Why does time go by so fast on stimulants?

[deadendgame]

Why does time go by lightning fast when you're on any kind of stimulant? Depending on the stimulant, my day can go by 2x or 3x faster than usual, and if I'm watching a movie or playing video games, it goes by even faster

 

[Wiserthanearlier]

Time flies when your having fun...

Seriously, your trolling right?

 

[deadendgame]

No man, this is an actual thing that's happening. Everyone who's took stims knows this is the case. I just wanted to know if anyone had a pharmacological and/or physiological explanation of why this is the case

 

[Coolwhip]

Clearly amphetamines alter your journey through the time space-continuum, if my calculations are correct IV 88mg of methamphetamine and you're gonna see some serious shit.

 

[CFC]

Dopamine and norepinephrine play critical roles in the cerebral organisation of time perception, and the use of stimulants has a dramatic effect on their signalling in various areas of the brain. In a sense you're giving yourself hyperfocus, something many people with ADHD already experience.

I'm not sure what level you're comfortable reading at, but you might start with this basic Wikipedia article on time perception: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_perception

You may also find these general articles interesting for a start:

http://www.unisci.com/stories/20011/0227013.htm
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo...when-the-brains-biological-clock-goes-haywire
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/25/45/10369

 

[adder]

I'm not sure if I share your experience with time perception and stimulants. IME if you're on a stimulant and are forced to sit through a boring lecture, it actually feels longer than it normally would be. The key here is getting into a state of flow, getting full immersed into an activity that is interesting and satisfying to you, perhaps stimulants can promote this, but still it has to be something you like doing. I myself had many negative experiences on stimulants with a lot of stress when my focus was definitely much worse than it normally is, but I'm sure this has a lot to do with personal predisposition towards stress and anxiety. I usually perform much better on a anxiolytic, e.g. opioids in moderate doses always made me more focused and calm during activities I enjoy.

 

[MDPV_Psychosis]

I'm not sure if I share your experience with time perception and stimulants. IME if you're on a stimulant and are forced to sit through a boring lecture, it actually feels longer than it normally would be. The key here is getting into a state of flow, getting full immersed into an activity that is interesting and satisfying to you, perhaps stimulants can promote this, but still it has to be something you like doing. I myself had many negative experiences on stimulants with a lot of stress when my focus was definitely much worse than it normally is, but I'm sure this has a lot to do with personal predisposition towards stress and anxiety. I usually perform much better on a anxiolytic, e.g. opioids in moderate doses always made me more focused and calm during activities I enjoy.

Yes, I believe most stimulant induced time dilation effects are set and setting dependent. Time can fly by when fully immersed but it can also come to nearly a screeching halt under different conditions.

For example, time can seem to crawl by extremely slowly for me during times I'm highly anxious, whereas time pretty much goes warp 9 during porn watching sessions.

 

[busted.produk]

Proof that time is relative...

 

[CFC]

I'm not sure if I share your experience with time perception and stimulants. IME if you're on a stimulant and are forced to sit through a boring lecture, it actually feels longer than it normally would be.

This would be a further corollary of hyperfocus. The sheer boredom of the activity you don't enjoy causes you to be deeply but transiently focused on anything and everything apart from (or including) the thing you don't enjoy, and thus very in the moment and aware of the passage of time framed outside the message of the lecture. I suppose you could compare it to an unpleasant type of mindfulness.

 

[Solipsis]

Very interesting thread... this does touch on hyperfocus and other ADD symptoms, and flow / mindfulness and immersion - I have ADD and I empathize with previous posts.

Would be hard to pick between amps and an opioid for say playing the piano. The opioid would probably be even better, not sure which would be more 'narrowing' but the stim might kill creativity quicker while improving on of course attention span and consistent performance.
Probably it would rather become a question of dosage, therapeutic index, tradeoff of effects/symptoms/function at the boundaries of that therapeutic index.

As ADD is not about a lack of focus/attention but having less control over direction/shifting attention, I experience this difference in time perception (sometimes to extreme extents which can be problematic for functioning) with both being on my dexamp script and without. I understand it's human to have differences in time perception, but it should normally not be all too extreme.
Without my dexamp, hyperfocus happens accidentally more often, I think. With it, the immersion tends to be more intentional and better managed.
Interestingly, it seems like the therapeutic effect of dexamp can help me train managing attention better when taking a day off from the dex.

 

[Nagelfar]

Problem is, when people think of pleasures as transitory, amphetamines is about *confirmation bias*; I've had times of my life under the influence of stimulants that seem to take forever; and I realize only twenty minutes have passed. So it's not a 1-to-1 correlation that the more you enjoy something the quicker times goes by. It's the more you believe with the emotion involved what that elicits; just unlearn it being something "illicit" and you'll elicit good in your experience.

For example, time can seem to crawl by extremely slowly for me during times I'm highly anxious, whereas time pretty much goes warp 9 during porn watching sessions.

CFC's "Time perception" WP article mention above has some good insights; as in its revision current to me posting this the final of the short list of types of "temporal illusions" mentioning "Simultaneity judgments can be manipulated by repeated exposure to non-simultaneous stimuli", maybe all your separate orgasms just end up as one huge one at the end of your session and memory is manipulated by the confirmation bias of the drug. LOL j/k

 

[Solipsis]

I think the correlation is rather with flow / hyperfocus / defaulting to repetitive activity, which in turn only partially or potentially relates to pleasure but not necessarily. It can be pleasant to become single-minded on stims, and losing sight of other things makes it difficult to track time by the rate at which things happen. The repetitive activity is of no use since it doesn't involve unique singular experiences serving as temporal marker, and the rest tends to get ignored.

Sometimes but not always, when you're having fun you are in a flow. Daniel Kahneman postulated that there are 2 main modes of thinking: fast, intuitive and slow and elaborate. We reserve the slow mode for actual careful calculation and analysis while the fast mode is more heuristic and operates roughly with assumptions, prejudice, etc.
Being in the flow also happens to sporters and it tends to be best to 'turn off the mind', reflexes can function extraordinarily well. I think time goes by fast when you're in a flow or in a single-minded / hyperfocused mode, and when you're having fun sometimes this goes hand in hand with the fun / pleasure - on stims this may come hand in hand more often I guess. Then there just wasn't much conscious reflection during, and afterwards it feels like stuff just kinda "happened".
If you had the time of your life on stims doing things very consciously though, your experience of time may be far from fleeting.

 

[asecin]

go by so fast? i was confused at this topic, long lasting stimulants which are most, about 12 hours or so, make me feel like they never fucking end! i just want them to fucking end!!! why was there no amphetamine created as of yet that last just 4 fucking hours, just enough to get shit done and then pass out???

 

[Solipsis]

Do you react badly to methylphenidate then?

On too high doses of amps but especially phenidates, overstimulation and side effects get worse and worse which is what I want to end. So I'd say it's a result of you taking too much, or you really need to get yourself some dexamph which is much less physically boosting and thus more gentle. I don't require a lot, taken daily as script, to get shit done. Sure I feel a bit shitty on days off, but nothing like serious speed use which sucks ass after just one day of overdoing it.

We are talking about the effects at proper doses with proper reaction, not the agony of side- or aftereffects.

10 mg methylphenidate works for me, but not sustainably - I find it a little lacking so tend to go a bit higher, and I can easily get the feeling like therapeutic effects are an hour and after-effects really bug me and produce way more insomnia for example than my dexamph XR (nota bene).

Limited dose of 2-FA is pretty dexamph-like to me, functional and lasts hardly those 4 hours iirc.
I can find it difficult to gauge actual duration of effects, especially of therapeutic doses of therapeutic/functional stims like dex. In some regards it lasts all day and I don't notice 'coming down', but I have way more ADD in the evening, i get that gradually.