Loss of OCD/Brain Fog

Symptoms Neurological
#1

Before propecia, I had severe OCD. It was mainly “Pure OCD” where I had obsessional thoughts and the compulsions were done through thinking as well. I would analyze everything, despite it being important (ie. wonder how a desk I’m sitting at was created–all the processes it took to create that desk).I had a pretty good control over the OCD and could live my life fairly well. After crashing, I no longer have ANY OCD–bear in mind this was something that I have had daily for my entire life.

This leads me to think that there HAS to be a change in neurosteroids or some sort of neurochemistry, as my overall thinking and anxiety on an OCD level has been diminished. My biggest symptom is brain fog, and because of the fog I’m assuming I no longer have OCD.

My brain fog just seems like a complete decrease in consciousness. I’m able to think and function and no one suspects anything is wrong with me, but I feel very disconnected from the world. My sense of time and place is just “off,” and I feel a slight pressure in my head at all times. My eyes also don’t focus as well to moving objects, and it just seems like I take in less sensory information.

I’m very aware of this because I live in NYC and it’s oftentimes hard to focus on much because there’s so much going on. It’s overwhelming at times.

#2

So now your level of anxiety is lower than before pfs, if i understood correctly ?
It would be pretty unusual, cause most of us here are having high anxiety etc… There, def. have been changes to our neurochemistry… And I am wondering could it be because of one simple reason- low allopregnanolone. The most direct consequence of it could be low gaba, which is the most important inhibitory neurotransmiter. One pretty peculiar symptom I am suffering from is that when i here some song or melody i just can’t stop playing it over and over in my mind. It is unbelievably annoying, but more importantly than that, absolutely debilitating for any intellectual activity. And I see that as direct consequence of lack of gaba. Also, abnormally high levels of anxiety and absolute inability to calm oneself is also, i think, straightforward consequence of lack of gaba (allopregnanolone).

That is how much I can tell from my experience, which led me to conclusion (my) pfs is, simply, lack of 5ar. And because of autoimmunity, my guess is…

Holly mother of christ… Anyone getting out of this pure hell, could be easily classified as world miracle.

#3

Really? I am new here and can´t understand so god the english but, really is impossible torecover of the mental sides?

#4

Unfortunately my level of anxiety is higher than before pfs, it’s just all directed towards pfs thoughts instead of regular OCD thoughts, I’m guessing. But I also no longer feel an underlying urge to have OCD thoughts, something that I had pre-propecia. I definitely know that allopregnanolone and gaba are playing a huge role in this as well…

#5

@Hadenought

Haven’t seen your post … I don’t want to discourage anyone, the situation itself is more than enough. But the fact is that really only a small percentage of people recovered completely. On the other hand, many people do experience some improvements over time, so, it’s best to keep your expectations low, and some things will def. get better. For example, my brain fog was very severe at the beginning, but now it’s manifested in small/medium difficulty reading/ abstract thinking, but most of the time it’s bearable.
If you don’t suffer from sexual sides, you should consider yourself very lucky. I am completely fucked up, so, there is no foundation to build any hope on …

#6

Just wanted to say that you’ve described the mental side effects really well. The disconnect from what time of day it is and where you are is really strange and I get that same pressure most days. And I struggle with the visual stimuli also. I actually have trouble driving sometimes because it’s like I can’t process what I’m seeing and I get super disoriented and actually nauseous.

It’s interesting you note that your OCD symptoms have lessened. I used to have moderate anxiety. It was something I felt most days but it was never extreme. Ever since this has happened, that feeling has disappeared and I don’t even respond to caffeine like I used to. It used to mess with my sleep a lot but now I can drink as much as I want and I don’t feel anxious or jittery at all.

I was reading a while ago that finasteride actually showed success as an anti-psychotic. Lots of days, it feels like it partially lobotomized me…

#7

Have you seen any alleviation in symptoms?

#8

It’s definitely both a yes and a no. I still deal with my symptoms everyday pretty much constantly but I do think I’ve gotten a much better handle on them. I still have days when the symptoms are really bad and I get overwhelmed but most days I’m able to function normally. For the first six months of this, I was a complete mess and could hardly function. So, compared to two years ago, I’m doing better. Unfortunately, compared to 2 ½ years ago, I’m doing much much worse.

#9

Plzrecover, sorry to see you joined our club recently. I hope you feel better soon.

I had OCD that developed more in college (some after I started finasteride actually) and I was prescribed Ritalin etc for awhile but like a lot of people, after awhile it didn’t seem to help as much, but the situation wasn’t as bad either, so I stopped taking it. I’m just writing this as a preface - to b clear we don’t have the exact same symptoms.

When I crashed I had tons of stress and panic, and found it very very hard to calm myself down. I had some abnormal salivary cortisol tests from this time but I don’t recall the details. With time it has gotten better for sure, but it is still bad compared to “normal” people I think (about 3 years since I crashed.)

Interestingly, I also have the same catchy song problem. In German I think it’s called Ohrwurm (ear worm) and what I noticed was that, my brain would keep stretching out the melody and adding more chord changes and flourishes until t was a real mess. I hated it but it was hard to stop.

The “slight pressure” thing is very familiar, I felt like my head was kind of empty and pressurized at times. I think having sex or masturbating made it mich worse. Luckily I don’t get that problem much anymore.

Also after I have sex (don’t get too jealous guys it happens like once a month) I also have a problem with my eyes! They like to sort of unfocus. Like they feel exhausted from trying to focus too much (which is not the case.)

Also I don’t know if this happens to you guys, but I now get migraines about 5 times a year. It starts with weird colors and lines in field of vision, then difficulty reading or seeing what’s on a screen. Then horrible pain for 3-5 hours, and then a headache in the pained spot for a couple days. I went 34 years having 0 total migraines, then I quit propecia and now it’s an every other month thing. Luckily a lot of people have these and coworkers and friends are very understanding. Just weird that it started because of PFS (in my judgment).

On days when I had the “head pressure” or after masturbating, I would find it very hard to focus on any kind of technical work. I would just unconsciously procrastination that work and focus on simpler tasks at work. Very strong distinction. Also, I will find myself typing the wrong word or leaving words out a lot, like a whole lot–needing to review emails several times to avoid dumb but critical mistakes. It happens when I talk too.

The message I want to send is that brain fog definitely gets better. The problem of your head feeling like an inflated balloon, resolved for me. I am still worse at reading maps and hearing driving directions than I was before I crashed, but it’s gotten better. I can do math again! Don’t panic you just have to give it time. I believe weight lifting helped, maybe SAM-e, and melatonin or Benadryl was good for skewing problems (which were hellish the first year or so.) I really don’t want you to get discouraged by brain fog because that is one thing that for sure got better (for other commenters too.)

I visited the forum because my dick feels a bit pins and needles like it used to 3 years ago. So somethings can get worse again–but I have barely exercised in a whole year so I think that could be part of it. It will get better eventually I’m sure, or it won’t and I’ll have to get used to it. I just try to view our situation as having survived a pretty bad car accident- we look mostly normal (not paralyzed) but life can be pretty hard each day, there has been a lot of pain and loss but no one can see it. (My nonstop urges to commit suicide faded after about 9 months and I think some car accident survivors have those too.)

So please, since you are “new”, hang in there, don’t get discouraged, see if any vitamins or exercise works for you – and give it plenty of time but don’t obsess over it - find a good therapist if you can, a lot of it gets better and there is really good research being done. And enjoy NYC I love visiting there!

#10

Thanks so much for the post man, it means a lot! Hope you have a continued recovery! If you’ve already seen improvements then I bet you’re definitely on the right track!

#11

Just wanted to update this thread and say that after a good amount of time (about 6 months), my OCD has come back pretty much in full force–I forgot how debilitating it was before, lol.

It is good, though, to see that my brain is still intact somewhat, and that whatever neurochemistry imbalance originally leading to my OCD is still there and not ruined by whatever Propecia did.

#12

WOW, you have the same symptoms as me, and I used to have extreme OCD as well and now do not, it hasn’t came back, but also my brain fog haven’t left. It’s been 24/7 everyday

#13

Do you have any update on this? The symptoms by you and plzrecover fit the bill for me.