Preface this with whatever caveats necessary: adrafinil is a modafinil prodrug which is unscheduled in the U.S. In other words, it's effectively modafinil in vivo.

Secondary note: I was once prescribed modafinil for severe sleeping issues before I knew it had some street/techbro value (maybe it didn't then). My experience was not great. I only took it for three days and then stopped.

I would say the effect on wakefulness was very subtle. I think I stayed up until 11 or 12 each night wherein I'd normally be up until 2 unable to sleep. I suppose the difference is I didn't get the late afternoon crash.

However, I'd wake up at 4 or 5 with significant itching. To the point that it was hard to go back to sleep. There are some serious side effects to consider that are somewhat related to skin issues and when I reported this to my doctor he seemed concerned and told me to keep an eye out for another week. I just stopped.

I've worked hard on sleep habits and it's gotten a lot better naturally. Intuitively, better sleep = better wakefulness/happiness/productivity, but we all tend to fight these uphill battles sometimes. We think if we just put in an extra few hours tonight, we'll be ahead of the game. But instead we end up putting in low-value work and being exhausted the next day, starting the cycle anew.

I really didn't find much huge exciting value in my short foray into modafinil, though. If you can work on some natural sleep training or even 5htp/melatonin/whatever works for you, you'll be better off.

Yes, Modafinil (rarely) causes life-threatening skin conditions. I got some mysterious purple blotches on my skin and discontinued use.

Thank you. Whenever I talk about modafinil with someone I always mention the potential skin issues and tell them to try low doses first. I wasn't sure how common it actually is but yours and the other's reports even being here suggests it's worth taking those precautions.

Adrafinil can be bad for your liver, which is a major reason to prefer modafinil despite the fact it's illegal.

I did a lot of reading into this after learning my old medication had become the cool thing to do, and the difference between them is largely overblown. Yes, there's slightly more liver metabolism involved but both carry warnings about potential liver damage.

It looks like adrafinil is getting difficult to come by in the US. Mostly I’m curious if on my sluggish work days something like modafinil would give me a kick that coffee just doesn’t provide. Though I already have itchy skin issues messing up my sleep so if I had anything like the reaction you describe it would be a no-go.

> modafinil would give me a kick that coffee just doesn’t provide

There's no _kick_ whatsoever and in some ways that's kind of the appeal.

My understanding is that it basically just represses the signals that make you feel tired/sleepy.

Adrafinil has the hepotoxicity concerns, as well as the unpleasant taste and urine scent.

There are other modafinil analogues/prodrugs, but I’m not overly familiar with them. Flmodafinil seems relatively popular.

I've purchased prescription drugs from Indian pharmacies online and they take a while to arrive, but they do make it through customs and arrive and they are legit.

The funny thing is, I mostly do it because I don't want to go to the doctor every six months to say "mother may I" for a very mild and safe statin. My insurance would pay for everything, but it's such a pain to do.

I always find it incredible that in our free and civilized societies an adult isn't allowed to decide what chemicals he can put in his body. He must first beg for them.

I live in a “third world” “dangerous” and “corrupt” country.

My food delivery app has modafinil from any of the local pharmacies or I can get it at the mall on the way back from the gym. In fact, I can get most medications this way and I don’t have to pay the 30$ it would cost me to see my doctor if I was in my home country.

That's why we are civilised. People value dignity, grovelling for drugs should make one feel shame, and acts as a decent filter for those not desperate.

Who said anything about grovelling? I have a feeling you feel like this about every drug, but why should one feel shame for consuming drugs? I agree that some people behave very bad on drugs, but that's no reason to forbid it for everyone.

> and they are legit.

How do you know? Do they have a lab certification/ is there a regulating body?

Obviously importing regulated drugs may come with their own legal quandries. However, if you were to do such a thing, you would find information on what the pills and packaging should be, their ph, their coating and their weight.

Then when you receive you order, you'd sacrifice a pill to carefully weigh it, check the coating matches, packaging and so on. If you ordered a whole bunch, you would check batch numbers and sample each batch for testing.

Obviously this isn't foolproof, but if someone is going to sell a counterfeit they aren't going to practically spend a lot of time in making it a perfect one.

In many countries there are also testing labs that don't ask any questions nor contact the police if you hand over small samples of illegal drugs, for harm reduction purposes. If you wanna be 100% it contains nothing deadly, use those.

They come sealed from reputable manufacturers and pharmacies in India that you can read about online.

I suppose someone could create fraudulent drugs, but honestly, it's probably cheaper just to sell you the real deal. And just like other businesses they want your repeat business.

I know they are the real drug in my case because I take them for mildly high blood pressure. It's trivial to measure blood pressure, and I can see that they have the same effect as the American drugs of the same dosage.

The main things to look out for are mood swings (especially if you're prone to mania or psychosis). The milder, more typical manifestation will be irritability, impatience and restlessness, to the point of (temporarily) changing your personality so you don't want to relax and socialize but only work.

Well, that and the potentially life-threatening skin conditions. Those are apparently rare, but I discontinued use when I saw some large purple blotches on my skin.

In general, law enforcement only has a limited number of resources, and its going to use those to go after things that are seen as a "problem". People ordering drugs from online pharmacies (with legal prescription) happens on such a wide scale that its absolutely pointless to set up resources to try to find those that don't have legal prescriptions.

If you really are worried buy a prepaid visa card with cash, and use a vpn.

I took modafinil for years, through college and my first few years of work. I realized once I stopped that my pretty-intense social anxiety was basically 90% caused by modafinil, and I think I am a more effective person now. YMMV.

Modafinil was a bandaid for me when I had neglected what I had to do. Paired with the fact it seriously depressed social awareness and made me an unfeeling robot for 12-16 hours at minimum, I don't miss it. There are no wonder drugs better than good eats, good sleeps, good work time, and good breaks. Do all those things and you'll realize that (unless you're clinically in need of e.g. ADHD meds) you just haven't been treating your body right.

People tend to view drug use as a lazy alternative to healthy living, but I think it might be better to flip it around and say that drug use (ranging all the way from caffeine and nicotine through to heroin and meth) is a symptom of something wrong. Schizophrenics, for example, are known to self-medicate with nicotine prior to their diagnosis.

I think it's important to remember the hidden underlying problem won't go away just because the visible coping mechanism does. A severely depressed person using modafinil as a crutch has to treat the depression first and foremost.