Willing yourself into a state of speeding without taking any amphetamine

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

The other night, I decided once and for all to attack a major mountain of work I had waiting for me. Granted it's the type of work that had a window of months to complete, but I'm getting near the point where the window won't be open a whole lot longer. So I just psyched myself up to get a lot of work done. As I ran around the kitchen preparing myself food, I fell into the habit of rapidly jumping to the next task that presented itself to me, and gradually trying to multitask and quickly think ahead more than usual. Over a matter of minutes I could feel my mind accelerating, the way my heart does when I'm doing cardio exercises. I ended up in a state of high arousal, and got done an enormous amount of work over the next 6~7h. That night I slept only 5 hours, but felt decent the next day.

Ah, but the day after that I crashed. Hard. I fell into a pretty depressive state where I couldn't get motivated to do anything, even after ending the night of productivity telling myself, 'Oh, no problem if a few more things are still left hanging. I'll gladly pick up right where I left off in the next couple of days!' But I'd never imagined how short lived that feeling would be. I've come to expect that from Adderall. But I haven't taken an Adderall in half a year, or any other stimulants except coffee. I thought I'd just changed my attitude, and could do it again at will. But it seems as though I willed a change in my neurochemistry not far removed from that inflicted by amphetamine.

I still feel depressed and amotivated. Also, looking back on it, I had other mental and physical changes during the episode that were similar to those produced by amphetamines -- fast heartbeat, rapid shallow breathing, a little flushing, and even a little gurning. No sweating, though.

I've taken medical neuroscience, so I understand how an ingrained neural pathway can be reactivated, and also how the original stimulus need not even be there for this reactivation to occur, especially if the pathway is a well trodden one. But my flings with amphetamine were always on the mild side, even during the 2 1-month periods where I used it daily. The drug always did have a strong impact on me, granted, even though I successfully resisted the urge to go nuts with it.

Have any other former amphetamine users ever willed themselves into a state very close to speeding, with or without trying to? What circumstances brought this on for you? What was the outcome? How did the state you entered differ from your experience of taking amphetamine?

 

[RedRum OG]

i can relate to this with opiates. after i got clean off morphine for the first time i could sometimes get myself a nice little endorphin rush if i was in the right mindset and just sort of willed myself to feel better. its very strange but i know what you mean. unfortunately it more often works the other way, i get some anxiety about something then my junky self will start thinking "i need dope" even when not currently addicted and i will start to feel sick- yawning, goosebumps, runny nose and all
i have no idea why

 

[SunThatShines]

I've tried a stimulant (Crystal Methamphetamine) 7 days ago, and used it ever day since, but allowed myself to sleep at night even though some nights I only slept for 3-4 hours. Today I did the last of what I had left which was a very small amount so I snorted it. Not touching the stuff ever again due to how much I enjoy it and how I believe I could go overboard with it.

Anyways, I'm a big pharmacology nerd- and from what I understand about stimulants and how they act on the brain, I don't believe you can "trick" yourself/mind into producing/releasing more dopamine (which is in fact what makes you feel high when your on a stimulant.).

What you did IMO, was possiby increase "Adrenaline", which is why your heart was beating faster and you had the sweats.


thats my .2 cents

 

[Jabberwocky]

I was thinking about SO for this but SO largely doesn't do drug topics. P&S and TDS occurred to me as well. I think HL might be a good place to start this out but I think this very discussion worthy thread might be Homeless's conundrum of the month so I can picture it ending up somewhere else.

 

[zombiesarepeaceful]

I've taken adderall off and on for years, but I've never tried or succeeded in doing this.

I have, however, willed myself into a state of tripping after years of heavy psychedelic use.

 

[jam uh weezy]

ironically, ever since i stopped smoking weed religiously like i did in my teen years weed has a stimulant effect on me.
i raraely smoke, but when i do i usuallylly start with cleaning and get all types of other things i've been putting off done. and i do it in a great moood. i get that whole multitasking sense as well, although with weed i do tend to forget what i was doing before hand more often.

the only difference from the times i've done amps, is that i can't get really into that one task, my mind is usually thinking the normal 'genius stoner thoughts' while getting activities done.

 

[wooger]

I have had a similar thing with feeling like I am on MDMA before. It doesn't last long, like 30 secs to one minute tops. It seems to be triggered by memories and being in a certain place, I suppose its quite pleasent .

 

[bec.x]

I think I have had experiences more or less exactly like this. Usually it just happens by itself when there is a lot to do, but I believes sometimes I can bring it about willingly.
There are less physical effects than with real speed, but the mind is somehow clearer and I work faster. I've also had the MDMA flashbacks, but as said, these are very short.


I use stimulants a few times in a month.

 

[1josephjohn]

I've never done speed but I do get adrenalized every once and a while from nothing....
just certain life experiences get me moving at fast paste with all the same symptoms you explained.They'll be days when I crash too... it's weird.

 

[X3DFX]

The mind can recreate basically anything its seen before, stimulated states of mind included. Just takes a bit of willing and what not.

 

[Filby]

Since I've been smoking weed I've had odd experiences that are intense but very brief(less than 30 seconds). In my case I'll be completely sober and just sitting around watching tv or on the computer and then I get this strange urge to look at the back of my hand as I hold it a foot in front of my face. I get the most unexplainable visual. I don't really think of it as a visual because nothing is there, its more like my perception is completely messed up. My hand compared to whats behind my hand are completely unreal looking and I don't believe my eyes. Its also weird because I don't feel my eyes focusing on anything specific, but rather everything at once. It's overwhelming, and as soon as I can think about what is going on its over. As you may be able to tell I still can't explain what its like, but it happens every once in a while and all that I can think of during is.. wow..

 

[mind&memory]

many experiences like this.... always due to sleep deprival and keeping myself far too busy to actually maintain without a habit. and yes, you do crash even without the drugs.

 

[CoffeeDrinker]

I have a thought regarding your situation MDAO: What if what you're describing is the side effect of the chemical reactions of the thoughts (of productivity) themselves.

You said that you put off for a long while a large project that you were given months to complete and when the immensity of the work ahead of you, or else face the consequences of not doing it, started to reach a breaking point in your procrastination prone brain you must've felt to a certain degree a sense of "fight or flight" regarding doing this project. This was causing stress, which has been proven to have physiological effects on the recipient, as you well know, which could have set the stage for your brain to be slightly more on edge, or perhaps more vulnerable to a change in mental states, than normal when it came time for you to actually do your work. Also, do you thinks it's possible that you subconsciously gave yourself a slightly higher than usual boost of adrenaline in order to deal with everything? That might explain the crash.

You said you felt the pace of your thoughts accelerate, well I would say that that is no accident. You were probably kicking your brain into a higher gear, as it were, in order to tackle the "mountain of work" that lay before you.

Did you learn about biofeedback in your studies at all, MDAO? I've heard very interesting things, and I was referred to one by my old doctor, but the insurance wouldn't cover it. I looked into it a great deal once she told me that she thinks it would greatly benefit me, and still look it up sometimes. I'd love to actually see an expert. I bet if someone were to attach the right sensors to a person's brain they could witness the "self medication" brought on by sheer desire to feel stimulated. That's amazing. The mind-body connection is taking far too long to fully integrate western medicine, IMO. Then again I haven't exactly been closely watching the breakthroughs in that field, as of yet, but the doctors I see don't seem to pay much attention to it. If you think about it every single healthcare product claims to cure a symptom or two, and then lead to an overall improvement in your life. So every product essentially claims to make a positive impact on your mood and self image. Isn't that an implicit acceptance of the intimate connection between the mind and the body?
Biofeedback devices can pinpoint certain valuable pieces of information about the body's state of being, and the goal is to be able to train yourself by seeing the various measurements in real time of your heart rate, skin moisture, various brain waves, etc. and trying to control them with your mind. It's also used for athletes to get peak performance by focusing all their mental energy on completely maximizing their body's athletic potential while still conserving as much energy and trying to prevent lactic acid build-up.
I would venture to guess that those athletes that have the most fluent access to this "higher gear" in their brain are the ones who are at the top of their game in any given field.
I say good for you for being productive and hard working and able to kick your brain into this gear, though you were kinda pressured into it. But still good job.

Anywhoo what do you think of the possibility that it was the thoughts themselves that caused you to crash via having an already stressed out mind and by forcing yourself to think and act at a faster pace and do tedious work?

EDIT:
Also I was thinking, as an add on to my theory, that this phenomenon could also possibly explain placebo. If the chemical and electrical reactions which create our stream of consciousness could cause changes in your body's state of being in that situation, then perhaps the chemical reactions which compose the thoughts of a recipient of a placebo pill could cause just as much a physical impact on the body as the real drug would have.
What do you say to that?

 

[barnbaby]

Never managed myself and Iregularly use speed-however over the years close friends and significantly my 28yr old daughter behave as if speeding and for hours sometimes when in my company and daughters bf hassles her for taking some even falling out when we explain why we think this is bouncing from me