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Advocacy & Research for Unlimited Lifespans
This thread is to gather together some responses about how different people go about trying new substances (nootropics), routines, habits, or whatever else (could be anything, exercise, sleep patterns, or even tdcs for example). I'll focus on and talk about substances but any response is welcome and in general I mean any of these things.
I have always wondered how people decide what does and doesn't have an effect on them, and how much effect if any. One of the iffy things about nootropics is that results are subjective, sometimes hard to discern, often environmentally affected or dependent (substanceX is better when doing a specific type of task, you didn't get enough sleep that night, you had a bad day), and can even vary wildly.
Some example questions might be:
1. Do you "purge" or abstain from other substances for a time before trying a new one as to isolate the feelings/results?
2. Do you have a general list of substances that works for you that you always take and just add one at a time?
3. Do you combine new substances if they are known to have synergy or try them separate? Or both?
4. How do you isolate "problem" substances? How do you figure out which ones are making you feel bad or sub-par? (for example you could add a new substance and it interacts badly with something else you are taking but gives great results otherwise)
5. If you do abstain from all substances to try new ones, do you add one back in at a time?
6. How do you measure results? (Sometimes your Lumosity/dnb/whatever scores might be exactly the same but you feel like crap, or the other way around.) Do you keep long term averages/records?
7. How do you determine dosage? Do you try varying doses on both sides of the norm?
8. Do you do all of these things enough times to where you can actually measure it?
In summary, how careful and precise are you when trying new things? Ideally we would be conducting blind experiments on ourselves (placebo/dosage level), abstain beforehand, add in substances (also blind) one at a time, and micromanage the hell out of it to determine what is and isn't worth it. But who does all that?
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Feel free to skip the rest of this post and answer, it gets a little off topic. Below are some of my personal opinions/experiences and general answers to the above questions.
I'm sure everyone has a different story, but when I started taking nootropics I just bought a bunch of them and was too excited to wait. I spend $100-200 buying everything I wanted to try after extensive research just to see what worked and often took too many things together, then spent some more money every couple months searching for stuff that worked. Daily environmental variables ...varied. Sometimes I took them when working/studying hard, sometimes I took them and ended up going to the bar with friends. Sometimes they synergized, other times they gave me brain fog and made me tired. One day a combo would have great effects, the next it had nothing, the next it made me feel like crap. .... I could go on.
I tried keeping a log at one point when I started CILTEP, but it faded over time (with the effects of CILTEP). I've also tried "purging" and many of the other techniques above but when I think back it seems more like a jumble of "oh this works!"...(3 days later)..."I don't really notice anything." I think I got the greatest effects from CILTEP, but I don't notice anything anymore (about 2 months later) and stopped buying supplies for it.
Just to mention: I am one of those people that can drink until I throw up and still be pretty close to sober, my body rejects it and my mind stays sober. I need double doses of ibuprofen/acetaminophen/etc to have an effect. Marijuana doesn't affect me (have tried a handful of times). I need more / stronger / higher potency for most mind/body altering substances to have a normal effect.
The only things that I feel are worth it to take at this point are: Modafinil, phenylpiracetam, and noopept/sunifram have about the same effect on me (little). I wish I could pinpoint some of the more subtle positive effects from the rest of the bottles sitting on my shelves, which is one reason I made this thread. The forum also seems to be lacking this topic, people say "try it out" but don't really describe how.
I'm sure there are people on here that micromanage their regimen, others that buy in bulk and swallow in bulk, and many who do something in between. What about you? Do you have advice for me and anyone else that stumbles upon this in the future?
Edited by travis_w, 22 May 2013 - 12:09 PM.
