RE: Cognitive enhancing drugs for the professional

gervasi — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:17:05 GMT

My suspicion is that if you use it more than very occassionally, you lose the benefit. I have this with RedBull. I have one almost every afternoon. It used to enhance my concentration, but after a time it only gets you back to where you should be. I suspect there will be a backlash against the energy drinks and prescription stimulants. It used to be they marketed the stimulants to treat ADHD and obesity, knowing that some people sometimes took them for enhanced concentration and wakefulness. Now they're openingly promoting the drugs for wakefulness. None of this is terrible. People have taken drugs since ancient times and which ones are socially accepted and which are demonized is an accident of history. I suspect there will be a backlash against the always-on culture, and that will come out in the need to demonize these chemicals. It's similar to how people who rejected the 60s counterculture had to demonize marijuana despite its low risk profile. It's not about the chemical itself but rather what people feel about what the chemical respresents.

RE: Cognitive enhancing drugs for the professional

DAB — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 22:02:14 GMT

Every persons physiology is different. Anytime you introduce different chemicals into the body you initiate a sequence of reactions, none of which you can predict ahead of time. True, some chemicals may provide benefits, even measureable performance improvements, but each will also come with a number of unpredictable side effects.

Even medical professionals spend long periods of time researching and testing new drugs because they are not able to accurately predict what will happen when they are used by many people. At best, they derive a potential probability of success or failure, but each person will respond differently.

Since I don't trust the professional medical experts to get it right, I am not even going to consider using myself as a guinea pig to test so called enhancement drugs.

A doctor who is his own patient is a fool.

There is a reason why they call it doping. Only a dope would use them.

Most of us have been given certain genetic capabilities based upon what our ancesters learned. Now is not the time to throw away centuries of natural genetic building blocks for the illusion of instant improvement.

I have seen the horror that drug abuse can have on people who use them. There is nothing these drugs or chemicals promise that would convince me to try them. I have too much natural ability to risk something different. Even in my current disabled situation.

DAB