After reading much about it and being able to get 7 pills for free, 5-HTP was going to be my next drug experiment. I'm 6'3”, weigh around 177lbs.
Day 1: Took it during the night, got kinda drowsy, stomach upset because I hadn't eaten before taking it.
Day 2: Woke up as usual, went to school, had an easier time going from that hazy state of mind to a clear one. Took 100mg after lunch on a full stomach, in an hour or two mood picked up, though might be just because it was a Friday.
Day 3: Took it in the morning after breakfast, noticing a general building of tolerance towards things, seem more calm but happy. Seem to be eating more, however I did quit smoking on Wednesday, Day 3 was a Saturday, and a known effect of quitting smoking is you eat more due to the addiction. But still had a noticeable appetite suppressant effect, eating once or twice a day. Usually eat once a day, and bare with the hunger till the next day, on Day 2 I ate and didn't have a hungry feeling before bed.
Day 4: Took 100mg after breakfast again, had a good day, noticing the mood stabilizer effects. Also the advertised “impulse control” is making sense now, a friend made a remark and quickly I had an instant feeling of anger towards his remark, but just as fast as the feeling came it faded and I took it how one should take a remark, responsibly, then of course insult the other person in an intellectual fashion :). Today I ate a large breakfast as a joke to a friend since he said he would pay, then some lunch. I thought I had ate a lot of food, but now looking back I realize it wasn't as much as I thought at the time.
For lunch/dinner (it was 4 pm) I had a salad and some pasta, however it felt like I ate a lot of food.
Day 5: Took 100mg around 7:30 am, some food. Went well, chugged an energy drink (Called Cocaine, 320mg of caffeine, dextrose salts) and went to my English class. Went well, felt happy. Next I had a physical education class, ran a mile, during which I decided to race a friend of mine. After racing him I felt horribly nauseas. I credit this to the Cocaine energy drink, since at the time I drank it I had an empty stomach, also the 5-htp had been ingested 3-4 hours prior. Note that I ran extremely hard and fast, first time I think I ran that fast/hard in my entire life. I felt better within the hour, I got drowsy however. After that I went to go eat pizza with a friend, we discussed my experiment, and then ate some food. The appetite suppressant effect was evident again, I felt full after a single salad split between the two of us. We also discussed whether or not nicotine would affect Serotonin or anything of that nature since I got that nice dizzy/hard to walk feeling after smoking a cigarette. (Note: I had “quit” the week earlier and am now a social smoker, where I smoke one or two a week.) Rest of the day was usual.
Day 6: Again, 100mg around 7:30 am, some food. Went to school, went fine, I noticed that I'm more social, not by much, but a general openness for conversation is felt. After school I went to a friend's house, and I drank a beer, I felt very nice and calm, not irascible as I usually am with my friend's sister, more tolerable as to what movies we're going to watch, where we're going to go, etc. We ended up going to a creek near by and I had a very good time sitting there talking. Went home afterwards, nothing else stood out, got tired at the same time I have been getting tired the last couple days, 10:30 PM.
Day 7: 100mg around 10-11 am, some food. (later than usual, I woke up late.) I stayed inside all day so there wasn't much to test my mood on and etc, I was tolerant towards my drunk friend, and was just having a regular day. Nothing really angered me, nothing really tipped the scale, today was an emotionally balanced day. Got tired once again, at the same time, however went to bed at 3 am, with heavy drowsiness.
Day 8: No 5-HTP, woke up very alert again, it's a very pleasurable way to wakeup. Today was kind of dull since, once again, I hadn't gone outside, it's Thanksgiving and I'm just happy to be relaxing with my grandmother, my mother went to a party. So we'll see how I wakeup tomorrow and react with no 5-HTP.
Day 9 and on: I haven't experienced any negative effects, I've just been enjoying the impressions my mind left me while I was taking the 5-HTP.
Summary:
It's now been around a week or a week and a half since Day 7. I didn't experience any of the “addiction tendencies” that people associate with 5-HTP. The 7 days I experienced under 5-HTP left very nice memories, and I wouldn't hesitate to spend $16 a month for this! Last I checked at my local store it's $16 for thirty 100mg 5-HTP pills. And it's definitely good. I've tried such things before with other things and they've always left me thinking “Am I just lying to myself?” But on 5-HTP it felt like a much more natural mood-lift, just a general happy feeling throughout the 7 days. For my next experiment I'll be doing 200mg a day for 14 days.
Notes: I have experimented with MDMA before, around 20 times, however I haven't ingested MDMA for quite a time before doing this 5-HTP experiment (More than a few months.). Also, sometimes after taking the 5-HTP I got very calm and felt kind of spacey, but that only lasted 30 min – 1 hour, after which I enjoyed a great mood lift. I only mention this in the notes because it didn't seem like a majour property of 5-HTP, seeing as I only had this feeling once or twice.
Some note-worthy events effects:
1) Mood is definitely lifted, everyday may have an obstacle but it can be easily passed. There hasn't really been a day I took 5-HTP and had a “bad moment”.
2) “Impulse” control. My friend said something, you know, one of those things that makes you go from happy to completely outraged within a split second. He said it, and as fast as I got angry, I went back to normal and thought about it. It was a truly amazing feeling. I was joking with a friend and told him I wish someone else would piss me off so that I could experience that again.
3) Waking up. Waking up was a different experience. Usually when I wake up, I go back to sleep for about 10-20 minutes, get up extremely tired, mind is blurred, as is my vision. It takes a lot of concentration to get my clothes on even! But with 5-HTP, I woke up, and instantly my consciousness was clear of whatever echoes my sleeping had left. I woke up, for example, and within 5 minutes, had checked my email, gotten on my clothes, and was making breakfast towards the end of the five minutes.
4) Tolerance. I became more tolerant with people's moods, what they said, etc. If it was meant to harm me, I'd simply smile and make them look foolish. I had an easier time with people in general.
5) Not as shy. I could talk to some people in a way that I couldn't talk like before. It was as if it was all right to say what I said, and it was, they laughed and instantly we engaged in conversation.
