mental issues

Symptoms Neurological
#1

Hi guys, I was wondering if anybody had these familier mental issues.

Here is my quick story: I am 33 and i was on Fin for 5 years and quit more then a year ago. I quit because my doctor detected high liver levels and I quit. Once quiting immidiately i began to have anxiety and was scared to do anything and go anywhere (Let me mention that before that I would do anything at anytime no matter what and never scared of anything and was 100% healthy and physical shape)
I never had any sexual side effects but the anxiety got really bad. till today i still have it but not as bad. In addition I have been having these weird thoughts come in my head that its hard to explain. I constantly think about everything and sometimes i feel like I am in a movie. I can function fine at work at home school but its just so weir to explain how my mind feels. I feel like spaced out and I think weird things.

Is this a common side effect of Fin? Also my anxiety has diminished a lot but still here. Should i be worried if this will last for a long time?

1 Like
#2

I’m 19 months off and still have it but it seems to have tapered in the last half year or so.

#3

are you talking about the spaced out feeling?

#4

bizzy,

That is a very common side effect of Propecia. We refer to it as brain fog here. I also was on the drug an extensive period of time like you and have been off for about a year. I get occasionly, but for the most part it has been going away. Try using Tyrosine that worked for me. Also take a hard look a your diet. There a bunch of threads on here that deal with what foods to avoid.

#5

brain fog. Do a search on this site

#6

Well, I now about brain fog and i believe that i had it before strong. I really dont think this “spaced out” feeling is brain fog.
I had brain fog and it felt like i could not concentrate or think and i felt a heavy blur hanging over my head and it was very horrible.
this feeling is different. I feel like i can concentrate i can do my job well but its just this ugly feeling of feeling spaced out and sometimes feeling for a second of not knowing where i am. It usually happens for a few seconds at a time but it is annoying.

#7

I know that feeling, and yes, they are totally different. Brain fog as it’s name implies is a heavy, thick, thinking through mud type feeling. The spacey feeling he is talking about is when you have complete clarity, but things are distorted, unreal and unfamiliar. It can also be very scary sometimes…

1 Like
#8

yes, exactly. For the most part, i have clarity and I can think good and straight. When i had brain fog i could hardly function and many weird thing would come up in my head. This feeling is weird and scary. I had it since all my symptoms have started and its hardly diminished. My anxiety did dimish but is still here, mostly scared to go on long trips, tall buildings, planes, etc. I can fight through it but I wish it would just go away.

#9

I have never used propecia and was thinking about trying it out. What i have had though is anxiety and depression all the way through my 20’s, im am 31 now and have worked my way through it finally. The not real feeling and feeling of being in a movie just brought back alot of memories for me, that is a direct link from your anxiety issues, once you have it for so long you start to get this weird feeling of nothing is real, i can assure you this is cureable. For me it took being on an antidepressant for a year to get my brain chemicals back in order and remember what it was like to be normal again, sometimes this is all you need. anxiety and depression are a vicious circle and very hard to pinpoint wich is causing what. I tried to do it on my own without meds with cog therapy and lucinda basset. It was a valiant effort but i wish i would have took the meds alot sooner because today i feel like myself again. I take lexapro and it has restored me to my old self, maybe in your case this is all you need to get your chemicals back on track then you can come off. All this being scared to go outside and fly in planes or go on trips is 100% just in your head, you have created it and not the propecia, i know thats hard to accept but i had everything you are talking about and have never takin propecia, so you have anxiety and at this point you have built it up to be this big problem that you cant overcome. I made mine into a big monster as well and it got so big that i finally had to give in to the meds. Now i can look back and say wow, the mind is very powerful, i basically made myself beleive that i was affraid of these things and thats what happened, you are what you think. This is not easy i know. I can guarentee you that you will come out of this and be stronger as a result, it feels like theres no way out and no end but there is, just hang in there and read read read about anxiety and depression along with some lexapro and one day it will just click, you will feel better and start to forget about the anxiety, you will fly in planes and go on trips and not asociate your anxiety to it, you will do it so many times that one day you will say, hey, its gone and i didnt even realize it. Seek the help now, the longer you let it grow the longer recovery will be. I hope this helped, i signed up for this board cuz i felt i needed to tell you this. B strong.

#10

BT4210, you know somebody told me the same thing. That he had all my symptoms and he never had taken propecia. In fact he told me that my symptoms were a clear side effect of stress and axiety.
The real bad symptoms happened as soon as I stop quit the pill and the reason why i found out was because my doctor told me that the pill was causing my liver levels to go up real high and it could do some damage. As soon as i stop taking the pill my symptoms were real bad. Now, I can tell you that I am almost back to normal and i have never taken any medication, I just sucked it up. Sometimes i get anxiety but i try to push through and hope that some day I can be back to normal 100%. I would suggest that you do not take the pill. The effects are temp and it could definetly cause your liver levels to rise and could have some damage. Are you back 100% to your old self or do you sometimes get anxiety?

#11

yes i hear where your comin from on that one but i am no stranger to anxiety and i can honestly say that since anxiety is a normal human emotion that what we were doing is taking that emotion and compounding it x 10 with are minds wich made it worse and worse and worse, i hope that makes sense to you, with that said, coming off the pill wont make me more anxious because my mind controls that emotion normally now almost without me even thinking about it. I was just pointing out that if you really cant take it anymore its not that bad of a thing to jump on a pill to get your brain chemicals back in order, not saying that you have to stay on them forever, just long enough to get used to being normal. I know its not for everyone and i fought that for so long because i was determined to do it on my own without meds as well. In fact i only take 1 quarter of the minimum dose wich in effect is placebo and further backs my assumption that its 80% in our heads.

#12

Ummmm, Your right. The damage done to the Gaba channels from inhibiting allepregnonalone is in your head. It’s a physical problem, that’s in your brain. The mechanism which allows us to feel relaxed and calm has been damaged. This isn’t placebo at all. There’s plenty of studies to prove it. This is far beyond emotional poise and self control. What you use in your head to have emotional poise and self control is severely restricted from this drug.

#13

bt4210:

Since this is the case, this is not the forum for you. You have not taken Finasteride, and are considering it’s use – you do NOT fit the demographic of this website. This site is for men who took and quit the drug, and who continue to experience adverse side effects which did not resolve after discontinuation.

If your reason for coming here is to downplay people’s claims on this site under the guise of your own non-Finasteride usage, you are wasting your time. Nobody cares to entertain these types of comments from people who have no experience with the drug, or who are actively considering it despite all the research and experiences on this forum.

This site is not meant to be a “catch-all” for people who’s sexual, mental and physical health issues are not even related to Finasteride (or 5AR inhibitors in general), so I would advise you to post your concerns on another more general health/dysfunction forum, or a hairloss site since you are actively considering the drug for such purposes.

#14

Yes, I have definitely had the spaced out feeling. Has anyone found anything that helped? I have been off fin for almost a year now, but it still comes on from time to time. I was only on for about a month and the effects are still here until now. Is that normal?

#15

i saw this the other day and didnt know what you meant. I was biking to work last night and got hit by it…all of a sudden it was like what the hell am i doing and how did i get here, then the next instant i knew what i was doing…it was like i forgot everything in my life for about a second…

#16

Well Guys, Its been more than a year since I posted this and i can say that through Gods grace I have a 99% recovery. My anxiety is pretty much gone and I dont have any more symptoms as I did. I dont know how many believers are out there but the turning point for me was when I asked God to please cure me from my condition and that suddenly i started to see a change in my symptoms. If anybody followed my post I have spent many years in a state of discomfort from my mental side effects and nothing that i tried really helped. So I am certain that Jesus Christ rescued me. I am not trying to preach to anyone but I can only speak for my own personal experience.

#17

I’m not a religious person so won’t comment on that aspect, but glad your anxiety issues improved with time. Good luck to you.

#18

You know, I wonder if propecia was the root cause of my problems. I began to read on General Anxiety disorder and it also has all the symptoms that i had. The main reason why I said that is because I never had any kind of sexual side effects from propecia and I know that the sexual effects are the main complaint for propecia.
I know for a fact that propecia did raise my liver levels and who knows what it did to my body. I had some spots on my lower right side that never went away. When I stopped taking propecia was liver levels went back to normal and my doctor said for sure the pill had raised them.

#19

Congratulations! I hope your improvements continue!