I wait tables, and I'm damn good at it. When everything goes just right on a really busy shift, it's common for experienced waitresses to hit flow state and it's one of many addictive patterns that keeps people, especially people with ADHD, in this job.
For those unfamiliar, flow state is a qualitative shift in consciousness that increases awareness of task-related stimuli and decreased awareness of irrelevant stimuli while speeding up reaction time, draining away uncertainty, and making every small success feel like it's propelling you forward. It's got some of the energy of an adrenaline rush without the comedown — flow state gracefully fades out without a crash. It's like you just became more efficient, everything you need is right to hand, and triaging and prioritizing the subtasks in front of you becomes effortless.
It is the second-best part of my job, even better than the feeling of genuinely helping people.
Being of use to someone else - something as simple as opening a door or something as hard as helping someone change a tire on the road. That karma is like a hit of the stuff I don't do anymore.
I once heard this one from an Italian and didn't understand it until I experienced it .... a big heavy pasta meal in the evening, then strong espresso coffee in the morning, then have the most massive #2 happen all at once as quickly as possible. This only happens if you keep up a healthy diet, plenty of exercise and everything is working just right. It's disgusting to talk about and describe but absolutely refreshing and even invigorating to pass that much material from your body.
I've had a body high from a poo, it is pretty remarkable, but the lead up was different and not something I want to repeat. Maybe I will try some Italian food!
This is one of my highs too! It’s a wonderful feeling to get out of work knowing you did something great, like the implementation opposite of impostor syndrome.
Unfortunately I don’t experience it every week, or even frequently, but I guess if I did it wouldn’t be a high.
Generosity. The warm fuzzy tingly cozy sensation I get when I help a friend out, or even the occasional stranger, with getting a ride, or a meal, or taking the edge off an emergency expense, it never gets old.
Unfortunately not in a position to do that right now. I'm accumulating an emergency fund for making some bigger moves later...
If you get good enough at playing guitar, especially acoustic, you can literally buzz. It's only really apparent when you stop that you can feel that buzz fade away.
When someone I've gifted food to sends me a message later in the day telling me the food, bread, whatever was sensational. It tells me that I've nailed their food preferences and tastes. I've done a good job.
Food is my love language and it's how I like to say thank you and show appreciation.
Teaching: That moment when someone's eyes light up and their whole facial expression changes from confusion to understanding. I love the challenge of figuring out how to reach that with each person.
Dancing or working out to my favorite songs: It feels like my body is taken over by the music, and I can keep going endlessly while everything else fades away.
Scuba diving, the nitrogen in your body becomes more soluble so you end up with this mild intoxication. Very nice feeling to have
(Prob. Not my favorite non drug high, but i thought it'd be interesting)
"The greatest feeling you can get in a gym or the most satisfying feeling you can get in the gym is the pump. Let's say you train your biceps, blood is rushing into your muscles and that's what we call the pump. Your muscles get a really tight feeling like your skin is going to explode any minute and it's really tight and it's like someone is blowing air into your muscle and it just blows up and it feels different, it feels fantastic. It's as satisfying to me as cumming is, you know, as in having sex with a woman and cumming. So can you believe how much I am in heaven? I am like getting the feeling of cumming in the gym; I'm getting the feeling of cumming at home; I'm getting the feeling of cumming backstage; when I pump up, when I pose out in front of 5000 people I get the same feeling, so I am cumming day and night. It's terrific, right? So you know, I am in heaven."
This might sound weird, but sleep deprivation. I know it’s unhealthy, I only did it when young, but it was a rush to not sleep reading or gaming all night, then go to work/school. My record was 72 hours awake (Friday to Sunday) and while my head was wonky, and sometimes I would get very mild shakes, it was a high feeling still in control.
I’ve only felt a similar rush while fasting for several days, but for me it was much harder not eating compared to not sleeping.
Reaching the cloud-base with a paraglider, especially in weak-days where you really need to fight to stay in the hair and fight for every meter of altitude
A long massage. Especially those rare times I've been able to get in mid-migraine or similar. My God. Might actually be better than sex. It's up there.
Also vigorous head scratches from someone with long fingernails are crazy good.
The one I'm having now! I have hyperthymia and when I have flare ups of it those can last for several weeks or months. For those who don't know what hyperthymia is it's basically a constant state of mild mania.
Listening to music, especially while drawing and getting to reflect on how much got done in-between every song. It's one of the rare times we feel focused, even if only for minutes at a time. - Tabitha (ey/it)
Probably just picking up a cat and hugging, and when your cat just rubs against you.
And also flying drones and imagine you are a bird soaring through the sky.
FPV would be best, but even just those normal drones where you use for photography is still fun to just zoom around your neighborhood.
I once flew like 4km from a nearby park. I also once forgot about the tailwind then stuggle to fight against the find to fly back so I lost the drone because it eventually ran out of battery, felt like I trying to land a passenger plane that's running out of fuel lol
I mean, what constitutes a drug is kind of hazy, but I'd say damiana. It's a herb from the arid south of the U.S., and is brewed into non-alcoholic tonics, teas, and it's also a pleasant smoke. Great alternative to both cannabis and tobacco, and it's a solid tea.