Licorice Root Crash Again

General Discussion
#1

I posted before about Trinov leading to a crash, brain fog, erection and numbness of my penis. Over a month of recovery, erections returned and it felt the numbness had gotten a little better, but the brain fog was still awful. My endo suspected adrenal issues and told me to take licorice root natures way, two pills twice a day.

I didn’t think much of it, until a week of taking the licorice root, the numbness returned full force and I feel I crashed again.

I look online and see licorice is an anti-androgen and I feel like a complete idiot. I’m suicidal and just can’t deal with this anymore as doctors have no idea what they are talking about and have gotten me into this mess. I also just can’t get over that I didn’t check about the licorice root.

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#2

First of all, take a step back. It is a shitty situation and you are right, most medics don’t have a clue what they are doing so even if they are willing to try to help, they are oftentimes fumbling in the dark or trying to treat symptoms without understanding the root cause. We have pretty much all been messed up or let down by one doctor or another, but try not to let this get to you. At least this doc did try to help.

So now, get ideas of suicide out of your head. You have already witnessed a partial recovery and you will see another again. This is a rocky road and there are setbacks along the way, but you are going to get through it and you have a whole community of people here to help you. You have learned a hard lesson from this (double check everything a doctor without a good appreciation of PFS suggests and question them on it before going ahead with it), but not a lesson so hard that it is worth ending your life over. You will get through this. This time last year I had zero sensitivity, but it has gradually returned. It won’t be a quick fix, but you will get better.

Have you read up on the keto/paleo type diets, water fasting and exercise that people find very useful at alleviating all kinds of symtpoms?

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#3

Ah man, bad luck. I also once took some licorice root and the suicide ideation hit me HEAVY. As in, that’s ALL I could think about for a couple of days. I’m almost relieved I’m not the only one!

It eased very very gradually - just ride it out. It’ll let up, I promise. Give it a few days and you’ll get back to “normal”.

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#4

I don’t think I’ve heard of something so specific happen off the back of a particular food / supplement.

Have you had other reactions that have given you a specific symptom increase like that?

#5

It is now even number than it ever was. I am not mentally stable this is too fucked up. I don’t believe the numbness will reverse as I don’t see really anyone with a recovery from that. I’m devastated I did this to myself.

#6

Just chiming in as your posts 100% remind me of how I felt after the same thing. It’s uncanny, I know I’ve said it before but I felt the same. Sensitivity came back a bit though, but fluctuates I think (just didn’t notice before) but oddly enough, I’m tolerating tribulus loads better now, and it’s doing good things for me rather than making me feel worse.

I mean, DON’T listen to me about actually taking stuff FFS, I’ve not idea what I’m doing. But around and following my own LR disaster tribulus started to help after a couple days.

Whatever happens though, hang in there, it’ll let up at some point. It’s an absolute fucker though huh.

#7

Or alternatively, Tribulus may or may not have had an effect, but I was taking it at the time of improvement.

I don’t want to rain on anything but if I were to say that my improvements were related to whatever I was doing at the time, I’d have to suggest people try the beard shampoo I was using, or oatmeal, or more fruit. These are not popular things that cause people to claim reversal of symptoms.

I’m really skeptical of people’s experiences with supplements. If they worked, we would have some consistency in results. As is, when someone gets a positive result, they don’t seem to be able to repeat it. Often, the same person cannot get consistency in their results which leads me to believe the supplement isn’t the main factor.

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#8

No “oatmeal and fruit” recovery protocol then? :frowning_face:

I took around 2-3 times the maximum recommended daily amount of a licorice root extract powder back in 2017 for a month and feel like it contributed toward my deterioration over the last few years. Didn’t feel as if I crashed from it though.

#9

My story is very similar to yours. All my symptoms came back full swing after taking generous amounts of cacao nibs for a few days. That was back in March 19 to 21 this year. Some symptoms have improved a lot since but my main symptom, insomnia, still persists. I felt suicidal initially but those thoughts have generally subsided ever since I started meditating almost daily after my crash.

Most days I am too fatigued to get anything done. I think acceptance is key. That and meditation. We must do every thing we can to first manage stress, depression, anxiety, and regret. All as manifestations of stress. Especially since we lack the biochemistry to handle the above. Remember that stress alone has caused many people here to crash as bad as taking a supplement. I still haven’t totally accepted my decision to take cacao nibs but I believe once I do, I’ll be in a better spot towards recovery.

#10

I will say that it’s a good breakfast. You can take that as a solid recommendation.

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#11

Yes indeed. Could well have been coincidence, but for me it was definitely around that time. Really odd that I couldn’t tolerate it before. Could also have been the sulforaphane (which I definitely don’t recommend anyone touch.)

#12

It has continued to get worse. Squeezing it I feel nothing now. I’m losing my mind.

#13

Is there any chance I regain feeling? I’m paniced I feel nothing. I feel my life is ruined I’m fucking 26.

#14

In short, yes. There is a chance it’ll all get back to how it was in “PFS normal” as it did for me. I’ve been in that very panic. It’s not pretty (and I’m the biggest, most defeatist panic-merchant out there) but hang in there. Mine got better and back to baseline.

Took me days and days though. It really sucks, don’t envy you.

#15

Hey Jin, and you had the numbness/sexual side effects that got a little better?
Or just the suicidal thoughts?

#16

Hey man it sad that you crashed again after a steady recovery. It is up and down. I have been crashed for the second and third time too after a year with marijuana and coffee.

Just hold on to your life my friend, you will get back on track to recovery. Just take a step back from any drugs and medicine. Let your body adjust itself. Just take a bullets at a time. We all had been there.

Now you probably have learn from your mistake.

Just hold on, I know how stress it feel to crash again.

#17

Evening buddy - yes, just to be proper plain about it, I got EXTREME suicidal thoughts, but I’m not disclosing how bad or extreme. At this point I’d well imagine you are right there yourself and not sleeping and just in dread-panic, but it will gradually let up. In fact it was so bad I didn’t care one bit about the sexual stuff, but that came back to “PFS-normal” after a few days. Maybe a week. But LOTS of ups and downs, hard-flaccid etc, you know the score.

#18

I am also still producing no semen, it’s so weird. Do you think that will turn back to normal in a couple weeks? Last crash it took I think 2-3 weeks for that to return.

I went to my Derm to report this and he basically dismissed all of it and wondering if the generic finasteride was “tainted”. So fucking idiotic it pissed me off.

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#19

I’d be optimistic that if it recovered before that you will get back again.

#20

One year ago I had numbness and almost no ejaculate, and what there was was watery or clumpy. My sensitivity has recovered as has semen volume and thickness. You can recover, so don’t twist your mind in knots convincing yourself you can’t. I can’t remember the exact time scale of improvement in these areas. However I would say that for a few months I was habitually trying to masturbate multiple times a day, trying to see if I had got better since the last time, and every time when I hadn’t I was freaking out. You are not going to get better in a day or a week, so if you persistently focus on the lack of improvement you see, you can only make yourself feel worse. There are plenty of people who have recovered sensitivity and semen quantity, so don’t convince yourself otherwise. If you are producing no semen, stop ejaculating for a week or so and then see. I remember one of the biggest moments of relief for me was when I finally managed to force myself to abstain for 2 weeks and then found it much easier to get hard and ejaculated the same sort of quantity I used to produce daily. It told me that my symptoms reflected a slowing down rather than a total stop to those functions.