Henchman's Story

Member Stories
#485

I’m not 100% either and while my libido is lower than it used to be, it’s not an issue for me. I’m married, and I would say my wife and I have a normal sex life.

I would be upfront about it if I weren’t though. In my experience, there are plenty of people who wouldn’t mind the lowered libido. If I were a betting man, I would say my wife prefers things the way they are now as my libido was very high previously, for example.

I’m not sure how things are for you, but even if you have no libido, while harder, I would think there are people out there that wouldn’t mind.

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#486

I’m the same really, can have sex just never feel it’s at 100%, I have to rev up the engine so to speak haha. Anyways good to hear. Glad you’re doing better

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#487

Same, it’s always good to hear good news about anyone here.

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#488

First significant crash since December, 2 months is a pretty good streak. Today is Feb. 7 for record keeping. This one might be psychosomatic, but who the hell knows. Ate some new kind of candy my family brought home and I’m always wary of eating anything new. I generally have to know exactly what’s in it, but since it was candy I was not too worried and already took a bite. Saw one ingredient I wasn’t familiar with (annato extract) and googled it while I’m eating the candy and basic google search suggests annato is well known 5ari food. I only took a small bit and only sucked on it for a little while, but was immediately freaked out and spit it out.

Super high anxiety today, brain burning, mild anhedonia, brain fog, not a fun day. I honestly think it’s just coincidence as I feel like I was due for a crash, leading up to this my sleep has been slightly less and less each day until only a 5 hour day. My sleep has been so consistent now, it was noticeable. I really think that was my signal that a mild crash was coming on. Nothing I can do but hope and pray this is the case. The alternative is absolutely fucking terrifying.

Went for a run and feeling a little better already. I’ll now be terrified for the next few months of an impending crash due to annato. That’s just how this thing goes. I need to do better, be more vigilant, even if it’s just a mental thing at this point, it still affects my well being. I need to be sure that when I have a crash, that it’s just part of the cycle. Then I always look forward to the upswing and higher peak to come after. Now, I’m just scared. So scared.

I have a post in the forum where I’m trying to collect a list of known things that have crashed people. I would encourage everyone to list any substances you know of, so we can all have a list available and avoid situations like this and those much worse where people have deeper crashes from their initial or repeat crashes, just because they don’t know.

#489

Shit. Woke up this morning after only 5 hours again feeling totally wired. This is how my original crash progressed. Trying not to panic, but this is worst crash in quite some time. It’s happened before though, so still don’t know what this is. Whenever this happens, it’s best for me to just take stock to see where I’m at. Assuming I recover, next time it happens I can look back on this for patterns and comfort. Trying to look at the positives.

  • Despite “bad” sleep I feel pretty rested and really “wired”.
  • anxiety is very high, but manageable. I feel like a nice long run would be enjoyable and make me feel a little better.
  • Anhedonia is present, but mild. I still can enjoy things if I don’t have the outright desire to do things currently.
  • Brain burning is mild along with very mild muscle twitching.
  • I still have libido and visual stimulation is there
  • While the familiar nervous system fire is back and it is harder to sit still, akathisia is mild and I’m able to sit still and lie down.
  • Still have my family and my job. I’m reasonably financially secure as long as I maintain my current employment.
  • I have a solid support structure.
  • I’m still physically active and can exercise
  • I have very good reason to believe I will get better and improve again despite current state.
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#490

Slowly feeling more confident this is just another cycle, but I’m having some pretty strong paranoia right now and it makes it hard to come to this conclusion, my brain is trying very hard not to let me. I question everything I eat right now, and every fluctuation, even though I know I shouldn’t.

I’m very wired a high percentage of the time right now. High anxiety, and mild akathisia, sometimes feeling a bit like I’m gonna have a panic attack or something although I never do. Have significant brain burning, mild sleep disruption, and some mild muscle twitching. Looking back this seems similar to the crash I had back in May/June 2025 where I had brain burning for a few months after leading into some significant good months and improvements.

I can go to sleep fine, but I wake up a lot after ~5 hours or so. Sometimes 5 is all I get but it seems to be getting better and I can 7-8 or more, it’s just very broken up now. I wake up after 5-6 hours and generally feel very wired for a period of 30+ minutes after which sleep becomes possible again.

Anhedonia is slowly lifting and I’m feeling better in that aspect. Brainlab fog is lifting slowly as well. I’m fluctuating some, I can feel it throughout the day, and general arrow feels up right now, even though progress feels slow. Seems like this is likely to happen again in a year or so, and I’ll need this note for next time so I can look back and remind myself not to freak out too much.

#491

Today is the first day since the crash that I feel somewhat normal. That was the longest I’ve had issues like that in a while. Body odor is back and I smell terrible, but I feel great. Hoping it sticks.

Brain burning is still very mildly present, but much better than it had been these past two weeks.

#492

End of month, 57 months post-fin.

Not a fun month, already spelled it out in my last few posts. I’m in an ok spot now, much better than the two weeks after the crash. Still fluctuating and elevated anxiety, anhedonia, brain burning, paranoia, and insomnia. Everything is manageable though. Where all days were consumed with it initially, now I have good and bad days. My sleep was around 5 hours a night, and it’s gone up to 6 on average, still very good. I expect this to continue to improve as I recover more and more.

#493

General feeling of anxiousness/paranoia is pretty unrelenting right now since this most recent crash. I’m fluctuating constantly, but instead of the severe anhedonia or akathisia it’s more just my general feeling of well being, energy, joints, pain, and things like that. I go from feeling fine to feeling like complete crap, from being wired and awake to where I literally can’t keep my eyes open, from being able to run miles to barely being able to walk as my joints are so painful and stiff. My joints have become painful and extremely itchy in places. Entire toes/fingers are red/inflamed/swollen and painful/itchy. This comes and goes but is mostly present currently.

My state is absolutely manageable, but this is just some wild shit nearly 5 years later when I was completely fine and doing great 2-3 months ago. Just thought it was worth documenting.

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#494

End of month update, 58 months post-fin.

This month was overall better than last month, but obviously not super great from my last update. The every day anxiety, brain burning, etc. and most other constant symptoms have abated over the past few weeks. My sleep has on average improved to around 6-6.5 hours before first wake up. I’m still up and down and still get anxiety and what not, but bottom and peak are definitely improved.

I’ve noticed also that my brain fog/intellectual ability is highly fluctuating. I’ve always felt this, but never really had a true measure before. However I’ve been learning a new language in my spare time and I have an app that tracks my recent accuracy for flash cards essentially. Sometimes I can tell I feel good and my accuracy is 95-100% those days. Then when I feel the fog coming it will drop significantly, to below 80% or where I honestly just can’t even do it and have to wait until the next day.

So, a bit of a mixed bag, but things are improving. Hoping this coming month the improvements continue.

#495

Just some record keeping as I usually do when I’m scared. Haven’t been in this situation in a while. Laying here wired, can’t sleep.

I did some international travel across a few time zones which I haven’t done for some time. To try and make myself get on the proper scheduled I’ve basically been awake for 30+ hours straight. I was trying to stay awake until a certain mark and struggling to stay up. My libido spiked really high, higher than in a long time and so I decided to relief myself. Libido was so high I went twice very close together which I haven’t done in a long time. Orgasms felt WAY better than they have in a long time, noticeably so. Immediately after the 2nd go something felt off and I no longer felt like I could sleep whereas I couldn’t keep my eyes open before. I got ready for bed and laid down anyways and did fall sleep for about 30-45 mins after which I awoke and where I sit currently, unable to sleep with mild muscle twitching and brain burning.

Not sure what I did here, but this is not normal, and I’m a little frightened. I’m doing my best to relax and just lay here and do breathing exercises, I feel ok otherwise except fatigued/stressed as one would on basically no sleep.

My thoughts are the following possibilities:

  • Regular crash and just coincidence
  • I overstimulated my brain with the weird sleep patterns and orgasms
  • I ate something weird/new out of my control which crashed me
  • I got some sickness or something that I can’t feel yet that’s messing with me
  • I had a Tdap vaccine about 5 days ago, although I really don’t think this had anything to do with it as I’ve had other vaccines during PFS without issue.

My thought is the 2nd one right now and I’m just hoping my nervous system just calms down soon and starts getting back to normal.

#496

I did finally get like 1-2 hours of bad quality sleep am now laying here unable to sleep, but feeling slightly less wired and fatigued. I am also having hot flashes which I haven’t had in over a year I don’t think. This crash is bad. However, it looks very similar to the Nov. 2024 crash I had, but I vividly remember that one and this one is not as bad on a lot of levels. Reading that is making me feel a lot better about my situation, so I have to record keep what’s happening now, so I feel better reading this when it inevitably happens again.

Symptoms:

  • General anxiety and feeling of doom
  • Mild muscle twitches
  • Hot flashes
  • insomnia of all varieties (got 30-45 minutes, then after an hour break or so got 1.5 - 2 more so far)
  • brain burning was present (mostly subsided)
  • Have to pee a lot
  • Joint pains/tight joints
  • nasal dryness
  • Depession/anhedonia (VERY mild)

How this one is better than Nov. 2024:

  • Very little depression/anhedonia (so far)
  • Assuming I can swing another 2-3 hours of sleep tonight, the quality of sleep I feel is improved even though it is currently poor.
  • General anxiety and akathisia feels lower
  • Nasal dryness is not as bad. I remember the skin was so dry I was picking at it. I can feel it this time, but don’t have to pick at it.
  • No dizziness

Goal:

  • Get back to 5-6 hours straight sleep and remove onset insomnia. Feel confident going to sleep again instead of scared and wondering if I’ll sleep. Looks like before I was much better in 1-2 months, I’m going to assume a slightly longer road this time, 2-3 months.
#497

I also had several crashes during my recovery.

My advice is to do a water fast or a bone broth fast for 2–3 days if you think you have crashed and there is no way out. During this time, you should completely avoid food and supplements. You won’t feel better during the fast, but you will feel better afterward. Once the fast is over, I would recommend a strict AIP diet for several months. This has helped me tremendously for sleep issues.

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#498

I had pretty significant depression the days after my last post, but I’ve been steadily feeling better since then. Each evening though I feel like I’m not going to sleep and generally am scared an anxious about this. I am not feeling tired like usually, but when I do lay down I have been sleeping pretty quickly and get around 5.5 to 6 hours. Lower than normal, but good enough and seems to be progressing.

Arrow seems up already.

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#499

Same boat at you currently and iv noticed a lot of similar posts recently of other guys who got better crashing again.

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#500

I’ve been making fast progress from the last crash and am already seeing major improvements. I’ve been sleeping 8+ hours lately. I also notice significantly reduced anxiety, paranoia and brain fog from before. I feel like I got a significant intelligence boost.

Overall doing extremely well already, but it hasn’t been long so I’m just kinda waiting for another crash…. We’ll see.

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#501

Wait you also may have crashed from Oreos? Should I skip chocolate all together? I thought it was just dark chocolate that was bad

#502

I don’t think I actually did. I think it was just PFS brain making me think I did. I have seen others saying to avoid chocolate though and I did for years during my recovery. I eat it all the time now without issue though.

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#503

Any ideas on what might have caused my second crash here?

I was improving over the two weeks since I stoped, feelings were coming back, was reaching out to shoot the shit with friends, enjoying music, muscles were loosening up.

Monday: had breakfast and Coffey around 10. Didnt eat until having Wendy’s burger at 430 PM. By this point I was starving. Ate a bunch of cookies right after even though there’s no way I should have still been hungry. Felt like a weird low blood sugar type of craving? Felt fine all evening, another snack before bed,

Woke up at 1AM heart racing, bad anxiety. Next morning i had all my original crash symptoms (though not as severe). 2 days later still feel like shit.

Im guessing I let my blood sugar get too low by not eating and then had too much of a meal snd caused it to shoot up and then crash.

Not taking any meds currently and wasnt then

#504

Again, I qualify my response with I don’t claim to be any kind of expert, but I will give my opinion based on my experience.

Short answer, I don’t think anything caused your second crash. I think you are suffering from PFS induced severe paranoia. When I say this, I don’t mean that I think you are imagining anything that is happening to you. It’s that you are paranoid in assigning the cause of the crash to something when there is none except the original source, finasteride.

There are absolutely substances to avoid, some well documented in this forum to crash you. I don’t think you have taken any of those substances a you are experiencing a regular crash. There seem to be two types of PFS victims. Those that are in a perpetual flat and shitty world, and those that fluctuate wildly. Those that fluctuate seem to fare better long term, you are very early on, you will have to see how your body responds. Right now it seems like you’re fluctuating.

That being said, I think this paranoia is something that you can and should absolutely address. When I crash, I get sucked into the exact same thought process you are presenting. When I feel better, it goes away. Even though I know it’s happening, it’s still SO hard to escape its grasp. Here is what I did and still do, and what I would recommend to you.

I would recommend to restrict your diet to the point that you know it’s not anything you’re eating that is crashing you. You’ll still likely go up and crash down, but it will help you remove some of the paranoia and help you focus on the fact that the ups and downs are part of the process.

I did no alcohol, no caffeine, no supplements, and a no carb carnivore diet. Honestly, I hated it, but I do felt it helped me. If anything, to help ease that pull of the paranoia. I then slowly opened up my diet to include veggies only, before adding other items. It was years before I added caffeine, and I’ve only tested alcohol twice now and my response was so poor I’ve simply decided that it’s no longer something I need in my life.

So, I don’t think it was anything you ate or did, but if you think it was and it makes you panic and feel badly? Then remove that from the equation. Regardless of if it really did crash you or not, removing your triggers will help you feel better.

Me even now, when I crash badly enough I remove caffeine and start restricting my diet. I know it probably does nothing, but it helps my thought processes.

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