A couple of things. First of all, for those of you taking huge amounts of piracetam (like 2 grams 4 times daily), I can recommend to you through experience to start cutting that down. It's not that there's anything wrong with taking that much, but just that it's unnecessary. When I started taking piracetam, I took that much also. Then once I began to recognize its effects on my brain and thinking, I started to cut back. I cut down to 800-1000mg, once per day, in the morniong with the rest of my stack, and I can detect no difference between that dose and 8 grams a day that I used to take (other than saving money!). I will take a second, equivalent dose if I will be doing something mentally intense in the evening, but I rarely take my stack or piracetam itself more than once a day, in the morning.
Now, for my stack (All first thing in the morning):
-800-1000mg piracetam
-2.25mg hydergine (4.5 if I'm feeling really down, as I sometimes do when waking up)
-250mg centrophenoxine
-100mg idebenone
-multivitamin (Now foods ADAM brand)
-2 fish oil caps (can't remember how much of each fatty acid)
-200mg SAM-e (once a week or less, only when I'm feeling really bad in the morning. I find it has little if any effect on a normal day, but if I'm feeling tired and depressed it works very well as a boost out of that state)
-400-2000mg phenibut (only sometimes, as I do not like to build tolerance to it)
-400mg L-theanine (only if I take phenibut. It enhanced the phenibut somewhat)
So that's my stack. I absolutely love it. It's done wonders for my stability of mood and quickness of thought, and imagination, and motivation. For a few years before I started taking them, I was falling ever deeper into a nasty depression, which was, among other things, the result of feeling like I was losing myself, losing my creativity and motivation which I have always considered one of my best traits. Since starting nootropics, I haven't felt like that at all, and I've never felt healthier mentally.
I wouldn't say they're psychedelic, though. They enhance my mind in a very natural-feeling way. That is, they don't alter my perception, they just make it more efficient.
shoshin said:
For those who take it, what tangible benefits has it brought you? If you've combined it with piracetam, how does the combo compare to either one seperately?
I highly, highly recommend hydergine. I've found that its mind-quickening effects are less dramatic than piracetam's, but when combined with piracetam, they're both more effective, and particularly, my ability to kmeep many things in mind at once without getting confused or forgetting something is increased quite a bit more than with either of them alone. Also, hydergine has some unique qualities from piracetam. It helped to stabilize my mood moreso than any other nootropics I've tried. A mood swing happens to me so rarely now that I've had one within the past 3 months.
Hydergine is so worth it. It's definitely more expensive than the others, but the cost is easily worth it. You shouldn't have to spend $40 a month on it, either. I would begin with a full 4.5mg tablet for a week or so while you get used to its effects, but after that, half of one (2.25mg) is plenty. Like piracetam and most nootropics, less is just as good once you realize what they're doing in your brain, especially when you're combining multiple ones (as they tend to potentiate each other). Last time I ordered hydergine, I picked up 120 tabs for about $100, including shipping. At a half a tablet a day, that will last me 240 days, or about 2/3 of a year. Plus, I usually don't take nootropics on the weekend, to give my brain a little break (although my hunch is that the nootropics I take, especially hydergine and piracetam, are not unhealthy at all, but are in fact extremely beneficial for your brain long-term). So at approximately $120 or a year, it's much cheaper than your estimation of $40 a month.