Cycled a Saw Palmetto supplement, my story

Member Stories
#3

Just an update on my progress. I suffered from all the side effects accept muscle wasting, weight gain. I had suicidal thoughts, panic attacks, brain fog, insomnia etc. All the mental sides. Complete impotence, no sensitivity, shrunken genitals, no ejaculate, etc. All the sexual sides. Sexually, I’ve recovered to about 80%. I would say higher but my morning wood is always in flux. My EQ is about 80% as well. My ejaculate became watery, then dried up, then increased in volume but was very sticky and now is normal. Sensitivity about 80 % as well (from 0%). Penis morphology has improved as well. When I crashed, I developed two spider veins (one on each side of the shaft). The one on the right has disappeared and my flaccid size is almost near normal.

It’s this blasted insomnia that remains. Xanax works great for me. It has been a life saver but I can’t take Xanax forever. I’m sure if I could get my brain fixed I would be at 100%. Any stories like this? It’s like bunging jumping. I will dive off the platform (drift into sleep) but then the recoil happens and I’m pulled out of sleep after 30 secs or so. I then of course get an increased heart rate and sort of panicky.

Anyway, the things I’ve done consistently:
Lots of intense exercise (weights, sprints, basketball, etc)
Lots of walking
Intermittent fasting everyday for 12-13 hrs. I break the fast with sorghum water (3 big tablespoons) 1 mg creatine. I then wait about 30 min before I ingest food.
Lots of sunshine (even sunning my genitals, one study showed this to increase testosterone)
Trying to keep the faith

I have a new view on life. I’ve always been happy. I’m the guy that is happy and entertained watching the ants crawl or listening to the wind blow through the trees. But now I’m thinking about kids. I want a family. However, I won’t even try until I’m healthy. Hopefully, my brain will recover and body will stay strong.

When I do recover completely, I don’t know if I’ll ever be the same. This syndrome is pure evil. One could easily create a horror movie over this.

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Are there people who were cured 100%
#4

Be careful with prolonged Xanax use, ingesting it for 3 months or more can lead to a higher risk of developing alzheimers disease.

“Taking the drug for three to six months raised the risk of developing Alzheimer’s by 32%, and taking it for more than six months boosted the risk by 84%.”

Also I don’t know how much you’re to able to sleep without meds but I posted a theory on improving sleep here, it might be of interest to you.

#5

Although taking a benzodiazepine for a long time may or may not be good, the option of leaving insomnia untreated will very likely be worse.

It is unclear if the benzodiazepines themselves, in a small therapeutic dosage, cause neurodegenerative issues or if the people who took them were a population more prone to it since they already had anxiety and other issues - that’s why they took them in the first place.

There are a few seemingly causative associations with heavy and prolonged usage and increased fissures size in the brain. But those were case reports and heavy usage

So keep dosage as short and infrequent as possible,but in a way that still helps your sleep…at least until you find something better.

Have you tried eszopiclone? There is a study on it which fixed insomnia for the participants and the insomnia remained fixed after the 3 months of usage

#6

Yeah I doubt that, sleeping 4 hours a night vs. alzheimers? It’s not even a question, take the 4 hours.

Some of the advice on this forum is terrible.

#7


might as well take the (crappy) sleep

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#8

It’s 84% if you use a benzo for 6 months meaning you’re more likely to get it. I skimmed those sleep articles and none of them indicated it was that high, benzos are more dangerous.

#9

sleep deprivation has a ton of detrimental effects (beyond what was mentioned in those articles) which sucks because I tend to function better in all aspects with a few short hours of restful sleep vs longer hours of bad/ok quality sleep.

#10

I think you’re just running off adrenaline or something when you sleep less. Yesterday I felt like I slept a lot and became really tired in the middle of the day versus today I didn’t sleep a lot but I’m not nearly as tired. It sucks either way though lol

#11

I skimmed all the sleep articles on pubmed too.

You are in a bad spot if you don’t sleep, not just in terms of mental health, social relationships, but in terms of cardiovascular events and other peripheral sides - which benzodiazepines won’t cause.

Not sleeping is far more detrimental on your health than using a low dose infrequent benzodiazepine in a young person.

If you do this once in a while there is no issue. If you have a Chronic insomnia, like that, you won’t live to get Alzheimer’s.

#12

Yeah you will, people live for decades on only 4 hours of sleep. Trump is 70 and still breathing.

#13

Well, I dont think any of us is qualified to discuss about Trumps mental health, even though it is of worldwide concern. We don’t know if those 4 hours are actually using sleep aids like benzodiazepines, and we don’t know for how long he’s been doing it. Youre also assuming an anecdote as representative of the whole of population which isnt right.

In every study of sleep deprivation, 100% of the are associated with early death,increased neurodegenerative processes, increased cardiovascular events.

#14

In every other epidimiological review I read on benzodiazepine usage, (including the one you linked) there was the doubt that a reversal causation could be taking place, and in others there was no increased risk. But lets say the risk is real, it is dose dependent, and OP is also doing a great job at reducing his risk with sports and keeping busy.

All these things have to be weighted in.

#15

Yeah we do, the President’s medications are fully disclosed. You can google it.

And if he can still remember his family members he’s doing better than someone with Alzheimer’s.

#16

Hi basementdweller, please can you say what improvements you’ve had sexually and how you achieved them. How long did it take to see improvements.

#17

There are very few things in life that are worse than benzodiazepines, including Propecia. No-one should ever take a benzodiazepine for any reason, except perhaps for a couple of days maximum in extreme circumstances. Allan Frances, the author of DSM IV, perhaps the most famous psychiatrist in the world, has said that benzodiazepines have no role to play in modern medicine. Don’t believe it? Go to the benzo withdrawal forums, of which there are many. Watch the videos on YouTube. Millions of lives have been lost or destroyed due to benzodiazepines.

#18

did you also have face fat loss?

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#19

Propecia is far worse than an intermittent low dose Benzodiazepine. There’s people killing themselves for the torture they got post finasteride and I’m not referring to just regular suicidal ideation. The syndrome is much broader than that. There’s 40000 members in the benzo fórum, and 4000 on our community. If you think that a significant part of our society have taken a benzodiazepine at some point those are small numbers.

I’ve done a ton of research on this and a low dose infrequent, but therapeutic usage, is better than no therapy at all. But I’m curious what is your proposal for sleep myoclonies and loss of sleep?

I’m sure lots of people will be happy to hear, including health carers.

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#20

Oh boy, where do I begin? I am just trying to help, ok? Trust me - you will regret taking the benzos. If I get time and am in the right mood I will try to start answering this.

For now I will just post this piece by Allen Frances, who, by the way, is a huge hypocrite but is incidentally right on the benzos.

#22

Where does Boron come from ffs?

#23

I had face loss, I can’t post pictures here but it has been dramatic