I have already spoken with a few on here. I have been what I would consider “recovered” for well over a year - closer to two. I am not a scammer of any sort. I am not selling anything. I do not want any glory or recognition - in fact I want to remain as anonymous as possible.
I have already interacted a little on a thread late last week. In the last year I have done very little reading on the forum, so my knowledge of the state of things on this forum has been null. I have done some reading this week though, and I see a general attitude of not believing recovery is possible, that people claiming to have recovered are just one-offs or lying about it, and of people not condoning trying certain supplements or whatnot.
If it lends any credibility to my story - I used to read on the SolvePFS forum and before that on this forum. I’ve been around long enough to remember CDnuts and Chi and their claims and incredibly strict diets and regimens. I used to be on here doing exactly what you are doing - looking for an answer or at least hope.
You can claim maybe I didn’t have full blown PFS. Well I took Finasteride, Dutasteride, and I’m pretty sure I even tried Accutane - all over the course of probably more than a year. I crashed hard when I stopped. I think I even recall trying the topical Spiro and even Saw palmetto.
I suffered from very low to nonexistent libido, really bad brain fog, numb genitals, and possibly other physical symptoms I wasn’t aware of - like not gaining weight or muscle. I think it took me over a year after discontinuing everything to understand that I was dealing with permanent side-effects.
I was here for all the theories that abounded over the last ten years and learned way more than I ever intended on the complexities of human biochemical and neurological processes. I had become convinced that we had probably screwed ourselves up in such a complicated way that it wasn’t reversible.
I tried a lot of things that were recommended - fasting (had nothing but water for a week). I became convinced it could be a pathogen and obtained antivirals. That was a long time ago and amounted to nothing.
I tried a long list of supplements for years. I started supplements like Acetyl L- Carnitine and Rhodiola (you can look them up if you don’t know what they are) almost more than 7 years ago probably. Acetyl L-Carnitine was first - and at one point upon first taking it I felt I was recovering. It went away though after a few months, but I kept taking the supplement anyway. I had built up a tolerance, but didn’t think that I could go without it for any period of time because I was convinced I depended on it for mental health.
Many years later, and after doing plenty of reading about the benefits of cycling supplements rather than continuously taking them, I decided to give it a go. I would take quantity x 2 500mg Acetyl L-Carnitine and quantity x 1 500mg Rhodiola in the morning - Monday through Friday for two weeks. Then I’d take neither for another two weeks. Then repeat the whole thing.
The two week periods that I wasn’t taking them I thought might be weird since I believed I depended on the Acetyl L-Carnitine to stay mentally even, but cycling even helped mentally. After around 3 months I was feeling pretty damn good.
After maybe six months I took the Rhodiola out of the cycle, but continued with Acetyl L-Carnitine. Then maybe after not including Rhodiola in the cycle for four months I’d include for one cycle again - then discontinue. The whole time I was cycling Acetyl L-carnitine. Hope that made sense.
I’m just letting everyone know what worked for me. It is not a temporary recovery, because like I said, it’s almost been two years.
I was on this forum when there was actually a “Recovery Stories” category. I see that is gone. I’m not pressuring anyone to try anything, but if someone else doesn’t try it we will never know if that’s what actually helped me - will we?
I would assume the admins of this site are some of the longest sufferers of this condition. You surely are familiar with Rhodiola and Acetyl L-Carnitine. Don’t block this info. Let people decide if they want to give it a go. Anyone can read up on these two things.
One important thing to note. If you are on an SSRI for depression, which many surely are, Rohodiola is known to interact with it - as in serotonin is boosted to dangerous levels - leading to serotonin sickness. All this tells me is that Rhodiola is effective in boosting serotonin and should probably be taken instead of an SSRI because Rhodiola is a not a toxic fucking chemical like an SSRI. A doctor would advise otherwise, but for many it was probably a doctor that prescribed you fin, and the majority of doctors don’t even believe PFS exists - so yeah trust the doctor.
Anyway, hit me with questions on this thread so I can hopefully answer others with the same question all at once.
Never give up.
