In which I fantasize about drugs

1) Antidepressants

2) Amphetamine/methylphenidate (though it's not a pure reinforcement of wanting to excercise)

3) High doses of melatonin (3mg at least, stronger effects at 10mg+) and then staying awake. Also cannabis, or audio/visual brainwave entrainment.

4) I had a kratom customer that was a professional PUA (meaning clients paid him for applied lessons) and he found kratom before hitting the clubs helpful for him and his clients.

5) Cannabis. But it's not really great for doing math or science...

In my experience, Modafinil is great at inducing exercise desire. I also find I'm more creative on Modafinil as well. The best thing though, by far, is how dramatically it improves my social ability, talkativeness, and general social adeptness. I took it before a high-stress, two-hour long, panel-style job interview, and I had the single best two hours of social performance of my life. It is, by far, the most generally positive drug I've ever tried. I take it about 3-4 times a week. It also seems to have corrected my insomnia, strangely enough.

6) A drug that has the same effect as sleeping, you take it and become well-rested.

So instead of drinking a "5 Hour Energy", you drink an "8 Hour Nap" and are able to be productive all hours of the day.

I'd like a drug that makes me obsessed with the activity I'm doing during its consumption. The effect must be temporary and its duration controllable -- e.g. it may depend on the amount of drug consumed.

(The game designer in me wants to come up with a downside to balance out the benefit. I'm not sure what negative effects I'd like this drug to have, but I definitely don't want it to induce burnout afterwards.)

6) A drug which puts you in the state of asking "does what I'm doing make sense?", doing an honest search for an answer., and then putting the answer into effect.

Admittedly, the drug that gives you a pony would be easier, but I think that reflectiveness and executive function have physical bases.

A drug that gives you a pony.

1) Don't know.

2) Amphetamines or ephedrine definitely make you more alert and motivated. But they have many side effects and using them for exercising will probably damage your heart.

3) I discovered that Zolpidem ups my creativity quite a bit. Problem is, it's so sedating that you really have to fight to stay awake. It's a sleeping pill, after all. Also there is a bit of hangover and after reading some papers I'm very skeptical of benzos and Z-drugs like Zolpidem. They seem to increase the risk of infection (actually shown through a double-blind study) and people taking only 0-18 hypnotics per year have a ~4 times higher mortality. Sure, it's only correlational data, but still. Then there is of course the classical psychedelic: LSD. I haven't tried that many psychedelics but LSD is my favorite. Your thought processes are very different and you'll see the world with different eyes but can still function quite normally - provided the dose is not too high- and can write and talk like normal people.

I have seen some reports online about grad students using beta blockers to prevent outward signs of anxiety during their oral exams, so a beta blocker might be useful for (4).

1) A drug against unrequited love, aka "infatuation" or 'limerence".

Marriage might qualify as a solution, though you might need all other kinds of drugs afterwords.

I want a drug that's like marijuana but is 1) substantially less potent and 2) doesn't impair memory. The reason for this is that I've noticed that while under the influence of small amounts of marijuana, the "connection-making" circuit in my brain is far more active. Of course, if it's too active then this is an impairment (everything becomes "connected"). But I'd rather have to reject spurious connections than to not have access to potentially insightful connections in the first place.

A drug that supresses ugh fields, loathing and hate. They feel so similar, I think there will be some common connection.

I strongly recommend anonymity when participating in this thread.

I don't know of anything that could achieve (1), except perhaps a general depressant, which wouldn't be worth it.

For (2), there are a wide variety of stimulants to do this, but most of them have side effects that aren't worth it; and the state where this happens, mania, is not a particularly pleasant one.

For (3), I think that state is because some parts of the brain are shutting off, leaving less interference for the remainder. You may be able to get something like this with marijuana (though individual reactions and strains both vary widely), but you might not like the "creative" things you come up with, and you might not be able to remember them either.

For (4), what you're looking for is a drug that increases confidence. Cocaine does that, and is used primarily for that purpose. It is also addictive and illegal in the US.

for (5), I don't think that's possible, because curiosity is not a chemical state; it's more like the brain's reinforcement learning mechanisms combining with a positive feeling from having learned things. However, you might be able to strengthen that by using something like nicotine intermittently whenever you make a discovery.

Caffeine does (2), (3), and (5) for me — at least when I'm well-rested, etc. As far as I know, (1) and (4) are purely fantasy.

3) I find that whiskey does the trick for me; acts as both a stimulant and a depressant, particularly when mixed with caffeine. I get my best writing done on it, and my best non-productive speculating done when passing out from it (at which point i'm useless for the grind of writing, but idea-creation goes at full force).

Anecdotal evidence from other writers would confirm this as well. Though I don't know how effective it would be for other art forms.

A drug that supresses ugh fields, loathing and hate. They feel so similar, I think there will be some common connection.

Why on earth would anyone want to remove unrequited love?

I'd want a drug that made me not feel hurt when people criticized me.

Maybe it doesn't have to be a substance.

even though they were right in the ancestral environment

I'd be willing to bet that ancient humans made stupid choices about when to eat/sleep/fuck as well.

the state of random creativity that you normally experience just before falling asleep

... I do? News to me.