Henchman's Story

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#263

That’s fantastic news Ozeph! I’m happy for you and your family. I wish you luck tapering off the benzos, I hear that’s tricky business.

My sleep has regressed significantly since the alcohol and right now is really my only major remaining symptom as well. Still I have no problems going to sleep, but just can’t guarantee sleep past the 4.5 to 5 hour mark. Still, I can’t complain as I always feel rested. I hope it will improve again to where it was a few months back. Like you said, at this point I have no reason to think it will not eventually. I’m looking forward to 100%.

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#264

Thank you for you good wishes. I’ll be tapering off very slowly.

We have similar insomnia. I also wake up after around 5 hours. I don’t open my eyes when I wake up. If I do, I’ll be awake for the day. I stay in bed with my eyes closed and after a while, sometimes just 15 minutes and other times 1-2 hours, I keep drifting asleep and waking up. It’s light sleep with lots of dreams.

I had worst and I had better but it’s always the same pattern. I sleep 3-6 hours, then either I can’t sleep anymore or I keep falling lightly asleep and waking up a dozen times or more for a few more hours. I often had unproductive days after bad sleep but they’re getting further apart. Exercising sometime clears the fog.

Overall it’s getting better and I have no doubts you will also get better with time. With this disease getting better is often two step forward and one step back. If you’ve been better in the past, it means you have the ability to be better. It will come back.

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#265

That is the exact same pattern I see with my sleep. I wake up at 4.5 to 5 hours and then just stay with my eyes closed. After this point I’m a very light sleeper, any noise will disturb me and I usually have my noise cancelling AirPods next to me, I put these in and it helps me drift in and out like you, for various amounts of additional sleep over the next few hours. Like you, if I open my eyes, it’s over and I’m awake. I take no sleep aids though, which is our difference.

I read your whole thread before where you tapered down before with Gabapentin (I think it was). I have no doubt you can pull it off no matter how difficult. You’re a determined one for sure!

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#266

Gabapentin was brutal. Brain fog was so strong that I couldn’t feel anything else, thus no anxiety. I won’t use it again. With all the pain and unpleasantness of the last five years, the small withdrawal symptoms from slowly tapering off are bearable.

It is strange this insomnia we’re having. For me it comes at the same time as morning wood, which last very long. I believe the body must produce some kind of androgen to trigger morning wood and I think I’m reacting to those. Even when I didn’t have morning wood, the body must have produced the same androgen without the desired result and still I would be reacting to this and waking up. I’ve read many studies correlating sleep with testosterone production. 4 hours sleep put men T in the 200-300 ng/dL range whereas 8 hours result in a 500-700 ng/dL range. Maybe we sleep until the testosterone wake us up ?

Anyway to me the path is the same. I have to get used to testosterone and not react to it.
Weight lifting raises testosterone and that’s what I’m doing and been doing for years.

I believe we’ll both break through, we’re already much better than we were at the beginning. It’s just a matter of time.

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#267

Hey man, why do you think creatine caused a crash on you? Some scientific data support it increases 5AR activity. Which means it acts as an antagonist to finasteride right? And I also wanna ask how long did your actual crash lasted at least the mood swings ?

#268

I have no idea. It’s included in foods we eat and I never had issues, but as soon as I had it in purified powered form, 0.5g sent me reeling. It doesn’t make any sense to me. The symptoms that went nuts were all neurological, so there has to be some chain that links creatine to the nervous system and maybe there we find the culprit. I am not smart enough to wager a guess though.

As far as how long the crash lasted that’s a difficult question. The worst of it abated around 18 months I think? The akathisia went away with the creatine around 1 year. I’ve felt mostly recovered since May of this year maybe? And this month was a whole different leap into extremely recovered territory. Depends on your definition. I have had noticeable mood swings as recently as last month. I still think I have them, but it’s VERY hard to notice them now.

#270

Hi. I think people focus too much in DHT. But if I remember well from the time I read every research about PFS most of the problems came by another hormon modified by finasteride : progesterone. This should be converted to DHP and finasteride blocks the change…

Creatine can also modify DHP levels and DHP is clue for neurosteroids as GABA or dopamine.

If your GABA A receptors don’t work and you have dopamine problems you cannot sleep for relax your muscles… You know the rest of the story…

I know that I am back with DHT as many of as as we are losing hair again, but maybe the DHP blockage is still there… Who knows…

Thanks for sharing as always:)

#271

Maybe it’s because creatine is a strong methyl donor, to which PFS famously responds poorly, and supplemental form of creatine is more methyl reactive than food? Just a guess

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#272

DHP is then supposed to be transformed to allopregnanolone by 3a-HSD.

3a-HSD is what gets the body rid of excess DHT. If 5ar was low, then production of DHT was also low and the body would have to reduce 3a-HSD to match 5ar levels in order to avoid depleting all DHT reserves.

I’ve read people with PFS are both low on 5ar and 3a-HSD. My DHT always tested normal although I seem to be low on allopregnanolone (and 5a-THDOC)

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#273

Yes. Allopregnalone was a possible solution for PFS. It was supposed that could be a treatment in pills in the long/short future…

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#274

Crashed again slightly, (minimal sleep, light anhedonia & anxiety) recovered in a day. Sleep seems better since the recovery, but still too early to tell.

#275

Pretty sure sleep is getting better. Slept until 9AM straight this morning with no interruption. Seems like progress is up, but very very gradual right now.

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#276

Sleep is definitely still not better. Getting about 6 to 6.5 hours now on a good night with 3-4 wakeups. I feel pretty fatigued throughout the day, a bit of a rough patch as far as sleep is concerned, but everything else with regards to mental health and functionality has been excellent lately. Really made progress on every level except sleep. Also Libido has lagged lately along with sleep, but not too bad.

#277

Crash again, barely any sleep last night and depressed this morning. My head has a weird floating sensation and have issues with some Brain fog that is slowly clearing.

Been a lazy bum for too long. Started exercising again. Mainly just for health as I’m getting fatter, but can’t hurt my current situation either. Also stopping the caffeine due to all the sleep issues.

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#278

So my wife started making me this drink lately since I’ve been sick and it’s got a bunch of stuff in there including a bunch of tumeric. Apparently tumeric is 5ari. So, stopped drinking that…. Maybe why I’ve taken a downturn? So, avoid tumeric I guess?

#279

Full on crash two days in a row, hoping this is not caused by the stupid tumeric drink and is just a periodic crash that seems to happen everytime I recover to new levels. I’m betting it is because I was doing SO well, but hard to stay positive when I’m like this. I’m really not doing so well today, really rough but putting on a face for my family so as not to worry them yet. Hoping for a good nights sleep tonight to put an end to this.

#280

6 hours straight sleep. Not amazing, but way better than it has been. Feeling good today, hopefully the start of another upswing.

#281

I do’nt know if tumeric is 5ari but it does lower testosterone. If your sick while advil or tylenol might seem appealing it also reduces testosterone. -sigh- seems like all the good things do.

#282

True, I don’t know that Tumeric is 5ari, but was just doing some quick searches and found

I haven’t done that poorly that long for a while, so while I don’t know if that is what caused it, I’m going to avoid it just for peace of mind. I have taken Tylenol with no noticeable effects although I use it VERY sparingly.

#283

Merry Christmas everyone. So, vast improvement over the past week since my last crash. I had a brief period of 100% where libido returned full force, gone now. However, the main thing is my sleep. Over the past week I went from 6 hours to 6.5, to 7 hours to last night where I slept like 8 hours straight and 10-11 hours total. Best Christmas present ever. I feel great, hope it sticks.

My fear, as always, is that this is some false recovery sparred on by the “potential tumeric crash”. I feel like that was likely just a regular crash though and this is the rebound improvements.

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