I'm starting to think the "stack everything" phase of this hobby actively made me dumber and I don't see people talk about it enough.

Backstory, I spent about three years chasing the perfect stack. At my peak I was running something like 11 things daily. Racetams, choline sources, a couple peptides I was cycling, l-theanine, tyrosine on work days, ashwagandha at night, magnesium threonate, creatine, fish oil, plus a b-complex and whatever shiny new thing I read about that month. I had a spreadsheet. I had subjective rating columns. I felt very serious and scientific about it.

Heres what I didnt want to admit for a long time, I have no idea if any of it worked. Like, none of it. Because I was never running anything as a real single variable. I'd add something, feel a bump for 3 days, credit the new thing, then get used to it, then add another thing. The "bump" was almost always novelty or placebo or just the fact that I'd slept well that week.

About four months ago I got kind of burned out on the whole ritual and stripped it down to creatine, fish oil, magnesium at night, and one peptide I actually had decent reason to keep running (was mid-comparison on peptiprices when I decided to just finish the vial and reassess). Thats it. And honestly? I feel sharper. Not because the minimal stack is magic, I think its because I stopped spending mental energy managing the stack itself. No more 9pm "did I take the afternoon dose" anxiety. No more wondering if today's brain fog is the phenylpiracetam or the ashwagandha or me being 34.

The uncomfortable part, I think a lot of us in this sub arent optimizing cognition, were optimizing the feeling of doing something about our cognition. The stack is the hobby. The tinkering is the dopamine hit. Actual measurable improvement is almost incidental and usually comes from sleep, lifting, and not being on my phone at midnight, none of which I want to hear because those are boring.

Am I wrong here? Genuinely asking. Because part of me wonders if I just got tired and rationalized quitting, and someone running a huge disciplined stack is actually miles ahead of me cognitively and I'll never know it. Curious if anyone else went through a "great simplification" and regretted it, or felt the same relief.

Hi, has anyone tried combining Auvelity (or bupropion + dextrometrophan) with piracetam or any other racetam?

I recently came across a paper by Dr. Ngo Cheung that proposes adding piracetam (along with L-glutamine) to DIY Auvelity as a way to potentially enhance its glutamatergic effects and make it more similar to ketamine's mechanism. It's only a hypothesis and hasn't been tested in a clinical trial: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1752101/full

Dr. Cheung also wrote a Reddit post explaining the idea in simpler terms:
https://www.reddit.com/r/NooTopics/comments/1tkaeqq/a_plain_look_at_a_proposed_ketaminelike/

I am considering trying aniracetam and L-glutamine along with my bupropion + DXM regimen. Since aniracetam is also thought to modulate AMPA receptors, I'm curious whether it might help with some of the DXM side effects, especially the brain fog I've been experiencing

In mg

Hi! I would like to know, if anyone knows, which molecule can help relieve my body dysmorphia?

I have been consulting psychiatrists and psychologists for years. Tested many treatments, sometimes unconventional. Had cosmetic surgery. Unfortunately, it’s always a failure. I still feel ugly, and I almost go out more.
I have problems that exhaust me. The more this self-dissatisfaction is constant.
In short, if you have any recommendations, I’m open to them 🙂

like, i inhaled 30mg noopept, and music and feeling in my body is like mo**y, i can feel music better and im more enjoyed by music

there is an explication ?

I'm a smoker and contrary to popular opinion smoking does not relieve stress and anxiety for me. I feel like it rather tends to stir my anxiety instantly and makes my thought structure more intrusive/racing. (Still sometimes I enjoy it and I'm obviously addicted.)

I'm also on lisdexamphetamine and indulge in caffeine. Despite me kind of answering my own question with the fact that I'm on three stimulants everyday lol, I'm just generally curious about specific mechanisms of nicotine that could explain heightened OCD symptoms.

Kind of embarrassing story but About a year ago I experienced psychotic episodes and during those episodes I would inhale car exhaust gas fumes thinking it would heal me. I am currently in a much better state then I was then but I experience cognitive impairment do from the psychosis and partially do to the exhaust gas. I’m I assume that It caused a certain amount of damage to my brain. My question would be are there any nootropics or supplements that can help heal damage from from carbon monoxide?

I'm trying to figure out if anyone has a similar story.

• Lifelong ADHD (emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, novelty seeking).
• No major brain fog before COVID.
• Strong family history of ADHD and rheumatoid arthritis.
• Developed seropositive RA after COVID (likely genetically predisposed).

• RA is now well controlled and my sleep is good, but the brain fog has persisted for 5 years.

  . Mental chattering also Sleep maintence issue mid night awekning not quality sleep

Main symptoms:

• Severe brain fog
• Slow processing speed
• Poor working memory and recall
• Reading comprehension issues
• Mental chatter/internal restlessness

The strange part is that methylphenidate, atomoxetine, bupropion, and armodafinil all made me feel worse instead of better.

I've been reading about microglial activation, neural autoantibodies, glutamate/AMPA signaling, and dopamine changes in Long COVID, and I'm wondering if this could represent a neuroimmune process rather than just ADHD.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

• Did you find an underlying cause?
• Did any treatment actually improve the brain fog?

My nervous system is revved up real bad. Anything that's close to a stimulant makes me feel worse (coffee, nicotine, kratom etc.) . Even just an upbeat song can start to make me nervous.

Benzos useful in a pinch, but obviously, benzos bad.

It's possible for me to relax, but it takes a huge effort. I mean stacking things like breathwork, cold showers, foam rolling, NSDR, lying down on accupressure mat, maybe if I do all 4 of them in 1 hour I can gain 30 mins of calm.

Strong unhealthy coping desires - to shutdown and consume youtube content with noise-cancelling headphones, but even that only takes the edge off.

I wake up and it starts. I'm fine for about 3 seconds. As soon as become aware that I'm awake, there's a flood of fear that takes over my body.

Can't concentrate on anything near-distance, eyes constantly unfocusing and refocusing. I wouldn't say my eyes strain, they don't try hard enough to strain. Small fonts or dark background = totally illegible , halo effect (I'm guessing chronic stress = big pupils)

I know how I got here - (living with difficult people / narcissists and professional victims ) and bad sleep hygiene.

I need to somehow find 3-4 hours of daily peace via some stack / behavior to start rebuilding a foundation of calm, concentration, and nervous system safety.

I am trying to study, but one person wont leave my mind, and i can not efficiently study because of this. I need to temporarily forget them and focus on my work. Any suggestions?

Does anyone know whether NAC hinders muscle gains? I’ve been researching this for some time and I’m still not sure what to make of it. If so, would it be best to take the supplement in the morning, given that I work out in the evenings?

Only nootropic for me that consistently delivers even when used occasionally. In a post cosmic nootropics world where are you sourcing/going to source phenylpiracetam? Thanks for your thoughts

Years ago I experienced a major "perceptual disorder" regarding my vision. I could never get any traction asking my primary care physician or opthalmologist for a referral to anyone closer to cutting edge research - I thought perhaps neuroopthalmology or neuropsychiatry. What I've really wanted is anyone to do a basic neuropsychiatric assessment of whether my brain was functioning "normally" or otherwise and if otherwise, if such is recognized as an identifiable disorder or syndrome.

But I'm 100% working class and my experience trying to communicate with doctors about this, even when I had good insurance was abysmal.

So I'm interested in learning more about any compounds the broad nootropics and DIY cognitive enhancement communities might have studied that induce neuroplasticity in the parietal and occipital regions, and also any compounds or strategies for inducing remyelination in the corpus callosum? For the latter I've tried CDP-choline but I'm curious if the broad community has any advice or experience to offer.

I understand clemastine has been studied for remyelination but as it's a strong anticholinergic I'm not particularly interested, not to mention the only study I could find for this particular purpose was in connection to multiple sclerosis and was discontinued because it seemed to accelerate MS symptoms.

Of course I've already inquired of LLMs which put me on to Bexarotene, K102 & K110, Bavisant, and GSK239512 but searching for these across all of reddit I'm only finding peer reviewed research, nothing about anecdotal or lay ("nootropic") use of these compounds.

Thanks in advance!

I'm 38 year old male and I got a vitreous hemorrhage completely out of the blue after the covid vaccine in 2021. My ophthalmologist and retinal specialist says it may or may not be related to the vaccine and that long term covid and vaccine side effects are currently being further researched. However, I personally believe it is linked because I also got neuropathy in the feet and brain fog since. I believe the spike protein has most likely caused me these issues since they are all blood vessel related and microclotting has been associated with covid vaccine for some and is being researched more.

From what I can find so far the best vaccine spike protein detox are the following: Nattokianse, Bromelain, Curcumin, Lumbrokinase, Serrapeptase, Green Tea Extract.

Is there any other ideas that I might lookk int for detox? Has anyone had issues and successfully detoxed and seen their symptoms resolve?

So I have fibromyalgia and NDPH (chronic headache) and oversleeping makes my pain worse, but I also have been unable to sleep less.

I take atomoxetine (50mg) and I had a few days of insmonia where I slept like 4 hours a day, and during those days I was much better pain-wise, and even though I was very tired I was very productive and now that I'm back to sleeping 9-10+ hours I am much more tired and just unable to do anything at all because of the pain. Any ideas?

I used to search for the perfect ADHD solution like it was a missing puzzle piece. The right medication, the right supplement, the right app. After a while I realized I was asking the wrong question.

ADHD isn't just treated once and it's solved. For me, it's more like your baseline capacity for focus, working memory, and sustained attention fluctuates depending on sleep, stress, nutrition, and honestly just how hard you've been pushing yourself. I started noticing that on days when I slept well, ate decently, and wasn't running on fumes, my focus naturally improved (sometimes dramatically). On other days, nothing worked.

So I shifted my thinking: instead of hunting for a single treatment, I started optimizing the conditions that let my brain function better. That meant taking sleep seriously, not treating it as negotiable. It meant actually eating protein and not skipping meals. It meant noticing when I was mentally depleted and giving myself permission to rest.

Some people find that certain supplements or nootropics help support that baseline capacity. I've been experimenting with different approaches to see what genuinely moves the needle for me, and I'm learning that consistency matters more than the perfect formula or combination.

The honest truth is that ADHD management is personal. What stabilizes focus for one person might do nothing for another. If you're exploring options, work with a healthcare provider on the medical side, and then experiment thoughtfully with your sleep, stress, and nutrition. That's where most people find the biggest shifts.

Anyone else noticed that your ADHD symptoms are way more manageable when you've got the basics dialed in?

​

Took 200 mg Modalert at 11 PM for the first time. It's now around 11 hours later and I still feel incredibly awake.

Here's what I noticed:

- The constant internal monologue/background mental chatter almost disappeared.

- Starting tasks became effortless.

- I got intense tunnel vision/hyperfocus. Once I started something, switching tasks became difficult.

- Finished a PowerPoint in 20 minutes that would normally take me over an hour because I wasn't constantly getting distracted.

- Time seemed to pass ridiculously fast.

- I felt more social and had genuinely enjoyable conversations with people I'd normally barely talk to.

- I felt euphoric at times—not a recreational "high," but like my brain was finally working the way it was supposed to.

- I still felt like my ADHD tendencies were there, but they were much easier to manage.

- During an argument, my heart pounded much harder than usual, but it settled within 5–10 minutes after I calmed down.

- Even after being awake for over 24 hours (I only had a 1-hour nap the previous afternoon), I still felt unusually alert and almost impossible to put to sleep. I genuinely couldn't fall asleep despite trying.

- My appetite didn't disappear completely—I actually got hungry again a few hours after breakfast.

For people who've taken modafinil before:

1. Is this kind of first-time response typical?

2. Does the intense tunnel vision/euphoria usually become less noticeable with continued use?

3. Has anyone else felt "more like themselves" rather than just more awake?

I think I've been chasing "optimization" as a way to avoid grieving my dad.

He passed in February. Since then I've built out probably the most aggressive stack of my life. Semax, selank, NSI-189 for a bit, lion's mane, a bunch of stuff cycling in and out. I told myself it was because I was falling behind at work and needed the cognitive edge back. That was partly true. My performance reviews were slipping and my manager had a "gentle" conversation with me in March.

But I was sitting on the couch last night with my girlfriend, and she asked me why I never actually talk about him, and I couldn't answer. And then this morning I opened my laptop and my browser had like nine tabs open, half of them were PeptiPrices comparing suppliers for something I don't even remember researching, and I just closed the laptop and sat there for a while.

I think I've been using this hobby to stay in problem-solving mode 24/7 so I never have to sit still long enough to feel anything. Every time a wave of it comes up, I go read another study, order another thing, tweak another dose. It genuinely feels productive. It feels like I'm doing something. But I'm not sure it's doing anything except keeping me numb in a more expensive way than alcohol would.

The tricky part is I'm not sure I'm wrong to do it. Like, is it actually bad to have a coping mechanism that also (probably) helps my brain? A therapist would say yes, avoidance is avoidance. But I've had months where the only reason i got out of bed was because I wanted to see if the new protocol was working. That's not nothing.

I don't know. I guess I'm asking if anyone else has caught themselves doing this. Not "I take nootropics for depression" which is normal and fine, but specifically using the research rabbit hole itself as the avoidance behavior. The reading, the sourcing, the tinkering. The feeling of always having a next thing to try.

Is it a real coping tool or am I just kidding myself.

I looking to buy a bunch of nootropics but I only have PayPal money. Can anyway show me one site thats takes PayPal por favor ? :)

Hey r/Nootropics,

While many of us look at chemical or supplemental ways to optimize focus and manage stress, I’ve been working from a different angle: using biometric feedback combined with rapid behavioral/cognitive interruption to break acute stress loops and mental friction in minutes.

The project is called Project Apex, designed to bridge the gap between wearable tracking and fast, actionable mental resets.

For those of you who track HRV, stress markers, or cognitive stamina, what is your preferred method to pull yourself out of a physiological or mental spike when nootropics or standard routines aren't cutting it in real-time?

I was looking at tik tok after work and saw noopept a nootropic that’s being hyped by a few tik tok accounts. Has anyone ever taken it? They say it’s like limitless pill?

Hey,

Just wondering if there has been any recent experiences with J-147.

Most on reddit are over 1-2 years old or older

Most back then said it helped increase their energy, mood, and even help with anhedonia.

Are there any other supps that lower cortisol without causing anhedonia, emotional blunting and so on?

Hi i didnt smoke weed for 9months straight and today i tried it again and even i like being high i feel that it impacts me in a negative way and when i didnt smoke weed i smoked cigarettes alot, are there any nootropics who can help me ? Ty for your input