Poll: How are your memory problems progressing?

Symptoms Neurological
#1

For all those suffering of PFS/PSSD/PAS/ETC memory problems for at least one year, how has this symptom progressed since you quit the drug?

  • It got a lot better
  • It got a little better
  • It remained about the same
  • It got a little worse
  • It got a lot worse

0 voters

After completing the poll, please post a reply briefly describing:

  • drug taken
  • how long it has been since you quit
  • if your problem is/was rather short term memory, long term memory, or both
  • some examples of your memory problems
  • how you feel it has progressed
  • how your memory problems impact or have impacted your daily life
  • Are you experiencing constant tinnitus in addition to memory problems?

Feel free to discuss anything you want related to your memory problems in this topic.

1 Like
#2
#3

drug taken: arimidex
how long it has been since you quit: august 2017 was my last dose
if your problem is/was rather short term memory, long term memory, or both: short term
some examples of your memory problems: ill not remember what i did the day before. like i have to really think about it. i never was like this.
how you feel it has progressed: progressively getting worse as my sensitivity to estrogen continues to dwindle
how your memory problems impact or have impacted your daily life: no massive impact other than forgetting to bring things places. really afraid for when i start working as a nurse. gonna have to be extremely vigilant

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#4

  • drug taken
    Accutane

  • how long it has been since you quit
    3 Years

  • if your problem is/was rather short term memory, long term memory, or both
    Short Term

  • some examples of your memory problems
    -Not being able to consistently recall information that was relayed to me (i.e. repeating something back to someone correctly but a few moments later completely forgetting it)
    -Forgetting why I entered a room/forgetting what I was doing

  • how you feel it has progressed
    The first example I listed has decreased in frequency and the severity of it has also decreased. The second example I listed has completely cleared.

  • how your memory problems impact or have impacted your daily life
    It’s made me less confident regarding my ability to do well in school (in college) even though I think this is just me psyching myself out and making it out to be worse than it really is. It has made doing my summer job slightly more annoying because I have to ask/type in last names or phone numbers for rewards purposes and it sometimes takes me a little longer than it really should to get it right.

#5
  • drug taken - SSRI (Paroxetine)
  • how long it has been since you quit - 3 years
  • if your problem is/was rather short term memory, long term memory, or both - Both
  • some examples of your memory problems - I don’t remember where i put my keys,phone and so on, i do not have an automated sense of where are objects. I don’t remember that someone gave me something.
  • how you feel it has progressed - Last year it’s a bit better.
  • how your memory problems impact or have impacted your daily life - tremendous impact, i was very smart and had a quick thinking, now i’m dumb as hell.
#6

I used propecia for 10 days and in a couple of days I will reach the 1 year mark of taking the first pill. I had both long and short term memory problems and I still have, but my memory has improved a lot and I guess ill pretty much get back to normal within a year. I remember in the start how I used to misplace everything and forget where I had put it.

#7

Best thing I have used if Ginko biloba

#8

  • drug taken
    Accutane. There are studies indicating Accutane is associated with memory problems: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21557759

  • how long it has been since you quit
    14 yrs

  • if your problem is/was rather short term memory, long term memory, or both
    Both

  • some examples of your memory problems
    Attempting to do a task then forgetting what it is I am doing, immediately. Happens very frequently
    Forgetting train of thought mid-way through conversation, frequently
    Problems with word-finding
    Struggling to retain instructional information when relayed to me in conversation, immediately
    Attempting to navigate computer file structures to undertake a task, then forgetting what I am doing,
    immediately
    Commencing a conversation then forgetting the purpose of it immediately after starting

  • how you feel it has progressed
    These aspects have become worse over time

  • how your memory problems impact or have impacted your daily life
    Difficulty in work

  • Are you experiencing constant tinnitus in addition to memory problems?
    This is an interesting point. It may be that tinnitus and the memory problem are overlapping. Insofar as my tinnitus gets worse after ejaculating. And my memory problems also get worse. So it may be that the two things reinforce eachother. If you cannot hear, you cannot remember.

#9
  • drug taken

finasteride

  • how long it has been since you quit

2 pills in 2011. 0.25mg once in mid 2017, crashed a couple of days later horrendously and severe persistent problems rapidly developed.

  • if your problem is/was rather short term memory, long term memory, or both

Both

  • some examples of your memory problems

Lost all memories of my life, who I was, my accumulated knowledge etc extremely fast after crashing. Forgot I had a dog for weeks initially. Could not do simple tasks such as cook (friend looking after me asked me not to after I left the gas on). I would drop things and forget to pick them up. In the first months, my ex partner of ten years (until this) would tell me what we’d done together or what she’d done for me the day before and I could not remember. Equally I would sometimes look at her and not know who she was, before it would slowly dawn on me. I found this deeply alarming and heartbreaking as she means everything to me.

  • how you feel it has progressed

A notable improvement from about six months in. Long term memories are patchy and random (I am sometimes surprised by random memories of my life) and memories I know triggered emotions in the past no longer do. Improvements plateaued and both long and short term working memory remain substantially impaired. I do not have constant “access” to my memories anymore.

  • how your memory problems impact or have impacted your daily life

I am unable to continue the life I had before due to my finasteride-induced condition, to which this contributes.

  • Are you experiencing constant tinnitus in addition to memory problems?

No. I experience random complete dropouts of volume with ringing, and over the next minute or two sound comes back slowly (like in TV/film when a character is near a gunshot or explosion and they filter the high frequencies out and add a ringing, before the higher frequencies are faded back in). I have experienced constant tinnitus/muffled hearing after orgasm which improved over days.

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#10

Hi Axolot.

Could I ask you what you mean by muffled hearing?

Is it like people are mumbling? Or other symptoms?

Have you experienced that you get muffled hearing every time after orgasm and

that it gets better when you abstain from orgasm?

Thanks in advance for your response.

#11

Hey Capello. Didn’t happen every time but I abstain because it worsens a lot of symptoms, I I’m in significant pain and don’t have much function in that regard. No libido anyway but that is the least of my problems.

Re muffled hearing: For me it was kind of like if you put your fingers slightly in your ears but not enough to really block everything out. So a loss of high frequencies.

#12

Thanks for your answer, Axolotl.

I have a lot of cognitive and neurological problems and I also feel that orgasm worsens

my symptoms. I am about to try a water fast that will last for 36 hours or so.

Have you tried something that has helped you?

#13

I took generic finasteride. It’s been about 16 months since I quit (I took it for the same duration). My problem is short term memory. This mainly consists of me forgetting things in the moment or as I’ve thought of them. For example, I’ll think that I need to go and empty the washer to put my clothes in the dryer. Then I’ll think of something else, and instantly forget about what I was going to do. I know I had thought of something that I had planned to do just a second ago, but can’t remember it. Then it’s pretty random as to whether the thought will enter my mind again or I’ll just move on without remembering. So it’s pretty much just forgetting things in the moment, thinking of them and then forgetting once another thought enters my mind. It has gotten considerably worse this year. I never had it early in the year, perhaps it started in May of this year? The impact on my life is that I’m far less efficient at doing things because I have to spend time trying to remember what I’d forgotten. Or, if I choose not to try and instead move on, then I don’t end up doing the things I really need to do (like getting my laundry done when I wanted to). Yes I have experienced tinnitus, every day/other day. It’s subsided a bit recently, but it did seem to coincide with the short-term memory problems.

#14

I’ve never experienced brain fog or severe cognition issues, although I can relate somewhat to the memory issues you describe. Something can come into my head and it will just as easily disappear - gone. There is no anchor to root it there. I know nothing of the science of memory storage and how it would relate to this, but it is something I am very aware of in myself. Also, something as simple as watching a continuing drama series. I used to have no problem following the plot etc., however I have been watching the old HBO series Oz and I am finding it difficult to remember simple plot developments. This feels new to me and of slight concern.

1 Like
#15

Remember the old saying
You would forget your head if it wasn’t screwed on lol
They should change that to have you been taking finasteride…

Here’s another one on the subject of finasteride
You know when you make a silly mistake and your mates say tosser , wanker

I always say back " I wish I was " I’ve had raised eyebrows from that one…

Their will be very little or no masturbation for finasteride users lol

Finasteride side effects sound like a joke :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:the doctors think your kidding them too
Well guess what Doc I’m Not joking or laughing

We don’t want compensation we just want recognition and help …

1 Like
#16

No drugs for brain fog or memory loss and i can definitely tell you that i had this issue.

It was very common for me to forget what i was thinking or not able to remember when i parked my car the night before (this still happens 1 out of 10 but in the past was 8 out of 10).

I guess i am lucking these issues practically resolved with no medication.

Good luck.

#17
#18

I had terrible short-term menory issues the first 6 months off Fin. I am now exatly one year off Fin and my short-term memory is now much better, as well as ability to concentrate.

2 Likes
#19

hi mate how long did it take these cognitive impariments to resolve?