Ask HN: Quit Stimulants, Productivity Suffering

20 points · hnthrowhelp12 · 3 days ago

Hi HN - Senior SWE at FAANG who has basically stayed afloat via stimulants which gradually ruined my life and emotional well being.

I finally broke the chains and more or less replaced these bad habits with healthier ones, which has been great. However, I can barely function at work and my contributions have dropped to near zero. It’s causing me immense stress in a culture that is cutthroat.

How can I rebuild a normal way of working?

37 comments

codingdave · 2 days ago

There is an interesting question underlying this scenario - is working in a cutthroat culture "normal" in the first place? If you needed stimulants to succeed there, and are trying to now live a healthier life, does that job even fit in that healthier life? Or should the answer to your question be more along the lines of finding a new role where your productivity meshes better with the expectations?

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alphan0n · 2 days ago

I stopped taking amphetamine stimulants for similar reasons and with a similar outcome.

I ended up getting a prescription for Provigil (modafinil), a non-amphetamine stimulant.

It’s not nearly as dopaminergic as amphetamine, decidedly non-euphoric, but more motivationally stimulating than caffeine.

I found that the dose response lends itself well to former addicts, where taking the recommended dosage (100mg for me) does not result in a “high” nor does taking 3-4x that dosage, and is quite unpleasant to do so.

As well as being long lived, a single dose lasting 10-12 hours, not a time release formulation mind you, reduces the moreish hunger of short duration stimulants.

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· 8 hours ago

[deleted]

uncomplexity_ · 1 days ago

you just gotta rawdog it and learn how to function without it.

you're chasing two rabbits here: a short-term one and a long-term one.

you're smart enough to know which of those two matters more.

you're smart enough to know all those energy and focus you had is just borrowed time.

you're smart enough to know you've been digging yourself in a hole of massive withdrawal which can take weeks and months.

you're smart enough to know that substituting it with other uppers like caffeine, nicotine, will still keep you dependent.

just rawdog it cold turkey, exercise consistently, get rid of junk food, eat meats and veggies, hydrate properly, and rest enough.

just suck it up and etch in your head that getting yourself back kn track takes time and there will be no immediate results.

sculpting art from a block of marble takes time, it will be days and weeks of you doing the same damn thing even if you dont enjoy it, even if you dont feel good about it, even if you dont see your desired outcomes yet.

mickelsen · 1 days ago

I hate that at times, it feels I'm postponing the same outcome.

I was able to come back to 30mg Vyvanse daily, 50mg made me super impatient, fight with my gf and just be short-tempered with everyone, plus the productivity window was always reducing after some time.

But even at 30mg, it's just not the same effect as 14 years ago of course, and taking breaks can only do so much. Now 30mg feels like enough just for getting out of bed and doing a normal day.

Low dose (25mg) sertraline for a few months fixed the temper thing. Good sleep is a must. Still finding a way to take it easy and reduce the stimulant further, I'm still able to engage on technical things deeply that interest me and live my life fine, but I'm not cut out for the stress of a more senior position, not unless I start to make compromises, so that's not the avenue I'm pursuing at least.

I do have ADHD, diagnosed as a kid and the pattern worsened in college until I started treatment, if that matters.