site banner
PaperclipPerfector  25d ago (text post)   2848 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 27, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Does anyone have any tips for managing stimulant use? I currently use fairly copious amounts of caffeine and nicotine - both I find extremely difficult to go without for 24 hours. My tolerance to nicotine has built to the extent that I don't feel like I receive much cognitive boost from it anymore.

I've tried taking breaks cold turkey with the idea that I can start using both again in smaller amounts once my tolerance is reset, but never get further than a few days. I actually find both about equally difficult to stop or cut down on - if I had to give up one or the other forever it'd be hard to choose.

My ideal is not to stop using either completely, but rather to use lower doses of them, less regularly and more effectively - so preferably not every day, and for specific purposes. For example, nicotine to deliberately build a habit, or caffeine to boost motivation and performance for exercise. I realize there is no free lunch with stimulants but right now I feel like I'm using them in quantities far more than optimal.

EDIT: thanks all for the advice!

Can't help with the nicotine (which likely complicates things), but I have had a real easy time reducing caffeine by switching from coffee to black tea (with milk, but you get the idea). It's a much smoother experience I think due to the Theanine or other chemicals that come with the package. No jitters, no crash.

edit: Really hard to have too much tea (and you can even sneak some into your afternoon with less impact on sleep disruption.)

I take Vyvanse for my ADHD & 1-2 cups of coffee per day.

What works for me: tl,dr: less carbs + spacing out stimulants.

Details:

  1. Have 1st coffee later in the morning. Usually, right before starting focus work. (around 10am). Avoids afternoon crash and avoid 2nd/3rd coffee.
  2. No coffee after 3pm if I plan to sleep that night. Not worth it.
  3. No heavy carbs for lunch. Avoids afternoon crash.
  4. Alternate daily Vyvanse consumption. I skip it on meeting days, and have my coffee earlier to compensate.
  5. No Vyvanse on holidays. STRICT.
  6. Only 1 coffee on holidays. STRICT.
  7. 3 coffees max per work day. 1 is ideal. 2 is borderline. 3 only if really needed. (each coffee is ~double shot of espresso)
  8. Get full night of sleep every night. No work is too important. When I'm sleep deprived, I have coffee at odd times and it messes up my routine.
  9. Not exactly cardio. But, I cycle to office and get a good bout of sun in the process. Indispensible.
  10. Hot concentrated drinks >>> everything else. For me, the punch of a hot cortado delivers a strong placebo that a mug of American coffee, milky coffee or cold coffee simply can't match. It's free (placebo) lunch. Highly recommend.

Ah the carbs thing I never considered, will have to think about trying that!

I don't over-use stimulants, but I do generally have a hard time getting my brain to work and get enough done. Some things that help me:

  • Quick morning cardio
  • Steady, solid sleep schedule (7 hrs ish per night)
  • 5-10 minute naps as necessary
  • Keto
  • Caloric restrictions

Dieting in particular is very helpful, when I'm hungry I'm sharp.

Echoing all of these except the keto because i don't really do the keto thing but i do find the rest to be helpful.

I would suggest trying to gradually cut back to a significant amount before you go cold turky. It will ease the shock.

When it comes to caffeine, after finals every year in law school I would need to cut back severely, but I got headaches if I went to none. So I went from drinking about six shots of espresso every day to drinking two cups of hicaf tea, to drinking just enough black tea to keep the headaches away, to cold turkey. Would normally take two weeks to get down to nothing.

What worked for me with caffeine was going cold turkey and then staying off for 3 months. After that i started drinking 1-2 cups a day (instead of 7) and it has been easy to keep it at that for the past 10+ years.

Now my caffeine use feels like a wholly positive habit.

Similar feeling.

Staying off it completely for 2 months helped me come back with a healthier system. (went from anxious eye tremors to being back to normal).

Cold turkey was really hard. It's like the whole world is grey and you're half asleep. An entire month passed me by in zombie mode. The 2nd month was better, and I have been careful to never go that far with coffee ever since. (8-10 shots per day to now 2-4 espresso shots per day)

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats