Extremely unstable - The story so far

Member Stories
#1

Welcome to our community. Please fill in the following template as a way of introducing yourself, and helping others to understand your background and situation.

Where are you from (country)? Canada

How did you find this forum (Google search – if so, what search terms? Via link from a forum or website – if so, what page? Other?) Reddit

What is your current age, height, weight? 24, 6’1, 200lbs

What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)? finasteride

What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? 1.25mg every day

What condition was being treated with the drug? hair loss

For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)? 12 days

Date when you started the drug? Jan 5, 2025

Date when you quit the drug? Jan 17, 2025

Age when you quit? 23

How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? Cold Turkey

How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects? Immediately

What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? Mental sides

Check the boxes that apply. You can save your post first, then interactively check/uncheck the boxes by clicking on them. If your symptoms change, please update your list.

Sexual
[ ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[ ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility

Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[X] Confusion (Varies)
[X] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness (Varies)
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[X] Slurring of Speech (Varies)
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[X] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks (30% Recovered, Varies)
[X] Severe Depression / Melancholy (Varies)
[X] Suicidal Thoughts (Varies)

Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[X] Muscle Weakness (Recovered)
[X] Joint Pain (Recovered)
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes

Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[X] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems (Varies)
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[X] Lowered body temperature (Varies)

[X] Other (please explain) Random crying fits lasting 5-30 minutes

What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug? Lexapro, Adderall XR, Olanzapine, Gabapentin, Seroquel, Effexor, Busiprone, Clonazepam, Pregabalin (current), Mirtazapine (current)

If you have pre or post-drug blood tests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (please post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?

Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience?

Tell us your story, in your own words, about your usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
Early January, after Christmas break from work, I started on Finasteride. My doctor gave me no warnings, and from my google searches nothing really came up except for the sexual sides (which ironically I don’t have). I immediately got insomnia the first night I took fin, but I didn’t immediately contribute it to fin. Over the next few days of use, the insomnia got slightly better but was still uncomfortable, and some minor sleep anxiety was starting to creep in. I quit taking Adderall XR which I was prescribed for ADHD as I figured I had started having a negative reaction to it, but that didn’t help. As the insomnia continued, I did some deeper digging on the side effects of fin and was horrified, so I stopped right away. The insomnia didn’t improve, but my anxiety levels did start to drop. On January 28th I had a work trip coming up and of course having very little sleep the night before I decided to go back on the Adderall so I could complete my work. This triggered a panic attack, which came and went in waves for the next 3 days with 0 sleep. Since then it’s been a wild rollercoaster of symptom fluctuations, recovery periods and mini-crashes. Sometimes I feel 100% for parts of days and then go back to 20% in the evening. The most I’ve figured out right now is that the more sleep I get, the less anxiety I have the next day. Unfortunately as of May 12th my anxiety has become out of control again as last night I had to hold off panic attacks for 6 hours instead of sleeping, even with the aid of pregabalin and mirtazapine. Heavy exercise was improving me for a while but started causing anxiety attacks so I have been paranoid of restarting them.

#2

Some further info:
Today has been pretty rough. Pretty sure I spent 7h crying for no particular reason. I feel a burning in the back of my head and then burst into tears. I’ve noticed a pattern now that I was experiencing in my time on fin and after fin but pre-crash. The more sleep I get, the lower my anxiety and other symptoms are. The less sleep I get, the worse I feel. I also require more sleep than before to feel good the next day, on my good days I’ve been falling asleep around 10:45pm and waking up around 10am. Any amount of sleep lower than 9ish hours and my symptoms are aggravated.
Also, I haven’t done any particular dietary changes except less sugar and avoiding DHT blocking foods.

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#3

Ok your stuck where I was before I got to where I am now. I recovered from the sexual stuff, I have emotions, and skin sensation back but I still felt absolutely insane with fluctuating levels of cognitive dysfunction. My mood swung like a pendulum and just like you I would also have the random mood crashes with crying spells for no reason (of course though it was all compounded by stress and my lack of sleep due to my job). The less sleep I got and more chaotic my life the more out of control I am.

You also have the thing where stimulation causes the string of sleep deprivation induced panic attack like states where it feels like you could lose your mind at any moment but it never quite happens. Same thing with the exercise causing improvements but also causing the same state to occur randomly. You also get the digestive issues too and body temperature regulation problems according to the chart up there? Over stimulation flares will also involve those.

Have you tried any protein dissolving enzymes like serrapeptase or papain? On top of my current stack these are what did it for me (with the addition of myrrh extract capsules too). I still have bad days if really unhealthy factors in my life collide but I still stay on this stack relatively stable. Like the past couple days due to a holiday colliding and having junk the day before followed by needing to be up early for work after a day of stress had me on the verge of a meltdown today with extreme anxiety and that same old “I’m going to lose my grip on reality at any minute now!” feeling. Now because of work end to end every day after this I know I’ll be fighting it but on this stack day by day it lessens. There’s some threshold factor to this involving a building mechanism of something but I don’t know what.

After eating a bunch of gluten I’m slower and stupider but it’s not too bad and doesn’t really flare this symptom cluster you and I have BUT it will if it is occurring compound it. If I eat too much meat at once, same difference but without the brain fog gluten brings. Too many carbs in general don’t do it either. Histamine loads get thing a bit spicy if they’re too high but a high glutamate metabolite meal like something involving processed soy products/sauce and/or something MSG like? The next day will be a nightmare. If I have an orgasm around this period I ingest the glutamate bombs? Mind as well not even look out the window cause it’s gonna be panic attack city all day! On those days I can’t even interact with another human being, my brain just goes out the window. Can’t even speak/form words properly, it’s like someone temporarily lobotomized me.

I also used to have a condition called POIS where after recovering from the sexual sides and recovering motivation/excitement/general emotional extremes it came roaring back and would involve the presentation of where you’re stuck right now. I also noticed this same thing that goes on in the covid long hauler sphere where some people said the only thing that helped this in a certain cluster most likely was serrapeptase. I tried it and it was part of the solution for me as I’m in the cluster of people it helps but for some reason with that on my stack I also specifically need papain and myrrh or it doesn’t completely work. The rest of my stack in a nutshell is a lot of immune support and methylation support from methyl-b12 but what you need there could be completely different than me.

#4

What dosage of serrapeptase and papain do you take? I’m seeing 60-120k SU online for the serrapeptase. Our issues do sound very similar. I thought I had it figured out for a few weeks where I was exercising quite heavily (weightlifting and running a few miles every day) and my emotions were a lot more stable, with my main issues being somatic anxiety (neck/shoulder and head tension).
My opinions on this are somewhat thrown off by the panic attacks being a pre-existing issue (very rarely after a highly stimulating event like a concert they would happen). Maybe I’m just more prone to them now?

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#5

Im on 120k and the papain ill get back to this on as I cant remember off the top of my head (just checked it’s 12,00 SPU Swanson brand capsules). I am too as I do have a ton of stress in life now but since starting the enzymes I have many more windows so despite the high stress there is some underlying biological mechanism making the reaction far worse. Its real bad for me after a concert, I dont go to them anymore because my nervous system just can’t handle it. Maybe we could try more things to improve circulation? So far the only thing based on what is working i know is that its at least partially vascular mediated.

#6

No worries. I had noticed over the past couple of weeks that after my nightly hot shower I would have a period of overstimulation/wired feeling that would extend into the night and disrupt my sleep. Instead I decided to move my showers to the mornings. Seems to have worked? Was feeling much less overstimulated last night when I went to bed and only woke up once to use the washroom and fell back asleep instantly. I am still having to stay in bed for nearly 12h to feel rested though.

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#7

That is so interesting! That happens after hot showers to me too but in the beginning right after one I’ll have a brief period of extreme calm followed by extreme over stimulation and temperature dysregulation. People in the POIS community and ME/CFS communities can also have strange reactions to showers for some reason. I only take showers in the morning for that reason. How well I tend to do has more to do with what I do right after I wake up than how long I sleep as long as I’m getting a very basic amount of it. Like what kills me the most is right getting out of bed needing to rush like a madman getting ready for work while my brain is barely even online yet with a million things buzzing around in there before the day even gets started and then being thrown into a chaotic workplace with a million things to do and lots of environment switching.

I see you also noticed there is some circadian lock on the symptoms too, this is why I also needed to adjust what I take to it. For example I can’t take the myrrh in the morning, I need to take it from 5-6 PM. I needing my cistus and green tea in the 4-6 PM window too. The effects differ somewhat depending on when I take them. I would probably crash if I took everything completely out of order, I wanted to try that out of curiosity to see what would specifically happen but that’s probably a bad idea. That is also the problem, my life depends on this stack I have right now. If I lost access to it all I’d be screwed.