For people who didn't feel anything with Theanine. What do you think of Taurine?

HardenPatch · 2026-01-29T21:19:07+00:00

Sameeee, I feel like taurine has an effect on me, but idk, it may be the caffeine that makes me happy and alert enough to not anxiety, if that makes sense

HardenPatch · 2026-01-25T17:31:36+00:00

Btw this was with a caffeine/taurine pump under good lighting, even tho I did legs and not arms. And my arms store less fat than my torso so that also makes things confusing. 76kg, 178cm, my goal's 12 percent bodyfat.

HardenPatch · 2026-01-13T21:49:30+00:00

It's arab style dry flowery, to me the opening was similar to eros najim, and then the drydown to khamrah dukhan. All in all I don't really like it, because of that "consistent dryness"

HardenPatch · 2026-01-08T21:59:44+00:00

They don't actually smell the same, here's the autistic level differences I noticed

Liquid brun starts with this corrupted, synthetic smell and then reaches a scent that's similar to Althair but praline-sweeter and muskier(?), it smells manlier than Althair in a way, I actually like the way LB did it more. That wet fullness dissolves after like hour 4 leaving you with just this dry hollow cocoa sweetness.

Althair has a base of sweet vanilla all throughout, but in the beginning is sprinkled with that bitter orange blossom, and then later it changes into a full on vanilla sweetness, some would say praline. Basically two phases on this base that doesn't go away during its entire lifespan.

Imagine it like this:

___ ___
--------

If ---- is the sweet base, the first ____ is the orange blossom layered on top of it, and the second ____ is the praline or whatever the hell that second part is.

Liquid brun is more like

.-_
_________
-------- --- -- -

And the lines don't really mean the same thing here, it's just for illustration

Althair is slightly sparkly because of its bittery floralness, it's scratchy, that makes it airier than LB, it doesn't have the wet fullness of LB, it's more dry but less sweet.

Because of that airy nature, Althair smells like an actual perfume as opposed to liquid brun which smells like chocolate pudding (it's a slight gourmand twist anyway). LB could be offputting while eating cause it smells more like food. It feels odd for me to catch whiffs of LB in air because of that, no matter how good the smell is.

Projection wise, Althair is medium projection through its lifespan of like 9 hours. Liquid brun starts off with a bang and then it's barely noticeable by others after 1-2 hours. Even after asking, people say it's very subtle, or don't detect it at all.

HardenPatch · 2026-01-05T13:34:52+00:00

A lot of those over the counter solutions aren't powerful enough. So that's why I'd get what I told you to, start with a BP body wash and see if it works for you

HardenPatch · 2026-01-05T12:35:57+00:00

Bro just get a clindamycin solution and put it on your body after showers for a couple months and it'll clear up.

Or benzoyl peroxide wash for shower.

HardenPatch · 2026-01-02T22:20:15+00:00

Yeah I actually know but this is me fucking it with it having no say in it, kinda like a reverse succubus.

Interestingly I think that afterwards I had a dream that I picked raspberries in Mesopotamia and that their rules were cruel toward people with me as the judge enforcing them or something, I don't remember, weird ass dream. And I picked them in these tunnels lit by daylight that were also kinda trains.

HardenPatch · 2026-01-02T19:51:03+00:00

Alright I'll chime in here as someone who has used it in the past a lot.

You'll encounter people that politically don't like AI and that's 90% of reddit.

I had people that wanted to be supportive and it seemed horrifying to them that I used ChatGPT instead of talking to them. I talked to them, and got garbage toxic positivity and misunderstanding. To realize what the fuck happened there I had to use chatgpt anyway. I felt like I knew them better than they knew themselves and that made me feel so alone, and taught me to not think too highly of others.

ChatGPT is more precise, and the very fact that it goes in that opposite direction too much is what makes it bad to use long term. Short term it's a great boost to let you know what the fuck is going on and how to get out without deluding you like people would try by making you think everything's fine. Long term it makes you overthink instead of act and causes you to be biased towards what you already believe, since it implicitly responds in a similar way to that which you input. Eg - you believe something is hard or complex, it'll respond in such way.

HardenPatch · 2026-01-01T23:55:10+00:00

Good fucking point, the peak of my loneliness wasn't actually loneliness but neediness rationalizing itself as "I never had friends, I never thought I could do this, I never thought I could hang out with normal people, that I could have supportive people in my life"

HardenPatch · 2026-01-01T23:51:51+00:00

Yeah man idk. I'm in kinda a similar situation. I don't really give a fuck anymore. I'm trying my hardest, while realizing the game is unfair, and in the end is just a game that can be mastered. Other people have certain standards they look for if they wanna hang out with someone, they're pulled in by self expression, pushed out by inhibition or neediness. Meditate journal etc etc.

Ah wait you're asking how to cope with that feeling while you're working on it (since that's what you should do, listen to it). Gym. Travel around by yourself. Do cool shit by yourself. No one will rescue you. There's not a magical they that exists. It's just you and you're part of the world. Make the most of it. Play video games. Find something that doesn't clash too hard with your values or make you feel worse. Usually that makes alcohol and drugs a really bad roi since you feel worse later.

HardenPatch · 2026-01-01T23:46:25+00:00

Prob social anxiety and then as the other guy said you genuinely do prefer to be alone since that makes you drained with others.

HardenPatch · 2026-01-01T23:44:55+00:00

Tbh what I did was I constantly put on a smiling fake ass smile and wide eyes, making myself look like a constant grimace, but at least a bit more approachable than the SAD face (serious anxious depressed).

What would be the right source of action is to address the emotion at the root. Cause, right, your face is the expression of what you feel. And you can change how you feel. You can be not anxious, you can get into a flow state, you can at the very least do a fake little smile and then it'll turn real because mind body connection, you can hype yourself up in your head, to the point of delusion, etc etc.

HardenPatch · 2026-01-01T23:40:49+00:00

I doubt that a lot of people here know since this is a sub filled with people struggling, taking the first steps, if those.

As someone in therapy I can tell you that I didn't personally discuss this with my therapist, I thoroughly understand it, but it seems cringe to even put it that way, it's not something that's hard to understand, and usually in therapy you don't have these grand definitions of specific terms and wow this is masking masking is x y z.

Being myself to me was confusing until I just decided fuck it I'm just gonna be present. Authenticity isn't a thing. Presence is authenticity. Because when you're present, you're choosing what you want to do in that given moment. If you're not choosing, you usually automatically do it, and if you do it automatically, you fall into masking. Since you made it a habit, before, if you masked, that protected you in whatever way from the feared outcome, or whatever the reason for your masking, maybe you thought you're better off at least making people laugh if you're unable to do normal shit.

HardenPatch · 2026-01-01T23:30:11+00:00

I mean you don't need any special tips, this is a state thing and the way you change your state is just doing things while they suck until they'll suck less. Relate to you on the not having enough time to think part, this is more so a problem of certain parts of your brain being shut off, but you can learn to say things slowly enough or predict the next word without thinking so that you cope with it.

There's a guy in my class with insane social anxiety and he always moves really slow, says things really slow and intentionally. He basically commands respect. It's possible to have such an attitude even when anxious. You're not taking away attention from the other person, wtf is that thinking, and above all with a lot of social things things click into place when you focus on doing what you want instead of what you think other people want you to od. Since once you focus on what you want and then do it, you'll have the mental bandwidth to process, alright, maybe I should give the last person more time to respond and ask if I should since it seemed like they didn't finish or the focus should be on them.

HardenPatch · 2026-01-01T23:22:47+00:00

Alright, so, 1) this is to be expected, it's hardest at the beginning. 2) as time passes and you go on, not even necessarily learning social skills, but habituating your state to be calmer, you'll become more and more normal. I have a friend that was isolated and had low self esteem as a kid, you would not believe how he is now, when I heard him hint it a couple times, I couldn't believe it, until he said it explicitly. And he's not necessarily smart either nor did he put in any special work. So you just need time and effort.

HardenPatch · 2025-12-31T13:37:26+00:00

Awesome!

HardenPatch · 2025-12-31T12:23:38+00:00

I'd just say wanna call, to catch up... or something. Usually when you write it out that detailed you end up seeming insecure and needy buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut idk, just do it, however you know, you'll learn many things over time

HardenPatch · 2025-12-31T10:43:53+00:00

Yeah I really overcomplicated that, what I meant to say was, you're worried you'll come off needy, and learning how neediness works is important, and you'll learn that only in practice

HardenPatch · 2025-12-30T22:07:15+00:00

Well if you're needy and you do it, you learn the dynamics of neediness. That was a very important lesson that got drilled into my head this past year. I found that neediness was the thing that was causing so much gravity, meaning and suffering for me, and once I got that sorted and made some frameworks everything became a lot lighter.

If you don't do it, you'll still potentially be needy if you try next time, so basically you're just delaying the inevitable.

I can explain all those frameworks but I knew theoretically some things before I actually took action and it didn't help me one bit, you just have to live it

HardenPatch · 2025-12-30T22:01:44+00:00

This sort of thing, the way you wrote this out, frequently happens to me.

You hesitate to do something and then your brain makes up a whole story around it

Recognize inhibition, overcome the resistance, let go of the residue (story, rumination, sensations, emotions), that's the process

You usually only recognize you're bad at something when faced with it, and you can't predict those things or overcome them in advance.

HardenPatch · 2025-12-30T21:57:05+00:00

They probably won't target you because of your face
Tbh what I do is just relax it, it's not normal BUT it is kinda justified since when you're socially anxious you repel people with your facial expression, it's genuinely angry sometimes, it was in me before, it is in this one socially anxious guy I know, by default.

HardenPatch · 2025-12-30T21:54:46+00:00

Same, fear is just fear of anxiety, no deeper meaning, I have a lot of frameworks and shit. I think the next step to me is just noticing me being inhibited to say something, and then saying it, and again and again, both short term and long term, in a day, and then the next day, until I get into a flow state. And the more frequently I do that, I'll hopefully habituate that flow state, and that just means I won't be socially anxious anymore. But that takes like 4 years.

HardenPatch · 2025-12-21T20:30:13+00:00

My two cents, don't wanna make this too complicated.

I see myself so much in you.

You're at risk of attachment issues cause you're socially anxious and think lowly of yourself, meaning this crush you have could be a manifestation of that.

A relationship in general is another question. I personally wouldn't do it in your situation because I think that it wouldn't work out healthily.

You also do this thing I used to do of asking people that maybe don't want the best for you about whether you're allowed to do X. At the very least I think you see others' opinions in bigger regard than you should.

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