I understand that the mods like @axolotl and @awor as well as many on the the forum repeatedly warn people against taking substances of any kind, as there is a risk of adverse effects, and who is struck by the effects is inherently unpredictable at this stage. There are many cases of supplements and drugs having no effect several people for it only to hit one person heavily. The notion of permanent worsening also, entirely understandably, makes the experienced members of this forum extremely hesitant to recommend suffers try anything at all, new or already attempted by other members.
The fact of the matter is that many people will be trying to take different things to improve their state.
Warning people against taking anything and expecting them to follow this advice is an unrealistic hope for even the most optimistic of members issuing advice.
I feel that it may be of service to list which substances have the highest benefit to risk ratios based on experiences of forum members.
I understand that nobody wants to endorse a substance that may well harm somebody, but I feel that providing people a list of relatively low-risk things to try may be of real benefit, especially to new members.
In the next week I plan to employ somebody to comprehensively analyse archived posts and compile a list of substances, dosage (if provided), and outcomes.
This is something which as not yet been done. The survey which went up last year only captures a small fraction of the historical data available on this forum.
The process to comb through previous forum posts is arduous, and this will come at significant personal expense to me, but it’s something which I think should have been done ages ago, and it’s high-time it’s finally documented in a way whereby a newcomer, or even a forum veteran can see the lists of substances.
Before I post the job request, I want feedback as to what should be gleaned from the prior posts. I already mentioned substance, dosage, number of doses, effect (positive, negative or unchanged).
Hopefully this will prevent the rote phrase, 'people have gotten bad reactions to substance X, so don’t risk taking it’.
Or, “once somebody took substance Y and killed themselves. Don’t even think about it.”
Instead, the conversation will be something alone the lines of, ‘10 people have tried this substance. 2 of them reported improvements, 5 were unchanged and 1 got significantly worse’.
I want feedback please.