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Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

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Re: Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

#211

Post by ProllyInfamous »

lukan wrote: post #156
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weed isn't really psychedelic (it can be profound , and sometimes you'll get extra giggly...) but really it's more about being okay with the numbness. It's also not really an antidepressant any more than it is an amphetamine (it's neither). Attempting to self-medicate in either direction is not beneficial, longer term. If your marijuana usage carries you through such wide-ranging symptomology, that's on you homey [ho…

.. and it is on you, if you misread. I believe my writing was clear. (Antidepressant was about "Soma", the Huxley fantasy drug)

' " ` A soma in time saves nine ` " '

Re: Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

#212

Post by foxyv »

potato3732842 wrote: post #142
notepad0x90 wrote: post #110

amphetamines feel a lot like people putting NO2 on their cars, or overclocking their computers. You might just fine in the end, but the likelihood of wear & tear catching up to you increases. It should be treated just like any other medicine, don't use it unless you really have to, and expect adverse effect (known or unknown).

To continue the analogy, a Dodge Challenger with a 50-shot of nitrous on it that gets used once a day is gonna still come out looking better at any milage/age than the same engine in a Promaster van because you can't drive around at 17k gross in a Challenger so the area under the abuse curve is way lower even if it peaks ever so slightly higher. An office worker on meth-lite (or whatever you want to call it) is still…

Many people don't realize that any argument they can think of against a given medication has been gone over a thousand times by thousands of medical professionals. The truth is, they just don't trust the medical system as a whole.

Whether that is good or bad stands to be seen. However, I find that people with this position often reject effective and safe treatments along with the more questionable ones.

Re: Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

#213

Post by standardly »

alterom wrote: post #186
standardly wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this confirmed? Source? I've always heard this, anecdotally, but I'm skeptical of the claim. I have every ADHD symptom, and have received 3 seperate diagnoses for it.. But Aderrall straight up felt like a drug - I could literally feel the dopamine release from just doing mundane things. Is the implication that I just didn't have ADHD?

"Dopamine release from just doing mundane things" is absolutely normal, more so after a lifetime of not being able to simply Do The Thing™. One is supposed to feel good doing "normal" things. Completing tasks should feel good. There can be many variables at play: maybe your dosage could be lowered, maybe Adderall isn't ideal for you, or maybe you're simply adjusting to the medication the first few times you take it,…

Yes, that actually makes perfect sense :) I suppose it was just a bit stronger than I imagined. I know that chemically, it's analogous, but it felt like MDMA.

Re: Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

#214

Post by ProllyInfamous »

kakacik wrote: post #167
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weed isn't really psychedelic (it can be profound , and sometimes you'll get extra giggly...) but really it's more about being okay with the numbness. It's also not really an antidepressant any more than it is an amphetamine (it's neither). Attempting to self-medicate in either direction is not beneficial, longer term. If your marijuana usage carries you through such wide-ranging symptomology, that's on you homey [ho…

> Weed isn't really psychedelic Depends on mind, use, dose. I've had THC trips that were almost as strong as concentrated mushrooms can deliver on an empty stomach, seeing shit that wasn't, patterns, my mind was light years away, reality twisted. Almost as strong. Didn't dance as a mist of atoms to shamanic music without any connection to my real 5 senses, but then again I hardly met mushroom user who did achieve tha…

I agree with you that even higher doses of psilocybin (several grams) isn't that psychedelic (rather interconnected, e.g.)... I don't have enough experience with LSD to exclude its visuals capability, but even its quintessential acid visuals I rarely hear described [as such].

...unlike DMT (recommended) or Salvia (not recommended) or mescaline (neutral), which even at low dosages are strikingly visual. I have only met devils with the latter two. Ketamine isn't exactly visual, but its dreaminess is angelic.

Re: Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

#215

Post by FatherOfCurses »

mr_00ff00 wrote: post #175
graemep wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "if you need it" is important. 1. People take it as a study drug, without prescription. 2. There may be over medication. Doctors will sometimes feel pushed to prescribe (as is known to happen with antibiotics) 3. At an individual level that is true, but you may need it because of your society and environment. Both ADHD rates and treatment varies between countries (even between regions and states within countries)…

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna95111 1 out of every 5 Ivy League students is prescribed stimulants. I think it’s time we stop pretending like prescriptions magically mean the substance isn’t abused or is truly needed.

"1 out of every 5 Ivy League students is prescribed stimulants."

From the third paragraph of the article:

"Researchers analyzed responses from an online questionnaire of more than 600 Ivy League sophomores, juniors and seniors who were not diagnosed with ADHD — attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder — and therefore did not have a prescription for the medication. Writing essays and studying for an exam cause the most angst for students — of those who used stimulants, 69 percent said they used them to stay focused while writing and 66 percent said they used the drugs to help study."

Re: Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

#216

Post by FatherOfCurses »

luckydata wrote: post #68
alterom wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Therapy, and most of all, understanding how our brains work make all the difference in the world. It's like realizing that the reason you've been getting stuck in the mud is not that you're a bad driver. It's just that people who don't are driving 4x4 trucks, and you've had a Nissan Z series sports car. Turns out, farms and off-road are simply not the right environment for your vehicle, and when that environment has…

I'm sorry but therapy does NOTHING for ADHD. I wish it did, it would be very useful to me, but it's just not the case.

In your personal experience, therapy did nothing for your ADHD. That doesn't mean it is universally unhelpful.

While it is true that therapy is not a replacement for how stimulants reinforce executive function, therapy can help folks with ADHD understand their behavior patterns and better manage some of the challenges that go along with the disorder.

In my experience, therapy helped me get over my lifetime guilt around my lack of achievements, better understanding my triggers, and prioritizing self care. I couldn't have gotten through COVID lockdown with my wife and two kids in our tiny house without it.

Re: Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

#217

Post by devmor »

gishh wrote: post #196
devmor wrote: post #63

Why does a space engineering lecturer believe he has novel thoughts on ADHD treatment inspired by an author from a medical era he didn’t bother to do cursory research of?

Why does person with $job_title feel like they can write with authority on $subject_not_related_to_job_title? Is that your question?

No, my question is why someone with a job unrelated to subject didn’t bother to do enough research to find out something as simple as the fact that amphetamines were already used to boost productivity in Huxley’s era before writing as if he had some authority on the subject.

One would think that if you are not an authority in a subject you want to write on, you should do at least the equivalent of a child’s book report research before espousing your opinion and immediately looking like an ass.

Re: Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

#218

Post by mistersquid »

ggm wrote: post #193
mistersquid wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "predicts" must be a variant of standard english which projects the past tense into the present tense because .. reasons? Literary criticism and philosophy cast actions in and from recorded media in the "eternal present" (a term of art that should yield search results). So, if Huxley (contemporary tense) wrote about a drug that resembles Adderall then a sentence cast in the eternal present would express "Huxley _wr…

I think this may ultimately be a cultural issue. American documentary style of presentation increasingly uses the present tense to describe things in the past. I am more used to historians with horn rimmed glasses and badly fitting tweed jackets talking in the past tense about past times so when they reflect on it's impact in the present time they can use present tense about past acts correctly. "German Troops conduc…

> I must say matches on "the eternal present" are a giant bag of mystical wank, no disrespect to yourself intended.

Yeah, I searched _after_ I commented.

Here's what kagi yielded for `literary eternal present` [0]

> Literary works, paintings, films, and other artistic creations are assumed to exist in an eternal present. Therefore, when you write about writers or artists as they express themselves in their work, use the present tense.

(Disclosure: I am trained as a scholar of language and literature.)

[0] https://www.vanderbilt.edu/writing/resources/handouts/how-an...

Re: Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

#219

Post by alterom »

walletdrainer wrote: post #209
alterom wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I would hazard to suggest that it can make many people much more productive though That suggestion is disproved by the research I linked, particularly when it comes to mental tasks . >the answer is broadly “yes, for some tasks For mindless tasks, like long-haul driving, where staying awake is pretty much all that's required ? Sure. Anything else, citation needed. >The historical and continued use by various militari…

> For mindless tasks, like long-haul driving, where staying awake is pretty much all that's required ? Sure This currently describes most tasks humans do. I certainly won’t go and suggest that taking stimulants for long-haul driving is a good idea, unless of course you’re in a war zone and lives depend on it. But stimulants do improve performance in these tasks for the vast majority of people. While the side effects…

Fully agreeing with everything you said here.

Nothing to add, except dreaming of a utopian society where the grind wouldn't exist.

Re: Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

#220

Post by gishh »

devmor wrote: post #217
gishh wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does person with $job_title feel like they can write with authority on $subject_not_related_to_job_title? Is that your question?

No, my question is why someone with a job unrelated to subject didn’t bother to do enough research to find out something as simple as the fact that amphetamines were already used to boost productivity in Huxley’s era before writing as if he had some authority on the subject. One would think that if you are not an authority in a subject you want to write on, you should do at least the equivalent of a child’s book repo…

Sounds like you have unmet expectations. It’s not really fair to get mad at the author.
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