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Comment by ransom1538 | Hacker News Reader

If you are out there and suffer daily 'stage fright' or serious social anxiety - propranolol is the drug for you. That weird fear that sweeps over you before a conversation - just doesn't happen. Need to talk in front of 50 people in 25 minutes? No problem. If you are crippled by social anxiety - this pill will turn you into Bradley Cooper in Limitless.

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> this pill will turn you into Bradley Cooper in Limitless

That’s quite a sales pitch! Propranolol worked for me for occasional use for stage fright scenarios. It was an amazing feeling the first couple of times to be able to go into those situations without the anxiety. But far from the Limitless example, for me a couple of hours after taking it I would slow down mentally and a few hours after taking it I would be exhausted and absolutely done for the day.

Maybe I’m an outlier, but it had absolutely no effect on me for public speaking or social situations. I was prescribed a lot of it, tried for years and even still have some sitting around. I envy those who get the effects you describe.

Yeah it slows my heart rate and chills me out a little but it's no magic cure for generalized social anxiety in my case. I've had better outcomes from eliminating caffeine.

I do like that (for me) Propranolol has minimal side effects other than mild drowsiness.

yes same, caffeine was one of the culprits for me too. i kicked it out entirely. much much better nowadays

Cutting out caffeine reduced social anxiety? I guess I can see the connection, but I don't think I've ever heard this mentioned before, or I just haven't heard about it.

Heavy caffeine consumption is so normalized in nerd culture that I didn't even think about my intake. A friend of mine who also has social anxiety quit caffeine and made me realize what a large effect it was having on my mood.

The physical withdrawal symptoms of cold turkey are pretty eye opening.

Yes of course because it makes one less jittery. But I think the positive side effects outweigh the negative: drinking coffee is social and so is staying awake long.

after heavily consuming caffeine for some time it no longer keeps you awake (I can drink a monster energy drink and immediately go to sleep). If you’re just drinking coffee socially I’d be willing to bet you’re not having any symptoms that affect your daily life

It might have something to do with what you said about being prescribed a lot of it.

it had very little effect on me. It even caused my blood pressure to drop so much that i got brain freeze and started to forget things. coldsweat etc.

I stopped using it, and learned the hard way to do public speak.

I don't know the reason, but my anecdata from talking to quite a few people about it is that some people react very poorly to it. But I guess that's true of a lot of medications that affect behavior.. antidepressants would be another great example of that.

The only reason I was able pass job interviews out of college was because of propranolol. it is a life saver

To me it felt like being drunk without the nauseous parts. I was prescribed it for stage fright.

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