Over the past couple of years, Elon Musk seems to have become much more impulsive. While there are many possible explanations and while this may even be part of a strategy (“Even bad publicity is good.”), this may also be due to neurobiological changes. Surprisingly, I have never seen anybody mention this hypothesis before.
Elon Musk has mentioned on multiple occasions that he has a prescription for ketamine (for reported depression) and doses “a small amount once every other week or something like that”. He has multiple tweets about it. From personal experience, I can say that ketamine can make some people quite hypomanic for a week or so after taking it. Furthermore, ketamine is quite neurotoxic – far more neurotoxic than most doctors appreciate (discussed here). So, is Elon Musk partially suffering from adverse cognitive changes from his ketamine use? If he has been using ketamine for multiple years, this is at least possible.
A lot of tech bros, such as Jeff Bezos, are on TRT. I would not be surprised if Elon Musk is as well. TRT can make people more status-seeking and impulsive due to the changes it causes in dopamine transmission. However, TRT – particularly at normally used doses – is far from sufficient to cause Elon level of impulsivity.
Elon Musk has seemingly also been experimenting with amphetamines (here), and he probably also has experimented with bupropion, which he says is “way worse than Adderall and should be taken off the market.” Adderall (amphetamine) and bupropion, which is an amphetamine derivative are both known to increase impulsivity.
Elon Musk claims to also be on semaglutide (Ozempic). While Ozempic may decrease impulsivity due to its effect on the reward system, it at least shows that Elon has little restraints about intervening heavily into his biology.
In this cherry-picked clip (link) he seems quite drugged to me, particularly due to the way his uncanny eyes seem unfocused. While there are many possible explanations ranging from overworked & tired, impatient and wanting to get back to work ASAP, mind-wandering, Aspergers, etc., recreational drugs are an option. The WSJ has an article on Elon Musk using recreational drugs at least occasionally (link).
Whatever the case, I personally think that Elons change in personality is at least partly due to neurobiological intervention. Whether this includes licensed pharmaceuticals or involves recreational drugs is impossible to tell. I am confident that most lay people are heavily underestimating how certain interventions can change a personality.
While this is only a wild guess, the only molecule I know of that can cause sustained and severe increases in impulsivity are MAO-B inhibitors such as selegiline or rasagiline. Selegiline is also licensed as an antidepressant with the name Emsam. I know about half a dozen people who have experimented with MAO-B inhibitors and everyone notices a drastic (and sometimes even destructive) increase in impulsivity. Given that selegiline is prescribed by some “unconventional” psychiatrists to help with productivity, such as the doctor of Sam Bankman Fried (FTX), I would not be too surprised if Elon is using it as well – particularly in line with his seemingly drastic change in behavior.
An alternative is the irreversible MAO-inhibitor tranylcypromine, which seems to be more commonly used for depression nowadays. It was the only substance that ever put me into a sustained hypomania. In my opinion, MAO-B inhibitors (selegiline, rasagiline) or irreversible MAO inhibitors (tranylcypromine) would be sufficient to explain the personality changes of Elon Musk. This is pure speculation however and there are surely many other explanations as well. I describe my own personal experience with selegiline in this week’s article here.
Whatever the case, Elon seems to have changed and changes to his neurobiology may be underestimated. As Sam Harris says: “I have been quite amazed at Elon’s evolution, both as a man and as an avatar of chaos. … If Elon is still the man I knew, I can only conclude that I never really knew him.”
Weekly observations
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