DOSE:

oral

Modafinil

(pill / tablet)

BODY WEIGHT:

85 kg

I've been a fan of modafinil for about four years now, since I prescribed it to myself in India... the world's best country for pharmaceuticals! I work as an independent journalist over the Internet, so much of my work gets done late at night. Probably because it's quieter that way, or because it leaves the entire day for procrastination...

I'd heard about this new wonderdrug of the future in a New Scientist article and thought I'd read up on it. Nothing significant, nothing scary, so I went and found some at my local pharmacy. And loved it from the start!

I felt the onset coming slowly, after about half an hour. The feeling of sleepiness just dissolves away, and I feel a my mood improving, sometimes significantly.

When it seems to reach its peak, there's not much in the way of effects... My mind seems to work clearly without any of the haziness of sleep. Appetite seems to disappear, or rather I *forget* about eating for hours on end.

Of course, the wonderful effects depend on *how* sleepy I really am... If I've gone for sleep over 24 hours, then need to stay up and work, a single 100mg dose might not do the trick. I usually combine it with coffee (a cocktail I've dubbed coffafinil), Red Bull or any other energy drink with significant amounts of caffeine also helps.

I also have the unfortunate habit of leaving my work for after I come home from a night out at a pub... In that case, I would probably have to take 150 mg of modafinil and coffee, or just collapse on the keyboard...

As for abuse, there is definitely potential for psychological abuse. I find myself grabbing the modafinil in the morning to complement my coffee, whereas it may have been avoided. In general, however, if I've been taking modafinil excessively (over 2x100 mg doses per day), for several days, I find I just feel like quitting it for a while and catching up on good ol'fashioned sleep.

Similarly, if I have some urgent deadline and take over 200-300 mg in a close proximity of time (say 4-5 hours), then I start to feel the negative side effects more... Put it simply, it would never be a drug of choice for abuse! I start feeling dopy, in the sense that I can't remember or focus on my work too much, and I feel buzzy or nervous... temper's fuse also becomes shorter! And it can take a while for the come-down after such an episode, can't sleep...

Two other things. Usually, it's cool to combine with alcohol, preferably before... in higher doses, alcohol seems to potentiate some of the above mentioned effects like sensitivity and buzziness. But during a party, no problems, and can keep me talking well into the morning!

And finally, wanted to mention the zombie state. If I've been taking it at regular intervals, say 5-6 hours, and have stayed awake for over 30 hours (for example a long flight, can never get to sleep), I reach a point where I feel flat, like an awake zombie... no emotions, just flat and awake. Brain processes feel equally functional but flat...

All that being said, I never go anywhere without a least a few backup tabs tucked away in my wallet! It's enhanced my life in the sense that I can live it to the extremes allowed by my job and travel... It and the job are also probably responsible for the fact that I have a very skewed sleeping pattern, if any at all! Without the modafinil, I'd either be forced to drink lots of coffee to live that way, or I'd have to tone things down a bit.

A final point. My wife has a more conventional 9-5 job, and equally believes that life can exist after work hours and during weekdays... Modafinil helps her live the same hyper lifestyle while remaining perfectly functional at work.

Of course, it helps that I can buy Modafinil in large quantities in India for $2.5 per strip of 10...

Exp Year: 2010	ExpID: 90613
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 28
Published: Mar 21, 2020	Views: 914
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Modafinil (217) : Retrospective / Summary (11), Performance Enhancement (50), Not Applicable (38)