If Allopregnanolone is causing your issue with sleep, do you also have emotional flatness, cant get drunk on alcohol, depression, etc… from a lack of Allo? I cant sleep but I dont have those other Allo symptoms. I think mine is adrenaline related.
NAC at bedtime or during the day?
Both. Should be on empty stomach
i tried nac as well… nothing…
Dear friends,
I developed PFS in late May after taking finasteride for an enlarged prostate from January to March of this year. I had severe insomnia in August and into late September. Now the insomnia has resolved completely. What helped me was taking silexan 80mg capsule which is made of pure lavender extract and has very strong anti-anxiety properties. It is a product of Germany. In Germany it is approved by the government drug agency for treatment of anxiety and there it is sold under the name Lasea. There are several studies on Lasea (Silexan) published in major neuropsychiatric journals. It seems to work equally well as benzodiazepines as lorazepam (Ativan) and SSRI like Paxil, without any significant side effects, without addiction, tolerance or withdrawal concerns, without drowsiness. One of the unexpected benefits of silexan was that patients reported was greatly improved sleep after a few weeks. It was initially suggested to me by a Swiss doctor at pfsfoundation.org but before taking it I googled "lasea clinical trials: and “silexan clinical trials” and was very impressed with what I read. I have been on it now for 8 weeks and have been very happy with the results. My anxiety has not resolved but it is not severe/excruciating like it was before. It is mostly moderate, occasionally mild, rarely not present at all. Hope this is helpful. All the best.
Giatriko
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what happens if you don’t take it? is it more like a supplement? what if we take lavender oil instead of this drug?
If it’s helpful, I googled it and you can buy it within the EU quite easily.
Just a quick update on my own sleep battle. I have been taking 1 cap of LUNA at night and it sort of gets me through the night. I wake up at least twice usually. LUNA has 3mg of melatonin in it. So my idea was to try a time release melatonin. I bought a 3mg time release off amazon and added to the 1 cap of LUNA last night. Low and behold I slept from about 10pm to 4am. Granted I didnt fully wake up but I also didnt sleep solid the way through. Its a marked improvement in the sense that I didnt open my eyes, get up, go to the bathroom,… repeat. This morning I’m def feeling the hangover from 6mg of melatonin. Tonight I’ll try just the 3mg time release and see how it does. I have also ordered Sephiros as well as some L-Tryptophan. I will be trying those out this weekend when they arrive.
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Random question - when you’re falling asleep do you get stuck in this weird limbo between sleep and consciousness? This never happened pre-fin, but now every single night I spend hours in this weird place where my thoughts are all jumbled and I’m like half dreaming half awake. It’s really annoying and slightly frightening. Pre-fin, I would either be asleep or awake. I used to think of things but they were coherent and then boom I’d be asleep and that’s it.
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Yes… I lay down and close my eyes and what I notice is its like my eye lids can barely stay closed. I can almost feel my eyes twitching behind my eyelids. Then I kind of try to put myself into a trance and I end up in a half dream state like you describe. Eventually i fall asleep but if I wasnt taking something to help I would probably get no sleep at all. I am really wondering if this is super high cortisol causing this. As I mentioned I ordered some Sophiros to see if it can knock down my cortisol levels. I’m also trying to line up an Endocrinologist and see if there is a way to tell if I have high cortisol or anything else that is effecting sleep. I’m afraid that I’m going to eventually end up taking stronger and stronger drugs to sleep. I really want to get to the root of it. I “dont think” its an Allopregnanolone deficiency in my case because I dont feel emotionally flat, depressed ,etc…
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in italy is not available… i checked today.
I was wary about silexans endocrine effects but if silexan was recommended by a doctor from pfsfoundation then that’s indeed very promising. I’m glad you’ve had very positive results from it. What brand do you use?
Sorry it took so long for me to check my messages. You can not ingest the lavender oil to the best of my knowledge. These capsules are specifically made for oral consumption. If you don’t take it there are no withdrawal symptoms. In the studies they purposely abruptly stopped Silexan and nobody had withdrawal symptoms.
indeed i’m using lavender oil and it does nothing.
Lavender may have estrogenic activity and antiandrogenic properties. Concentration of 0.005% of lavender oil inhibits DHT-dependent signalling by 52%:
Hey Guys… my sleep has taken a turn for the worse. Melatonin does nothing for me anymore. I got a perscription for Ambien and held off on using it but decided to try it on a Friday night. It seems like using the Ambien once made the melatonin less and less effective. So now I’m down to nothing that actually gets me a couple hours of sleep exceept the Ambien. I took a whole 10mg of Ambien last night and today have non stop depression and suicidal thoughts. I’m not sure if this is from the Ambien or just the general down turn in my sleep. Does anyone have experience taking Ambien and getting through the next day depression… do you get used to it? Does it go away? Do you take something to counter it? Did you just get on a different sleep drug (what?)? I’m in a bad spot… I have never had such dark thoughts and its totally from taking the Ambien but I cant not sleep. I have to take something.
Oh shit.
Does Ambien have those sorts of side effects with normal people? If so, what do they say to do in that case?
Yeah… it is known to cause depression in people who dont have it and make it worse in people who do. I just find it hard to believe that after all of this shit, the stupid sleep pill is giving me depression. Depression is the ONE side that I was so thankful that I didnt end up with. For the most part my emotions stayed in tact minus a short period during my initial crash. Now I cant get the dam sleep doctor to return my phone call to prescribe something different for sleep. I’m going to ask for Remeron as I think it helps sleep and also acts as an anti depressent. But with the holiday weekend coming I’m really worried about being left out in the cold with nothing for sleep that that doesnt give me scary depression.
I have to say that I sort of feel like the depression is lifting a slight bit as the day goes on. I’m trying to drink a lot of water and flush that crap out of my system. Maybe its just the hangover they talk about. Ugh… all of this sucks.
hey bro, i’m the right guy to ask this. i took ambien (zolpidem in italy) at the very beginning and yes, it can cause suicidal ideation. i mean, can make it worse if you already have it. maybe is no good for people with pfs.
and tou can’t use it forever since is benzo-like med. indeed after two weeks it did nothing.
my crouch to sleep is trazodone. is a very old antidepressant, not a ssri kind of antidepressant, and at low dosages acts just like a sleep inducer. and it doesn’t give addiction. when i started, i took 25 drops. Now, as my sleep is improving, i take 15 drops (and i’m planning to shut it down). I suggest drops so you can have control of it.
someone else suggests mirtazapine to sleep but i don’t know anything about this drug. ask your psychiatrist.
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