My personal experience with beta-PEA tells me it's active but only for a very short time. I just don't think it was subtle enough for placebo while at the same time it was not special enough to make a big deal out of it's limited activity. Yes it could always be placebo, let's not get into that discussion because it has been known to get lengthy sometimes.
Now about the family of phenethylamines, I don't think there is much use in convicting a family of chemicals on a familiarity in the structure. Amphetamine itself releases or elevates levels of monoamines such as dopamine. Substituted psychedelic phenethylamines however are pharmacologically different enough, they basically work by being agonists or partial agonists of serotonin receptors.
Psychedelic amphetamines namely the most common DOX compounds could be said to fall a little in-between, they are speedy and stimulating but also psychedelic. But still it does not appear to me like something like DOC has a similar potential for fiending or addiction as typical stimulants if only for the fact that it brings all those psychedelic effects that would scare you away from abuse like that.
But I'm sorry if you are only talking about beta-PEA itself, in which case this thread is not entirely in the right BL forum.
Again I think beta-PEA (basic phenethylamine) has an effect that is far too limited to enjoy let alone chase, perhaps the only reason would be that it feels warm and good - approaching euphoric even - for a very short time and you might become enticed to get another little taste before it disappears again, and again.
I had something similar with 1,3-DMAA even though it is a shitty lousy drug. But at the time I was desperate enough and had no alternative.
How something with apparent low potential for addiction give you that feeling even though you say you do not know yourself to have an addictive personality, I can't explain. Maybe you are not as immune to it as you think, maybe to don't allow yourself to feel even remotely hooked to things that are known for it, but are caught by surprise by something that is not known for it.
A while back GHB was used here a lot with the idea that it had no negative sides. That only made it that much more addictive on the long run it seems.
PEA seems quite harmless, I would think that metabolism beats any raised levels from ingestion before it could become a problem. But as a rule of thumb, I'd be careful about pushing the envelope to a certain unexpected point where chemical balance is thrown out of whack after all. For example by conditioning your brain to break down more and more PEA, but it accidentally also breaks down your own endogenous natural monoamines.
I have no reason to actually believe something like this would be true and don't interpret it as a dramatization, I am only trying to give an example why it is good to keep an eye out in general and especially for escalation of any kind.
