Some of this you (Katherine) know about me already, but for the purpose of this comment: I've been diagnosed ADHD for sixteen years, know quite a lot about the pharmacology of Adderall and recently stopped prescription stimulants five months ago. I'm sure someone will think I'm still taking it because of the length of what I'm writing but I need to cement that my brain is just this way, and if I was on medication this comment would probably be double in length.
Most of what I could say about prescription stimulants has been said, so I'll keep to what's novel: the biggest difference I'm noticing is in memory formation. I could go into detail about this if you'd like and going into detail would probably require an article of its own, but my theory which I have no evidence for is that Adderall increases fluid cognitive ability at the expense of long term memory formation, or output at the expense of input. (For transparency, my dose was 15mg/day of IR and I averaged ~215lb bodyweight during my prescription.)
To use an analogy to AI, the Adderall tradeoff is like the difference between ChatGPT4o - which stores memory for induction - and ChatGPT o1-mini, which is a more powerful reasoning engine but tunnelvisioned and contextless.
The biggest on/off prescription-stimulant difference is how you negotiate memory to yourself; I can put off thinking about something because I know the thought will come back to me. The universal Adderall Experience is a burst of thoughts on a topic that drive you to expel them from your brain **right now**, and they'll be lost if you don't. This is beneficial in some ways and detrimental in others, because when misused it's the impulse that drives you to clean your room for three hours and fixate on a stain that won't go away.
In essence, the Adderalled brain limits intrusive thoughts for higher performance in-the-moment. This sound good on paper, but intrusive thoughts are also what allow our memory to help us remember details by osmosis and enable our creative thought processes like divergent association.
What I don't want is for someone to take away that prescription medication is bad and needs to be limited, because there's always someone who immediately infers a prohibitionist action item the moment a drug is deemed problematic in any respect. I need to reiterate the point that what I've described is a tradeoff, because tunnelvision can be beneficial also. This is why stimulant medication has a purpose and should be taken at low doses and cycled when tunnelvision is more useful than divergent intrusive thought. But I think the fact that there **is** a tradeoff is important on a basic level, because the discourse over the last few years has been "is it a Nootropic? y/n".
I hope that this kind of discussion creates more nuance. I am reluctant to even talk about this because I don't want someone to jump to an irrational conclusion. But if you view the Adderall trend through the phenomenology of Adderall, you'll see these aspects everywhere: people who are able to focus and pay attention but whose front-of-mind thoughts drown their listening.
>> the biggest difference I'm noticing is in memory formation.
i forgot to say something about this -- i think there's gotta be a cultural impact here, too agree with much of this -- and indeed that is the culture of the internet. good comment and wil lfigure out how to pin it
Think about it, the current age is all about the Neverending now so why would memory be prioritized? We live in a world of constant ephemeral picture taking. Memory has no value now.
someone once told me stimies are fascist and things like opium and weed are commie lol there seems to be some truth to that but with regards to the *dark triad* I have to say most those big brain nibbas were heavily stimulated on all three. Think drinking coffee all day with as much sugar as possible and smoking pipes to boot. Hell one of my favorite things of all time is to drink some earl grey tea and then have some Zyn and be on a telegram voice chat all night. :) sadly ive quit nicotine for the 9th time in about 10 months.
On Cyborg babies: there are theories from the Christian fringe that part of The End Times will be a mingling of human souls and bodies with hardware and software, effectively creating a new kind of Nephilim to serve some kind of god-man cyborg or alien (Fallen Watchers from Enoch) The guys at Canary Cry News Talk are way better at explaining this than me. It’s all founded upon the work of Chuck Missler and Dr. Michael Heiser.
Fwiw I have OCD, which has been very effectively treated with Sertraline, and also have a prescription for Concerta (I haven't had refilled in months because Canadian healthcare crisis lol). Both have been life changing/saving, and my wife will assure you my libido hasn't gone anywhere LOL.
I love your evaluation of Substack writers. So many people are trying to win a Pulitzer or something! I write very short pieces hyping my mind in pursuit of wealth and having a great family life.
I really reject the idea that substances have a big influence on culture, btw. That is a bad meme. People think of Hendrix (or whoever your person is) doing acid, but completely overlook the fact he was an insanely hard working, tenacious person who did hundreds of takes and rewrites, and relentlessly experimented with emerging audio technology. He also worked with all kinds of other great, expert musicians (i.e. Miles Davis), and directly worked with amplifier and guitar pedal inventors. Just to illustrate, it is hard to see what LSD has to do with anything when you really dig into what he was actually up to haha.
"Adderall and internet overexposure both condition the brain to fixate, flattening emotional affect and amplifying irritability. And if you’re actually taking Adderall, you get the bonus of mood swings."
As an ex-Adderall user, I would like to see some links on long term effects, if anyone in this comment thread has some to share.
The part about writing style is really interesting! As someone who grew up online, the impact of the internet makes an incredible amount of sense, since it didn't just shape my conceptualization of narrative and stories, but was where I did most of the actual writing too, and learned from others around me.
I also recently read a post by writer and writing teacher Brandon Taylor who noticed similar things about literature and he explored the impact of tv/movies/screens on first person fiction, mentioning that lack of interiority. The internet and tv/movies aren't entirely separate these days so I'm sure there's some good crossover there.
you could call the kind of writing Katherine describes here as “purgative art,” rather than “performance art,” as the act of purging the thoughts from the psyche are the real goal here, rather than creating nutritive substance for the audience. The author’s indulgence is the goal, and readers are essentially voyeurs. You’ve heard “death of the author” literary criticism, but how about “death of the reader?”
Excellent comment. Some writing is just drawing the poison. If you want to write for an audience, that's the stuff you leave in a folder somewhere and never publish.
Good read. I've also noticed with my students that they're likely to imitate these evolving writing trends. They write a ton, hardly edit or revise, and also bury their leads the same way a lot of online writing does to get viewers to keep scrolling.
Sorry, but I came here to defend Adderall and Ritalin. They are THE BEST. Should be available over the counter. Americans aren’t free until we can buy medicinal amphetamines at the airport vending machine. Where there is Advil, there should be Vyvanse. I am not even joking.
Totally. Loved the piece! And I wonder what the ketamine era will produce. I was telling myself we were in the ayahuasca era but you’re prob right, ketamine is more widely used.
It’s small, but the all lowercase writing, an exceptionally Gen-Z thing, feels like such an absurd performance of hurried nonchalance and “authentic” stream of consciousness. You literally have to actively stylize it that way on most keyboards, which makes it feel exceptionally tedious. I won’t even read an all lowercase piece because of it.
I’ve tended to notice it in online writing with Millennials and everywhere (text, dating apps, work chats) with Gen Z. Either way, I think it’s worse than the Boomer ellipses…
I have asked this cyborg babies question to my husband who thought I was crazy but my argument was how could we really know what’s possible until we know more about the combination of technology and biology? AI will likely be able to make it happen somehow, but why would they given their superiority?
What line of work is your husband in? I asked a friend who does gene editing this AM, wanna have her on to explore it. I do think humanoid robots are coming, whether they gestate or "grow up" or not
Oh haha the way I wrote that sounded like he was a scientist but no he’s just my baseline for checking how bonkers my thoughts are. 😂 But I’m with you on this one. I think it’s possible, we just haven’t discovered the way to make it work yet.
Some of this you (Katherine) know about me already, but for the purpose of this comment: I've been diagnosed ADHD for sixteen years, know quite a lot about the pharmacology of Adderall and recently stopped prescription stimulants five months ago. I'm sure someone will think I'm still taking it because of the length of what I'm writing but I need to cement that my brain is just this way, and if I was on medication this comment would probably be double in length.
Most of what I could say about prescription stimulants has been said, so I'll keep to what's novel: the biggest difference I'm noticing is in memory formation. I could go into detail about this if you'd like and going into detail would probably require an article of its own, but my theory which I have no evidence for is that Adderall increases fluid cognitive ability at the expense of long term memory formation, or output at the expense of input. (For transparency, my dose was 15mg/day of IR and I averaged ~215lb bodyweight during my prescription.)
To use an analogy to AI, the Adderall tradeoff is like the difference between ChatGPT4o - which stores memory for induction - and ChatGPT o1-mini, which is a more powerful reasoning engine but tunnelvisioned and contextless.
The biggest on/off prescription-stimulant difference is how you negotiate memory to yourself; I can put off thinking about something because I know the thought will come back to me. The universal Adderall Experience is a burst of thoughts on a topic that drive you to expel them from your brain **right now**, and they'll be lost if you don't. This is beneficial in some ways and detrimental in others, because when misused it's the impulse that drives you to clean your room for three hours and fixate on a stain that won't go away.
In essence, the Adderalled brain limits intrusive thoughts for higher performance in-the-moment. This sound good on paper, but intrusive thoughts are also what allow our memory to help us remember details by osmosis and enable our creative thought processes like divergent association.
What I don't want is for someone to take away that prescription medication is bad and needs to be limited, because there's always someone who immediately infers a prohibitionist action item the moment a drug is deemed problematic in any respect. I need to reiterate the point that what I've described is a tradeoff, because tunnelvision can be beneficial also. This is why stimulant medication has a purpose and should be taken at low doses and cycled when tunnelvision is more useful than divergent intrusive thought. But I think the fact that there **is** a tradeoff is important on a basic level, because the discourse over the last few years has been "is it a Nootropic? y/n".
I hope that this kind of discussion creates more nuance. I am reluctant to even talk about this because I don't want someone to jump to an irrational conclusion. But if you view the Adderall trend through the phenomenology of Adderall, you'll see these aspects everywhere: people who are able to focus and pay attention but whose front-of-mind thoughts drown their listening.
>> the biggest difference I'm noticing is in memory formation.
i forgot to say something about this -- i think there's gotta be a cultural impact here, too agree with much of this -- and indeed that is the culture of the internet. good comment and wil lfigure out how to pin it
Think about it, the current age is all about the Neverending now so why would memory be prioritized? We live in a world of constant ephemeral picture taking. Memory has no value now.
Another data point for Adderall being an internet drug!
Not to mention that we’re all filled with a bunch of plastic already anyway. Are they trying to turn us into robots?? Hm 🤔
someone once told me stimies are fascist and things like opium and weed are commie lol there seems to be some truth to that but with regards to the *dark triad* I have to say most those big brain nibbas were heavily stimulated on all three. Think drinking coffee all day with as much sugar as possible and smoking pipes to boot. Hell one of my favorite things of all time is to drink some earl grey tea and then have some Zyn and be on a telegram voice chat all night. :) sadly ive quit nicotine for the 9th time in about 10 months.
On Cyborg babies: there are theories from the Christian fringe that part of The End Times will be a mingling of human souls and bodies with hardware and software, effectively creating a new kind of Nephilim to serve some kind of god-man cyborg or alien (Fallen Watchers from Enoch) The guys at Canary Cry News Talk are way better at explaining this than me. It’s all founded upon the work of Chuck Missler and Dr. Michael Heiser.
Interesting post. I’m intrigued
This piece was so awesome
Fwiw I have OCD, which has been very effectively treated with Sertraline, and also have a prescription for Concerta (I haven't had refilled in months because Canadian healthcare crisis lol). Both have been life changing/saving, and my wife will assure you my libido hasn't gone anywhere LOL.
I love your evaluation of Substack writers. So many people are trying to win a Pulitzer or something! I write very short pieces hyping my mind in pursuit of wealth and having a great family life.
I really reject the idea that substances have a big influence on culture, btw. That is a bad meme. People think of Hendrix (or whoever your person is) doing acid, but completely overlook the fact he was an insanely hard working, tenacious person who did hundreds of takes and rewrites, and relentlessly experimented with emerging audio technology. He also worked with all kinds of other great, expert musicians (i.e. Miles Davis), and directly worked with amplifier and guitar pedal inventors. Just to illustrate, it is hard to see what LSD has to do with anything when you really dig into what he was actually up to haha.
Hey, maybe I'm autistic, too🤪
"Adderall and internet overexposure both condition the brain to fixate, flattening emotional affect and amplifying irritability. And if you’re actually taking Adderall, you get the bonus of mood swings."
As an ex-Adderall user, I would like to see some links on long term effects, if anyone in this comment thread has some to share.
The part about writing style is really interesting! As someone who grew up online, the impact of the internet makes an incredible amount of sense, since it didn't just shape my conceptualization of narrative and stories, but was where I did most of the actual writing too, and learned from others around me.
I also recently read a post by writer and writing teacher Brandon Taylor who noticed similar things about literature and he explored the impact of tv/movies/screens on first person fiction, mentioning that lack of interiority. The internet and tv/movies aren't entirely separate these days so I'm sure there's some good crossover there.
Brandon's piece: https://substack.com/@blgtylr/p-154767521
you could call the kind of writing Katherine describes here as “purgative art,” rather than “performance art,” as the act of purging the thoughts from the psyche are the real goal here, rather than creating nutritive substance for the audience. The author’s indulgence is the goal, and readers are essentially voyeurs. You’ve heard “death of the author” literary criticism, but how about “death of the reader?”
My writing could be called "Birth of the Ego". I have zero readers, which is perfect because I don't need a bunch of randos reading my shit LOL
I believe in you
Excellent comment. Some writing is just drawing the poison. If you want to write for an audience, that's the stuff you leave in a folder somewhere and never publish.
I need messages from Dolphin religion or I’m gonna crash out 🐬
This is everything. So many things I’ve always thought but could never put into words!!!
Thank you brain worm
Of course ! I grew up w unrestricted access to the internet if u ever wanna chat
Good read. I've also noticed with my students that they're likely to imitate these evolving writing trends. They write a ton, hardly edit or revise, and also bury their leads the same way a lot of online writing does to get viewers to keep scrolling.
NOBODY Edits! I started doing it recently, with listening tools, which helps a lot.
Sorry, but I came here to defend Adderall and Ritalin. They are THE BEST. Should be available over the counter. Americans aren’t free until we can buy medicinal amphetamines at the airport vending machine. Where there is Advil, there should be Vyvanse. I am not even joking.
The free market! I don't disagree, but they're also not above criticism, either. I've taken them myself and will likely again in the future.
Totally. Loved the piece! And I wonder what the ketamine era will produce. I was telling myself we were in the ayahuasca era but you’re prob right, ketamine is more widely used.
It’s small, but the all lowercase writing, an exceptionally Gen-Z thing, feels like such an absurd performance of hurried nonchalance and “authentic” stream of consciousness. You literally have to actively stylize it that way on most keyboards, which makes it feel exceptionally tedious. I won’t even read an all lowercase piece because of it.
I find it annoying but it's also a Millennial thing. People turn off auto-caps.
I’ve tended to notice it in online writing with Millennials and everywhere (text, dating apps, work chats) with Gen Z. Either way, I think it’s worse than the Boomer ellipses…
I have asked this cyborg babies question to my husband who thought I was crazy but my argument was how could we really know what’s possible until we know more about the combination of technology and biology? AI will likely be able to make it happen somehow, but why would they given their superiority?
Also it reminds me of Alien Resurrection.
What line of work is your husband in? I asked a friend who does gene editing this AM, wanna have her on to explore it. I do think humanoid robots are coming, whether they gestate or "grow up" or not
Oh haha the way I wrote that sounded like he was a scientist but no he’s just my baseline for checking how bonkers my thoughts are. 😂 But I’m with you on this one. I think it’s possible, we just haven’t discovered the way to make it work yet.
brilliant :)