A month or two ago I started taking Modafinil occasionally; I’ve probably taken it fewer than a dozen times overall.
I think I’d expected it to give a kind of Ritalin-like focus and concentrate, but that isn’t really how it affected me. I’d describe the effects less in terms of “focus” and more in terms of a variable I term “wherewithal”. I’ve recently started using this term in my internal monologue to describe my levels of “ability to undertake tasks”. E.g., “I’m hungry, but I definitely don’t have the wherewithal to cook anything complicated tonight; better just get a pizza.” Or, on waking up: “Hey, my wherewithal levels are unusually high today. Better not fritter that away.” (Semantically, it’s a bit like the SJ-originating concept of “spoons” but without that term’s baggage.) It’s this quantity which I think Modafinil targets, for me: it’s a sort of “wherewithal boost”. I don’t know how well this accords with other people’s experience. I do think I’ve heard some people describe it as a focus/concentration booster. (Perhaps I should try another nootropic to get that effect, or perhaps my brain is just beyond help on that front.)
I did, however, start to feel it suppressed my appetite to unhealthily, even dangerously, low levels. (After taking it for two days in a row, I felt dizzy after coming down a flight of stairs.) I realize that it’s possible to compensate for this by making oneself eat when one doesn’t feel hungry, but somehow this doesn’t seem that pleasant. For this reason, I’ve been taking it less recently.
I’d be curious to know whether others experience the appetite suppression to the same extent; it’s not something that I hear people talk about very much. Perhaps others are just better at dealing with it than I am or don’t care.
It’s also hard to say how much of its positive effects were placebo, given that I took it on days when I’d already determined I wanted to “get a lot of shit done”.
A month or two ago I started taking Modafinil occasionally; I’ve probably taken it fewer than a dozen times overall.
I think I’d expected it to give a kind of Ritalin-like focus and concentrate, but that isn’t really how it affected me. I’d describe the effects less in terms of “focus” and more in terms of a variable I term “wherewithal”. I’ve recently started using this term in my internal monologue to describe my levels of “ability to undertake tasks”. E.g., “I’m hungry, but I definitely don’t have the wherewithal to cook anything complicated tonight; better just get a pizza.” Or, on waking up: “Hey, my wherewithal levels are unusually high today. Better not fritter that away.” (Semantically, it’s a bit like the SJ-originating concept of “spoons” but without that term’s baggage.) It’s this quantity which I think Modafinil targets, for me: it’s a sort of “wherewithal boost”. I don’t know how well this accords with other people’s experience. I do think I’ve heard some people describe it as a focus/concentration booster. (Perhaps I should try another nootropic to get that effect, or perhaps my brain is just beyond help on that front.)
I did, however, start to feel it suppressed my appetite to unhealthily, even dangerously, low levels. (After taking it for two days in a row, I felt dizzy after coming down a flight of stairs.) I realize that it’s possible to compensate for this by making oneself eat when one doesn’t feel hungry, but somehow this doesn’t seem that pleasant. For this reason, I’ve been taking it less recently.
I’d be curious to know whether others experience the appetite suppression to the same extent; it’s not something that I hear people talk about very much. Perhaps others are just better at dealing with it than I am or don’t care.
It’s also hard to say how much of its positive effects were placebo, given that I took it on days when I’d already determined I wanted to “get a lot of shit done”.
I might still try armodafinil at some point.
Huh, along with the low side effects, sounds like a candidate for a weight loss drug.
Yes, perhaps for some, but I’m already closer to underweight than I am to overweight, so for me that’s a big con.
I wonder if activation energy is a good way of describing difficulties with getting started.
Discussion of different kinds of werewithal
Yep, the model in that post is quite close to the one I’m trying to describe.