Dude the only thing I’ve ever had going for me is my mind. And now because of finasteride and this brain fog I’m a fucking retard
If you cannot answer simple questions from people trying to help you…
Good luck, get some help ASAP.
No I have no kids, I live alone and work two jobs. Who can help?
if you have health insurance, see a doctor about getting on a short term, low dose, anti anxiety medicine. Then you will break the anxious thought cycle, get some sleep, and do well at your jobs. Just my opinion based on my own experience.
Just so you’re aware @Ihatepropecia1, some anti-anxiety medications are SSRI antidepressants. We strongly advise against the use of this class of medication as they have anti androgenic properties which have worsened PFS patients, or can cause the condition in the first place. I’m not sure which anti-anxiety medications you’re referring too @Crossroads so I thought I’d make that clear.
What about ADHD medication? Do you advise against?
I can’t offer definitive advice on that, sorry. If you search the forum for “ADHD”, “adderall” or “stimulants” some discussions have taken place about it before.
I do think we must avoid SSRIs and SNRIs–they can and do make anxiety worse. What I was referring to is him taking a few pills of Xanax, Klonopin, or Valium. Just a few. Just for a few days.
I have horrible ED as well as the worst brain fog in the world. When I first started finasteride I had brain fog but I just pushed through it and it went away after a few hours. This time after 2 months of using I woke up with the worst brain fog in the world and now it hasn’t gone away as well as my ED, everyone keeps telling me that it will go away but how do you know it’s not early signs of PFS? I have the symptoms for it dont I?
I don’t mean to sound rude, but you just have to wait. Disappointing answer, I know, but that’s all we have now. We consider PFS three months of symptoms after quitting.
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A lot of people get side effects during taking of Propecia just like they would maybe side effects from taking other drugs (diarrhea from antibiotics, osteopenia from corticosteroids, headaches from antidepressants, etc etc). I did and I do. I feel like I am the King of Side Effects.
But there is something long lasting about syndromes like PFS. They happen after someone quits a certain drug. The symptoms of the syndrome may be the same as the side effects from the time taking the drug. Or different.
I remember the first two days I took finasteride I had horrible ED and brain fog but everyone I talked to said push through, so being an idiot I did just that. After pushing through for two months I woke up one morning and boom the brain fog hit so hard I felt retarded. IT has yet to get better after 2 full days off the pill and I am starting to believe it never will. The first time I had brain fog it went away within a few hours, if it was going to go away I believe it would have already. How many people here are dealing with long term brain fog?
I am trying to go to medical school and this is fucking destroying me. I already had to drop one of my classes and can barely function.
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Hi Everyone,
I am a college student who wants to go to med School. I have been off finasteride for 4 days now and everyday I wake up and holy fuck the brain fog is even worse. I can’t move, type, read, write, everything is bad. I have a phsyicatry appointment where I am going to get evaluated for ADHD but I was wondering if anyone has used this medication for PFS and had good results having to do with brain fog? I am loosing all hope in life at this point.
I was taking fin for over 10 years and during that time I experienced a range of symptoms from worsening anxiety, to attention deficit, to frequent bouts of brain-fog (typically brought on by anxiety). At one point I went to a psychiatrist for evaluation. I hadn’t made the connection with fin yet, and was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and on the cusp of ADD. I was prescribed the SSRI Zoloft and later Ritalin. Zoloft thumbed down the physical manifestation of anxiety (i.e. rapid hearth rate, head aches) but never really helped with anxiety itself. Prior to taking Zoloft I used to actually “feel” my heart pounding in my chest when I’d get anxious, after being on the drug long enough it essentially muted those symptoms where I could barely feel my heart beating at all – it was really a bizarre feeling, almost zombie like. Ritalin made my brain-fog even worse, and blasted my anxiety into space. I could barely sit down to think let alone read a line of text. I had the almost identical reaction to Adderall. So to answer your question, none of the so called ADD/HD drugs helped me. That’s not to say it won’t work for you. PFS is a game of trial and error. In my experience so far it’s been mostly an exercise in futility.
To date nothing I’ve tried (and I’ve tried a lot of protocols, drugs, supplements, etc.) has had any positive effect on my persistent brain-fog save for heavy weight training. I’ve been able to only slightly move the needle and that is short lived to a few hours after a training session. Those fleeting moments when my baseline brain-fog shifts a couple of % points in a positive direction is worth the 5-day per week blow torching I’m putting my body through. I don’t mean to discourage you, I’m only reporting on my personal experience with this mystery. I’m not giving up hope so neither should you. Give it some time, you are 4 days post fin.
Damn sorry to hear that man. What does your brain fog feel like? Mine is just making it impossible for me to read or write or study. It might be getting better I don’t want to worsen it with adderall but I also need it for my add
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Methyphenidate may further suppress allo production in people with depressive symptoms but increases it in certain subsets of ADHD patients, according to one study. I have severe ADHD and I remember it significantly worsening my already serious insomnia. Dexedrine wasn’t as bad for my insomnia.
One of Melangis papers on SRD5a methylation also mentioned briefly that ADHD medications have a methylating effect I guess as a part of a general point that many drugs cause epigenetic changes in the human brain and body that could be either good or bad.
It’s akin to being in a dreamlike state. Like I’m an onlooker, someone not really present – an idle observer. I sometimes joke that it feels like I’m stuck between the boundaries of reality and The Matrix. Maybe I’m really dead and this is all a Purgatorial wasteland. 
It’s one of the most disturbing feelings I have ever experienced. And that’s just the abstract of it all. There is also this lingering 24/7 heaviness and pressure in the front of my head and sinus regions. I feel like I can tip over if I lean too far forward. And course there is all the other cognitive turmoil: slowed thought processing, difficulty concentrating/ memorizing, impaired short and long term memory recollection, etc.
My baseline is tenuous at best. Either it stays the same or gets worse for whatever unsuspecting reason – there are just too many variables to consider in my day-to-day. When I actually try to influence my baseline via a supplement, drug, etc. I get immediate feedback as to the efficacy of my jury-rigging. For example, two days ago I tried transdermal Pregnenolone. I applied .25 ml to my scrotum and within 15 mins my brain-fog shot through the roof. Project Pregnenolone = a no go. So I immediately tossed it. My advice for you is experiment but be careful. I have yet to permanently make my brain-fog worse throughout all these years in Hogwarts.
I just got prescribed adderal for adhd and want to start my medication but am scared about crashing since I’m only a few days off finasteride. Any input? Thanks
Both cocaine and methamphetamine caused hyperandrgoenic phases then crashes for me. I can’t talk for raw amphetamine at a prescribed dose but I can speak from that experience.
Shoot okay. I have horrible brain fog I thought the medicine would help