*** This is only my personal experience and is not based on any medical study ****
My intention with this post is to brainstorm about a way of preventing suicides in extreme cases of post finasteride patients.
From February 2006, when i quit propecia, to June 2008, i had a very severe case of depression. Many days i would only lay in bed, i quit working, i had constant headaches, and my metabolism seemed at high speed. I drank coke like crazy, i ate chocolate like crazy, i ate loads of cheese… all in an attempt to ease the awful depression i was having. Nothing, nothing worked not even regular exercise… and i believe the caffeine even made it worse. I had made my mind that suicide was a possibility, and that i would hang on for the longest i could. It was very, very hard to live like that, i had to spend so much energy to be barely miserable. I didnt want to take anti depressants and screw even further my sex drive at the time. Thankfully, my own body showed me the way out. I became allergic to some foods over time, and after eating shrimp i had a lung inflamation as an allergic reaction. I had to be treated, even though i was decided not to take prescription drugs anymore. So i was treated with prednisone for 5 days. Just the regular dose for an allergic crisis. To my surprise, the depression was gone in a matter of days… Really amazing. It can have some side effects, like water retention, sodium increase, etc for some days, it is a prescription drug, there are risks. That is why i am defending its use in extreme cases of depresion and suicidal patients. In my case, the benefit was obviously superior to any side effect risk… i was suicidal.
So since then, the depression never came back. I may have one day that i am a little down, but it is easily reversible with exercise. Not even 1/20 of what it used to be. Since then, i also changed my diet and avoid caffeine and sugar in order to keep my metabolism at that new pace.
My theory is: Imagine we are born programed to produce and keep a certain ‘stock’ of neurosteroids (dopamine, serotonine, etc). We also are born programmed to burn that stock at a certain speed (your bodys natural metabolism). So in general people are not supposed to have this depression, because metabolism is very hard to change. And that is exactly what happened to us. Our metabolism was changed and we started to burn the neurosteroids too fast… becoming always depressed. Taking prednisone slowed down this burning on me and the depression was gone in a matter of days.
For a long time i thought if i should post this as a possible way out of the depression as it is a prescription drug and there are risks. I also needed to verify if i would have the depression again (No). But i just saw an old post from a user here, and i got scared he could end up killing himself. I think it is my responsability to post this, even if it has risks. Problem is it has not being tested on anybody else here, just me (as far as i know). But i think this idea may be useful, even if one wants to keep it as a last resource.
So my idea is to approach the depression first with diet, execise, life style changes. If that does not work for years, and the person is still the same, i think prednisone is worth a shot. But again, only in extreme cases of depression and suicidal patients.