The Social Anxiety Protocol for Biohacking Confidence
It's naive to deny that drugs are a shortcut to confidence.
In the past 5 years I've self experimented with over 80 smart drugs along with a variety of brain training software Apps and mindfulness techniques. During this period I've also put in well over seven thousand hours practicing a range of social dynamics skills sets. I'm not going to lie; it's been pretty damn fun.Over this time I've recieved innumerable emails and communicated with a spectrum of people suffering silently from what I think is quiet likely the most insidious mental illness of our time; social anxiety. Which, believe it or not, is something I too have to deal with from time to time. The Open Source Biohacking Protocol which follows presents a novel, yet holistic approach to beating social anxiety.
Outline
The Problem
The Good News
A 50% 'Cure'
Biohacking Willpower
For Public Speakers
A Primer
The Social Smart Drugs
What about alcohol?
The Digital Tools
Attending Public Events
The Weekly Protocol
Taking Responsibility
Addendums
The Methodology
No FAP (For men)
What to do at Public Events
The Bad News
Since this is an Open Source protocol it is going to change and improve over time. If you have not already, I highly encourage you to join our newsletter to be notified of updates to it and stay at the cutting edge of developments at this exciting intersection of Biohacking, personal development and social dynamics. Download this protocol in PDF.
The Problem
You already know the solution to social anxiety: exposure therapy. You have no doubt heard before that to overcome social anxiety you should just...
Approach that pretty girl sitting alone at the cafe
Ask some strangers in the cafeteria if you can sit with them
Go to toastmasters
Find a wingman on the Internet and talk to girls together at a nightclub
Take improv classes
Introduce yourself to some strangers at a party
Just be confident in your yourself
Put yourself out there
And be yourself
This type of advice on some level infuriates you because you simply can't do these things. Your biology stops you in your tracks. Maybe you've even tried, and failed miserably which drove you into a deeply unpleasant place of self loathing.
The problem is that not all self help advice is applicable to all people, yet you hear things like just be yourself repeated ad nauseam everywhere. Everyone seems to believe it. So it must be true. Right? Probably not for you.
These self help platitudes would have you believe that your social anxiety is just a problem in your head that you have to somehow think your way out of by just staying positive.
Social anxiety is a real thing. You've probably heard before that alcoholism is a disease, the alcoholic is not just some lazy person who really likes to drink (well, maybe some are), they have a debilitating neurobiological imbalance due to some combination of genetics and environment that results in their self destructive behavior. Social anxiety is a similar yet not as visibly destructive illness and if you don't address the underlying neurobiological imbalance you can be almost certain that things won't change. This is why you are stuck and you can't think your way out of your social anxiety. Yet like the alcoholic you are responsible for you own life and your own decisions.
The Good News
Is that you can Biohack your social anxiety with herbal adaptogens, meditation, brain training technology and social smart drugs. It's going to be a whole lot faster, more direct and less painful than doing a bunch of talk therapy and painful exposure therapy exercises alone.
A 50% 'Cure'
The Biohacking tools are not going to transform you into someone who can socialize effortlessly. They are going to recalibrate your biology giving you the option to get out of your comfort zone. It's still going to require some effort of willpower on your behalf to be social, maybe even a significant effort.
This is only going to cure 50-75% of your social anxiety, you are likely going to always have some social anxiety that you will just need push through with sheer power of will. If you can commit to following the Biohacking protocol which will reduce your social anxiety by at least a half of what it is now and do some exposure therapy to deal with the rest of your social anxiety, you'll find this transformative and it will for practical purposes cure your social anxiety.
Biohacking Willpower
I've mentioned willpower a couple of times already, it really is important to overcoming this. You may think of extroverted people who are naturally social as carefree, relaxed, playful and sometimes kind of lazy. They make it look kind of effortless don't they? For you to get the same results, you are going to need to be very disciplined, regimented and focused.
For Public Speakers
A proportion of the people reading this may at this point be thinking:
I don't have any problem, socializing, making friends or meeting people. My social anxiety issue appears when I have to doing public speaking or presentations at work.
You have more episodic social anxiety as opposed to chronic social anxiety. You can expect probably the same thing, a 50% - 75% overall reduction in your social anxiety and you'll still have to get out of your comfort zone until you get enough positive reference experiences speaking publicly.
A Primer
A friend of mine who is a very successful Internet Marketer recommended I build this protocol into a membership based product and market it to the Pickup Artist industry. My friend advised that I price it at $79 a monthly membership and do a big hype filled launch with affiliates.
I thought about this hard and I decided against that approach, instead I'm just going to open source it. I'll explain why later. Perhaps my friend the Internet Marketer or some other opportunistic person watching this will want to turn it into such a product since I'm going to explain everything here that you need to do to Biohack social anxiety. Be my guest!
The Social Smart Drugs
Phenibut
Advantages: After you take it on an empty or full stomach about 25 minutes later, you'll start to feel more playful, talkative and unfiltered. It's an effect that really quiet similar to alcohol, a lot of time the people around you will assume you've been drinking. Phenibut is also deepens sleep, it's not really an sleep drug that knocks you out and puts you to sleep, but sleep on Phenibut is awesome. You'll awake feeling very rested. A nice side effect; it makes music more enjoyable.
Disadvantages: I'd like to add a big asterisk to Social *Smart Drug because I don't actually think it makes you smart. It's a gabergic drug and it is an intoxicant, especially at high doses you'll find the drunk you coming out, you'll forget people's names, trip upstairs, you probably shouldn't be driving and maybe you'll even go for some late night junk food. At high doses you'll oversleep and awake with a light hangover. At lower doses this isn't so much of a problem.
Don't drink booze on it unless you want to end up making out with a tree!
Dosage: 500 - 1500 milligrams will put you in a social mood for 3-5 hours, check out my Phenibut Dosage Guide. Phenibut is not a daily social smart drug, in fact you're not going to want to use it more than 3 times weekly. It's somewhat addictive and has a fairly steep tolerance curve. Googling it you'll find plenty of ancedotal reports from idiots out there on the Internet who took it in ridiculous dosages and developed addictions. If you have a history of drug or alcohol addiction, you probably should pass on Phenibut, but if not it really can be great tool for making you social.
Suggested Use: It comes as a white powder, just take a little spoonful of it below your tongue or you can add it too a drink. It has a nice tangy taste actually.
Recommended Source: Peak Nootropics (My Review) (Order), NootropicsDepot.com (Order) or Intellimeds in Europe (Order)
A recent personal anecdote about Phenibut that illustrates how Biohacking social anxiety works:
I recently arrived in a brand new city where I had no friends and knew nobody. I found a latin dance night by searching Facebook Events near me. It was at the end of a long day of work and I was not really in the mood to go out and socialize but I watched some videos that put me into a good mood, did about 750 milligrams of Phenibut, dressed up in my nice clothes and headed to the latin night. The event started with a bachata dancing lesson, which entailed some obligatory interaction with the 10 or so students in class for about an hour, during which I got into a pretty social mood, joking and bantering with the other students in class and the dance instructor. The class ended and the latin club night commenced, it was relatively early and the club was still sparsely populated. I began just chatting with a couple of other students of the class that stuck around, just having the generic I'm new in town conversation. I approached the dance instructor and asked him about the other latin events in town. Then I cold approached two new girls that entered the club, asking them for gum. We essentially repeated the I'm new in town conversation. I danced with the cuter of the girls for a few songs. She went to the bathroom so I chatted up a quiet chubby girl sitting nearby for a few minutes. I mentioned to a well dressed guy relaxing by the bar:
You look like you speak English...
He did and he turned out to be the club owner.
So I just chatted with different people and groups in the club for about an hour. In between meeting new people I would chat with the dance instructor and the students of the lesson that stuck around. I danced with and talked with the prettiest girl in the club for about 20 minutes and added her on Facebook. I was having a pretty great time actually, especially for essentially being out alone without a wingman or friends.
Then I decided to visit a second club about a 10 minute walk away. I was friendly with the doorman and entered, it was more of a mainstream club playing hip hop and pop music. I said to myself: I'm going to do at least one approach before getting a drink.
So I did an cold approach of a skinny girl standing alone, which she did not appreciate, she verbally berated me a bit, mentioned something about her boyfriend. Having done my one approach I went to the bar and the bartender looked at me like I was from a different planet when I asked for a none-alcoholic beer, which they didn't have, so I went with a water.
I got rude, cold shoulder responses from several other girls or small groups I approached. About 45 minutes later I had failed to make any friends in the second club, my mood soured and I went home.
What's the lessons from this night? Well, the Phenibut definitely helped, but I warmed up, got myself in a good social mood and I built a little social group in the first club. Something I failed to do in the second club. The Phenibut doesn't work if you don't follow a process to get in a social mood.
Piracetam
Advantages: It's a cognitive enhancer and it works by boosting your neurotransmitters and increasing blood flow to the brain. So it's a stimulant but of a very different class than say caffeine or amphetamines. One of the most noticeable side effects of enhanced cognition is verbal fluency - you will become a bit more dangerous with your words, you may find yourself talking your way into and out of more trouble than you do usually.
Anecdotally you'll find a lot of reports of Piracetam's positive effect on social anxiety. It’s commonly reported that while on Piracetam:
- I don’t have to reach for my words, they just flow
- I don’t end up running out of things to say
- My vocabulary improves
- I’m less afraid to speak in social settings or in front of people
It's also an anti-anxiety agent, from a 2010 paper on Piracetam:
"It was also effective in the treatment of cognitive disorders of cerebrovascular and traumatic origins; however, its overall effect on lowering depression and anxiety was higher than improving memory."
Disadvantages: It's taste is pretty unpleasant. You need to take in larger quantities. It's a bad idea to drink alcohol while on it.
Dosage: 1 - 4 grams
Suggested Use: This one you can use everyday, it has little to no tolerance curve. It's half life is about 4 hours so you'll want to dose twice a day. Usually in the morning and in the afternoon. I typically dump a couple grams of it in a glass of water and just skull it. It has a cumulative effect after about 2 weeks of daily dosing, so you actually want to take it regularly as opposed to just when you have a socially demanding situation.
Recommended Source: 500 Powdered Grams by Peak Nootropics (My Review) (Order), Capsules by Pure Nootropics (My Review) (Order) or NootropicsDepot.com (Order)
Aniracetam
Advantages: It is an anxiolytic, meaning that it replaces the physiological and psychological experience of anxiety with a sense of calm, clarity and well being. It is not a sedative so it's unlike many 'cures' for anxiety in that it doesn't bring you 'down'. A 2001 Japanese study demonstrated it as highly effective in treating anxiety:
"These results indicate that aniracetam possesses a wide range of anxiolytic properties, which may be mediated by an interaction between cholinergic, dopaminergic and serotonergic systems. Thus, our findings suggest the potential usefulness of aniracetam against various types of anxiety-related disorders and social failure/impairments."
Since it's not a stimulant you can take it to supplement your after dark social life and it won't hurt your sleep.
Disadvantages: Aniracetam really is unpleasant to consume in powdered form, I dump it in a glass of water, stir it up and it's still really clumpy, the clumps for some reason I choke on like half the time, going down.
It's not a great idea to combine with alcohol.
Dosage: 750-1500 Milligrams
Suggested Use: Take it about 30-45 minutes before an event that's going to stimulate your social anxiety. I mentioned how annoying it is to consume Aniracetam powder; there's a bit of a lifehack for this; drop a dissolving Vitamin C tablet in it and the Aniracetam will dissolve also.
Recommended Source: Powdered Aniracetam by Peak Nootropics (My Review) (Order) or Aniracetam Capsules by Pure Nootropics (My Review) (Order)
Oxiracetam
You might be thinking: I suck at being disciplined.
Or perhaps: I'm very disciplined in certain areas of life but my discipline seems to wane steeply by the end of the end of day.
Or maybe you've never thought of discipline as an essential factor in social life and beating social anxiety.
Discipline is not really thought of as fun. The extroverted, social naturals you know don't seem to be particularly disciplined do they? Yet for you to have a fun social life it's going to take quiet a bit of discipline actually.
Advantages: The good news is that Oxiracetam is going to give you discipline. It's not a very hardcore smart drug, for about 4 hours after dosing you will be slightly more focused and it's effect wears off without a crash. However for 6-7 hours after dosing, you'll find yourself being very disciplined. When I'm on Oxiracetam...
I don't check Facebook when I should be working.
I don't look down at my phone every time I get notifications.
I don't aimlessly hop from browser tab to browser tab.
I don't let my mind linger uselessly on the drama in my personal life.
I don't read dumb blog posts when I should be reading Ayn Rand's books on my Kindle.
I don't make up excuses to not make important calls.
I don't skip my pushups in the morning.
I don't order that yummy sandwich or artisanal pizza, I have the steak salad.
I just do the right thing. This smart drug is a potent self control lifehack!
Disadvantages: The taste isn't great.
Dosage: 800 milligrams is recommended for healthy adults if you are taking it alone.
Suggested Use: It's a pretty subtle effect with little to no tolerance curve so you could potentially use it daily, but you'll probably want to take a day or two off every a week to relax.
Recommended Source: Powdered Oxiracetam by Peak Nootropics (My Review) (Order) or Oxiracetam Capsules by Pure Nootropics (My Review) (Order) or Intellimeds in Europe (Order)
Kratom
Advantages: The sedative red and green strains of Kratom are anecdotally reported frequently as amazing for social anxiety and mood. The stimulating white strains are used by many to self medicate for depression. Some even call it a cure for approach anxiety.
Disadvantages: It's an intoxicant, is somewhat addictive and has a high tolerance curve.
It's technically the opposite of a smart drug, it impairs cognition. From a 2014 paper "...Altogether, these findings provide evidence for an addiction potential with cognitive impairments for mitragynine, which suggest its classification as a harmful drug."
Similar to Phenibut, if you have a history of drug or alcohol addiction, you probably should pass on Kratom.
Dosage: 275 milligrams per drink
Suggested Use: Use Kratom episodically to avoid it's tolerance curve, burn it 30-40 minutes before a socially demanding event. Limit your usage to 4-5 times a week. It makes for a pleasant earthy tasting tea when added to boiling water.
Recommended Source: Lion Island Herbals (Order/My Review) or KratomCrazy (Order)
The Adaptogens
{module Adaptogens}A category of herbs that have been used since time immemorial in Russian and Chinese traditional medicine to assuage stress. The three with the strongest science supporting their use as Nootropic performance enhancers are Rhodiola, Eleuthero and Schisandra.
Advantages: Workaholics and studyaholics alike chronically work their nervous systems into states of perpetual stress. The Adaptogens restore elasticity to the nervous system and allow you to actually relax.
A 2008 california pilot study demonstrated that 340 Milligrams daily of Rhodiola had a significant effect in 10 human participants dealing with generalized anxiety disorder.
Schisandra in particular helps maintain liver function which is a bit of a concern to Biohackers who are consuming a bunch of novel molecules, like the Racetams mentioned above.
Disadvantages: Powdered Adaptogens can be a little messy. Some find them overly stimulating so you may have to cut back on the coffee.
Dosage: Rhodiola 200 milligrams, Eleuthero 300 milligrams, Schisandra 200 milligrams
Suggested Use: Take them once daily, in the mornings or early in the afternoon about 30 minutes before a meal. Their taste is good enough that you can actually consume them as a tea. Don't take them to late in the day or they may affect your sleep.
Recommended Source: Superman Herbs (Order) or NootropicsDepot.com (Order)
L-Theanine
Advantages: To quote a 2011 study: "Normal healthy volunteers with high anxiety and with minimal anxiety propensity were employed[in the study]. 200 mg of l-theanine intake was found effective for healthy people with high anxiety propensity."
It's a creativity promoting agent; myself and other voracious consumers of green tea agree, the beverage results in a not overly energetic creative state where words and ideas flow with grace and style.
L-Theanine has been proven to stimulate alpha brain waves, especially in the posterior portions of the cortex, thus producing a feeling of relaxation.
It's Umami taste is quiet pleasant and actually improves the bitter taste of coffee and dark chocolate.
Disadvantages: None
Dosage: 200-300 milligrams
Suggested Use: Use it episodically about 25-30 minutes before a social anxiety stimulus. L-Theanine and Caffeine is regarded as a quintessential synergy and is a popular stack amongst Biohackers, the L-Theanine provides the inspiration and the Caffeine provides the motivation. If you've got a big night ahead of you a coffee and a couple hundred milligrams of L-Theanine may be just the cocktail to transform you into a nocturnal socialite who can bring the party into the wee hours - as it has for me many nights. L-Theanine is also a convenient option while socializing because you can order a water at almost any bar or restaurant, carry a little packet of green tea with you and just add it to the water. If I'm going to a house party I will often just bring my own green tea with me in a 1-liter glass bottle, which people of course ask me about and I proceed to try to convince them to join my weird Biohacker cult.
Recommended Source: Powdered L-Theanine by Peak Nootropics (My Review) (Order) 1-2-Go by Pure Nootropics (My Review) (Order)
What about alcohol?
What about the original cure for social anxiety, booze? Well, of all the problems with alcohol, the really insidious one is that if you get in the habit of drinking whenever you are being social, then you powerfully associate your social mindset with alcohol. It becomes impossible for you to get social without alcohol and there's a word for that; dependency.
Some of you are saying: Wait but if I start using these Nootropics to get social doesn't that present the same issue? I won't be able to get social without them?
Not really. Alcohol is a really strong experiential anchor whereas the Nootropics are not. With alcohol there's the strong tastes and scent, the burn in your belly, the social experience of raising your glasses or taking shots with friends along with the distinctive aesthetics of the bottles, cups and drinks themselves. You also spend hours actually consuming the alcohol; whereas the Nootropics are almost all none-descriptive powders or tasteless capsules. It will take you just a moment to consume them alone in private and their effects are very subtle compared to alcohol.
Although, I think you'll find that the Phenibut imbues the advantages of booze with almost none of it's downsides. It does have a stronger effect, which is why in the protocol you only use it through week 6.
The Racetams, Kratom and Phenibut do not go well with alcohol, taking them within 3-4 hours of each other can result in rapid intoxication and an epic hangover.
The bottom lines is that if you're really serious about overcoming social anxiety go off the booze for at least the 10 weeks of the protocol. You'll feel better, look better and your wallet will thank you!
The Digital Tools
There's some Biohacking tools you are going to be using over the course of this protocol that are going to make it all the more effective. They are downloadable, free and really will help with your social anxiety.
Audio Recording App
This might seem a little weird but you are going to be recording yourself speaking, you want to record yourself in a variety of social situations like:
- Hanging out with friends or family
- At work
- In a high pressure social situation if possible (like on a date!)
I like Miidio Recorder for Android, you just pull your phone out (which is totally normal in social settings nowadays), tap the record widget and none nonchalantly leave your phone on the table. This requires just a little stealth, make sure whoever you are with does not see that you are recording your conversation. Then listen back to your conversation, before you go to bed or whenever, so you can hear how you sound objectively and establish a baseline of your verbal ability.
Coach.me
Is one of my top lifehacks for discipline. It's an App/website for tracking and gamifying practicing positive habits a whole lot more consistently. It's free (and ad free) and takes just a few moments a day to check into your winning habits.
There's a couple of habits I recommend highly for overcoming social anxiety:
Plan Social Life - Spend 10 minutes a day in the middle of the day texting people and scheduling your social life.
Gut React - The Adaptogens are going to improve your intuition by hacking your hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. See my video about Hueristics as a Productivity Strategy.
No Booze - It's important to keep track of how many days running since you've had a drink.
No FAP - Get a new grip on life by keeping track of your No Fabbing. Make sure to set this habit to private!
Checkout my full review of Coach.me, it is one of the very few Apps I've used that have actually improved my life, made me more productive and happy.
Dual N-Back
Training with this software App upgrades the RAM of your conscious mind and seriously exercises your focus muscles. It's one of the few software training tasks that's actually been demonstrated to have transfer effects; it benefits you in real life outside of the game. According to research out of Harvard University:
"...extraverts have better working memory skills than introverts."
Working memory is exactly what the Dual N-Back task exercises, 10 minutes of training will improve your IQ by 10-15 points after 30-60 days of training. Since Dual N-Back requires such persistent focus it actually helps train you to silence negative mental self talk - that persistent, critical voice in your head. You've heard people talk about how meditation is useful to overcoming anxiety, because it teaches you to dissociate your identity from your anxious thoughts. Dual N-Back has a similar effect actually, while at the same time exercising your focus muscles.
Attending Public Events
As transformative as these Biohacking tools, strategies and drugs can be they won't do much for you if you don't actually combine them with getting out of your comfort zone and practicing your social skills.
You are going to start attending public events, the purpose of this is to split test or A/B test the different social smart drugs. You really don't know which of them is going to fit your neurobiology and make a difference for your social anxiety until you've got about 50 statistical data points. If you only go out to social events once a week that's going to take almost a whole year, whereas if you go out 4-5 times a week, it's only going to take you about 10 weeks to get through this and for practical purposes overcome your social anxiety.
You may think: I get enough of an opportunity to practice my social skills at my job, my school or in my existing social group. Going to a bunch of public events seems like a waste of time.
I encourage you to do it anyways for a few reasons:
1) You can take more social risks; which is essential for internalizing confidence, outside of your normal social environment.
2) To really increase your baseline confidence you will need to get out of your comfort zone, which is more likely to happen with complete strangers at public events than within your current social environment.
3) To get a statistically significant number of reference experiences on the Nootropics you will probably need to supplement the amount of times you are going out.
Every week search these websites and select a few events you might like to attend
Facebook Events (Near You)
Couchsurfing.org Events
Meetup.com
Eventbrite
My criteria for selecting public events is...
Attendance - I look for an event with at least +30 people RSVP'd, any less and I'm taking a chance that there won't be enough social opportunity for me to really flex my social muscles.
Inviting - I look for events that are going to be socially inclusive, where people are going to be open to making friends. The Vodka launch party at the swanky nightclub downtown is probably not really what we are looking for.
Proximity - Close by where I live, so I can't make the excuse the day of that I don't want to travel across town to attend.
Interesting - Something that actually piques my interest or connects to a passion of mine.
Free or Inexpensive - About half the time I stay at these public events less than an hour, so I don't really want to pay more than a few bucks to attend.
What important is that your attendance of these events is NOT contingent on anyone else. You'll likely go alone, if you are not solo I encourage you to not go with more than one other friend. If you go with two or more friends you are all the more likely to just socialize with your little group. The purpose of going to these public events is to get out of your comfort zone and practice your social skills.
You'll quickly find that free, public events have a little lower caliber of people at them. You're not going to meet the really the badass, alpha male type dudes, successful entrepreneurs, super smart engineers, the B-list local celebrities or beautiful women at these events. You're going to be meeting the very average Joe and Jane. You're going to be meet a lot of backpacker travelers, who are broke kids that are traveling through your city and just want to get drunk on cheap beer. These events are going to kind of become your social training ground, you'll take risks and make mistakes but it doesn't really matter because the people at these events are probably kind of dorks themselves and will be very forgiving of your social faux pas. The larger the attendance of the public event, the more likely you'll meet some higher caliber people who you actually want to connect to.
The Weekly Protocol
The Social Anxiety protocol should take you about 10 weeks to complete. It's going to take 5-10 days for the Nootropics to get shipped to you so in the interim get started with the downloadable tools mentioned: Coach.me, Dual N-Back and recording your conversations.
Week 1
Start with the Phenibut
Limit your usage to 4-5 times a week. No booze. Resist the temptation to brag on social media or to your friends and family about your new personal development endeavor. Have fun!
Week 2
Add Piracetam
Use the Piracetam 5-6 times a week. If you get headaches as a result of the Piracetam, add some Choline either from a supplemental or dietary source.
Stack: Phenibut, Piracetam
Week 3
Add Oxiracetam
You're probably hitting a motivational dip around now; you've been going out and getting out of your comfort zone and most likely you're a little disappointed with the results. Adding the Oxiracetam is going to give you an extra degree discipline to keep going. Stay consistent with Piracetam as it has cumulative positive effects on the memory after 2 weeks of regular dosing. You've been working on your personal development mission for a couple weeks now so if you want to brag to your friends a little about what you are doing, now you can without it killing your motivation.
Stack: Phenibut, Piracetam, Oxiracetam
Week 4
Add the Aniracetam
You can use it daily, it has a pretty subtle effect compared to the other Nootropics, although you may notice yourself being a little more creative and witty.
Stack: Phenibut, Piracetam, Oxiracetam, Aniracetam
Week 5
Add the Adaptogens and the L-Theanine
Which you'll find somewhat stimulating so keep the dosages low because you are already consuming a stimulant in the Piracetam.
Stack: Phenibut, Piracetam, Oxiracetam, Aniracetam, L-Theanine, Adaptogens
Week 6
Add Kratom
Cut the Phenibut
At this point you should have established some positive reference experiences that you can draw on for confidence so we are dropping the social intoxicant, Phenibut from your stack. We are adding the Kratom though which you will likely find has a similar tranquilizing effect.
Stack: Piracetam, Oxiracetam, Aniracetam, L-Theanine, Adaptogens, Kratom
Week 7
Cut the Piracetam
We are going to remove the Piracetam, not because you need to cycle it but to wean you off the stimulants, to de-anchor your social confidence from the buzz. If you really like it (which you probably will) you can go back on it when you finish the protocol.
Stack: Oxiracetam, Aniracetam, L-Theanine, Adaptogens, Kratom
Week 8
Cut the Kratom
The Kratom is slightly intoxicating and as you've discovered by now has a steep tolerance curve, so lets cut it.
Stack: Oxiracetam, Aniracetam, L-Theanine, Adaptogens
Week 9
Cut the Oxiracetam and the Aniracetam
8 weeks of Oxiracetam and the regimen of brain training will have leveled up your baseline of focus and discipline by now. So we are going to cut the Discipline Molecule, you may miss it!
Stack: L-Theanine, Adaptogens
Week 10
Cut the Adaptogens
In the final week of the Protocol you're going to eliminate the stimulating Adaptogens so you are just running on the L-Theanine.
Stack: L-Theanine
Upon finishing the protocol you should have gathered about 50 reference experiences socializing while on the Nootropics and you should have a pretty good idea of how they effect you differently.
Invitation to the Secret Society
We do have a private, invitation only Biohacker community, the Secret Society. How it works is that I do a 25 minute Biohacking consultation with you over Skype which kind of doubles as an entry interview.
If you order all the Nootropics mentioned from the recommended sources via the links on this website you'll qualify for Secret Society membership, pending the entry interview, of course. There's some pretty high level entrepreneurs and peak performers in there, the kind of people you wouldn't normally find on a public messaging board. Since it is a private community, I personally vet everyone to maintain a curated membership and high quality of respectful discussion.
Of course your participation in the Secret Society is totally none-obligatory, you may just want to work on your social anxiety. I mention it though because I anticipate there's at least a handful of other people in the Secret Society who are going through the Social Anxiety Protocol or have overcame some of the same things you are struggling with and you may find value in connecting with them.
Social Smart Drugs to Order
{loadposition Pricing} PHENIBUT (50 grams) $23.99
PIRACETAM (500 grams) $39.99
ANIRACETAM (50 grams) $17.99
OXIRACETAM (50 grams) $29.99
L-THEANINE (50 grams) $14.99
Rhodiola (100 grams) $39.95
Eleuthero (100 grams) $34.95
Schisandra (30 grams) $19.95
Kratom (3 bags White/Red/Green) $36
$258+Shipping for a 6-10 Month Supply**Depending upon your personal stimulatory set point, the dosage used and how often you use them.
It's not exactly cheap. Right?
You've probably already tried to apply other methods and solutions for overcoming your social anxiety. If you've read this protocol to this point you're probably sick of beating your head against the wall trying the fluffy, feel good mainstream self help stuff. This is an all in, burn the boats multi pronged approach.
It's also fundamentally different than the mainstream self help solutions in that it's success does not depend entirely upon your will power. Upon you having the iron will to get and stay outside of your social comfort zone for weeks or months. The Social Anxiety Protocol is about hacking your motivation on a biological-pharmacological level. This approach assumes you don't have will power to overcome your social anxiety on your own, or else you already would have and you would be leading a fun and fulfilling social life instead of reading this. You would be out there having fun and making friends as opposed to listening to some weird, cross-eyed guru guy on the Internet! Right?
By actually investing the +$200 dollars in this 6-10 month supply of social smart drugs you are communicating in a powerful way to your subconscious that this is something you are committed to following through on.
Taking Responsibility
As I mentioned earlier my friend recommended I build this into a $79/monthly or $89/monthly product which included the supplements I've mentioned above and membership in a private social accountability community. As lucrative as this would be for me I ultimately decided against it for a really important reason, it wouldn't be asking people to take responsibility for their own lives. I suspect that such a product would attract a lot of people expecting a true magic pill cure for social anxiety, they would take the supplements for a few months, wouldn't really do the exposure therapy exercises, wouldn't really make an effort to get out of their comfort zones and as a result would end up not really improving their social anxiety very much.
By Open Sourcing this protocol the responsibility for overcoming social anxiety and improving your social life is totally on you. You can order the Nootropics I've talked about, use the Biohacking tools daily and follow the protocol to get out of your comfort zone or NOT. It's your life and it's totally up to you.
Leave a Comment
I tried to really address this issue in depth here but I'm sure there's still some aspects of this that remain unanswered for you. If so leave a comment and I will try to address it thoroughly an addendum or an upcoming podcast.This article is getting a little long, and there are a couple of other things I need to address in regards to Biohacking Social Anxiety, so I'm going to release a couple of addendum articles to address them. You maybe experiencing some cognitive dissonance right now that hopefully the addendums below will assuage.
About Limitless Mindset...
Connect with Jonathan Roseland
The inventor of the most clever cocktail toast ever, former participant in a bank robbery, almost died underwater twice, raconteur & smart drug dealer.
on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/limitlessmindset
on Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/jroseland
on Google+
https://plus.google.com/+JonathanRoseland
on Gab.AI
on Steemit
https://steemit.com/@jroseland
On Coach.me
https://www.coach.me/users/18dbe22f0cb6519b290d
I look forward to a continued conversation with you!
