or otherwise) and increased ability to focus all still present.

I'm definitely going to continue with this. I had not intended for it to help anxiety at all, but this has been a major benefit and such a relief after some difficult months. The memory effects don't worry me as they are definitely becoming weaker. I'll be interested to see how these things continue and if I begin experiencing any negative effects later in the month.


Edit - Just seen reports of adverse sexual health effects - absolutely no sign of that so far.

Edited by snazzhands, 13 May 2013 - 09:31 AM.

[snazzhands]

Well I have continued to take noopept reasonably regularly since this post, however I have lowered my dose to 10mg twice a day. I felt that the effects of 20mg were too strong and causing me to stop being myself, making me somewhat irritable. Since lowering the dose there haven't been many noticeable effects so I may raise it again, however there is definitely still less anxiety/inner monologue, and I have felt a little more motivated to do important work.

[BLimitless]

10mg is enough, believe me. Plenty of people have tried high dosages concurrently. There is definitely an exponentially decreasing reward increase with dosages higher than 15mg in my own experience. If you take over 30mg/day over a prolonged interval this often leads to many side effects including impaired memory and detachment. Yes it will feel good but it will also feel very strange and certainly not a balanced way of living.


Personally I take 10mg every few days and that is more than enough, in terms of gleaming nootropic benefits. It seems that consistent periodic administration over widely spaced intervals are more favourable for my own purposes - reversing neurodegeneration from prior bad living. Noopept is amazing for this. Consistent administration feels like having your brain slowly stitch itself up and heal up and fuse, and start generating extra folds, novel modes of perception.


It would be wise to consider coadministration with a good quantity of fish oil, vitamin D, B vitamins, coconut oil, vitamin C and choline. These things all play very well with noopept; the fish oil is essential for clarity, memory and sharpness, likewise with choline; coconut oil seems to remove all trace of fog when administering racetam-like nootropics. The vitamins recommended here synergise with all nootropics and provide a stable foundation for improved sensory experience.

Edited by BLimitless, 19 May 2013 - 04:23 PM.

[Lehsyrus]

I have Megadosed with concurrent 100mg doses for a week concurrently, as it may be "fun" at first the effects quickly die off. I had taken a month off and am now continuing at 20mg in the morning and ten before bed (I listen to isochronic tones throughout the night along with a metronome and pitch training).

Also, I have insuffulated as well as sublingually taken noopept, insuffulation does absolutely nothing compared to any type of oral administration. The effects were significantly weaker when insuffulated than when taken sublingually.

My two cents.

[snazzhands]

UPDATE

I have continued to take Noopept reasonably regularly since that post, and have put my dose down to 15mg. 20mg was having too much of a stupefying effect on my short term memory, and 10mg appeared to do very little. Most persistent have been the anxiolytic and focus effects. I find composing music easier as the self-critical internal monologue is not as present.

I have just added daily ALCAR, Sulbutiamine twice a week and Choline twice a week. Adding Choline along with greater egg consumption has seemed to counteract the negative effects of Noopept, but perhaps by the time I was taking it my brain had gained a bit of tolerance to these effects.

I am awaiting the delivery of some modafinil, which I will experiment with in isolation when it arrives. I have also been taking melatonin, 5-HTP, Theanine and Valerian extract at bedtime... massively successful in making me sleepier and some positive effect on dream clarity. I will start trying out the ideas in the 'Mind Performance Hacks' book in the coming days and see if I can get to grips with them better than when I read it pre-nootropics experimentation.

[snazzhands]

Update

Continued usage has given me complete tolerance to the negative initial effects. The anxiolytic effects have remained and I feel great. No idea about any actual cognitive improvement, but I'm sticking with it for how much calmer I have been since I started.

[Strelok]

Sweet, thanks for the update. I have been on Noopept for the past couple weeks, though I've only taken it 8 or 9 of those 14 days. I'm usually dosing 10mg twice daily. I plan on taking it for a couple more months to let some of the long term benefits set in, and then I'll complete a 1 month washout period.