Lessons in Stimulant Abuse

Don't Shoot Yourself in the Foot

One of the best and worst parts of wearable tech in 2024 is constantly receiving biofeedback based on my personal lifestyle choices.

Even at near optimal performance and limited negative substance use, constant feedback from my wrist and an app can be anxiety inducing, which led me to stop wearing my Whoop for a couple weeks.

I’ve since returned to using my Whoop and things are going well:

This post is less about the validity and use of biofeedback sensors, and more about shooting ourselves in the foot, whether we know it or not.

Over the latter part of Q2 this year, I slowly grew my caffeine tolerance to the point where I would consume an entire Bialetti’s worth of coffee and a Celsius all before 12pm daily. Celsius alone is enough of a drain on my wallet, but began to drain me daily from stimulant abuse.

Everyone may define this different based on you as a person. We’re all different. But I think there’s no denying a 6-pot Bialetti (essentially 2-3 espresso shots) and a 200mg Celsius is too much caffeine.

I would struggle to fall asleep, occasionally wake up in the middle of the night, nap the next day, and repeat this doom cycle until the inevitable weekend crash.

BUT “I was doing everything right.” Training daily, staying off screens later into the night, no caffeine past 1pm, very little alcohol use, solid diet and protein intake, all while ignoring my own cognitive dissonance. Now stack that into the slow accumulation of nicotine tolerance. Going from using 3mg to 6mg zyns. Habitually throwing in a zyn after dinner, not because I was craving or necessarily addicted to nicotine - but because it was a habit.

Caffeine and nicotine, although certainly can be addictive - became more of a habitual process for me. And when these two chemicals are a habit - there is no doubt my tolerance for both will increase, necessitating the increase in use to support the habit.

Side note, let’s define:

Cognitive Dissonance - “the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.”

I was ignoring my own behavioral decisions. My sleep problems can’t be related to my habitual stimulant abuse. I’m getting faster, stronger in the gym, look good in the mirror. By all “general” markers, there was nothing wrong.

But stress spikes became more routine. Resting heart rate slowly climbed. Recovery scores were constantly suppressed on my whoop (hence quitting use for a couple weeks).

Only to realize I was shooting myself in the foot.

Now two incredible things came from that:

1. The recognition that many things are not addictions, they are habits and

2. My sleep, performance, and general feeling “good” have all spiked to highs not felt all year.

On point 1: I rarely will ever say or think “I am addicted” to something. Not to get too “woo-woo” on you, but I am a firm believer our minds are powerful and telling ourselves we’re addicted (to literally anything) will make it harder to quit or reduce the thing in question.

I don’t think I’m addicted to caffeine or nicotine. In the time since, I spent days without, days with, and days with significantly reduced use.

I didn’t experience withdrawals, headaches, random anger, nor increased appetite.

I just felt good. Sleeping better, lower stress, little to no anxiety, better gym and endurance performance, and best of all - being absolutely GASSED at 9pm, laying down and falling straight to sleep.

It’s easy to ignore the behaviors we develop and try to justify them, or blame their side effects on something else. An example: my increased stress and HR spikes were a result of having a new boss at work and added responsibilities. How could it possibly be related to throwing in a double 6mg zyn at 8pm? I would highly encourage you to look at your own life this way. You may not use nicotine or caffeine. But question everything you do and honestly look at its impacts.

There is one thing for sure - if you experience negatively impacted sleep, an increase in stress or anxiety, suppressed (far below baseline) appetite, or other negative mental markers, look at your BEHAVIORS first before wondering if there is something seriously wrong with you.

Sometimes, you don’t have depression or an anxiety disorder - that’s often just a way to label your current emotional state. MAYBE, we should look to first correct our behaviors, ESPECIALLY those that we try to ignore or justify, first. Once those are in check, only then can we get a true evaluation of our mental and physical well-being.

It’s like being in your junior year in college, getting hammered 2-3 nights a week and wondering why you gained 10 pounds of fat in the last year. It can’t be the alcohol - that’s just you having fun. It MUST be the stress from class, hunting for an internship, and the terrible college food. No way could your habitual (and increasing) alcohol use be the suspect!

And that’s the negative behavioral creep we should all investigate. From an outside view, it’s easy to diagnose and understand why someone is having problems. But when it is you, yourself experiencing it, we block them mentally. This takes serious self-regulation and self-awareness to get to the root of.

Be honest with yourself. Stop selling yourself lies. Stop unwittingly shooting yourself in the foot. And perform at your peak.

You probably don’t have a serious addiction. Your behaviors shape your habits. And habits are simple to break. That “nicotine craving” after dinner I felt was incredibly easy to replace with a piece of gum. I just needed an oral fixation. Something to literally chew on. All with no withdrawals.

(side note: if you have serious alcohol dependence, that may take real medical intervention, this post is not for you but please get help)

Change your behaviors, change your habits. I now require barely half a cup of coffee to feel lit at 10am. A single 3mg zyn is optimal for me, and certainly no nicotine after 2-3pm. Now the cycle of doom has turned into a flywheel of progress spinning in the right direction. I use less caffeine and nicotine - I am able to train harder, longer. I feel less stress, and want to pass out on my cold memory foam pillow in a pitch black room set to 65 degrees at 8pm. I sleep 10 hours, wake up feeling alert - thus requiring even fewer stimulants to function the next day. Stop your cycle of doom and turn it into a flywheel of progress.

Happy Friday. It’s a beautiful day (spiritually). We’re getting a tropical storm this weekend on the East coast so we’ll see how that impacts my scheduled endurance week.

As always, I hope you enjoyed this post and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop them here, dm me on instagram, or email me at director@acidgambit.com.

Cheers.

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DISCLAIMER

This is not Legal, Medical, or Financial advice. Please consult a medical professional before starting any workout program, diet plan, or supplement protocol.