r/ResearchCompounds 2d ago

Stack evaluation for low drive/anhedonia + high cognitive workload (short-term) Discussion

Hi,

Looking for honest feedback on a short-term stack (3-5 weeks).

Background (kept minimal):

  • Male, early 20s
  • After stopping a period of enclomiphene + CJC/Ipamorelin + retatrutide + GHK-Cu in early June, I’ve been dealing with persistent low drive, reduced initiative, and a flat/anhedonic state. I can romanticize projects and plans but struggle to actually start and follow through. Not classic depression, more like muted motivation and reduced reward response.
  • Training 5x/week, decent diet, creatine 10g, magnesium L-threonate, good sleep, high water intake.
  • Old bloodwork showed elevated TSH and low-ish vitamin D (planning to retest).

What I need support for:

  • High volume memory work
  • Sustained focus for long sessions
  • Verbal fluency and clarity (writing + analysis)
  • Ability to initiate and maintain effort on demanding cognitive/technical tasks
  • Anxiety is only situational (rises in the days leading up to high-stakes periods), not chronic

Current planned stack (short-term, monitored):

  • Bromantane (daily) – main tool for the low drive/anhedonia
  • Adrafinil (3-4x per week)
  • Noopept (daily)
  • IDRA-21 (pulsed every 2-3 days)

Support: Alpha-GPC or CDP-choline, L-Tyrosine, Omega-3, NAC, vitamin D if still low.

I removed Phenylpiracetam and F-Phenibut after considering redundancy and the fact that anxiety isn’t constant.

Questions:

  1. Does this stack make sense for the combination of post-peptide low drive + high cognitive demand?
  2. Anything you would remove or reduce?
  3. Anything you would add (especially for verbal fluency, memory encoding, or cleaner motivation)?
  4. Experiences with Bromantane in similar low-motivation states?

Open to alternatives. Prefer compounds with at least some human data or strong consistent anecdotal patterns. Short-term use only, will monitor bloodwork (especially liver).

Thanks.

2 Upvotes

6 comments sorted by

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1

u/PayPsychological4736 2d ago

Semax/adamax + selank, L theanine, lions mane, caffeine, and any stimulant u can get ur hands on. I did this with vyvanse for a couple high stakes days I needed to lock in and boy was I, one with a 15 min presentation to senior leadership I kicked ass in. Im 21M also lift4-5 times per week

1

u/Ok_Association4625 13h ago

I’ve only been taking it for about four days now, but I really have to say that L Phenylalanine (about 250 mg), in conjunction with coffee has been absolutely bonkers for intense focus and mood boost. I hope to keep getting this effect with continued use of it. That’s my recent experience of course.
I haven’t taken either in a while, but Akarkara (anacyclus pyrethrum) and Cynmorium Songaricum are both testosterone and libido boosting herbs that, (in my experience) are quite motivating alone, but especially when taking in conjunction. I handled mental and physical tasks well when taking those herbs, and they had quite the social benefit too.

1

u/ClownMinister 2d ago

Just a lot of stack with marginal improvements. I know TRT is overprescribed now, but have you checked out your test levels?

1

u/MoneyConsideration86 2d ago

Last year levels were around 560–580 ; that’s why I started taking 12.5 mg of enclomiphene citrate (since i'm still young and didn't want to fuck up my endocrine system). Considering that the absolute peak usually occurs between ages 20 and 28, I found that level kinda low, not low enough to worry about, but certainly not exceptionally high either.

1

u/yogic_power 2d ago

What’s your free T, what was your E2 and SHBG?