I was reading Czarcasm’s thread about promising his mom he’d give up (caffeinated) coffee, and the advice to taper off the caffeine gradually. Got me reminiscing about an odd thing in my life about uppers in general.
A couple times a month I go out on long walks to stretch my muscles and stay in reasonable shape. I skip my morning coffee because I want to limit the number of necessary pee breaks. I like my coffee but I don’t miss it when I skip it. I think what I like about coffee is the taste and the warmth. Even the caf versus decaf thing boils down to missing the bitter acrid notes that seem to disappear from coffee when you decaffeinate it.
Back when I was a teenager and young adult, and experimenting with various substances, I was occasionally offered amphetamines of various formulations and never found any attraction to them if they did anything at all.
More pervasively, I have had people wishing to turn me on to cocaine. So many people of my generation apparently regard it as a marvelous party pleasure, and a luxury item to be shared with those they care about (and/or wish to impress). I actively dislike the numbness, which is like dentist’s novacaine, and that’s the only affect it seems to have. Well, that’s not 100% true, I guess: I did try crack and I can attest that it isn’t entirely without any impact. It makes me irritable and nervous as hell. Very unpleasant stuff.
All rolled up, and considered as a whole, it seems like the entire world of uppers just doesn’t bring any fun things to my neurology. So I find myself wondering who else, if anyone, has similar experience, you know?
(I assure you, this isn’t some form of “I am above the need for drug-induced euphoria”. There’s a wide range of mind-altering chemistry that I experience as quite pleasant, including a class of substances that I avoid out of fear of their addictive potential.)
My wife says she can’t function without her morning coffees. But while I’ll drink coffee if it’s there, I don’t worry if it’s not. Doesn’t seem to keep me awake, either.
While not a stimulant, I never noticed any effect from Marijuana either. Mind you I’ve never been a smoker so I’ve only had it in cookies enthusiastically presented by afficionados.
I’ll agree with the OP that there certainly are some chemical substances which have non-placebo effects… I too avoid these since I suspect I might get to like them…
I’ve always been happy with depressants, although I’ll admit to enjoying cocaine (so much so that I wisely decided to stay away from it).
In my youth I had a friend give me three or four capsules of some sort of amphetamine. I thought he meant it as “a dose” so I took what he gave me. Turns out I was supposed to enjoy one capsule and save the remainder. Boy, did it suck. I was very awake for a very long time.
I can easily fall asleep even after several cups! Coffee stimulates me up to a point, then seems to have the opposite effect. I’ve never been properly diagnosed with ADHD but the symptoms explain a lot of things about me perfectly.
As I noted in the other thread, I seem to be impervious to coffee’s physiological effects; I enjoy it, and it is part of my morning ritual, but if I skip it for some reason I don’t feel any different. Some days I simply forget to brew any.
I’ve never tried amphetamines or cocaine - those sound terrifying to me. I am pretty tightly wound, and the thought of deliberately ingesting substances that might wind me up even more is unattractive.
After the age of 50 found I do have to limit my coffee. I have always drank coffee from morning till night, now if I have one cup too many I get the jitters. When I was about 19 I ate an entire bag of the little mini bennies. I didn’t sleep for 4 days and on the 3rd day I started having non stop hallucinations that lasted for about 24 hours. The were 100 to a bag. Cocaine never had any attraction for me. On the times I used it I found I talk a lot and when I run out of things to say I just start making stuff up so I can keep on talking.
I can drink two cups of coffee and go to bed. No problem. The only effect it has is that it seems a little easier to get up in the morning.
I make a pot of coffee in the morning, and drink 2-3 cups out of it before it’s finished off. Then I’ll usually have one or two coffees in the evening. When I was young, I’d drink two or three cups in the morning, then switch to Coke and drink 2 or 3 of those during the say, then another after-supper coffee and maybe a coke late at night.
Stimulants don’t make me jittery - they calm me down and help me to focus.