Summary
Overview
Tim Ferriss appears as a guest on Dan Harris's podcast to discuss his mental health journey, including his use of accelerated TMS with D-cycloserine for OCD and anxiety, the importance of relationships over self-optimization, his ketogenic diet practices, and his upcoming book 'The No Book' about learning to say no and protect what matters most.
Current State of Well-Being and Mental Health
Tim describes feeling better than ever, attributing his current mental state to a holistic approach that includes relationships, meditation, and cutting-edge brain stimulation technology. He emphasizes that relationships serve as the crucial counterbalance to the trap of self-obsession that personal development can create. His policy of blocking out extended time with close friends throughout the year has proven invaluable for maintaining mental health.
- Tim feels better than ever - mind, body, soul, psycho-emotionally, and musculoskeletally
- Relationships are the counterbalance to self-help becoming self-infatuation or self-obsession
- He does a past year review annually to identify nourishing relationships and blocks out extended time with those people for the entire year
- Simply spending time with close friends laughing around wine, meals, or campfires goes a long way for mental health
" One of the risks of personal development, or let's just call it more broadly self-help, is that it can very easily become self-infatuation or self-obsession. "
" The counterbalance to that, the bet that offsets it is, it's very simple, relationships. Really doubling down, tripling down on relationships. "
Accelerated TMS and Brain Stimulation Breakthrough
Tim details his transformative experience with accelerated transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), particularly when combined with D-cycloserine. After struggling with severe OCD and rumination that affected every aspect of his life, he experienced near-miraculous results from a one-day accelerated TMS protocol with DCS pre-dosing. This combination reduced his anxiety from 7-8 out of 10 to 1-2 out of 10, representing a completely different lived experience that has lasted months.
- Accelerated TMS compresses 3-4 months of treatment into one week: 10 hours a day, every hour on the hour for five days
- The SAINT protocol produces 70-80% remission of depression that is quite durable
- Tim's first TMS treatment reduced his severe OCD symptoms from 7-8 out of 10 to zero for 3-4 months
- Pre-dosing with D-cycloserine (DCS), an old antibiotic that catalyzes neuroplasticity, allowed one day of TMS to produce results comparable to months of treatment
- The one-day protocol with DCS worked like a switch the next day and has lasted 2-3 months so far
" It is impossible to overstate the difference between an eight out of ten of non-stop ruminative monkey mind with a fixation on things that are anxiety producing to getting to like a one or two out of 10. Those are two different lived experiences. "
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