A little update on the last few days, before my memory fades..
The first day on Sulbutiamine , as described in my last post, ended up in feeling quite depressed after a full day of irritation and grumpiness. .
The next day, I took 400mg at breakfast ( always with something fatty, either yoghourt, or some cooked salmon sparkled with Olive Oil). The irritation and depressive feelings of past day quickly subsided in the next hours, to be replaced with a feeling of sustained mental energy, not the anxious kind of energy, but rather more a calmer and focused sensation. And the feeling of being more awake, more than usual. Overall it reminded me of what I got sometimes from Schisandra ( on the rare occasions it worked), a kind of gentle "lift" throughout the day. The feeling is quite clean, no tremors or jitters like on coffee or certain stimulating ADs.
For the sake of keeping any other substances from interfering with my experience, I didn't take anything that night for my chronic insomnia ( a condition i've been dealing with for more than a decade, only helped by antihistamines,
see this thread and
this one ). As expected , my sleep was very light, with numerous awakenings during night. I probably got only 5 or 6 hours of sleep overall.
Usually after a night like this, I'm pretty much a zombie for the whole day ( completely brain-fogged, need to lie down regularly for a few minutes, need to nap constantly, feeling very weak physically, no motivation, etc..). However, after 400mg that morning, I felt noticeably more resistant to fatigue through the whole day, my attention was sustained more than usual, my body didn't feel as weak physically as expected, etc..
Not that it erased all effects of my usual insomnia aftermath, I still felt the lack of decent sleep, and the usual tiredness, but it did made me more resistant to it, I just didn't crash as I would. I think '"resistance" is the right word, not a feeling of being "pushed" or nervous energy.
Needless to say, I was quite impressed ( in a good way this time ). Usually, almost nothing helps the following day if my night was really bad.
I decided on not taking anything that night. Crashed in bed and fell asleep quickly, but the night wasn't any better. Very light sleep, constant awakenings, etc..
The next day I felt even more exhausted from the lack of sleep. I took 400mg at breakfast, then another 200mg with lunch.
I was pretty much expecting to spend the day mostly crashing on the couch ( luckily, I work from home most of the time ), but amazingly enough I didn't.. I was able to cope with most things, both physically and intellectually, although I still needed a short 40 minute nap at mid-day. I could also feel that my mood was slightly brighter during the last days.
I decided that night to take 7.5mg of Doxylamine ( sold here OTC as "Donormyl" ), a dose that is usually enough to get me through the night if my insomnia isn't amplified by something else. However It had very little effect, I could feel that the Sulbutiamine was indeed worsening my insomnia more than usual, although not by much.
The day after I was really exhausted, and despite another 400mg of Sulbutiamine, I could feel that I was reaching the limits of what my body and mind could endure just before crashing. Yet I was able again to function thru the day, and I really didin't expect that, because I don't think It ever happened before ( I usually just fall sick with symptoms of flu, and crash in bed the whole day ).
That day I had to leave home and meet some people. While I could feel the Sulbutiamine acting like a crutch to my exhaustion, it was a "clean" feeling, without lows and downs. I also noticed something described in a post earlier by "Renfr" , I felt a bit more at ease with people I didn't know. Not exactly more outgoing, just less nervous, a bit more confident, my mind felt less scattered during conversations.
I could describe that boost of confidence as a consequence of feeling more focused, despite the overwhelming quantity of stimulus I get exposed to during a hectic day in Paris. My mind stayed "centered".
At the end of that day, my body and mind were screaming for a real night sleep, so I decided to go for a full dose of 15mg Doxylamine. I didn't take any Sulbutiamine this morning, and I feel more rested.
So, I'm going to take a few days break, get enough sleep, before I restart the Sulbutiamine experience while taking my usual doses of anthistamines at night to make sure I'm not pushing myself over the limits with Sulb. I will be also introducing some L-Tyrosine and CDP-Choline with it.
To summarize :
- Nice, clean effect of sustained mental energy, in a calm and constant way rather than nervous or jittery.
- Feelings of being more awake.
- More focus, more "centered", wich leads also to a sensation of feeling a bit more confident socially.
- Worsening of insomnia.
- No sensation of "dilated time" as described by a few people in this thread.
- Didn't notice any effect on memory, although the last day it was pretty bad, due to the cumulative nights of insomnia.
- No tolerance effect whatsoever, despite taking it for 5 days in a row.
This thing gets a thumbs up in my book. One of the very very few things I've tried in my life that had any sort of positive effects.
Edited by BlueCloud, 13 September 2013 - 01:56 PM.