I recently advised someone on SWIM's experiences weaning himself off binge drinking, and thought this thread may come in handy for others. It's not restricted to psychedelics, although some of the substances that he's found useful are.
SWIM has so far found a few plants useful in stopping binge drinking, which was very disruptive to his life due to 2-day long hangovers, hangover depression and the obvious future health problems. Obviously if you're situation is really bad your best bet may be to stop going to places where alcohol is consumed, however SWIM isn't ready to hang up his boots just yet, hence the focus on alternatives.
DMT
After smoking DMT, SWIM no longer felt a need to 'get wasted' ever again. Now it's just a matter of finding something to mellow him out and stop him getting bored when he's surrounded by drunks.
Cactus
SWIM's healing began thanks to the realisation that a 5g dose of cactus (Peruvian Torch or San Pedro) gave a nice feeling and reduced the 'thirst' for alcohol. [EDIT: these contain mescaline, but are legal in many countries] After this revelation, he was able to feel relaxed and so found himself usually drinking half as much. No more hangovers! However, the cactus needed to be balanced with the booze... trippiness from having more cactus reduced sociability, while enough booze drowned out the cactus and the 'thirst' to get wasted would kick in again. Try 5g... bear in mind it takes a couple of hours to peak.
Kanna
Kanna snuff seems to help a little but it's impractical, so the nasal spray thread here (search Nexus for 'sceletium nasal') looks promising. [EDIT: SWIM had no joy here]
Kratom
Kratom is addictive so be indful you may be swapping a binge habit for an opiate-style addiction if you overdo it. SWIM didn't think much of it because while it works well as a fun party stimulant, it felt 'mindless' and he got forgetful, inane and insecure at higher doses. It also gives hangovers apparently. He certainly felt rubbish the next day, but it was always combined with booze.
Kava
Kava is meant to be good, but hasn't been able to get hold of any yet. There's a question mark over liver toxicity scares, and even though people say it's only when other parts of the plant other than the root are used, that put him off a little because he doesn't particularly trust vendors' suppliers to get it right every time.
[EDIT: SWIM's had a few trys now, it doesn't seem particularly useful to him, but it was fun to try out anyway. Better for de-stressing chilling out.]
Stimulating plants
Forget the caffeine containing ones (guarana, cola nut etc) and forget ephedra if you want to relax. Yerba mate does contain caffeine but apparently it also relaxes so he's going to try that one out too. [EDIT: guayusa (apparently a strong version of yerba?) is nicer than coffee, try it, 5g tea simmered for 15 minutes]
Ephedra can be fun but is not a particularly nice feeling and overdoing the dosage is easy to do, scary and potentially fatal. However, maybe in small quantities it could prove useful in a tailored herb-cocktail.
HBWR [EDIT: Hawaaian Baby Woodrose]
Apparently this is used by people wishing to simulate ecstacy to some degree. After all, alcohol is not the best party drug, so why try to simulate it. SWIM'll be experimenting with HBWR combos soon. He's heard that HBWR and calea tea (dream herb) does it well. 69ron swears by adding peppermint oil to HBWR to make it more energetic.
Some references, with other suggestions that SWIM either hasn't tried or discounted:
A thread discussing 'healthy' alcohol alternatives:
A thread about 'herbal X' (ecstacy alternatives):
Please post if you have any good suggestions.
SWIM has so far found a few plants useful in stopping binge drinking, which was very disruptive to his life due to 2-day long hangovers, hangover depression and the obvious future health problems. Obviously if you're situation is really bad your best bet may be to stop going to places where alcohol is consumed, however SWIM isn't ready to hang up his boots just yet, hence the focus on alternatives.
DMT
After smoking DMT, SWIM no longer felt a need to 'get wasted' ever again. Now it's just a matter of finding something to mellow him out and stop him getting bored when he's surrounded by drunks.
Cactus
SWIM's healing began thanks to the realisation that a 5g dose of cactus (Peruvian Torch or San Pedro) gave a nice feeling and reduced the 'thirst' for alcohol. [EDIT: these contain mescaline, but are legal in many countries] After this revelation, he was able to feel relaxed and so found himself usually drinking half as much. No more hangovers! However, the cactus needed to be balanced with the booze... trippiness from having more cactus reduced sociability, while enough booze drowned out the cactus and the 'thirst' to get wasted would kick in again. Try 5g... bear in mind it takes a couple of hours to peak.
Kanna
Kanna snuff seems to help a little but it's impractical, so the nasal spray thread here (search Nexus for 'sceletium nasal') looks promising. [EDIT: SWIM had no joy here]
Kratom
Kratom is addictive so be indful you may be swapping a binge habit for an opiate-style addiction if you overdo it. SWIM didn't think much of it because while it works well as a fun party stimulant, it felt 'mindless' and he got forgetful, inane and insecure at higher doses. It also gives hangovers apparently. He certainly felt rubbish the next day, but it was always combined with booze.
Kava
Kava is meant to be good, but hasn't been able to get hold of any yet. There's a question mark over liver toxicity scares, and even though people say it's only when other parts of the plant other than the root are used, that put him off a little because he doesn't particularly trust vendors' suppliers to get it right every time.
[EDIT: SWIM's had a few trys now, it doesn't seem particularly useful to him, but it was fun to try out anyway. Better for de-stressing chilling out.]
Stimulating plants
Forget the caffeine containing ones (guarana, cola nut etc) and forget ephedra if you want to relax. Yerba mate does contain caffeine but apparently it also relaxes so he's going to try that one out too. [EDIT: guayusa (apparently a strong version of yerba?) is nicer than coffee, try it, 5g tea simmered for 15 minutes]
Ephedra can be fun but is not a particularly nice feeling and overdoing the dosage is easy to do, scary and potentially fatal. However, maybe in small quantities it could prove useful in a tailored herb-cocktail.
HBWR [EDIT: Hawaaian Baby Woodrose]
Apparently this is used by people wishing to simulate ecstacy to some degree. After all, alcohol is not the best party drug, so why try to simulate it. SWIM'll be experimenting with HBWR combos soon. He's heard that HBWR and calea tea (dream herb) does it well. 69ron swears by adding peppermint oil to HBWR to make it more energetic.
Some references, with other suggestions that SWIM either hasn't tried or discounted:
A thread discussing 'healthy' alcohol alternatives:
A thread about 'herbal X' (ecstacy alternatives):
Please post if you have any good suggestions.