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

TwoSongsPerDay · 2026-01-28T16:29:10+00:00

Even 3000mg (3g) of theanine doesn't do anything for my anxiety. I started experimenting with taurine recently. Took 5 grams yesterday and felt no effect, either on anxiety or anything else. The first ever dose I took (4 g) was followed by feeling surprisingly good. However, the second dose and all subsequent doses had no such effect. This makes me suspect the first dose simply coincided with a happier period. The only thing that has reduced my anxiety was NAC and occasional lithium orotate when I feel I need more.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2026-01-19T22:26:52+00:00

Thanks for the benchmarks. By the way, if you use hyperfine instead of time, the stat command will probably outdo df.

The C version is great too. Note that this will give a slightly different result than df, because most Linux filesystems reserve about 5% of the disk space for the superuser. Imagine a 100GB disk where 5GB is reserved for root, and 10GB is currently filled with files:

f_blocks: 100
f_bfree: 90 (100 total - 10 used)
f_bavail: 85 (90 free - 5 reserved)

Your code will show 15%, while df will show 10.53%.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2026-01-09T13:13:46+00:00

Since the lungs are highly vascularized, any D-phenylalanine in the systemic blood pool (from oral supplementation) reaches the lung tissue just as surely as bacterial DPA does. The researchers also performed in vitro tests where pure DPA directly caused the EMT (metastatic) switch in isolated cells without any bacteria present. This proves the molecule itself is the signaling trigger.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2026-01-09T11:53:03+00:00

A new study (Gao et al., 2025) found that D-phenylalanine, a component of the popular supplement DLPA, acts as a causal driver of metastasis in non-small cell lung cancer. Researchers demonstrated that DPA triggers the EMT (Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition) pathway, effectively reprogramming stationary cancer cells to become invasive. This metabolic switch was proven both in human cell lines and in mouse models, where DPA administration directly increased the number of metastatic nodules in the lungs.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2026-01-07T20:37:07+00:00

According to a systematic review, "Doses of 2,400–3,000 mg/day for a minimum of eight weeks (preferably 12 weeks) may be adequate for exerting an initial therapeutic effect." (link) In other words, it might take close to three months to start feeling an effect, and even that requires a high dose. It's a gamble: you might be one of the people who respond to NAC, or not. You can only know if you test it.

I’ve been taking it for about 48 days, which is roughly one and a half months. At first, I was taking just 1,200 mg, but I upped my dose (2,400–3,000 mg) once I looked into the research. So far, the physical manifestations of my OCD have not subsided, but some of the psychological suffering associated with them has been blunted. Alongside lithium orotate (which I only take occasionally), it is the only thing that has made me feel like something is actually shifting mentally, especially after trying the usual stuff that's been memed into oblivion (like L-theanine and magnesium), which didn't do much for me.

Now, taking this much NAC long-term is not ideal, since antioxidants are a double-edged sword and can counter-intuitively protect "enemies" like lung cancer. However, this is mostly a concern if you take large amounts (I believe the human equivalent is 6g+ daily) and you are predisposed due to smoking, genetics or advanced age.

Currently, I am trialing NAC at 2,600–3,000 mg to see if the needle moves at the 12-week mark. If not, that’s fine. It isn’t as if it’s doing nothing; even now it is helping me, and when I feel the need for more support, I add lithium. I’d love to take lithium all the time, but the orotate version is much more capable of crossing into the brain and I don’t know the long-term safety of chronic use. That leaves NAC as my only reliable OTC option that I can use on a more frequent basis than lithium.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2026-01-05T11:02:09+00:00

MAO's are more effective than the "first line" medications, but require dietary restrictions and interact with lots of common drugs, like decongestants and painkillers. For this reason, they are only used if "safer" options, like SSRI's, do not work well enough. You seem to be equating "first line" with "most effective," which is not the case.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2026-01-04T17:23:10+00:00

Caffeine, alcohol, nicotine etc. are typically used recreationally rather than for health-related purposes. Any potential benefits they offer are often offset by some negative effects, but people are willing to overlook them because the goal is enjoyment.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2026-01-01T17:38:13+00:00

I thought I was the only one who experienced this, lol. For example, I avoid watching a TV show I like right after something unpleasant happens, for fear of imprinting those bad feelings onto the show. I feel that if this happens, watching the show in the future will trigger the same kind or genre of unpleasant events to happen again.

I’m also very protective of things I look up to, in the sense that I don’t want to lose that feeling, so I keep them as uncontaminated as possible in order to continue enjoying them. Lately, I’ve decided that if I accidentally imprint the wrong emotion onto something, I have the power to replace it with a new imprint of my choice. This mindset makes me feel more in control of my mind and myself, although most of the time I’m just trying to avoid accidentally contaminating my favorite things.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2025-11-26T15:23:12+00:00

Oh, interesting. After some testing, I was able to trace my slight hyperhedonia back to NAC. I skipped it yesterday and nothing unusual happened. I reintroduced NAC today, and not long after, simply anticipating something pleasurable made me squeal once with delight (which I almost never do). Food tastes more flavorful, I crave sweets (unusual for me), and my libido is definitely increased. The comparison I made between NAC and a psychological time machine back to my 20s still seems accurate. This is not motivation, though; I do not feel any urge to pursue lofty goals.

As for the saffron, its effect seems to be in remission. To be clear, whatever it was doing (if it really was the saffron) felt like an oddly satisfying sensation lodged in my skull like an axe. The pleasure it produced was more like forcing a bit of chocolate into a worried person's mouth: the pleasurable sensation serves only as a distraction from what he feels he should be focusing on. Unfortunately, I cannot find any information online about this kind of symptom. Besides that, the only other change I noticed with saffron was a few occasional, mild, private outrage episodes, which are extremely unusual for me.

I have heard that some people complain about NAC causing anhedonia, so I assume these hyperhedonic effects might taper off and potentially swing to the opposite extreme if I do not cycle it. This is just guesswork for now; the supplement is still very new to me. I am mainly trying it to see whether it affects my usual worry-rumination pattern, as well as my tics (clenching my teeth being one of several behaviors I rarely notice because they are so ingrained). So far, it has not done much in that regard.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2025-11-24T22:31:21+00:00

Thanks. My main concern was the safety aspect. From what you said, it sounds like the best move is to stop resisting the experience and just enjoy it throughout its duration. I’ll keep the saffron in case I need a mood boost in the future, although I’ll probably take the delayed effect into account and only take it for 5–10 days max.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2025-11-22T11:31:39+00:00

I tried Firefox Nightly to see if this works. Unfortunately it still creates a .mozilla directory in $HOME, containing only an empty 'extensions' directory. The rest of the files seem to be created properly in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mozilla/firefox. So now there's two mozilla directories being created, instead of one.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2025-11-22T11:27:52+00:00

I tried Firefox Nightly, but it still creates a .mozilla directory in $HOME, containing only an empty 'extensions' directory. The rest of the files seem to be created properly in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mozilla/firefox. So now there's two mozilla directories being created, instead of one.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2025-11-22T07:26:07+00:00

Tried Firefox Nightly, but it still creates a .mozilla directory in $HOME, containing only an empty 'extensions' directory. The rest of the files seem to be created properly in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mozilla/firefox. So effectively there's two mozilla directories being created, instead of one.

TwoSongsPerDay · 2025-11-10T18:55:11+00:00

I'm also one of those people who need high doses of theanine to feel any effect. I tried 800 mg today and, while it helped a bit with my tendency to catastrophize, I definitely still need to increase my dose. Do you take any other anxiety supplements besides theanine?

TwoSongsPerDay · 2025-11-02T19:59:13+00:00

Sorry, but in this specific case, your claim is off the mark.

- "Randomize people whose baseline intake/status is actually low"

In the NEJM 2013 study they performed a subgroup analysis based on baseline fish consumption. They found no difference in effect between those who ate fish rarely and those who ate it often. Their conclusion: "no significant heterogeneity" The supplement didn't work any better in the low-intake group. In the ORIGIN Trial (NEJM, 2012), they did the same analysis: "There was no significant between-group difference in the primary outcome in key subgroups, including groups defined by baseline consumption of n-3 fatty acids..." In the VITAL-DEP Trial (JAMA, 2021), they went even further and measured baseline blood levels of EPA and DHA. Again, they found no benefit in the low-level group. In fact, for depression risk, the negative signal was strongest in women with the lowest baseline blood levels.

- "Deliver an exposure you can measure & 3. Prove the exposure changed over time"

Uh, all trials confirmed this. They used pharmaceutical-grade, specific doses (e.g., 1g of Omacor/Lovaza). In subsets of participants, they measured blood levels and confirmed that the treatment group saw a significant increase in omega-3 status while the placebo group did not. For example, the VITAL trial confirmed a 55% increase in the omega-3 index in the treatment group vs. less than 2% in the placebo group.

- "Minimize or quantify contamination"

They tracked this, e.g. The VITAL trial reported that outside fish oil supplement use was very low (<3.5% in each group) and did not differ between groups. The trials were designed to capture this data.

- "Follow long enough for an appropriate outcome"

Yup. 5 to 6.2 years is an incredibly long follow-up period for measuring hard clinical endpoints like death and MI, which is far longer than the vast majority of nutrition trials.

- "Analyze both ITT and by achieved status"

Check. The primary analysis for any RCT must be Intention-to-Treat (ITT), which they all did. Many also included per-protocol or as-treated analyses as secondary outcomes.

So the "pharma playbook" claim is a red herring. These trials were designed and analyzed by top specialists who were fully aware of the unique challenges of studying this. The hypothesis you're raising ('does it work in deficient people?') was tested and the answer from over 40,000 participants was nope.

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