The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Hey all, I figured this community would know, but what's up with microdosing? I will start by saying, I've never taken a mood altering substance in my life. I'm an occasional alcohol drinker (1-2x a month maybe) but it was never a habit for me. Mostly all it does is put me to sleep. But I've been so stressed lately and I'm starting to wonder if I'm playing on hard mode when there's an easy answer right there, no prescription needed (I think? Am I right about the THC gummies that you can just like, buy them online?)
I'm just looking for a little something to calm me down a bit at night, help me not be so stressed, get a little more relaxed. But I don't want to be out of it - I still want to keep my wits about me. I don't want to have a bad reaction and have a medical incident. I don't want to take something that would be habit forming, and I have to be able to wake up for work in the morning. Do you think microdosing would be an option for me, and if so, how much dose is a good starter? Or do I just need to get something monitored from a psychiatrist?
Unironically try nicotine and Melisa tea(strong dose). People really underestimate the effect of various tea infusions. Also if you mix the melissa with mint tea it gives a nice calming effect. The Melissa relaxes the CNS and the mint tea (menthol) relaxes the peripheral nervous system.
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You can get CBD-infused green tea from Harney and Sons' Hemp Division, and I'm sure other providers. CBD doesn't seem to have notable cognitive effects, but does take the edge off.
You may also consider talking to your doctor about beta blockers. They focus on the sympathetic nervous system, with minimal if any cognitive effects, and aren't habit-forming. They're essentially an off switch for the physical symptoms of anxiety, from what I've heard and experienced (some people use them for public speaking, dating, etc.), so if that's a major component of your stress they may help.
Beta blockers have mild effects on memory, and do make you very slightly dumber. It's not the biggest deal in the world, but they're also not the first choice for anxiety or someone who wants to be able to relax more.
They've got a slew of other side effects, but I agree that they're not particularly dangerous. I can see the more avant-garde doctor prescribing them like this, with coaxing.
Thanks, was hoping you would comment on this for the medical perspective. I take them a couple times a year for heart stuff, so never really had a chance to notice side effects, and my friends who use them off-label also do it very infrequently.
You're welcome! I'm not the best doctor around, but I have an unusual amount of time to spare for people on the internet. The better ones are probably doing heart surgery or something haha.
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I'm not sure there's much a psychiatrist could prescribe you that fits the bill. Or at least, would be willing to prescribe you. I've never heard of someone being prescribed microdoses of benzos, for example. It might be habit forming, longterm use at therapeutic doses certainly is.
I would have sworn by l-theanine, but I read a recent post that made quite a convincing claim that it can't be responsible for the calming effect of green teas. All I know is that 70% confident that green tea calms me down, especially when I'm jittery from stimulants.
You could try melatonin for sleep, as long as you remember that less is more. 300mcg is what you should be taking, not milligrams.
That's all I can semi-endorse. There are more outré or illegal options, like phenibut, which some people love.
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I suggest getting a vape pen with weed oil cartridge and just pulling a small amount and seeing how you feel. Much much easier to control than a gummie. You have to get reasonably high to have trouble waking up the next morning.
I wouldn't do it every night for the rest of your life, but rather with an eye on seeing the sharp contrast between not calm and calm and learning what helps you move that way.
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The deal with microdosing is that drug users use a lot of drugs, actually. A safe, therapeutic dosage can be "micro" in comparison to the addicts and wasters who do so much more. Calling it "microdosing" just makes it more hip and trendy.
So: There might indeed by a psychoactive substance you can take a small amount of that would solve your problem, but I wouldn't suggest starting there.
Try different supplements or sleep aids, the kind that are mild enough that you would suspect a placebo if an Instagram ad recommended it to you as a sleep fix. Simply doing some stretches and drinking a mug of hot cocoa might help. L-Theanine is a common sleep supplement; it's a compound in green tea that tends to help people relax. Put in headphones and listen to a relaxing white noise application for a while. Take a melatonin pill. Etc. etc.
I suggest that for two reasons: First, if you don't even drink, then experimenting with anything stronger - even if it is both safe in general and extremely safe at the dose you would actually be taking - bears the risk that you'll feel so anxious about the psychoactive effects that you'll get even more stressed and fail to get to sleep. THC in particular can put you in a loop of having a weird feeling somewhere in your body, which makes you worried, so you focus more on the feeling, which makes it feel weirder, which makes you more worried... and so on. The loop is easy to break, but still too distracting to sleep through.
Second, the gummies and seltzers are expensive. You should try the cheap stuff first. Taking a hot bath with some Epsom salt is very nearly free.
With that said, if you try some options and they still don't work - and if you have, by experimenting, become comfortable enough with performing weird sleep rituals to summon the Sandman that throwing some honest-to-God drugs into the middle of the pentagram no longer feels like a big, scary step - then CBD and THC gummies drinks are legal in some states; in my locale, the THC seltzers are sold at the convenience store one freezer shelf over from the White Claws. You can Google around for a brand and see if they sell or deliver in your state. Note that Amazon does not list these products and will funnel you towards "hemp" products that are literally placebos.
Try something that only has CBD before you try anything that has THC, and if you try one with THC, pick the lowest dose they sell, typically 5 mg. It takes 1-2 hours to kick in, so don't assume it didn't affect you until 3 hours have passed. You are not going to have a medical event or chemical dependency if you follow this advice; at worst, you will feel briefly nauseous. If that happens, drink some water and wait.
I'm about to go to aforementioned local convenience store to stock up. I've found a brand that's not too expensive, with 10mg CBD and 5mg THC, that improves my sleep. It doesn't necessarily give me great sleep, but it prevents tossing-and-turning bad sleep. Before, the occasional night of awful sleep put me in a vicious cycle where I'd need a strong coffee in the morning to function for work, but I was drinking enough caffeine to end up distracted and fatigued anyway, frequently making me stressed all over again, causing another bad night of sleep. Now, when I feel like I'm not set up for restful sleep for whatever reason, the seltzer at night takes the place of the Starbucks in the morning.
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Mix yourself a gin and tonic with a lime slice in it.
THC edibles are probably not what you're looking for. Edibles are inherently inconsistent and effects can vary between nothing at all and seeing god and vomiting depending on the particular product, body size, stomach condition, ect.
Going straight into microdosing is stupid. Pick up a normal and legal vice first.
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