Higher productivity through Stimulants

[Alfa]

Aside from the use of stimulants to induce euphoria, stimulants are widely used to increase productivity. This is functional use of stimulants.

In contrast to the use of stimulants to induce euphoria, several aspects of stimulant use are highly unwanted:
Side effects interfering with concentration, motoric function or normal appearance. Overstimulation is also highly unwanted.
Where in the case of the use of stimulants to induce euphoria, a user may feel that substance specific side effects are part of the game, these side effects are absolutely not done in the case of functional use of stimulants.

There are many stimulants used to increase higher productivity. Ranging from the well known caffeine and amphetamine to lesser known drugs like MDPV.
Many pose high risk to addiction or health.

Please post which stimulants SWIY tried and how suited you rate them to induce productivity. Please note dose, pro's and cons and explanation.
Which stimulants did SWIY find not suited for functional use?
If SWIY has found SWIY's optimal stimulant, please explain why.

The main goal of this tread is to get a complete overview of stimulants as functional tools and their effectiveness as such.

[old hippie 56]

When swim was driving for a living, he found that one Adderall XR 20mg after a meal, kept him alert. One thing a person needs for driving a big truck is being alert.
He also noticed, that meth made him alert, but jumpy, especially any amount over 15mg. Jumpy is not desirable driving, especially in heavy traffic. A good way to have a wreck.
Provigil is also good for driving, but for swim, he had a few instances of stomach problems. Don't know if it was the meds or excess coffee or a combo of both.

[big-lester]

SWIBL would go for caffeine , but he isnt much of the stimulants, hes more for the psychedelics

caffeine pros: higher concentration (but dont drink too much because that will lower your concentration. and ofcourse it can make you more awake, as with all stimulants, but another pro of caffeine is that it isnt too noticable, not like adderal or so, and its not as bad for you as amf. for example

cons: it can make you nausious, and if you drink a bit too much it can really lower ur concetration bigtime.
it also works laxating (dont know if i spelled that right), which CAN be a pro, but usually isnt.

but you probably already know this

[Thirdedge]

Swim has found both Ritalin and BZP to be great for working late into the night on projects. Caffiene makes him too jittery but the other two not only make him alert, but also enthusiastic about work. While not strictly a stimulant, Swim has noticed kratom to give him a desire to work. While not a stimulant, swim finds Cannabis usefull for creative projects, or to keep the mind entertained when doing mundane jobs.

[Bajeda]

Swim has used adderall on a number of occaisions to help him work on projects or usually to study for exams. He tends to abuse the drug a bit as he often pulls 15 - 25 hour straight work sessions but it gets the job done.





Swim found adderall immensely useful in packing. Swim had to move out of his apartment and only had a day to get all of his stuff out and packed up. He hates packing and is a big procrastinator which caused the time problem. Swim took a 30mg XR, put on some rockin' 80's tunes, and set to work. Packing was immensely fun! Not only was swim energized and enthusiastic while moving his stuff around and packing it up, he was also more concentrated on what he was doing and did a much more efficient job of packing things together than he usually does. It was the funnest move he has ever done!


A similar experience happened to the one above when swim and one of his friends had to help a girl move some of her stuff out of her house. It was big stuff like couches and crates. Swim and his buddy took some speed and set to work lifting the stuff up and taking it outside. The girl kept packing bong loads so the guys could toke as they worked. The house was cleaned out within hours.


So amphetamines are definitely great for packing or unpacking or other tedious activities that can involve physical labor.




As for studying, swim finds that in situations where he would be consuming lots of caffeine to stay awake adderall is an excellent aid. For those all-nighter study sessions adderall not only keeps you awake but helps you concentrate more as well. With caffeine your mind gets tired while your body doesn't but with adderall your mind is still going strong (to a point though, do this for 30 hours and it will stop working!) Swim finds he likes the XRs better than the tabs as they keep a nice balance while studying and he can go through two to have a productive day of studying. He will take the first and start studying and then about 6-8 hours later (depending on how he feels) he will take the other one and keep going until he can't go anymore or until he is done his work.

As for doseage, with XRs swim feels that 30mg is a bit much if you are just going to be studying. He gets really jittery and tends to have to get up more which is the kiss of death as since you concentrate so much on everything you do if you do something else other than study it could be a while before you get back to work. This is most noticable with cigarettes, as when swim goes to take a smoke break (ohhhh god cigs are so good on addy) he goes through 4-5 cigs at a time, easy. If you are doing an extended study session (like more than 15 hours) then a 30mg XR may be good towards the final stretch when the 20mgs don't hit much anymore.




Swim also knows a guy who stayed up all night partying and then did coke through the day to study for his exam. This method works and you can concentrate more but it isnt recommended as it is expensive, hard on the body, the effects dont last long so you have to keep doing it, and plan on crashing hard later on.






Methamphetamine has also been useful to swim. One time swim was very foolish and smoked some weed before his IB (international baccalaureate) standardized examination. He was very high, in fact he was too high to function almost and was going to do really poorly on the test if he took it in that state. He smoked a little meth (not enough to even get high, like 3-4 puffs) and felt fine. He didn't feel high anymore and it seemed like the meth killed the effects of the hash. He took his test and did fine. It almost felt like an adderall like concentration while taking the test though it wasn't as clear-headed and it was more jittery. Still, it saved swim's ass as far as his test score goes.





Swim has also tried concerta and ritalin. Concerta didn't do much for him, he didn't like it. Ritalin just gave him a bad headache. Caffeine pills are more recreational than actually useful for swim. A good Expresso Double Shot or can of No Fear does the trick if he just needs a little stimulation.

[Beeker]

Caffeine - OTC


Caffeine is where most will start I think. I find that Coffee makes me jittery while Tea makes me calm. Then you have several other plants that contain caffeine. The main difference I've found is in the plant source the alkaloid is prepared from as there are also other mild stimulants at play that you won't find in a 200mg No-Doz. You really have to take a step back from Caffeine to the group it belongs to known as Methylated xanthine. Xanthines are a group of alkaloids that are commonly used for their effects as mild stimulants and as bronchodilators, notably in treating the symptoms of asthma. Methylated xanthine derivatives include caffeine, theophylline, and theobromine (found mainly in chocolate). These drugs inhibit phosphodiesterase and antagonise adenosine.


Caffeine is a mild stimulant because we all abuse it to the point that to make it work again would be pushing our luck on dose. cocaine as presented in natural Coca tea is a far better daily stimulant.


Pros – good to the last drop
Cons - Starbucks




Ephedrine – regulated in some countries


I first ran into Ephedrine in the early 90's in the form of mini-thins and probably went threw twelve 25mg pills before realizing the tolerance buildup is painfully high. Sure ephedrine helps studying, concentrating to a greater extent than caffeine but it can't be used daily.


Pros - a single day of ephedrine stimulation would be a productive one.
Cons – the second day is noticeably less productive.




Propylhexedrine – OTC in America (benzedrex inhalers)


If you ever wonder why Erowid has a nice grey dead link area with no reports or info on Propylhexadrine you're not the only one scratching your head. If there was a OTC product at the pharmacy that equaled 40mg d-amphetamine in stimulation and euphoria you would think the DEA would have done something about it around the time DXM replaced Codeine. I don't know what is going on there only that so I'll just move on.
This is a quality stimulant with the same focusing abilities that Adderall or Dexedrine have. It probably has the same tolerance buildup as well.


Pros – if you are in the US of A you have an OTC choice for stimulation worth looking into.
Cons – a month prescription of generic Dexedrine costs the same so why bother.


Methylphenidate – Prescription


Methylphenidate is a quality stimulant for some and does nothing for others. I found it to be a great creative tool for writing. For me it focused without euphoria and in a strange way this creative focused energy without euphoria granted me cognitive POWA!! Abuse it, and it will abuse you though. Nothing worse then abusing Ritalin because once you go over that jitter'n edge you are in hell for at least an hour.


Pros – probably not as bad for your noggin as amphetamines. Sleep can come within hours of last dose.
Cons – Doesn't work for everyone and a few times for me I had to drop it as the “magic” went away about every 6 months.




Cocaine ... I have to skip; lack of knowledge.


Amphetamines


I'm just starting my exploration of these stimulants threw prescriptions. Using amphetamines for creativity is a test of will power and personal resposability that will weed out the hucksters, flinging them into madness, while many will just drop it all together for cubicle sanity. For the few who get it, teetering, barely in control until that instant the art becomes reality, bravo.


Compared to all the other happy go lucky stimulants people use for work or play amphetamines are a demon and you have to treat it with the respect it deserves or it will bury your ass so deep your name will be forgotten days before you die.

Pros - can take you from poet to prince.
cons - can turn a prince into a pauper.

[Nature Boy]

It's not fancy but caffeine works for SWIM. Coffee not pills.

It gets him up off his ass and into productivity mode after a night smoking joints. It's the easiest thing in the world to find and if you have an espresso machine at home, it's delicious, one of SWIM's favourite parts of the day. The only downside is that it metabolizes quite quickly for SWIM so the effects wear off rapidly and it leaves him quite drowsy. Solution: drink more.

[rupert]

With the aid of 3 unknown adderol or ritalin pills SWIM stayed up for 3 days to edit a video. Taking half a pill (with up to 12 hour intervals) still got SWIM overstimulated the first 2 hours (out of the 72h) which keept him from working.
After coming up, SWIM managed to work on without needing breaks (apart for a little food) with maybe more patience and comitment than usual ,as well as attention to detail. Final result was good.

Cons were (whatever the term is) urinating excessively (every 15 mins), aching kidneys (despite drinking water), and jittery symptoms from lack of sleep.

Once SWIM ran out of Adderol a brew of Damiana and Gotu Kola had a similar effect.

[sterling77]

With caffeine, find what works for you. For it may help, some it might not. Too much can lead to overstimulation which can have a negative effect. Some studies state that the only time caffeine has a positive effect is when a person is sleep deprived. Swim disagrees with that, he finds it can give him a push and beats laziness.

Swim likes to drink green tea throughout the day, as it provides a low caffeine content along with some theanine to keep him calm. If he is ever overstimulated, he reaches for some theanine (which calms and literally cancels the efect of caffeine) and some taurine (relaxes muscles and limits overstimulation).

[Riconoen {UGC}]

swim has recently learned that taking two metabolife extreme energy diet pills will make swim feel very euphoric and wired for about 12 hours. One hell of a pick me up if you need it and good high for stimulant junkies too.

[Nicaine]

Originally Posted by Alfa

Aside from the use of stimulants to induce euphoria, stimulants are widely used to increase productivity. This is functional use of stimulants. In contrast to the use of stimulants to induce euphoria, several aspects of stimulant use are highly unwanted:
Side effects interfering with concentration, motoric function or normal appearance. Overstimulation is also highly unwanted.
Where in the case of the use of stimulants to induce euphoria, a user may feel that substance specific side effects are part of the game, these side effects are absolutely not done in the case of functional use of stimulants.

There are many stimulants used to increase higher productivity. Ranging from the well known caffeine and amphetamine to lesser known drugs like MDPV.
Many pose high risk to addiction or health.

Please post which stimulants SWIY tried and how suited you rate them to induce productivity. Please note dose, pro's and cons and explanation.
Which stimulants did SWIY find not suited for functional use?
If SWIY has found SWIY's optimal stimulant, please explain why.

The main goal of this tread is to get a complete overview of stimulants as functional tools and their effectiveness as such.

SWIM reports:

* Cocaine (0.5g to 3.5g, use steadily until it's gone) -- Poor to very poor for productivity. Mentally clouding -- "high" feels too good to focus on productivity. Emphasis is on euphoria, talkativeness, sexual boost. Inability to sit still and concentrate on something, so how could someone be productive? Tends to be overstimulating. However, on rare occasion SWIM noticed something got done that had been neglected for a long time. Except crack/freebase, which is not only useless but trashes all productivity.
* Caffeine (50mg to 250mg) -- Reasonable boost. Probably why it's so popular. Very high doses can cloud the mind a bit.
* Alcohol (low doses, 1-2 drinks) -- stimulating, occasionally can boost productivity (esp. social productivity) if the situation is right for it. Known CNS stimulant at low doses, that's why it's included.
* Nicotine -- mildly stimulating, but ultimately user is about the same after full withdrawal (i.e. nicotine stimulates due to slowdown from nicotine withdrawal). Highly non-recommended.
* bupropion (Wellbutrin) -- It can help long-term, sometimes a lot, especially in combination with caffeine. Partly because of its antidepressant effects.
* Kratom (10g powder) -- Varies a lot. Can aid productivity ('desire to work') greatly, but it can also eliminate the desire to produce anything (except maybe some snoring noises).
* Ephedrine, Pseudoephedrine -- not very useful, can occasionally sub for caffeine but has little else to recommend it.
* Ginseng -- more in the realm of mildly agitating than stimulating (to SWIM). Sometimes produces a restless feeling in combo with caffeine.
* Ritalin, Adderal -- Include propylhexedrine (250mg) with this group. SWIM's 'stimulant productivity zone'. SWIM gets a *lot* done, albeit with some impulsive/compulsive tendencies. It feels great to want to accomplish things... motivation's been all too rare in SWIM's life.
* Methamphetamine, crystal -- Too many down sides. SWIM can start new activities, but cannot finish old ones... tends to scatter attention instead of focus it. Worst aspects of stimulants like paranoia and psychosis can even come to the fore. Tends to be overstimulating.

[naturespirals]

for swim, adderall is the only drug he's ever done that gives him the attention span to read over extended periods of time, also on adderall, swim mastered the art of madden '06 on ps2. on multiple occassions he sat down and played madden for hours on end, getting better with every play.

[stoneinfocus]

the most common used stimulants are covered by the posts above for swic,
withthe addition that caffeine tends to have the meth-effect which swiNicaine described.

swic likes to add Provigil/Modafinil, which gave swic a very slight not even stimulatiog effect but something like "swic could sstay awake longer if I wanted to", but the eye-lids weren´t forced to be kept open like on amphetamine, although about a 17th strght of this effect could be felt at a appr. 100mg 150mg dose.
A very, very slight decrease in anxiety and more conciousnes.

Swic wonders why this stuff isn´t over the counter but a controlled substance since it doesn´t seem to have any recreational nor numbing effects.

Ritalin: Sometimes a good but too short of a pep-like stimulus with sometimes hard sides like stomach-cramps, nausea and a very unpredictable dosing since it has a first-pass metabolism it wouldn´t withstand.(swic puts his pills under swics tongue).But when on good concentration and working-effectiveness.

ampehtamines/meth: like Ritaline only more predictable and without the sides.

IE 6mg from two pills out of swics avatars pill box gave a very early onset numbness, so swic could realize its body other needs like hunger and thirst.
then, a slight increase in physical short term endurance tasks, although this effect is not predictable and might not occur the next dose.
Felt to swic like an ADHS child on Ritalin but still distinct and eloquent with the later on, typical amphetamine-effect of cleaning up swics appartement.

Swics conclusion: Ritalin seems to have more sides with a good stimulationg effect and a "high" that´s differnet than that of the typicla amphetamine, while amphetamine has a more pronounced numbing effect and is more predictable when taking a dose, plus swic feels much more awake on dexies and the predictable dosing makes it easy to come up (as high as you like)and off without having much trouble with any kind of withdrawl or hang overs by tapering off(an on^^).
Swic always felt Ritalin to be a not so pretty compromise of Cocaine and Amphetamine.

Provigil is cool in a way but to swic its usefullness is close to zero in any case but swic liked for having it.

[adrianwt]

I've always found caffeine/ephedrine pretty much hopeless.
I "dreamt" that amphetamines are brilliant in doses of 50-100mg/day
enabling quick and clear thought and 200% effort too.
'though tolerance builds so quick after a week or two intake rapidly gets
to the gram a day stage. I do take weekends off.
I have worked 20 years, built up a City broking firm with my then-partner, me=IT Director,run an it recruitment business etc in fact my whole working life has been run on this... still doing it at 45 and going strong!
(Just avoid IV as it = most damage)