Need help after potentially dangerous combination

[nathanzhale]

Hello, I’m not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask for advice like this, but I am feeling somewhat desperate and thought I’d give it a try. I am a fairly experienced nootropics user, experimenting with a number of different racetams, adaptogens, and more obscure substances. I reserve many of these for specific situations, but my daily stack has been refined to: Lion’s Mane, Rhodiola Rosea, Bacopa, Caffeine, (Sometimes Ashwaganda) and NALT (and usually Magnesium at night). The other day I had a particularly strenuous event which required long term energy and focus (and I had not been sleeping much), so along with that daily stack I added Modafinil and Phenylpiracetam, both of which I have used before. I felt great and was able to move throughout the day with energy and clarity. At the end of the event, without even thinking about it, I had a few drinks of alcohol to celebrate. Almost immediately after these drinks, I could tell this probably wasn’t a great idea. I felt much more drunk than I should have on the amount of alcohol I consumed, and my brain started to get particularly foggy. That night I also took some GABA to help me get to sleep (also probably a bad idea). Now, 5 days after this occurrence, my head still feels very ‘full’ and under pressure, sometimes even painful. I am having terrible brain fog, cannot focus well, especially on written text, and my memory seems really disrupted. I am processing everything much slower and with greater difficulty than ever before and have caught myself spacing out frequently. I know that mixing racetams with alcohol is highly cautioned against because of increased blood flow to the brain and more potential for damage, but I was so relieved at the completion of this event that I didn’t think twice about celebrating with drinks. I am wondering if you have any advice on what I can do to repair some of the damage I may have done, and what type of damage I probably did. It’s been 5 days now and I still feel VERY foggy and disassociated, so I am getting pretty nervous. Will this slowly dissipate, or could I have done something permanent? Thank you so much for reading and any advice you can share would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jekyl Anhydride]

I not well versed in the Nootropics or Sympathomimetic-like Agents but I would have to suspect a sinus and/or viral infection before jumping to "damage" from racetams or adaptogens. I don't know how long you've been using these things either but could rebound be a plausible cause ? You mentioned that you were not getting much sleep before your strenuous event as well which leads me back to a possible viral infection or illness vs damage from some of these substances.

This might be a good time for a break and maybe a cleansing period followed by reflection as to which of these substances are fit for long term use , and which ones might nest be left to intermittent use only. I hope you feel better & don't stress yourself out over possible damage that is highly unlikely.

 

[nathanzhale]

Thank you very much for the reply. I am definitely doing a cleansing period now to try and clear my head out. I am a little curious though if there is something I should/could be taking that could prevent further damage, if that's what is happening. I had not thought about a sinus/viral infection before, and the reason I think this is directly caused by the combination of what I took is because this headache/nausea came on immediately after I drank the alcohol. I think that the alcohol reacted really poorly with what I took, I am just hoping it didn't do anything permanent. It has been almost a week now and I'm still feeling the headache/nausea/fatigue and having a very difficult time focusing and thinking.