So this is a spinoff from my series on hidden gem applications for the various major platforms (iOS/Mac, Android, etc) I’m starting on pharmaceuticals and substances in general.
Please share substances you’ve discovered and the interesting uses or usecases you can speak to authoritatively and in a way that opens others up to awareness of things that could help them that might not be common knowledge or require special efforts to implement them properly for beneficial use
I was going to split them up and focus on medical uses relative to conditions you have to address for now but I changer my mind and want to make space for alternative uses that improve your life and wellness notwithstanding (since thats common to both contexts and arguably “what its all about”
Propranolol
It’s a blood pressure medication that acts pretty fast. They give it to people who experience anxiety. If you sometimes get overwhelmed or have anxiety, just pop one of these bad boys and in 30 minutes you’re calmed the fuck down and you can deal with it rationally. 
I’ve read studies claiming it can be used to address traumatic memories as well, because of the chemical calm and how memory works, when you visit one your brain basically opens the file, runs it on your braon, and then re-stores your memory of the current run, where you were chill through the reenactment.
Agreed. For me, if I’m anxious I can’t process as well. Approaching a difficult memory/situation with a relaxed physical state makes the process easier.
There’s less of that “this memory of me being panicked makes me panic” and more of “that memory of me being panicked does not make me panicked now, and I can look at it from a new perspective”
N.B. Some people have a paradoxical reaction of becoming very depressed temporarily.
Idk if it’s on the possible side effects yet but you can find discussions on forums etc going back decades. Very rare, and transient, but if trying for the first time something to be aware of as a risk.
Fly agaric is the only thing that is actually mucus dissolving. You are stoned as fuck but when dried slowly they are nontoxic anymore.
They are also very funny, perfect party drug. Actually stoned, without head paranoia etc.
Cannabis is a very complex substance and not for just chilling in my experience. It can be very helpful with stress, it is like soothing the brain with this other entity. I am sure it is not, but it feels like your subconsciousness taking control. Helps a lot understanding yourself and breaking free from toxic Adrenaline-Stress-Coffee-Capitalism.
It is not just for chilling, it is not “an alternative to alcohol” and it is extremely abused, especially in the US. These “roll a blunt” amounts are simply not possible with todays potent weed, and mixing with tobacco while pretending you are not addicted to that ugly goblin clinging to your brain (for me tobacco feels like that) is absurd.
I think it is immensely powerful and its by far my favourite cozy drug, it saved my psyche when I didnt even know it lol (had an unrelated accident when stoned, got stitched up without anesthesia and my ears where fucked up for over a year after that).
LSD is also great. Its such a shame it was banned immediately. There where so many studies and psychotherapeutic sessions, it is such an intense magnifier of these therapies.
Instead you now either sit there and talk, which is only effective after a year or so (while in Germany it is extremely hard to find a place); or you work with symptoms which is more effective but can easily result in the expression of your illness just switching to another symptom.
LSD is fucking magic. The lack of the nasty body effects of Psilocybin mushrooms is very good, as these can get extremely uncomfortable. And what it does with your brain, and how you think, is just so enriching. I already cried in front of my family, had great conversations with my then still alive grandparents, and I am so thankful for the existence of this drug.
Basically all the common ones suck, Alcohol, Tobacco, Nicotine, Stimulants. They are extremely unhealthy and have no beneficial effect at all. They only help you keep running, but you can easily break during this.
Melatonin
I can’t do sleep hygiene. My cell phone is the first and last thing I see every day. I stare at screens all day for work and for leisure. With moderate melatonin use I can somehow maintain regular and restful sleep.
No side effects if you use it responsibly (e.g. 5 days on, 2 days off, stick with low doses). Very safe. Can improve sleep even if you’re already sleeping well. I don’t know why more people aren’t on it.
A fun hack for melatonin is that smaller doses work better than larger doses.
Yes! Scientific trials have shown that for most people, 0.3mg of melatonin gives better quality of sleep than 3mg.
I’ve seen pills as high as 10mg on the shelf and have to wonder wtf they’re for. If you take too much your body becomes less sensitive to it and you become dependent on supplementation. 10mg is definitely too much.
It’s crazy isn’t it, 10mg.
I was prescribed (it’s prescription-only in my country) 2mg but after I read up on it I cut it to 0.5.
What about in those with ADHD?
I think the big difference between people benefiting at small doses (~0.3mg) and large doses (2+mg) is that the 0.3mg group use it for sleep quality through the night, whereas the 3+mg people just need the sudden shock to get to sleep in the first place.
The drawback with big doses is that your brain becomes less sensitive so your naturally-produced melatonin might not be enough to keep you asleep for the whole night after the pill wears off. It has a very short half-life in the body (under 1 hour), so there’s no way for a single dose before sleeping to last 8 hours. We naturally produce only 0.06-0.08mg per night, so it’s easy to see how supplementing melatonin could desensitize someone and cause them to wake up after just 4-6 hours of sleep.
I have ADHD and am in the large-dose category and use 2-3mg of melatonin to help me fall asleep. Without it, I can’t sleep reliably because my brain often won’t shut up. Sleep reliably is so much more important to me than sleep quality.
Using it only 5 nights a week, I’m not significantly dependent. I can still sleep without melatonin, just less reliably. I’ve tried 0.3mg, but it felt the same as taking nothing.
For me, 10mg would be excessive and probably harmful in a desensitizing way. The most I’ve taken is 6mg, but it only helped in 2 out of 6 times. The other 4 times my brain just wouldn’t stop. If doubling my usual dose didn’t help, I don’t think doubling it again would be any different.
There are however studies with higher doses, e.g. this one about kids with ADHD that says:
two-third of the patients responded to relatively medium doses (2.5–6 mg/d), whereas doses above 6 mg added further benefit only in a small percentage of children.
so I guess it’s different for everyone.
symbicort
It’s an inhaler corticosteroid and anti inflammatory often used for asthma but incredible for post infection cough.
If I’m ever sick and have a cough, this puts a stop to that symptom and recovery is so much faster. Don’t even touch any over the counter cough medicine over this imo.
Testosterone
I’d tried a few different combinations of HRT (for menopause), and was doing ok ish on oestrogen patches and micronised progesterone capsules. But I still felt like a shadow of myself, a barely functioning husk. I ended up paying privately to see a menopause specialist (after finding out the waiting time for the NHS clinic I was referred to was at least a year and a half - just for my referral to get looked at), and she prescribed ne testosterone. Within 48 hours I noticed a huge difference, I felt like I’d recovered a huge chunk of my energy and my personality. It makes me furious that it’s so hard to get. I’m not sure what state my mental health would be in if I hadn’t been able to get it. I was definitely looking at having to cut hours in work to be able to cope, and that would have had a big financial impact on me. And so many people I speak to - including women - are confused about why testosterone would help, there’s so much misunderstanding about hormones, they don’t know that women have testosterone and men have oestrogen. My aunt asked me whether it would reverse the menopause and I was just like er what… How would that even work?
What is usually the front line for HRT? Is it Oestrogen? Is that the same hormone that’s in contraceptives?
So most contraception is a combo of oestrogen and progesterone (but there’s also oestrogen only and progesterone only). Oestrogen is also the main hormone used to alleviate the symptoms of menopause, but you have to have progesterone on top of that to protect you from womb cancer (if you still have a womb).
Interestingly I struggled all my adult life trying to find hormonal contraception that didn’t make my emotions out of control and spiral into destructive depression, and I gave up in the end. It happened again on my first go on HRT. After getting some professional advice I discovered that that’s a known effect of the type of progesterone used in the most widely prescribed (ie cheapest) contraception and HRT. As soon as I was switched onto the micronised bio-identical progesterone it was like a dream, I felt normal. Not one doctor in all those years of trying different forms of contraception mentioned it could be the progesterone - maybe they didn’t know? There definitely seems to be a scary lack of understanding about hormones that’s for sure.
Testosterone in the UK isn’t widely prescribed, on the NHS you can only get it through a specialist clinic, or you have to go private like I did (it cost me £185 for the appointment, and £90 for the prescription for 6 months).
The hormone doses that are prescribed in HRT are not the same amount as our natural levels have dropped by, really the ‘R’ in HRT is misleading as what is prescribed doesn’t replace what we’ve lost, it just gives a little top up to lessen the symptoms.
Ketamine: Fast acting relief from treatment resistant depression. Personally I find ~0.8 mg/kg subcutaneously injected is about the magic dose.
After 20 odd years of living in a fog the first time I used that treatment was like night and day. I had forgotten how trivial most things are without depression. Exercise for example is just “I don’t wanna but I know I’ll feel better. Ugh fine” instead of something that takes about 3 days to psych up to on a good week.
I find it’s very effective for about a week, dropping off over the next month or so. Unsure if lifetime sustainable at a frequency of ~2-3 weeks per dose but definitely useful to put in changes to life that make it easier to handle.
Crazy expensive medically though, if you can get it tested infusions can be prepared diy (most is diverted from medical supply so it’s often not adultrated BUT NOT ALWAYS!) with bacteriostatic water and 0.22 um wheel filters. Obvs if you don’t know what you’re doing you could seriously harm yourself, and you absolutely must be able to secure safety measures like naloxone, but if the rope is looking mighty appealing it’s an option if you can’t get it medically.
For me? Vyvanse. I know a lot of folks don’t like it for a multitude of reasons, but it works for me. I take it about an hour before I get to work and I’m actually able to focus on work as opposed to why I don’t wanna be there. It’s great. Also helps that my job is pretty great overall, but being able to focus on actually getting up and doing stuff is great.
L-theanine and caffeine
It’s a combination that gives me energy and allows me to focus for a couple hours at a time without jitters or anxiety.
Nifedipine - vasodilator
This cheap and common calcium channel blocker has an effect more localized to the peripheral vessels than most other calcium channel blockers.
I started taking it as a cure for chilblains, which it was remarkably effective at despite not being officially listed for. Did my research and asked my doctor for it. Never had one since.
However I soon realized the joy of never feeling cold again. Gone are the days of taking swigs from a flask to keep my fingers thawed out while working on a stalled tractor at -30C. Gone are cold/numb feet in ski boots and rubber boots, frozen thumbs on quads and snowmobiles. I can work in my unheated shop all day!
Of course its main function is to drop blood pressure by decreasing arterial resistance, which I found provided a significant performance boost in someone with only high normal blood pressure. I box and jump rope, and realized a few days after taking nifedipine that I had been jumping so long that my legs were getting sore, but my endurance still felt limitless.
My blood pressure is down to totally normal too. So drop your blood pressure, boost your endurance and never feel cold again for under $30/month… It’s a deal
Pramipexole:
It’s used for Parkinson’s and restless legs, I use it for restless legs. I’ve suffered with this condition as far back as I can remember, I’ve always referred to myself as a part time insomniac because this would keep me up a lot of the time.
I had a period of mental health problems and was prescribed Metazapine for it, which kicked up the RLS a notch. Despite being off them now for nearly a year, the Restless Legs are still kicked up.
Pramipexole, when taken at the right time, sorts the RLS out, I can finally sleep and when I do sleep I don’t kick my wife up the arse.
Side affects include hypersexualality and compulsive gambling, but I haven’t experienced this yet. I have warned my workmates that it could come up in the future though so if I ever say “I bet you a fiver you can’t wank me off” they know why.
Zomig, it magically makes migraine disappear
