Yes, every day. I know. Let me explain how that happened and what the consequences were.
I run a startup. The grind is real. I started modafinil with the best intentions of using it 3–4 days per week. Within two months I was using it daily because the productivity difference felt too significant to give up on key days.
What worked: Output was genuinely extraordinary. I built, shipped, and iterated faster than I ever had. The company grew during this period. By pure productivity metrics, it was the most effective year of my professional life.
What went wrong:
- Social friction increased. I became more task-oriented and less empathetic in conversations. My co-founder mentioned it three times.
- Mild anhedonia on off days. Weekends felt flat. Not depressed — just muted.
- Sleep quality degraded despite maintaining an early cut-off. Got maybe 6 hours instead of 7.5.
- The appetite suppression led to gradual underweight over the year — I lost about 5 kg I did not need to lose.
How I recovered: Six-week break. Full reset. The anhedonia reversed completely within two weeks. Sleep normalised by week three.
What I do now: 3 days per week maximum. No weekend use. The output is still excellent and the downsides are gone.
From a pharmacology perspective, the anhedonia and social friction are both consistent with sustained dopamine pathway modulation. The fact that both resolved within 2 weeks of stopping is actually reassuring — it suggests no lasting structural changes.
The anhedonia on off days is a known risk with daily use that does not get discussed enough. Dopaminergic modulation at that frequency will eventually affect your hedonic baseline.
The weight loss from appetite suppression is something I worry about too. How did you manage to notice it — was it gradual or did you have a sudden realisation?
Gradual. Only noticed when clothes started fitting differently and then I weighed myself. Daily users should probably track weight monthly.
How did your startup perform after you switched to the 3x per week protocol? I would be curious whether the output actually dropped or whether the daily use was just giving you diminishing returns.
Barely noticeable difference in output, dramatically better wellbeing. I think the daily use was yielding maybe 10–15% more productivity while costing much more in quality of life. Not worth it.
This is one of the most valuable posts in this community. Honest about the downsides without being alarmist. Hats off.
The 3 days per week as a post-recovery protocol seems optimal from everything I have read and experienced. Would you still recommend modafinil given all of this?
Yes, but with strict protocols. It is like a powerful tool — respect it and it serves you, abuse it and it costs you.
The co-founder mentioning social friction three times is a telling detail. Did you have any awareness of it while it was happening, or only in retrospect?
Only in retrospect, which is part of why it is worth writing up. Modafinil does not make you feel like you are behaving differently — you feel fine. But the people around you may notice something you cannot.