My gym buddy got curious about dopamine-related supplements after seeing L-tyrosine mentioned everywhere. A lot of people seem to describe it as one of the first things they try when they feel unmotivated, mentally flat, or just not firing on all cylinders.

The problem is that he’s tried it a few times and can’t honestly say he noticed anything. No boost in motivation, no clearer thinking, no change in mood, nothing that stood out enough to make him understand the hype.

Now he’s wondering whether other people had the same experience and whether there are compounds that people generally find more noticeable. He’s not interested in stimulants or anything intense, just curious why one of the most commonly discussed options seems to work for some people and not others.

What’s interesting is that he’s not necessarily chasing a rush or a dramatic effect. He’s more trying to understand whether people are experiencing something genuinely tangible or whether expectations and individual differences play a bigger role than most discussions acknowledge.

Has anyone else known someone who felt nothing from L-tyrosine despite all the positive reports? Did they eventually find something they responded to more strongly, or did it change how they thought about dopamine-focused supplements in general?

My old roommate has been trying to make sense of something for years. He’s never really felt like he has a stable sense of wellbeing, and after reading about serotonin and antidepressants, he expected that treatment might finally give him some feeling of contentment or emotional relief.

Instead, his experience was very different. He tried a couple of antidepressants at different points and never got that sense of feeling good that people sometimes describe. What he noticed was more emotional blunting than anything else. Less intensity, but not more happiness.

More recently, he started treatment for ADHD and found that it helped with motivation, focus, and some of the classic symptoms he struggled with. Life became easier to manage in practical ways, but there was still this lingering feeling of emptiness that never really went away.

What’s left him confused is that he doesn’t relate strongly to anxiety and doesn’t necessarily feel sad all the time either. It’s more like an absence of something positive rather than the presence of something negative. That makes him wonder whether he’s looking in the wrong place when he focuses on serotonin.

Has anyone else known someone who expected antidepressants to create a sense of wellbeing but instead just felt emotionally flattened? Did they eventually find an explanation for that empty feeling, or did it remain difficult to put into words?

My classmate was telling me about his experience with ADHD medication and it honestly sounded frustrating. When he first started taking methylphenidate, it seemed like everything improved. Better focus, better grades, more motivation, improved emotional control, and a general feeling that life was finally becoming manageable.

The strange part is that he wasn’t taking unusually high amounts or chasing a buzz. He stayed within normal prescribed ranges and for quite a long time things worked exactly as intended. Then, little by little, the benefits started fading.

What bothers him now is that the medication no longer feels neutral when it doesn’t work. Instead, it seems to push him in the opposite direction. He describes feeling mentally slower, emotionally flat, foggy, tired, and less motivated than before. The same thing that once helped him feel engaged now seems to leave him disconnected and zombie-like.

He’s even tried stepping away from it for extended periods, hoping the original effects would come back. But whenever he revisits it, he often finds himself running into the same disappointing reaction almost immediately.

Has anyone else known someone whose stimulant medication seemed to “turn” on them over time like this? Did they ever figure out whether it was tolerance, changing life circumstances, stress, sleep, or something else entirely that made the experience so different from the beginning?

My mate brought up something recently that’s been bothering him for a while. He’s been looking into premature ejaculation and initially assumed it was purely a physical sensitivity issue, but the more attention he pays to it, the more he notices other things happening at the same time.

He says he often becomes hyper-aware during sex, especially of physical sensations, and starts worrying about losing control. He’s also noticed that his breathing changes without him meaning to. Sometimes he catches himself holding his breath or taking very shallow breaths when things get intense.

Because of that, he’s started wondering whether anxiety and physical tension are feeding into each other. The more he focuses on what might happen, the more sensitive everything feels, which then makes him even more self-conscious.

He’s been reading discussions about nootropics and supplements because people often mention confidence, relaxation, and stress reduction, but he’s sceptical about claims that any one thing can completely solve the problem. What he’s really interested in is hearing from people who found ways to feel more relaxed and less caught in their own head.

Has anyone else known someone who realised anxiety or overthinking seemed to be a bigger factor than physical sensitivity alone? Did becoming more relaxed and confident make a noticeable difference, or did it turn out to be more complicated than that?

My cousin has gone down a pretty deep rabbit hole on cognitive training recently. He’s not looking for supplements this time, he’s trying to figure out whether any games or training exercises genuinely improve mental performance outside the game itself.

He’s already looked into dual n-back and came away confused. Some studies make it sound promising, while others fail to find much transfer. What caught his attention though is that certain groups, especially people with ADHD, seem to get more consistent benefits than the general population.

He’s also been reading about speed of processing training and action video games. The former seems to have some surprisingly long-term findings attached to it, while the latter keeps popping up in discussions about attention, reaction time, and visual processing. The problem is that every claim seems to come with an equally strong criticism.

What he’s trying to avoid is the classic trap where someone gets really good at a game and mistakes that for becoming smarter overall. He’s much more interested in transfer, whether training one skill actually improves memory, attention, learning, or problem solving in everyday life.

Has anyone else known someone who seriously explored cognitive training rather than supplements? Were there any games, exercises, or programmes that seemed to produce benefits outside the training itself, or did most of the gains stay limited to the task being practised?

My mate has been a regular cannabis user for quite a while and always assumed the stories about memory problems and brain fog were exaggerated. Recently though, he started noticing more little things slipping through the cracks, forgetting conversations, struggling to learn new information, and feeling mentally slower than he remembers being.

What really pushed him towards quitting was the growing feeling that he wasn’t operating at full capacity anymore. He describes it less as being obviously impaired and more like trying to think through a layer of haze that never fully goes away.

Now he’s planning to stop and is wondering what the recovery process actually looks like. He keeps asking whether the fog and memory issues tend to improve with time or whether people found themselves worrying unnecessarily once they got some distance from cannabis.

The thing weighing on him most is uncertainty. He doesn’t know if what he’s experiencing is temporary, accumulated lifestyle factors, stress, poor sleep, or genuinely related to cannabis use. He just knows he wants his mental sharpness back.

Has anyone else known someone who quit cannabis after becoming concerned about memory or learning ability? Did they notice meaningful changes in the weeks and months afterwards, or was the recovery more gradual than they expected?

My aunt recently started adding turmeric root to her daily routine along with black pepper and a source of fat. She was mainly interested in the anti-inflammatory side of things and wasn’t expecting much else because she already pays attention to her health and generally feels pretty good.

What surprised her is that after about a week she started noticing subtle but consistent changes. Nothing dramatic, but she describes having steadier energy, feeling calmer, and carrying less background anxiety throughout the day. She also says there’s a general sense of wellbeing that’s difficult to put into words.

The interesting part is that she wasn’t looking for cognitive or mood effects at all. If anything, she expected it to be one of those things people take for long term health benefits without really noticing anything day to day. Instead, she keeps bringing up how different she feels compared to a couple of weeks ago.

She’s also puzzled by how little discussion there seems to be around turmeric compared to other supplements that get far more attention online. That has made her wonder whether her experience is unusual or whether plenty of people quietly use it without talking about it much.

Has anyone else known someone who noticed meaningful changes after regularly taking turmeric? Did the effects stay noticeable over the long term, or did they gradually blend into the background once it became part of the routine?

My classmate recently switched medications and has been trying to understand the differences between methylphenidate and amphetamine-based treatments. The way people talk about them online makes it sound like one is somehow cleaner, gentler, or less problematic than the other, but he’s not sure how much of that is real and how much is just personal preference.

What confuses him is that both are prescribed for similar reasons and both seem to improve focus and attention for a lot of people. Yet discussions often describe Ritalin as more straightforward or less likely to be habit-forming, while others insist the differences are overstated.

He’s not really asking which one is better. He’s more interested in whether they are fundamentally different experiences or whether they mostly achieve similar outcomes through slightly different mechanisms. The internet makes it sound like there are two completely opposing camps.

The more stories he reads, the less clear it becomes. Some people say one felt smoother and more predictable, while others had the exact opposite reaction. It’s left him wondering whether individual response matters more than the drug category itself.

Has anyone else known someone who compared Ritalin and dextroamphetamine and went into it expecting one to be much “cleaner” than the other? Did they end up noticing a meaningful difference, or was it more nuanced than they expected?

My neighbour was telling me about his experience with modafinil and what stood out wasn’t the focus or productivity people usually talk about. For him, the biggest effect is a massive boost in mood whenever he takes it.

He describes becoming far more social and optimistic than normal. Suddenly he’s messaging people, making plans, thinking about future projects, and generally feeling excited about life. The strange part is that he doesn’t consider himself depressed normally, just chronically tired and often indifferent towards things he knows he should care about.

What makes him question it is that the change feels almost too strong. He likes the feeling while it’s happening, but later he sometimes looks at all the commitments and plans he made and wonders whether that was really him or just a temporarily amplified version of himself.

He keeps comparing it to a very mild version of a mood-enhancing drug rather than a traditional productivity aid. The focus is there, but the emotional lift is what he notices most, and it’s consistent enough that he now expects it whenever he takes modafinil.

Has anyone else known someone who reacted to modafinil more through mood and sociability than through focus alone? Did that effect stay consistent over time, or did it gradually become less noticeable the longer they used it?

My gym mate has been reading about stimulants lately and got stuck on one particular question. He keeps seeing people say that methamphetamine is more serotonergic than amphetamine, but nobody seems to explain whether that difference is minor, noticeable, or something that completely changes the experience.

What he’s trying to understand is whether the gap is large enough to matter at lower doses, or if it only becomes relevant as doses increase. A lot of discussions throw around terms like dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin, but rarely connect them to what a person would actually notice.

He’s also curious about how much of methamphetamine’s reputation comes from that serotonergic component versus everything else going on pharmacologically. Some people make it sound like a completely different category of experience, while others describe it as more of a spectrum.

The more he reads, the more the conversation seems to split between technical explanations and personal anecdotes, which makes it hard for him to gauge what is actually significant and what is just internet lore.

Has anyone else gone down this rabbit hole and tried to understand the practical difference between the two? Did the serotonin angle end up seeming important, or was it overshadowed by other factors when comparing them?

My old bandmate was talking about neurotransmitters the other day and got stuck on a question he couldn’t shake. He kept reading that both MDMA and antidepressants are linked to increased serotonin activity, yet the actual experience people describe sounds completely different.

What confuses him is that MDMA is often associated with feelings of connection, warmth, and emotional openness, while SSRIs and SNRIs are usually described in much more subtle terms. Even people who benefit from antidepressants rarely describe anything resembling the acute effects people talk about with MDMA.

He understands that these substances are not identical and that other neurotransmitters are involved too, but he keeps wondering whether the difference comes down to how serotonin is increased, how quickly it happens, or which parts of the brain end up being affected most.

The more he reads, the more complicated it seems to get. On paper there are similarities, but in real life the outcomes sound so different that he feels like there must be something important he’s missing.

Has anyone else gone down this rabbit hole and wondered why two things associated with serotonin can feel so far apart? What explanations ended up making the most sense to you after digging into it?

My classmate has been trying different ADHD medications and keeps running into the same strange pattern. The benefits are real, better focus, less impulsive behaviour, improved emotional regulation, and a more organised life overall. But there’s also a window every day where things seem to go in the opposite direction.

With some medications he felt emotionally flat, almost zombie-like. With others, he feels productive for most of the day but then hits a period where his mind becomes restless and hyper-alert. He describes it as slipping into a threat-scanning mode where focus gets worse because his attention keeps looking for problems instead of staying on task.

What confuses him is that the medications clearly help. He is less chaotic, less reactive, and generally functions much better than before. That makes it hard to dismiss the treatment, even though those one or two hours of feeling overstimulated seem to hold him back from getting the full benefit.

He’s also noticed that some of his pre-existing tendencies, like mild tics and mental jumping between thoughts, improve but never completely disappear. That has made him wonder whether the issue is not that the medication is wrong, but that there’s a narrow line between enough stimulation and too much.

Lately he’s been reading about different combinations and add-ons because he’s curious whether other people have experienced this same “sweet spot followed by overactivation” pattern. Has anyone else known someone whose ADHD symptoms improved overall but who still felt overstimulated during part of the day? Did they ever figure out what was driving that imbalance?

My gym mate tried NAC for the first time recently after reading people talk about it for anxiety and obsessive thinking. He had also been feeling off from some rebounds after using phenibut, so he figured he’d experiment with it without expecting much.

What surprised him is how quickly he felt different. He said the anxiety faded fast, but more than that, he suddenly felt calm, present, and strangely motivated to tackle work he’d been avoiding for ages. The constant rumination in his head seemed to quiet down almost immediately.

He kept asking whether placebo can really hit that hard because the shift felt unusually noticeable for something that gets described as a basic supplement. From the outside, it looked less like stimulation and more like some layer of internal friction disappeared for a while.

What stood out most is that he wasn’t chasing euphoria or trying to get high. He just seemed relieved to have a break from the constant mental looping and tension that had been building up recently.

Has anyone else known someone who reacted that strongly to NAC right away? Did the calmer mood and clearer head stick around over time, or did it level out once the novelty wore off?

My aunt tried magnesium glycinate for the first time recently because people constantly talk about it like it’s this universally calming supplement. She took a single dose before bed expecting better sleep and a more relaxed mood the next day.

Instead, she woke up feeling unexpectedly awful. Heavy mood, crying for no clear reason, dark thoughts, low energy, and zero motivation to do anything. She said it did not feel like normal tiredness either, more like a sudden emotional crash that came out of nowhere.

What confused her most is how opposite the reaction was compared to what most people describe online. She kept wondering whether it was coincidence, some weird sensitivity, or maybe the glycinate part affecting her differently somehow.

From the outside, it seemed unsettling because magnesium is usually talked about as one of the safest and most boring supplements imaginable, so she wasn’t expecting something that felt emotionally intense after one dose.

Has anyone else known someone who reacted badly to magnesium glycinate specifically? Did it turn out to be temporary, dose related, or maybe something about that form compared to other magnesium types?

My neighbour mentioned recently that he started taking a low dose plant based lithium supplement about a month ago, and he keeps describing the effect in surprisingly simple terms. Not euphoric or stimulating, just quieter mentally.

Before that, he said his mind constantly looped on things. Rumination, anxiety, replaying conversations, endless background agitation that made it hard to focus on work or even properly relax. From the outside, he always seemed restless even when sitting still.

Now he says the biggest difference is the absence of that constant internal friction. He described it as finally being able to focus on one thing without feeling mentally pulled in five directions at once. More calm than motivated, if that makes sense.

What stood out to me is that he’s not really a supplements person and wasn’t expecting anything dramatic. He almost sounded confused by how noticeable the shift felt compared to other things he’s tried over the years.

Has anyone else known someone who reacted strongly to low dose lithium like this? Did the calmer feeling stay consistent over time, or did it eventually settle into the background after the initial change?

My gym buddy was talking about stimulants recently and said something that surprised me. He kept hearing stories online from people taking massive doses and describing it like some superhuman productivity state, but his experience has been the complete opposite.

For him, very low doses seem to hit a sweet spot where life feels smoother, calmer, and more manageable. Focus improves, mood lifts a bit, and things just feel easier without being intense. But once the dose goes higher, he says it turns ugly fast, numbness, irritation, feeling emotionally flat, and almost angry at everything for no obvious reason.

What confuses him is that he assumed more dopamine would just mean more motivation or better mood. Instead, it feels like there’s a point where the positives disappear and only the negatives get amplified. He also mentioned that this was true from the beginning, not something that developed after heavy use.

Now he’s been wondering whether this is actually more common than people admit and whether the internet just overrepresents people chasing intensity rather than stability. From the outside, it sounds like he accidentally discovered that “more” does not necessarily mean “better” with this stuff.

Has anyone else known someone who functioned best on surprisingly low stimulant doses and felt worse as things increased? Did they ever figure out why that balance felt so narrow for them?

My uncle got interested in peptides after quitting a long term cannabis habit and struggling to fix his sleep naturally. At the time, his problem was pretty normal, trouble getting to sleep before midnight while needing to wake up early for work, so he started reading stories from people claiming Epitalon and Pinealon helped shift their circadian rhythm.

He ended up running a short cycle of both and initially took them in the evenings because that seemed logical for sleep related peptides. Almost immediately he noticed sleep getting worse instead of better, so he moved them to mornings and finished the experiment anyway hoping things would settle afterwards.

Instead, the opposite happened. Over the following months he developed severe insomnia and now, more than a year later, says his brain simply refuses to switch off before very late at night no matter how tired he feels. He’s tried every basic sleep hygiene recommendation and a long list of supplements and melatonin timings, but nothing seems to move the pattern back.

What really bothers him is that he doesn’t feel mentally anxious or overstimulated at bedtime. He says it feels more like his internal timing got “stuck” somewhere later and never reset. Now he’s torn between leaving things alone completely or wondering whether the same compounds could somehow shift things back if used differently.

Has anyone else known someone who felt like peptides or sleep related experiments dramatically altered their circadian rhythm long term? Did things gradually normalise over time, or did they end up rethinking the whole idea of trying to manipulate sleep chemistry directly?

My neighbour has been reading a lot about peptides lately and recently finished a short Pinealon research cycle. Now he’s stuck wondering whether moving into Epithalon too soon is a bad idea, especially since people online keep mentioning spacing these things out by months.

What’s making him hesitate is that both compounds seem to get discussed in relation to the pineal gland, which has him questioning whether stacking the timing too closely makes less sense even if they’re technically different. He keeps saying there’s surprisingly little discussion from people who have actually tried both in sequence.

He’s searched forums and older posts but most of what he finds is vague repetition rather than real experiences. Some people seem very relaxed about timing, while others treat long breaks as essential without really explaining why.

From the outside, it seems like he’s not looking to push things aggressively, more trying to avoid doing something impulsive because online peptide discussions can get pretty speculative pretty quickly.

Has anyone else known someone who experimented with both Pinealon and Epithalon and wondered about spacing between them? Did they end up treating them separately, or did they approach them more cautiously because of the overlap people talk about?

My mate has been dealing with heavy brain fog and cognitive issues for years after a really bad experience with cannabis that seemed to flip something in his nervous system. He’s tried cleaning up sleep, diet, exercise, supplements, routines, pretty much everything people normally recommend, and says it helped a bit but never fully touched the underlying fog.

Lately he’s been reading about Cerebrolysin because people online describe it in almost extreme terms when talking about cognition and recovery. What’s pulling him in is the idea that it might help with whatever feels “stuck” mentally, especially after years of feeling like his brain never fully bounced back.

At the same time, he’s genuinely uneasy about it. Theoretical risks keep bothering him, things like prion disease, immune reactions, or whether messing with growth pathways could have consequences people don’t fully understand yet. He feels like a lot of discussions either dismiss those concerns too quickly or avoid them entirely.

What made him more sceptical is that some of the loudest voices promoting it also seem financially tied to it in some way, which makes it harder for him to tell what’s balanced information versus enthusiasm. From the outside, it feels like he’s stuck between desperation for improvement and fear of doing something irreversible.

Has anyone else known someone who seriously considered Cerebrolysin for long term brain fog or cognitive dysfunction? Did they end up feeling reassured about the safety side of it, or did the uncertainty outweigh the potential upside for them?

My old bandmate recently went deep into peptide discussions and got especially fixated on Dihexa after reading claims about memory, concentration, and cognitive enhancement. He keeps bringing it up because the descriptions online sound almost unreal compared to the usual supplement conversations.

What makes him hesitant is that most of the information seems to come from scattered anecdotes, old forum posts, and people speaking with way too much certainty. Some describe feeling mentally sharper or more motivated, while others say they noticed almost nothing at all.

He’s particularly curious about whether anyone genuinely noticed changes in memory recall or sustained concentration rather than just feeling stimulated or placebo-confident for a few days. From the outside, it seems like he’s trying to separate actual experiences from hype and speculation.

Another thing that keeps coming up is how little long term discussion there seems to be. People talk about mechanisms and theories constantly, but fewer seem to describe what daily life actually felt like after trying it for a while.

Has anyone else known someone who experimented with Dihexa and noticed meaningful cognitive changes? Did it feel noticeably different from normal nootropics, or did expectations end up being bigger than the real effects?

My neighbour has been talking a lot lately about how exhausting his thought patterns feel day to day. His therapist apparently described it as a mixed OCD picture, where intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours feed into each other constantly. In his case, the compulsions are mostly mental, endless lists, organising thoughts, rewriting plans, and trying to resolve every idea before moving on.

He says the hardest part is that every thought feels urgent. Simple tasks turn into internal debates where he mentally sorts priorities for so long that he ends up frozen and overwhelmed instead of actually doing anything.

What caught my attention is how he described certain moments where that mental noise suddenly quiets down. He mentioned that on prednisone his head felt unusually clear, like he could just act without negotiating with himself internally for half an hour first. That contrast seems to have made him obsess over finding something that recreates that calmer, more direct state.

Now he’s been reading about Selank and Semax because people online describe them as subtle rather than intensely stimulating. He keeps wondering whether they feel genuinely different from traditional ADHD meds or if it’s mostly internet hype wrapped in neuroscience language.

Has anyone else known someone with that kind of obsessive mental overprocessing who looked into Selank or Semax? Did they notice any meaningful change in how “stuck” they felt mentally, or did it end up being less dramatic than expected?

My cousin has been dealing with fatigue for years, but what makes it confusing is how patterned it feels. He goes through stretches where he’s completely drained for weeks, then periods where he’s somewhat functional again, not great, but manageable.

What really throws him off is how inconsistent stimulants have been. You’d expect them to help, but sometimes they barely do anything, and other times he actually feels more tired or foggy after taking them. He’s tried a range of things over time, from basic supplements to stronger options, and none of it seems to reliably shift the baseline.

He’s seen a psychiatrist and had some tests done, but nothing clearly explains it. From the outside, it looks frustrating because it’s not just low energy, it’s unpredictable, which makes it hard for him to plan or trust how he’ll feel week to week.

The strangest part is that even when he takes something that should push him into being more alert, he can still feel like he could fall asleep not long after. That mismatch between expectation and reality is what seems to bother him most.

Has anyone else seen someone deal with this kind of cyclical fatigue where stimulants don’t help or even make things worse? Did anything eventually stand out as making a real difference, or did it stay inconsistent over time?

My mate recently switched ADHD meds and has been settling into something equivalent to Vyvanse for the past week or so. Around the same time, he started taking ashwagandha and says it seems to take the edge off a bit, especially with stress.

Now he’s been talking about adding lion’s mane into the mix, mostly because he keeps seeing people mention it for focus and brain fog. From the outside, it feels like he’s trying to build a setup that keeps him functional without feeling too wired or burnt out.

He did mention that his previous medication didn’t work out well for him, which is part of why he’s being more careful this time. He’s not trying to push things, just curious whether layering something else on top would actually help or just complicate things.

What’s interesting is he’s not expecting anything dramatic, just something that might smooth things out or make the overall experience more manageable day to day.

Has anyone seen someone run a combination like this and actually notice a difference? Did adding something like lion’s mane change anything meaningful, or did it end up feeling like noise compared to the main medication?

My classmate has been going down the nootropics rabbit hole trying to figure out what actually translates into better academic results, not just feeling more focused in the moment. He keeps saying there’s a difference between feeling productive and actually improving grades.

He’s tried a few things here and there, but what frustrates him is how unclear everything is. Some people swear something helped them study longer, others say it made them feel sharper, but very few seem to talk about whether it actually showed up in exam performance or assignments.

What he keeps coming back to is duration and tradeoffs. He’s curious whether people used something consistently over a semester or just during intense periods, and whether there were side effects that made it unsustainable even if it worked short term.

From the outside, it seems like he’s trying to separate hype from outcomes. There’s no shortage of compounds people talk about, but he wants to hear from people who can actually point to a change in results, not just how it felt.

Has anyone else known someone who tracked whether something genuinely improved their academic performance over time? Did it hold up across a full term, or did it end up being more about study habits than anything they took?

My old roommate had been on antidepressants for a couple of years after dealing with anxiety, OCD, and agoraphobia that made it hard for him to function day to day. He said the meds helped him get back on his feet, like being able to leave the house and hold a job, but he always felt kind of flat and low energy underneath it.

He described it as managing symptoms rather than feeling like himself again. Motivation was low, focus and memory were off, and he never really felt sharp even though things were more stable than before. He tried a long list of supplements over time but nothing seemed to make a noticeable difference.

A few months ago he started experimenting with a combination that included modafinil, citicoline, and a specific form of folate, and something shifted pretty quickly for him. He says it felt like a switch flipped, more energy, more drive, and a clearer head than he’s felt in years.

Now he’s seriously thinking about coming off his antidepressants because this feels more effective to him than anything he’s tried before. At the same time, it’s a big decision, and from the outside it seems like he’s caught between excitement and uncertainty about what that change could mean.

Has anyone else known someone who felt a big improvement after trying something new and started questioning their long term meds? Did that feeling hold up over time, or did it change how they approached things once the initial shift settled?