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Comment by dilap | Hacker News Reader

caffeine is a pretty potent drug for sure; going from regularly drinking 5+ cups of coffee a day to nothing really drove this home for me. reality has a whole different feel.

beyond that, there are tons of people on strong antiaxiety and antidepression drugs, 100% of the time. that's pretty crazy imo.

& we give lots of kids amphetamine. which is extra-special-crazy.

(no value judgements here if any drug at all works for a person, but i don't buy at all the "correcting a chemical imbalance" explanation for the drugs. it's just being on drugs, for better or for worse.)

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As a counter-point, there are tons of drugs already in your head from various activities and e.g. Food. Orgasms release tons of drugs, as does exercise in general. Though I agree with your overall sentiment, where does one draw the line w.r.t. being "on drugs"?

i draw the line at "is the substance itself acting as a neurotransmitter in your brain". definitely sex exercise diet &c are indirectly drugs, in that they inspire your body to adjust its own mix of chemicals in the brain, but it's a whole 'nother thing to directly inject substances into the mix yourself.

i think where people tend to get into trouble with drugs is that since it is an external effect changing the brain's chemical balances contrary to its self-regularted levels, the brain tries to adapt, leading to tolerance – the user tries to counter-adapt, upping the dosages, "chasing the high", & often ending up in a no-fun place of dependence, addiction, side-effects...

(obviously more true w/ some drugs & some people than others...)

No drug is just a cap of endorphins though. They're always signaling mechanisms, like an orgasm or running or hearing some good music.

I have been everything from completely sedentary to riding a bike 14 miles, lifting weights, and running 5 miles, all every day. I have never felt any kind of lift from exercise. Junk food and caffeine, on the other hand, never failed to make me feel awesome.

That's very strange. Exercise with significant cardio has significant and immediate effects on mood after periods of inactivity in my experience. Endorphin highs are fantastic. However, in my experience I only get them if I exercise occasionally, rather than regularly. That said, overall mood does noticeably improve also (all day). This seems to be what most writers suggest. Perhaps you have not been noticing (are you exercising in quiet nature, or in a busy urban environment with headphones then rushing off from a gym to do things? In the latter case self-insight may be reduced) or have abnormal body chemistry.

    That's very strange

No, it's actually quite common

Have exercised in all the above environments. Have done it both regularly and intermittently, in noisy gyms, leafy suburbs, with and without headphones, swimming, basketball, swing dancing, martial arts, heavy bag, body weight, aerobic, anaerobic. I hate it all.

Can confirm, some people don't get "exercise high". I've never experienced it either, not even when I was a full-time martial arts instructor.

But a chocolate chip cookie, still warm from the oven... Uuuh, later dudes.

I used to run a few miles a day, almost every day for about a year. During that time I had runners high exactly 1 time. It was truly amazing - I felt like I could run forever. Had no muscle pain, no shortness of breath, it was like running on air. I only stopped because I was at the end of the run, and normally I would have collapsed, but I could have kept going that day no problem. I have never been able to repeat it.

I wonder if I would have eventually died like a horse if I kept going? ;)

I ma not a very good runner, but runners high is the single amazing high I have ever felt in my life. I have tried few things that give you high so I had some baseline to compare to. I don't know if everyone gets runner's high

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