Focus drugs /// nootropics help experts

[Mathb33]

Hey ! I know absolutely nothing about this so hopefully the experts of such drugs here can help me! I’ll be going back to school for 2-3 years part time (will be working 4 days a week instead of 6).
Monday will be my big day where I’ll have 6 hours of classes and probably studying after. It’s not a lot for most but here’s the deal : I haven’t been to school since 10-12 years so obviously my focus sucks I currently have difficulty reading for 20 mins before losing focus. I know I can work on that but I wanted to know what’s your suggestion for something I would take only on mondays and not on my smaller study days.
-i don’t want to take adderal as I think it’s too harsh and also not necessary I believe.
- it needs to help focus and to retain information to a certain degree but focus is main goal
-as much as I abuse caffeine I deal very bad with certain stimulant it makes me extremely anxious… for exemple i took paroxetine the other day (it’s an anti depressant but acts as a stimulant) and I litteraly was so anxious the whole time I could barely avoir le panick attacks. Felt like on crack cocaine for 24 hours.

I thought of : modafinil or strattera.
what are you guys suggestion?
@Smont @Renew1 @Hyde

 

[Smont]

I honestly know next to nothing on the subject. I briefly tried to get into this stuff but I didn't notice any benifits from the few random things I tried and then I gave up.

Maybe if I had found a focus drug I wouldn't have given up so easily

 

[Renew1]

Hey ! I know absolutely nothing about this so hopefully the experts of such drugs here can help me! I’ll be going back to school for 2-3 years part time (will be working 4 days a week instead of 6).
Monday will be my big day where I’ll have 6 hours of classes and probably studying after. It’s not a lot for most but here’s the deal : I haven’t been to school since 10-12 years so obviously my focus sucks I currently have difficulty reading for 20 mins before losing focus. I know I can work on that but I wanted to know what’s your suggestion for something I would take only on mondays and not on my smaller study days.
-i don’t want to take adderal as I think it’s too harsh and also not necessary I believe.
- it needs to help focus and to retain information to a certain degree but focus is main goal
-as much as I abuse caffeine I deal very bad with certain stimulant it makes me extremely anxious… for exemple i took paroxetine the other day (it’s an anti depressant but acts as a stimulant) and I litteraly was so anxious the whole time I could barely avoir le panick attacks. Felt like on crack cocaine for 24 hours.

I thought of : modafinil or strattera.
what are you guys suggestion?
@Smont @Renew1 @Hyde

I know you may not like this response, but I went back to school a number of years ago for a very difficult field. Most of the guys were much more advanced than I was in the advanced Math needed, and almost all of them were far beyond me in the practical application of what we were doing (most of them were already working in that field. I was not).
I ended up getting the highest grade in the class.
.
I partly attribute that to two things:
1). Caffeine (mainly Mt Dew LOL)
2). Approaching the class with the same intensity that I do my workouts (the caffeine helped with this).

Stims (including caffeine) generally make me anxious, so I felt really weird sometimes sitting in class all jacked up .....
But it helped me accomplish my goal.

If I think of something else, I'll post it here later. (I'm coming off of a Really rough week of jobs, so I'm a little "fuzzy headed")

 

[Mathb33]

@Smont did you try Modafinil and if yes how did it go? It seems to be the go to if you’re not going for adderal.. for sure adderal once a week wouldn’t hurt me but idk I’ll avoid if i can!
who on this forum is expert of this? Haha

 

[Mathb33]

I know you may not like this response, but I went back to school a number of years ago for a very difficult field. Most of the guys were much more advanced than I was in the advanced Math needed, and almost all of them were far beyond me in the practical application of what we were doing (most of them were already working in that field. I was not).
I ended up getting the highest grade in the class.
.
I partly attribute that to two things:
1). Caffeine (mainly Mt Dew LOL)
2). Approaching the class with the same intensity that I do my workouts (the caffeine helped with this).

Stims (including caffeine) generally make me anxious, so I felt really weird sometimes sitting in class all jacked up .....
But it helped me accomplish my goal.

If I think of something else, I'll post it here later. (I'm coming off of a Really rough week of jobs, so I'm a little "fuzzy headed")

I appreciate the answer bro. It makes sense to try and approach it with the same commitment I do for bodybuilding. Nice comparaison! I just feel like my focus is horrible almost like I became stupid over the years. Maybe I need to ramp up and start slowly… 30 mins the breaks.. when my focus is good ramp up 45 mins .. an hour etc. For sure I still want to try something that isn’t too harsh but you’re definitely right about the approach I should take

 

[Smont]

@Smont did you try Modafinil and if yes how did it go? It seems to be the go to if you’re not going for adderal.. for sure adderal once a week wouldn’t hurt me but idk I’ll avoid if i can!
who on this forum is expert of this? Haha

Ya, I didn't notice anything, but I'm also the type of person who can take Adderall and fall asleep so .

To be fair I don't remember my dose or even what a effective dose is for the stuff. I grabbed a bottle, did the math on the bottle and assumed it was a 30 day supply and that's how I dosed it

 

[Mathb33]

Ya, I didn't notice anything, but I'm also the type of person who can take Adderall and fall asleep so .

To be fair I don't remember my dose or even what a effective dose is for the stuff. I grabbed a bottle, did the math on the bottle and assumed it was a 30 day supply and that's how I dosed it

What’s your thoughts on adderal maybe low dose? I react strongly to these drugs… would taking it once a week be as toxic as I read?

 

[Nac]

@muscleupcrohn was pretty knowledgeable on this stuff, but havent seen him here for ages. Theres a handful of guys over in the Supplement subforum for noots that have lots of experience, you know theres a sub for this?

 

[Renew1]

Nootropics

Discussion of various nootropic products and ingredients.

anabolicminds.com

 

[Smont]

What’s your thoughts on adderal maybe low dose? I react strongly to these drugs… would taking it once a week be as toxic as I read?

Idk, I honestly don't have much to say on the topic. I'm a coffee guy. But outside of caffeine I'm not big on Stimulants because they don't seem to work correctly on me.

 

[Smont]

I went back to school in my mid 20's. If I was going back again now I'd just go. I wouldn't be worried about these things. I'm already running on 4 - 5 hours sleep, what's 1 less

 

[BBiceps]

Adderall is king but be careful. Moda didn’t do anything for me but I also have been taking Adderall for years so that’s probably why, otherwise I heard a lot of ppl say Moda is good and less intense. Haven’t had any luck with any Nootropics unfortunately.
Good on you for going back to school.

 

[RegisterJr]

I’m 41, in school full time, and have a full time job of 50-60 hours a week.

I take Adderall 4-5 days a week. +1-2 cups coffee in the morning and sometimes a cup or two in the afternoons. The caffeine is mostly because I’m up by 4 am and start crashing later in the day.

I’ve done a few semesters without the adderall, and it sucked. Same grades and all, but fighting to concentrate and stay awake is more difficult.

Some days I intentionally skip the caffeine because I know I’ve taken adderal too many consecutive days and it starts to snowball my anxieties. Take a couple of days without the adderal and everything seems to reset again.

On very long days, I take .25 Xanax to shutdown the brain at night.

 

[Mathb33]

I’m 41, in school full time, and have a full time job of 50-60 hours a week.

I take Adderall 4-5 days a week. +1-2 cups coffee in the morning and sometimes a cup or two in the afternoons. The caffeine is mostly because I’m up by 4 am and start crashing later in the day.

I’ve done a few semesters without the adderall, and it sucked. Same grades and all, but fighting to concentrate and stay awake is more difficult.

Some days I intentionally skip the caffeine because I know I’ve taken adderal too many consecutive days and it starts to snowball my anxieties. Take a couple of days without the adderal and everything seems to reset again.

On very long days, I take .25 Xanax to shutdown the brain at night.

I’m in Canada and adderall is very hard to source here. I have access to pharma modafinil but doubt I could get my hands on legit adderal

 

[BBiceps]

I’m in Canada and adderall is very hard to source here. I have access to pharma modafinil but doubt I could get my hands on legit adderal

Start with Moda, hopefully it’s enough and you get what you’re looking for.

 

[Jeremyk1]

Instead of going straight to drugs, maybe start lighter? Get some Focus XT and see how that treats you.

 

[BBiceps]

Instead of going straight to drugs, maybe start lighter? Get some Focus XT and see how that treats you.

Always go straight for drugs

 

[Jinsun]

Hey ! I know absolutely nothing about this so hopefully the experts of such drugs here can help me! I’ll be going back to school for 2-3 years part time (will be working 4 days a week instead of 6).
Monday will be my big day where I’ll have 6 hours of classes and probably studying after. It’s not a lot for most but here’s the deal : I haven’t been to school since 10-12 years so obviously my focus sucks I currently have difficulty reading for 20 mins before losing focus. I know I can work on that but I wanted to know what’s your suggestion for something I would take only on mondays and not on my smaller study days.
-i don’t want to take adderal as I think it’s too harsh and also not necessary I believe.
- it needs to help focus and to retain information to a certain degree but focus is main goal
-as much as I abuse caffeine I deal very bad with certain stimulant it makes me extremely anxious… for exemple i took paroxetine the other day (it’s an anti depressant but acts as a stimulant) and I litteraly was so anxious the whole time I could barely avoir le panick attacks. Felt like on crack cocaine for 24 hours.

I thought of : modafinil or strattera.
what are you guys suggestion?
@Smont @Renew1 @Hyde

You know, enhancing one self with noots is very individual, much more so then aas. So you need to try things out and do research yourself. There are tons of things to take but what's going to end up working for you is anybody's guess ...

If sustaining focus is a problem, then yes, you need dopamine in your PFC. But if you are not adhd, and are just rusty, I wouldn't advise stims. Especially as you say, that you react unfavourably to them. But one thing of note here is; you almost certainly react badly to the noradrenaline and not dopamine. So trying out, as you noted, atomoxetine is not the best of ideas, as that is an NRI. If anything, you should try d-amph.

Soo, seeing as you are not adhd, and I know you primarily said you want focus not enhanced learning, I'd rather try and enhance your learning and while doing so, focus will be inadvertently affected to, as the systems are connected.

Enhancing learning is called long term potentiation: LTP for short. You can target it directly or more indirectly. Again, seeing how you are not adhd, I'd go for more indirect routs, but if you want to - check fasoracetam. It's an mGluR1, 5 agonist and it strongly upregulates aCH uptake. It's the strongest thing that works for me. Information literary get stuck in my head, for better or worse. And you need to pair it with a good choline source like alpha gpc.

Fasoracetam is a glutamatergic system modulator, as are basically all racetams, but fasoracetam is the only one that acts directly on the metabotropic g coupled receptors. Increasing AMPA activation is also a good thing to do, so plain old piracetam is just fine for this.

Also, glycine or D-serine are kinda necessary, and would fall in to the supplemental/optimisation route. They are bot co-agonist for the NMDA receptor.

Anyway, I'd suggest you venture on to reddit. r/biohackers, r/nootropics, r/nootopics and start your research there. Just search ltp stack, focus stack, mr happy stack, etc.

 

[Resolve10]

Idk a ton about the more drug level stuff in this thread, so can't comment on those, but I'll share some thoughts.

First, keep in mind brain chemistry and reaction to these things does seem to vary wildly. So doses for things is something to keep in mind. Too much of some things can be worse than a lower dose (too much Choline makes me loopy).

A real basic start that I think many can benefit from is Tyrosine + Choline source (Alpha GPC or Citicoline are my preferred) + ALCAR can be quite useful. Toss in some Huperizine-A and things seem to hum quite well for me. I like combining these as a more "acute" use case stack, although I do tend to take them daily when using (but try to time them around when I'd prefer the boost the most).

Alternatively, some lesser "acute" type products or ingredients can be just as useful for actually helping long term retention or storing of the information you glean while "focusing" with the above. Bacopa and Ash tend to do this quite well for me, along with having some decent research in this regard.

Sometimes I like to play around with specific doses, etc. but most of the time I just use SNS Focus XT during periods I prefer more specific focus and then use something like SNS Stress and Anxiety (don't let the name dissuade you it has some strong doses of Ash, Bacopa, Rhodiola, and Theanine all things you'll see pop up in Nootropic convos) as a LONG term driver of keeping my stress down that I definitely notice helps my long term retention of stuff as well.

Good luck with both finding something to help and your academic endeavors! I'd love to hear feedback on anything you end up enjoying, so please come back in the future if you find something particularly effective.

 

[JKVol]

@Smont did you try Modafinil and if yes how did it go? It seems to be the go to if you’re not going for adderal.. for sure adderal once a week wouldn’t hurt me but idk I’ll avoid if i can!
who on this forum is expert of this? Haha

flmodafinil for me has be really nice. I don’t take it every day but once a week at the most. I use it for playing golf as it helps my focus as good as anything ever has. Only drawback is it will last 12+ hours so you need to take it early in the morning

 

[benjamfzb]

Not exactly what youre looking for but havok-neuro is the best nootropic pwo ive tried along with lions mane...

Personally my IQ drops 30 points whenever i take any anabolics. Theres studies on T lowering memory i believe.... yet i always end up on when i have a course. Struggle is real.

 

[Jinsun]

Not exactly what youre looking for but havok-neuro is the best nootropic pwo ive tried along with lions mane...

Personally my IQ drops 30 points whenever i take any anabolics. Theres studies on T lowering memory i believe.... yet i always end up on when i have a course. Struggle is real.

Man, I notice the same. The loss of inteligence on cycle is unreal.

 

[Justdabbling]

It's on pre sale now, but check out the @dsade evomuse section of the forum for the clear edge threads. Some members really find it helpful

 

[muscleupcrohn]

@muscleupcrohn was pretty knowledgeable on this stuff, but havent seen him here for ages. Theres a handful of guys over in the Supplement subforum for noots that have lots of experience, you know theres a sub for this?

Signed back in for the first time in AGES. How's everyone been? Life got pretty crazy for a while on my end. I should jump back into things here if/when I have some down time.

 

[clevelandsae]

i had tried a few of the popular ones (alpha brain etc) but hadnt noticed anything. The real difference I noticed was when i cleand up my diet. My wife and I cut out wheat and sugar almost 2 years ago, that was the paradigm shift for me. That helped with clarity, focus, mood regulation etc. I got off the bipolar express lol. I didnt add anything but removing all the other things causing inflamation and blood sugar spikes/crashed seemed to help me at least.

 

[muscleupcrohn]

Not much has changed in my recommendations in the last few years, so here’s my general recommendation options, broken down into a few aspects/goals/purposes.

It’s probably best to start with 1-2 “stacks” to see how they treat you instead of just throwing the kitchen sink at it and taking everything below all at once for the first time.

ENERGY: based around optimizing caffeine. Potentiate its positives, minimize its negatives.

EFFECTS: Acute

-Caffeine (100-200mg, user preference)
-Theanine (100-200mg, user preference) some people like a 1:1 ratio of Caffeine to Theanine, some like a 1:2 ratio, etc.
-Ornithine HCL (250mg, but a 500mg capsule is fine)
-Taurine (1000mg)

Note: Caffeine + Theanine is the classic synergistic combination. Theanine helps balance the energy of caffeine for a calmer energy and focus. Ornithine has been shown to extend caffeine’s benefits, and it’s cheap, and taurine can help mitigate potential untoward effects of excessive caffeine consumption, and it’s also cheap.

FOCUS: based around choline

EFFECTS: Acute

-CDP Choline (250mg)
-Huperzine-A (100mcg)

Note: When combining the two, I prefer to stick to the low end of the effective dose of each. They’re both effective alone at these doses, no need to combine them at any higher doses IMO.

Bonus: Piracetam (2400mg) or Noopept (20mg)

Note: Piracetam may have some acute effects, but it’s best with daily use. I’d recommend trying just the energy and focus stack without either of these first to see how you like it and if it’s necessary to add anything.

MEMORY: these are better taken daily to improve memory

EFFECTS: over time

-Bacopa (300mg if something like Bacognize)
-Lion’s Mane (is an option, but I’d personally go with Bacopa first. Try this if you don’t like Bacopa or want a little additional bonus.)

Note: This will take a few weeks of daily use to really help, so best to stack this with the choline stack for a combination of acute and over-time benefits.

ANTI-FATIGUE: helps the body and mind handle stress better, so if you’re running on suboptimal sleep, or lots of stress

EFFECTS: Acute

-Rhodiola (minimum 100mg of an extract with 1% salidroside and 3% rosavin)
-Tyrosine (NOT NALT) (1000-2000mg)

Note: You can start with just one of these, you may not need both.

 

[KvanH]

Anyone tried 9-mbc or Bromantane?

 

[Jinsun]

Anyone tried 9-mbc or Bromantane?

I've tried bromentane.

 

[KvanH]

I've tried bromentane.

How was it?

 

[Kronic]

ginseng !

 

[Jinsun]

How was it?

Really insanely dopaminergic, not so much in the PFC though. But I used it on cycle, where I was already agitated due to aas neuroinflammation and elevated dopamine transmission, so I can't give an accurate account on it's experience.

Movement patterns went way up, I was a much better skater. Libido was stupid, horny af, and hard dick as if I took a viagra .... Motivation was way up, but I cant speak about exec function, as it was already in the gutter bc of the cycle. The excitation became to much for me, was starting to push me into psychosis slowly, so I had to stop. It made it hard to sleep too.

Bromentane is a proper nootropic/drug. Use it sublingually or intranasally. 10 to 50mg should be enough.

 

[KvanH]

Really insanely dopaminergic, not so much in the PFC though. But I used it on cycle, where I was already agitated due to aas neuroinflammation and elevated dopamine transmission, so I can't give an accurate account on it's experience.

Movement patterns went way up, I was a much better skater. Libido was stupid, horny af, and hard dick as if I took a viagra .... Motivation was way up, but I cant speak about exec function, as it was already in the gutter bc of the cycle. The excitation became to much for me, was starting to push me into psychosis slowly, so I had to stop. It made it hard to sleep too.

Bromentane is a proper nootropic/drug. Use it sublingually or intranasally. 10 to 50mg should be enough.

Thanks. Sounds good and bad, lol. Will probably try it and see. I've seen some say 9-Mbc to be better, than Bromantane, but in what way better was not disclosed.

 

[ElGirthosAssLick]

Worst advice ever but nicotine

 

[PoSiTiVeFLoW]

I work in a technical product development and systems engineering field and I can tell you I definitely have switched to Black Market labs "Nootropic" series pre workout.

It's def got the caffeine, but I find it's helps my mood and focus and I work with a bunch of other A-brains so def needed.

Checkout the focus/stim/pump ingredients and it mixes well with electrolyte powders like hydracharge from Caged.

Yeah this is my daily, replaced Full BlitZ out of the cabinet. Due to the better Nootropic aspect. But also one heck of a pump with Glycer 65 added too, and add extra water to get stone and landscape work done in the sun...

 

[BBiceps]

I work in a technical product development and systems engineering field and I can tell you I definitely have switched to Black Market labs "Nootropic" series pre workout.

It's def got the caffeine, but I find it's helps my mood and focus and I work with a bunch of other A-brains so def needed.

Checkout the focus/stim/pump ingredients and it mixes well with electrolyte powders like hydracharge from Caged.

Yeah this is my daily, replaced Full BlitZ out of the cabinet. Due to the better Nootropic aspect. But also one heck of a pump with Glycer 65 added too, and add extra water to get stone and landscape work done in the sun...

I think it’s annoying as sh*t when they pumping in too much caffeine, sure you can use half a scoop but then you only get half of the other stuff that dosed correctly.