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Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

(angadh.com)
129 points surprisetalk | 2 comments | 17 Nov 25 14:57 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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earlyriser ◴[17 Nov 25 20:22 UTC] No.45957840[source]▶
I read champignons and it kind of fit even better. Adderall (Brave New World) and mushrooms (Island).
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brandall10 ◴[17 Nov 25 20:26 UTC] No.45957883[source]▶
Soma in BNW is more analogous to MDMA as it's about sedated pleasure, not mental clarity/performance.
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gwbas1c ◴[17 Nov 25 21:15 UTC] No.45958400[source]▶
I seem to think marijuana is more about sedated pleasure than MDMA. Granted, it's been about 30 years since I read Brave New World.
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Spivak ◴[18 Nov 25 00:14 UTC] No.45959974[source]▶
It is, you're right, and it's super weird what happens on the internet when you suggest weed isn't some gateway to enlightenment. I love cannabis, but it's a depressant that increases dopamine, it's not that complicated. Stoners on the internet sound exactly like alcoholics—they say it makes them more creative, helps them sleep, deal with anxiety too. We do such a shit job teaching about signs of psychological addiction.
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pfannkuchen ◴[18 Nov 25 07:00 UTC] No.45962172[source]▶
It definitely doesn’t help sleep quality, but it could plausibly help with creativity in people who have the capacity to have good creative ideas. This is because it seems to produce a feeling that all (or at least more) of one’s ideas are good.

If someone has a problem with idea development because they decide early that the idea isn’t worth exploring, perhaps due to low self confidence in ideation etc, then simply producing the feeling of it being a good idea could help them go further than they would otherwise with it. Of course it also makes dumb ideas feel like good ideas too, so for someone who doesn’t have the capacity to have good creative ideas or who doesn’t have this problem in the first place, it probably won’t help.

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cluckindan ◴[18 Nov 25 07:11 UTC] No.45962253[source]▶
It definitely helps sleep quality in some people.
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1. pfannkuchen ◴[18 Nov 25 15:00 UTC] No.45967073[source]▶
I’ve read that it interferes with one or more sleep stages enough to make them ineffective. My understanding is that it may help someone fall asleep, but the actual sleep they get will definitely be worse. So for insomnia, where the alternative is just not sleeping at all, yes, but otherwise no, AFAIK.
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2. cluckindan ◴[18 Nov 25 17:29 UTC] No.45969312[source]▶
Exactly. In addition to general insomnia, people who suffer from persistent nightmares due to PTSD or other reasons will sleep restfully.

And with nightmares I’m not referring to bad dreams in general, but to horrific nightmares where a person is re-experiencing their trauma in various ways, not necessarily remembering their dreams afterwards.

Imagine sleeping eight hours but waking up more tired than when you went to sleep and in full panic mode without even knowing why. After months and years, it gets pretty tiring.

Being able to not be afraid of going to sleep is a lifesaver and can keep those people functional in their lives.