Re: Caffeine withdrawal advice (was Re: Is Medicine Healthy? add

Nick Bostrom (bostrom@ndirect.co.uk)
Sat, 10 Apr 1999 00:02:07 +0000

Anders wrote:

> While I agree in general, I wonder how to compare them - nicotine
> affects attention, caffeine wakefullness and alertness, cholinergic
> stuff memory, all have different effects. However, caffeine is
> remarkably non-toxic and easily accessible.

Do you use nicotine or cholinergics yourself? Is there any cholinergic that you would recommend? Deprenyl?

I use nicotine chewing gum or microtabs, though only when I do difficult intellectual work. That way, if I were to become addicted, I would simultaneously become addicted to hard thinking -- not such a bad thing! I haven't tried any cholinergic yet. As for caffeine, I try it periodically, but I haven't figured out whether the net effect is beneficial for me. It seems to affect me differently on different occasions.

Are there any other chemical substances or psychological techniques that you find particularly useful?

Nick Bostrom
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb n.bostrom@lse.ac.uk Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method London School of Economics