Can’t help but wonder if this guy just wanted a way to turn his masochism into a career.

I found it didn’t help much with my focus, memory or concentration (my main issues) but it did a great job helping me chill out a bit. It was pretty subtle, but I felt calmer with much less of the constant anxiety and panicking about not meeting expectations, so I think it did good things for my mental health overall.

It took a few days to kick in but I did stop eventually due to side effects. First one I noticed was that it gave me an upset stomach, nausea, and reduced my appetite, especially if I took it on an empty stomach. My heart rate increased a bit, not so much at rest but any time I moved around it would speed up a lot more than it ought to. The real dealbreaker for me was erectile dysfunction, though… I was having a lot of trouble keeping it up, orgasm wasn’t as pleasurable, and my sex drive dropped like a rock.

I have heard these kinds of hardware issues can go away after a while for most people so I tried to stick with it, but I didn’t see any improvement after a couple months so I stopped taking it in the end. Had a pretty gnarly headache and felt like a horny teenager again for a couple days after stopping, but that all cleared up pretty quick and everything’s back to normal now.

I have it set to launch on startup, and always open on my second screen. I have to make a point to check my day’s task list before opening any other program, add new tasks as soon as they come up, check things off when they get done (free dopamine), and note down any unresolved items at the end of the day.

I also end up checking it incidentally a lot during the day simply because I use it for so many things, like my schedule, appointment and lecture notes, journaling, keeping track of medication, things I want to work on in the game I’m playing, etc. I’m kind of throwing all my (previously very disorganised) eggs in this basket and it’s giving me reasons to check it constantly.

Just now discovered a reminder plugin so I’ll start implementing that too.

Actually getting things done is a whole other issue though. Between the ADHD and my other health issues, some days I just end up with a blank template page for my daily note… but I try not to be hard on myself about it.

Bit of a stretch to say that they are “most affected by it” when there are pacific islands that are going to be sinking off the map pretty soon.

I’m finding Obsidian.md really great, it’s become my daily checklist, to-do lists, shopping lists, calendar, and notes archive all at once. It doesn’t give reminders (there might be a plugin for that actually) but I always have it open on a second screen and I sync it between my phone and my computer, and I’ve been much better at keeping track of things since I started using it.

The program is kind of a lot, but it’s worth putting in some effort to set it up in a way that works for you. Although to be honest I think I only figured out how it works because I was also motivated to use it for Dungeons and Dragons. Otherwise I’d probably still be using my old mess of sticky notes.