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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 7, 2025

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Just want to echo your experiences.

It has other knock on effects, as well. I used to smoke... Well, too much. I had tried to quit multiple times and failed. A few months ago, I realized I hadn't smoked in over a week. This was despite putting zero conscious effort into it.

It's an insanely powerful drug, and it makes me worry about other things it's doing to my nervous system. At the least, the fact that effects apparently disappear when you go off it is reassuring. Regardless, the positive health effects absolutely must outweigh any negatives.

That's the part that freaks me out the most - there are no negatives for me.

The first few weeks I was taking it, I felt like I was stumbling around in a daze, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Not only was a loosing weight, but I feeling better, less anxiety, better sleep, less brain fog, more energy. And I couldn't help but think 'What the hell? Drugs aren't supposed to be like this. Where's the negatives here? Where are the downsides!?'

I haven't run into any yet. I know people who are very much high-energy, driven people, whom I've known for a very long time, seen thier eating habits, seen what they do in day to day life, and all of a sudden I find myself thinking 'Wait, I'm doing the exact same thing they are. Huh.'

Now, with caveats - my brother is also taking semaglutide after I nagged him enough, and he went all in down the peptide rabbit hole, and it's entirely possible that both he and I just react very well to them - neither of us have increased our weekly dosage and we haven't hit a plateau yet. Which is a contrast to some of the horror stories he's stumbled across where they're taking 4 to six times our dosage just to see any effects, or much more expensive GLP1 blockers.

Still. Drugs. Man, they're awesome.