Listening

I generally avoid background music. Perhaps a bit of radio when I'm driving, but fortunately don't drive much. I used to listen while working / studying, and can be very productive in doing so - but the downside is I don't fully enjoy the music, and quickly tire of whatever material I've been listening to this way. 

I used to drink a lot, and that plus music would release so much dopamine I could easily just sit and listen entranced, with nothing else. With other "substances" in the mix - even more so. Then it just got too much, and frequent blackouts and pass-outs - plus other problems - are simply not worth it. Quit booze and all for good. 

Listening "dry", the dopamine released from music alone is never going to be quite what it once was. And so it can be hard fighting the urge to scroll a phone/tablet while listening. I do a bit of that now. BUT a few years dry now, my natural dopamine has recovered a LOT and it's a pretty easily enjoyable thing again to just sit and listen, with some light occasional scrolling. Also noticed I'm a much more acute listener now, too. Makes it a lot easier to solidify impressions of new gear. 

@immatthewj
Very wise to peel back on that stern warning sign! Good on you. Some guys never get a warning through decades of abuse (including seemingly perfect liver/enzyme numbers), then wake up all yellow one day and it’s game over. We’re both lucky.

But I just cannot get to where you are with the brain chemicals yet. At least not most of the time. It can be good, but it’s never been as much fun.

Truthfully, if I was in a better place, both mood wise and actual location, I’d take up THC products again as that used to truly make my listening experience magical.

It was a slooow recovery process for sure, but every year the ice breaks a bit more and life gets better. But also yeah - expectation mangement - it’s never gonna be as WOW as when all the stars and substances aligned lol. Always fleeting on the latter, though. THC never did it for me, personally - usually leads to either anxiety or sleepiness and the few times it actually felt good lasted about 5 seconds lol. Edibles in particular were wildly unpredictable for me. Usually they did NOTHING but there was one time that lead to a 5 hour anxiety/panic attack after a 2 hour delay, haha never again.