"It's really hard. If you can medicalize your faults, you get legal protection f...

Raplh · on March 30, 2009

Hacking personality. Welcome to cyberpunk, what made you think it was all fiction?

Eventually the artificial line between "medical" and "I feel like it" will need to be addressed. On the other hand, the world is probably rich enough to support the kind of experimentation described here "in the noise."

Personally, I expect or rather hope for a drug that will truly help me lose weight with minimal danger and minimal side effects. I eat too much, almost enough to qualify for "the biggest loser," but not quite at that level. (If I lost 100 pounds I'd be thin but OK, they routinely lose 100 pounds or more and are still zaftig, plus they are shorter than me.)

I'd say as long as I wait for the right drug to lose weight, I can't fault those who have found it to talk to more girls at parties. Its probably healthier than becoming a rock star or carrying around cocaine all the time anyway.

aaronblohowiak · on March 31, 2009

Wellbutrin helps with appetite as well as depression smoking and ad(h)d. You should also get checked -- you may be (pre)diabetic.

ams6110 · on March 31, 2009

I'm reminded of the advice from pg's never-delivered high school graduation address (posted here the other day): don't look for excuses to be lazy. Are drugs like Paxil the "lazy" way to avoid dealing with the realities of social interaction? For some surely not, but I think that for a good number of people they are.

rjurney · on March 31, 2009

Thats why you shouldn't use them lazily, as the author did. Taking Paxil as an alternative to therapy is misguided. Taking Paxil, and then working your ass off in therapy is the way it should work. The Paxil opens you up a bit so you can learn social skills with a professional coach, your therapist/psychologist/psychiatrist.

Its just a tool. You still have to work like hell to get over your social phobia. Then you come off the Paxil.