Mental performance. Clarity of thought. Creativeness and relentless focus.

All of these things are wanted by everyone that tries to achieve something in their life. Stress, lack of sleep, bad diet and you lose pretty much all of them. It all spirals downwards to you having depression, unable to form coherent thoughts and further endorsing your misery. Clearly, the cause can be seen in the former sentence. Unregulated stress, with no outlets for it, lack of sleep along with a bad circadian rhythm (late night stays and late midday wake-ups), diet too high in saturated fats and sugary sweets which leads to chronic inflammation and other health diseases all are bad for our work, relationships and quality of life.
But we will leave those for another time. Let us say that we are already working on fixing those things, and that we are practicing meditation, have a lot of physical activity at times and eat a relatively clean, balanced diet. What next? What is the next step in enhancing one's well being and performance? Assume we know that we become easily stressed. We already manage stress through some ways, but not enough. Let's think substances. Weed? No. Chronic use associated with decreased grey matter and proneness to anxiety, which would only amplify our issues (CBD oil maybe). Xanax, and the like? Potential of addiction is too heavy, it leads to issues of oversleeping and can trigger depressive symptoms in some. What do?

Introducing Nootropics! By their definition, coined by a Romanian scientist, they are (as per Wiki):

"... also called smart drugs or cognitive enhancers—are drugs, supplements, or other substances that improve cognitive function, particularly executive functions, memory, creativity, or motivation, in healthy individuals. "

So, even if you already have everything in place, they are a great addition for that extra oomph! But what do you want to achieve? Stimulation? Relaxation? Focus? Maybe you are still afraid of using them? Well, that is why I am writing this piece to show you the good, the bad and the (not so) ugly.

The Good

1. Safe
   Most nootropics are relatively benign. They do not do harm, and if they did, they would not be considered nootropics. A nootropic is only a substance that has no adverse effects. Coffee and caffeine( one of the active molecules inside it) are one of the most widely used nootropics in the world. People drink this hot, tasty beverage everyday, in many different forms. It is socially and culturally accepted with a large body of studies done behind its relative safety (Except in the case that you have heart disease, then it is another thing.)
2. Effective
   They work. Clearly it is harder to quantify the effects of a substance on a healthy person than on an unhealthy person, as we have the healthy norm to go back to in case of an unhealthy person. What counts as effective? What works? Some nootropics increase working memory, episodic memory, concentration and overall well-being. Sure, it might be hard to quantify all these but numerous studies have already been conducted with good results.

So we have the two purposed benefits, safety and effectiveness. What do we do about our stress? Introducing Ashwagandha, a Indian, Ayurvedic medicine which has been used for millennia to treat anxiety and recover from stress. There are over 300 individual scientific studies done on it, with most proving it at the very least "effective" in anxiety management and stress adaptation. Quite impressive! Here are some of its benefits: Decrease in anxiety levels, decrease in C-Reactive protein (A pro-inflammatory protein which is raises in the presence of stress with a range of bad effects when chronically elevated), decrease in cortisol (stress hormone), decrease in fatigue. All of these can easily help you adjust to new stress in your life and be able get over some harsh times.

So, what have we seen so far? Nootropics work. They are relatively safe. They can help you when needed. But, firstly, you must take care of yourself.