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Medical disclaimer: This website is for research and education only. Nothing here is medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or a recommendation to use any peptide, supplement, or protocol. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making health decisions. Read the full disclaimer.

Recovery, the nervous system, and rebuilding a baseline

Early recovery is largely a waiting problem. The reward baseline has been dragged down and it comes back up slowly, which is experienced from the inside as nothing being worth doing. Understanding the mechanism does not shorten it, but it does make it survivable.

The bottleneck

A suppressed reward baseline plus a dysregulated stress axis — the combination that makes early abstinence feel simultaneously flat and unbearable.

What is in it, and why

  1. SelankEvidence grade: Early human data

    Anxiolysis without sedation or dependence in Russian trials, which is the relevant property in a recovery context.

    Timing: Split through the day.

  2. BPC-157Evidence grade: Animal studies only

    Rodent evidence for protection against dopamine-system disturbances, including in withdrawal-relevant models. Animal data only.

    Timing: Daily in community protocols.

  3. NAD+ precursorsEvidence grade: Human trials

    Substrate support. Alcohol depletes NAD+ directly, so restoring it addresses a real deficit rather than a hypothetical one.

    Timing: Morning with food.

Why these go together

  • The NAD+ rationale is unusually concrete here: chronic alcohol use measurably depletes it.
  • Selank's non-dependence profile is the property that matters most in a population where dependence is the presenting problem.

Conflicts and risks

Consider this

Withdrawal from alcohol or benzodiazepines can be fatal and requires medical supervision. This is not a domain for self-management with research compounds.

Consider this

No compound here has been trialled for addiction in humans.

Consider this

Introducing new unregulated substances during early recovery carries its own psychological risk, independent of pharmacology.

The practice protocol

This half is not optional. It shares the mechanism, and it usually has the better evidence.

  1. 1.Craving surfing: when an urge arrives, set a timer and observe it without acting. Urges peak and subside — feeling that happen is what teaches the nervous system it does not have to obey.
  2. 2.Slow exhale-weighted breathing at the first sign of escalation, before the urge becomes a decision.
  3. 3.Daily gratitude practice to re-sensitise attention to rewards that are already present.
  4. 4.Morning rehearsal of the person you are becoming — recovery is an identity change before it is a behaviour change.

Nutrition and sleep foundations

These gate everything above them. A stack running on five hours of sleep and insufficient protein is mostly an expensive placebo.

  • Protein and B-vitamin repletion; both are commonly depleted after chronic alcohol use.
  • Blood sugar stability — hypoglycaemia is a reliable craving trigger.
  • Sleep, which is disrupted in early recovery and is also what most improves it.
  • Human support. No stack substitutes for it, and this is the one item on the page with overwhelming evidence.

The evidence ceiling

There is no peptide with human trial evidence for addiction recovery. Older DSIP withdrawal research and rodent BPC-157 work are the extent of it. Behavioural treatment, peer support and, for some substances, medication-assisted treatment have vastly more evidence.

Common questions