Forgive me for being such an active reply post, so maybe I’m not PFS? I don’t know, but what I experienced during the six days from August 6th to 11th was an absolute nightmare, including: 1. Complete anhedonia 2. Don’t want to eat anything, any solid food makes me sick 3. Diarrhea 4. Dead penis, unable to get an erection with hands, complete impotence 5. Anxiety, irregular heartbeat 6. Lost nearly 10 pounds in five days
Just an update, the anxiety was horrible yesterday, it was so severe that I couldn’t sleep at all, I only slept for 2 hours as of 8 am, don’t know if this means a second crash, it’s ridiculous to wake up after 2 hours of sleep I feel like my mind is clearer than ever since I came here. I will spend as little time as possible on this forum because reading on it really stresses me out and scares me
Hi Dragonchen,
You are early stages and things will may be very up and down. My experience sounds very similar to yours at the start. Then I got progressively better for almost 2 months steadily before crashing into oblivion. It got bad, it got so so so bad. The first month was not the hardest. The past two years were the hardest. I do not want to scare you, but you should be prepared for it to possibly get worse before it hopefully gets better. I cannot stress how much worse it can get. I hope you maintain your ability to sleep. Just take a deep breath.
When it gets bad, you will want to feel better instantly, but I would advise you not to try taking substances to try and fix yourself yet, for risk of making yourself worse. This is just a recommendation, but do what you must. Everybody’s situation is different.
I also recommend you read westside’s story about Creatine. I would also personally caution against Creatine use based on my own experience. You will feel awful, like there is no way you can last a few minutes like that, much less days or weeks. Your reaction is likely to be the same as mine, “try whatever I can to feel better now”. But I would caution you to try and resist the reaction to do this. There is no magic fix here, there is likely nothing you can immediately do. There is hope though. Maybe you don’t have PFS and will recover soon, some with PFS recover over time like myself, and many here are working hard to progress the research which may eventually yield a cure.
I really hope your body sorts itself out and you feel better soon. I know what you’re going through. The idea to stay away from the forums is good. If you must, try to read only the positive stories for the time being. Be aware of the pitfalls to avoid. Make a plan, commit to it and take care of yourself. If you can still excercise (sounds like you can) I would recommend to throw yourself into that full force as a distraction. Get into routine as well, that will be very important if the anhedonia sets in hard. You won’t have the normal drive to do things to guide your day like normal. Routine is very important. Recalibrate your life expectations for a bit. These were some things that got me through. Good luck.
Just PM me if you ever need someone just to talk to. There were a few members during me recovery I could always rely on to talk. It’s a good resource to have.
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That’s too bad bro, you know I’m currently in a critical period of my studies so the stress is unavoidable, I was a very optimistic person before the meds, so I’m sure it’s a side effect of finasteride, anxiety these days It hasn’t gone away, the libido and energy levels I’d say are back to pre-medication, I’m getting 80% erections, my head and face are oily again, and my body odor is back to normal, but God , Anxiety is such a terrible problem, I have a hard time concentrating in my studies, and because of academic pressure I believe this creates a nausea cycle, yesterday when I was gaming my triceps twitched for half an hour for no reason, It sucks too, today is fine because I’m still in the first month, so I’m still optimistic, I’ve been told that SSRI and AI are very dangerous, I will never touch them for the rest of my life, But can anything relieve anxiety?
Thank you for your kindness friend this vicious drug has united people of all ages from all countries of the world in this community we will not bow and fall
Hey Dragon, I am sorry about all this. It’s been almost six months since I crashed with extremely bad psychological issues. The best thing I’ve found for anxiety is just time. Also, stay away from benzodiazepines or any other medications that lead to withdrawal/rebound effects. Magnesium glycinate throughout the day is the only other thing I’d reccomend as I believe it helped me greatly with the extreme muscle twitching I was getting.
Thanks bro
Right now at 7am I’m experiencing a total insomnia, my anxiety is still high and I’m very sensitive to the noise around me causing me to not sleep at all, it’s been 28 days, it’s too bad, any advice on this
Not getting enough sleep always amplifies the anxiety. I was extremely sensitive to sounds and certain visual patterns. It took 5 months for that to mostly subside, so time is important. The best thing would be to stay in bed the same time window every day to establish a base sleep pattern. Take .5- 1mg of melatonin a few hours before bed as well as magnesium glycinate (take ~ 150mg). Good sleep every night has been a huge part of my recovery from what I can tell. It just takes some time so hold in there. Strangely enough, I sleep better now than I did before starting fin, but thats because I was forced to fix it.
As far as vitamins go, it varies widely per person. I take a multi vitamin and fish oil every day and it seems to not make things worse. Like many others have said, just do the best you can eating cleaner. Personally, I found moderate to heavy exercise made anxiety worse. Light exercise throughout the day didn’t make it worse. So you have to read what your body tells you.
Today I’m sure it was my second crush, exact same symptoms similar to August 6th, I’m now convinced I have PFS, dick is dead again, feelings of anxiety and depression have increased tenfold from previous days, tomorrow I And going on field trips for the class, what a cruel joke, fucking finasteride
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Because Vitamin B6 (P5P) was mentioned in this topic, I think this information will be insightful.
The leaves and seeds of Ginkgo Biloba contain a chemical that behaves as an antagonist of Vitamin B6, effectively depleting the body of Vitamin B6.
https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1742-4658.2007.05654.x
This makes me curious what vitamins/minerals saw palmetto depletes. Does this make you curious what vitamins/minerals finasteride depletes?
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Although I said I would be leaving the forum in three months, I wanted to do a quick update because PFS has been lingering in my mind
My last crash was very brief, maybe only a day, and then I was back to baseline, which was a very unpleasant ten days of internship with lots of stress every day, but luckily nothing major happened, just up and down the baseline. I am suddenly back to 90% since last week, clear mind, relaxed and happy, but today I feel strange anxiety and DHT surge feeling, very strange, my head and face are more oily than before , I’m hoping this is a sign of recovery and not a crash
can someone explain to me how the crash works, I’ve been out of this shit for 50 days and nothing seems to have gotten worse other than a bad crash in the first week, My biggest fear right now is a bigger crash, which I think would be paralyzing given my current learning environment and life
My theory is that when the 5-alpha enzyme is returned to your body, some people have a crash. Is this correct, and how to explain that some people have a crash after three months or even six months later?
Update my new Lab Tests（two month after crush）
Test:7.08（before is 7.92）
FSH:2.43
LH:3.46
Prol:21.81（before is 56.84）
E2:17.80（before is 37.72,But I did it in a different hospital, and I noticed that the range is 11-43,before is 11－87,so maybe the markers are different?）
Prog:0.32（before is 0.39,ten months before is 1.67）
Summary: Not much has changed from my baseline one week after the crash. I had periods of high libido that were disappearing. I don’t have the same enthusiasm for working out as I did before. It’s hard to feel the same joy from lifting weights. It’s very strange that anxiety, depression, and numbness are still the main killers(6/10). I have experienced symptoms such as muscle twitching, tinnitus, and slight head pressure, but they disappeared quickly, so they are not the focus.
It’s just a brief update. Three months have passed and I haven’t fully recovered (especially in terms of mental state, mild brain fog, and cognitive abilities), so I probably didn’t escape becoming a member of this club. However, I have made significant progress in other aspects. In summary, I will feel like a man again, and finally return to the state and feeling before taking medicine in the gym, Sexual function is definitely not 100%, but I can accept the current state. In addition to academic difficulties, I am currently able to accept my own life. Of course, due to cognitive issues, I will adjust my life plan for the next 12 to 18 months (thank Henchman21 for his advice)
Creatine has definitely worsened all my symptoms. I took a total of 140g over a period of 20 days, and I don’t know if it was methylation or any other cause. Many symptoms gradually appeared (muscle twitching, sleep disorders, depression, fatigue, and suffocating my sexual desire and function), and I don’t seem to have a particularly sensitive reaction to creatine because these symptoms are gradually worsening. Thank for not crash, After giving up for a month, these symptoms basically recovered
What I am currently taking: ALCAR 500mg, fish oil 1g, magnesium glycine 200mg daily
I also take: Vitamin D2000iu three times a week, P5P 33mg twice a week
I have not encountered any significant issues with my food, except for some prominent 5AR foods on the list. I basically eat whatever I want, so I am confident that such a low-dose supplement will not cause any deterioration to me, and I can feel some improvement
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The deterioration of creatine before seemed to have brought me depression and loss of appetite, making it difficult for me to feel hungry. The colors of the world were decreasing, which stifled my rich imagination. Currently, I am not taking any supplements except for 2 grams of ALCAR per day. After drinking the bottle of ALCAR and carnitine I purchased (which I believe may take a month), I will not take any supplements as I have already secured a brief vacation until March next year, and I hope to make significant progress in my cognitive and cognitive abilities before that. I really don’t care about sex
Just an update, I’m having another crash, loss of sexual function + muscle twitching + akathisia + pain above my knees (pins and needles) and finally, the severe insomnia is back and all my progress has been wiped out and have quit. Dropped all the supplements and don’t know why I’m still crashing, last thing I can think of is I took some probiotics last week for six days for digestive issues, I now know they were Clostridium butyricum, of course, it could be Over time, PFS naturally crashes
What’s your current regiment?
I’m so sorry to hear this news DragonChen. I hope against all hope you can hang in there and recover to an acceptable state.
I have been away from finasteride for 140 days (27 days on it), updating my condition. Everything seems to have made slight progress, and I have gone through two windows of complete recovery (nearly a week), but the feeling of depression when the window ends is terrifying.
I have been steadily improving in terms of sex, from complete impotence to stable morning erections, and my sexual desire has also returned. I believe that my sexual performance has stabilized to 80%,but I still experience several hours of groin pain every day.
The mental state is still very poor, it is difficult to concentrate, and the thoughts of depression have been terrifying since the last crash. The lack of pleasure seems to have slightly improved? I am currently taking the antidepressant agomelatine, which is only 12.5mg per day (half of the recommended dose). it seems helped me dispel suicidal thoughts and severe depression, but I still experience moderate levels of depression, panic, and lack of pleasure.
In terms of physical condition, muscle twitching has been present since the last crash, but has weakened significantly. I still have slight twitching in different parts of the body every day, and my weight has increased by 10 pounds since PFS. However, due to a lack of dopamine pleasure, my diet after PFS did indeed consume a large amount of carbohydrates and reduce the frequency of exercise.
Looking back at my progress over the past four months, I believe that I make the most correct decision is not taking Propecia , I took generic drug,in the eyes of many people in the Chinese community, the effectiveness of a generic drug in inhibiting DHT is not as good as Propecia. Of course, this is just theory, and the worst decision was to take creatine. At that time, I had a lucky mentality that I was not PFS, and indeed had a very basic understanding of PFS, I thought it was just a lack of DHT and an increase in prolactin that caused an endocrine imbalance. After recovering from my first crash, I returned to the gym and continued to take creatine, without experiencing any new crash. However, it made all my symptoms worse day by day. I even took it twice(10days at a time, the first time no connection was established), and now I haven’t even reached my previous baseline.
I purchased a large amount of supplements, but out of fear I didn’t take much, the only one I persisted in taking, ALCAR, did bring me temporary benefits. At the beginning of this month, I believe there are three suspected targets for the second crash: anesthesia (for gastroscopy), gastric medication (rabeprazole), and probiotics (Clostridium butyricum), which will be completely avoided thereafter.
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Yea I’ve avoided most things except the gym, recently god sick and started getting more symptoms. I didnt have brain fog and now I do. Hopefully it will clear up.
Interesting thought on the probiotics. I haven’t taken any except for eating some yogurt. Maybe I should take that out of the diet for now. See if that helps.
I just found the instruction manual, and now I’m sure it was the probiotics that caused my second crash.
After taking this medicine, Clostridium butyricum enters the intestine and can inhibit the development of various harmful intestinal bacteria, reduce their proliferation and production of toxins, significantly reduce water retention in the intestine, and at the same time promote the growth of beneficial bacteria Bifidobacterium growth , and can also achieve the purpose of treating diarrhea by inhibiting 5-hydroxytryptamine. The drug can also inhibit the atrophy of the intestinal mucosa, reduce the water content in the feces, and improve the character of the feces and the frequency of defecation. In In addition, Clostridium butyricum can produce some beneficial enzymes and vitamins in the intestines.
You mentioned you were taking rabeprazole, too. It seems that -azole drugs in general tend to mess with pfs’ers.
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