Too Long to Read? Basically, I've been taking Tyrosine for a few days and gradually increased the dose in the last couple of days to 7 500mg capsules. I feel as if I've experienced a small part of what the Limitless character experienced but without any side effects (well always working may be one!) or nationwide fame.
I feel more intelligent, speak more intelligent, act more intelligent and perform more intelligently. This is not just my own opinion, classmates have expressed surprise and said that 'I'm on the ball these days'. Working memory is phenomenal and my frontal lobe has felt alive with activity (shown through extensive working memory, alertness, extended concentration and focus and extended awake).
Does anybody else experience this? If not, does it only work for some people, or does it mean that I was actually lightly low in dopamine levels? What on earth is going on here because I'm currently drawing up plans for world domination (Joke - I'm actually drawing up plans for university domination in terms of running for SU President next year and putting out my name on campuses through many journal articles, socialising and club memberships. - This is particularly a great change in my character as I was mildly complacent and withdrawn beforehand.)
What is going on here?
(P.S. Was NZT's theorised workings really just extended dopamine release and production?
P.P.S. What is even better is that I've experienced continued and heightened benefits when off the Tyrosine today - possibly extended and continued dopamine production and release?)
In the film Limitless, an below-average guy begins taking pills (NZT-48) and suddenly becomes intelligent, motivated, successful and grandly ambitious. The book ('the Dark Fields') also follows the same pattern but differs somewhat in plots. (Personally, I prefer the film due to the whole film experience plus the ending where he is successful, affluent, proud and grand and running for senate.)
Anyway, I watched this film many months ago last year. I (unsuccessfully) tried to see what would aid me in attempting to become something similar to that (!) I invested in Citicoline, ALCAR and then later herbals and a number of racetams. The racetams were better in my attempt but did not exactly put me on a road at least close to what Eddie Spinola in 'The Dark Fields' was like (where the drive to get things done was nagging and strong). It did however make concentration better.
(Also, be aware that I was not researched much in dopamine and its effects and was really quite oblivious to it, only having a passive regard to it.)
Now, to this thread:
For the past week, I have been dabbling on and off with Tyrosine in the morning on an empty stomach. What began as a couple of 500mg capsules ended up increasing to nearly four times that.
Then, a couple of days ago (20 Feb), I took 7! And the day quickly turned haywire. When I was out at lectures, my speech was excited, fast and sociable. The motivation and drive to interact was astronomical.
But I was racy, couldn't sit still and was actually thinking grand thoughts. At this time (the middle of the day), I was like '7 caps may be good for socialising and whatnot, but maybe not good for focussed and uninterrupted academic work.
Little did I know that I was completely wrong.
After lectures, I came back to dorms and was still quite racy and excited from my stimulated social interaction with people (lol just talking to them!). Then, I calmed myself down as I was consciously aware that I had important projects to complete.
Now, at first I thought (now in the late afternoon) that the effects were wearing off. They weren't. It seemed that I was still stimulated, but it was controlled stimulation and focus was scarily on point.
In a few hours, on that single day, I completed two pieces of work (to put things into perspective: it takes me about a week to complete one piece of work, the other piece of work was the second half of a project which should have taken me one to two weeks - but everything seemed to click into place and research time was considerably decreased as it was more focussed with no distractions).
The next day (21 Feb), I completed another piece of work - and these pieces of work weren't scantily done. They were copiously referenced and were long in length. The day before I was quite shocked at how much and how good I'd done. The next day, I wasn't very shocked because I just wanted to get things down - thoughts of shock and surprise seemed distracting and arbitrary - I just had to get things done.
After I'd completed that piece of work, I grew again restless and wanted to get things done - but I'd done everything. So, I started to completely improve the format and layout of my CV (Resumé) and look into future career options. I then started to draw up plans to write a couple of articles and essays for the yearly journal at uni. This is quite shocking - as I've never had much time for these grand adventures beyond academia and into the land of extra-academic intellectualism. But I was so motivated, so grandiose.
It didn't stop there however; on that next day (21 Feb), I planned to sleep on time to make some important sessions in the morning.
I was on my bed at 10pm, planning to leisurely read for a couple of hours in order to fall asleep by midnight. It didn't work out. I stopped reading about five minutes to midnight and tried to sleep. I was on the bed for a half hour still wide awake and stimulated. I then grew restless and rationalised that if I was just wasting time on my bed trying to sleep when I couldn't, I might as well get things done. So, at about 1am in the morning, I started to do some extra work and research to talk about in class. I didn't get to sleep until around 3am with prior reading of textbooks, note-taking and researching.
I then woke up today at 8am having had five hours sleep. Normally, I'd be really very tired and shattered, but I was already stimulated and quickly woke myself up by a swift burst of reading activity.
A couple of people also mentioned today about how I was on the ball and expressed surprise at my work and contribution - that's shockingly weird as I'm clearly normally thought of as unremarkable.
What is interesting is, today, I didn't take any Tyrosine, but the effects are STILL there, even right now. It was another hyper-productive day and my concentration and focus on long streams of text and assimilation of memory is worrying (as in, worryingly amazing). I am no longer even distracted by my desire to relax with my usual relaxing activities like surfing on nets and posting on student forums and listening to music - they seem to give less pleasure than usual and work can thus be carried out for much, much longer and with more directed focus and intellectual interest.
Is Tyrosine really this amazing? Of course, I can infer that all of this is the result of more dopamine flowing around - is this true? It's just quite shocking the amount I've gotten done in the past few days and how well they've been done. And there haven't even been any noticeable crashes in the day (only light fatigue at night, but nothing that can't be remedied with some fruit and conscious effort).
In short; (and this is the great bombshell - at least to me), it's like coffee/caffeine but completely without the jitters, anxiety, crash and mental strain - it seems to have a whole day's worth of working power.
Lastly, working memory is phenomenal and my speech is articulate and intelligent (both style and substance).
Edited by Sovr'gnChancellor£, 23 February 2012 - 12:12 AM.