Welcome to our community. Please fill in the following template as a way of introducing yourself, and helping others to understand your background and situation.
Where are you from (country)? US
How did you find this forum (Google search – if so, what search terms? Via link from a forum or website – if so, what page? Other?). PFS subreddit
What is your current age, height, weight? 41, 200lbs, 6’1"
What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)? 25 years of SSRI use for anxiety. Off for 1 year. Took a 400mg dose of expired ashwaganda April 15 (stupid I know, I didn’t think anything of it as I’d taken before no issues)
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? Doses varied by med, but 400mg ashwaganda
What condition was being treated with the drug?
Anxiety/sleep
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)? 1 day
Date when you started the drug? 4/15/2025
Date when you quit the drug? 4/15/2025
Age when you quit? 41
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? Cold turkey
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects? Within 7 hours post dose
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
- Severe global muscle weakness
- Complete lack of muscle stamina, muscles tire within seconds and shake instantly with contraction
- muscle atrophy
- loss of tactile sensation across the entire body (touch feels dulled or less)
- Extreme fatigue like my body just has no energy at all (especially in the morning)
- Emotional Blunting/Adhedonia (can’t cry, laugh, get excited, like my brain has been fried)
- Random muscle twitching all over my body
- insomnia (3-4 hours a night even with aides)
- burning hands and feet with tingling
- burning sensation across my entire body
- weird irregular heartbeat throughout the day even doing nothing
- eye pain/dryness and some blurring
- severe genital numbness/ED/shrinkage
- inability to sweat
- brain fog/hazy thought
- memory/recall issues
- issues with mental imagery
- no hunger or thirst signals
- no body odor
- no sebum/oil production (extremely dry skin and hair)
- cracking and popping joints everywhere
Check the boxes that apply. You can save your post first, then interactively check/uncheck the boxes by clicking on them. If your symptoms change, please update your list.
Sexual
[ ] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[X ] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[X ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ X] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[X ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ X] Watery Ejaculate
[X ] Reduced Ejaculate
[X ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ X] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[X ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[X ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[X ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[X ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ X] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[X ] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[X ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[X ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[X ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[X ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[X ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[X ] Muscle Wastage
[X ] Muscle Weakness
[X ] Joint Pain
[X ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ X] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[X ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[X ] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[X ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ X] Other (please explain)
See full list of effects above
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug? Not much. I was in the hospital for 3 weeks, 1 week post crash, and doctors could see I was severely messed up. They did all kinds of blood tests and neuromuscular disease tests but nothing.
If you have pre or post-drug blood tests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (please post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience?
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
I (41m in US) took a supplement that contained ashwaganda on a whim. It promised more restful and restorative sleep. I only took 400mg. Since then my decline has been rapid. To preface, I’ve been under a period of prolonged, chronic stress for the past 2.5 years, mostly driven failed Craniocervical fusions for my upper neck instability (ligaments are damaged and don’t hold my head on my neck without compression of brainstem). My last surgery was more successful. I was in the process of weaning off the neck brace (after 10 months) and strengthening my neck. I was improving. My kids were getting their dad back, my wife her husband. Then I took that pill. It was a Tuesday, April 15, 2025.
By Tuesday night I had genital numbness and severe ED. It freaked me out. I figured sleep on it and all will go away. The next day, I woke up with severe adhedonia and emotional blunting. I could feel absolutely no emotion, no joy, sadness, happiness, nothing. Hugging my wife and kids I felt nothing. Then came the brain fog, lack of mental imagery and what people call blank mind. Just attempting to imagine a past memory was next to impossible. By Wednesday evening, I started to notice other issues. I felt weak. I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror brushing my teeth and my wife noticed my left calf was twitching and tremoring. It was like it was trying to work but couldn’t. At this point, I was scared and started to seek out answers because all you hear is about how great ashwaganda is. Then I found this group and was horrified to hear I was not alone. As the days passed, the muscle weakness and fatigue became more severe. I went from sleeping 7-9 hours a night to maybe 1-3 hours. My physical therapist saw me later that week and noticed this strange global weakness across my muscle groups. She could tell something was wrong. I continued doing my home exercises and noticed doing neck exercises my strength appeared to just be gone. It didn’t make sense.
Fast forward to the next week and at my physical therapist appointment she noticed the weakness was even more severe. All the strength gains I’d gotten over 2 months had just disappeared. My muscles could contract, albeit weakly, but there was no stamina. Attempting to hold a contraction and my muscles just start shaking violently. She told me to see my doctor. My GP did all sorts of blood tests and they came back normal. She could see the same global muscle weakness. I still had all the other symptoms but this was my focus. The next day I woke up with extreme fatigue. I literally had no energy. I felt like I couldn’t even move to get outta bed. My wife had me call my doctor, they instructed me to go to the hospital.
I spent 3 weeks in the hospital. I told them about the onset of symptoms taking a supplement with ashwaganda, but was met with blank stares. They however, did see the weakness and are puzzled. They took more blood tests, antibody tests, and a number of autoimmune disease tests for neuromuscular disorders. They had know idea what is going on but have determined ash caused a severe shock to my central nervous system. It’s clear something in my brain was rewired and the signals being sent are no longer correct. While all of this is absolutely horrible, what is more terrifying is I’m losing muscle already. Just laying on a pillow, my neck muscles tremor and shake after a litte bit.
My immediate danger is now this. If my neck muscles continue to weaken and atrophy, my neck hardware will take on the load and will fail. I don’t know if it will even be possible to strengthen my neck again with what is happening. If that happens, I will become bedridden. I’m not ready to go guys. Several of you have messaged me and provided guidance. I’ve looked at the research studies on PFS/PSSD. I’ve perused countless groups for guidance. I was already in the process of fixing my gut before all this happened and am now aggressively looking into FMT. My family, my wife’s family have all thrown out their supplements containing ashwaganda. My wife and 2 girls visited me in the hospital. It was sad. It’s hard not to think of what will happen to me in the future or what I likely am going to miss out on. I’m trying to stay positive but reading all these stories and experiences shows me that this poison destroys people.
I’m not sure how much time I have left. I’m not ready to go nor am I ready to face what is likely to come. It’s crazy. I only took 400mg. That said, in thinking about my own history and learning about PFS/PSSD, this result may have been inevitable. You see, ever since I was 14 I’ve been on some sort of anti-depressant med for anxiety. It’s all I’ve ever known. For the past year or so I’ve taken nothing because my surgeon said SSRIs/SNRIs are horrible for bone health and disrupt fusion. All those years of use clearly destroyed my gut and changed my brain. Ashwaganda was just the trigger to push it all over the edge. Anyway, if you’ve gotten this far, thank you for reading. Right now, as I sit here in a hospital bed awaiting my fate by this poison, I’m hurting a lot. Everything I was trying to get back in life just gone. I will probably not get to see my girls drive, graduate from school, or go to college. I’m sad even though I can’t really feel it. I wish there was a faster and clear cut treatment. I fear the next few months are going to be tortuous for me and even then I don’t know how long I’ll last.
Update 6-6-2025: Unfortunately, absolutely no changes. I seem to be getting worse. The sleep deprivation is taking a toll and nothing seems to help. I regret taking that capsule every single day. I still don’t understand how it could completely destroy a person like it has me. New symptoms have cropped up. I no longer can sweat. My skin is dry and produces no sebum. My hair is dry and brittle with no more oil. Little brown spots have started appearing everywhere on my skin. My muscles still shake violently with contraction. For now, I’m trying to figure out sleep and then pushing for more testing, but my doctors are not listening. I know it’s only been a few months, but right now, it appears I have a severe form of PFS/PSSD. I’m at a loss for words. And my hardware has loosened, so I’m now in danger of catastrophic failure. My surgeon has me back in a full brace but that too will accelerate further atrophy. He fully acknowledges that I’ve experienced some sort of extreme neuroendocrine injury, autonomic dysfunction, and HPA Axis dysfunction. Right now, I’m bedridden mostly, in a holding pattern because my surgeon is away in Europe for 1 month. Separately, we are weighing the risks. In my current state, surgery could kill me especially all the necessary medicines which could overwhelm my fragile CNS. However, if we wait, my hardware could fail further causing brainstem or spinal cord injury. And all the while, I am slowly losing my wife and kids. The mental pain is unimaginable.
Lastly the real kicker and yes, I am a complete idiot. You see I’d taken this supplement before with no issues, 2 years ago. Like an idiot, I didn’t even think to look at the expiration date, just popped them like I used to. Well, turns out it was expired by 2 years and the psychoactive compounds in ashwaganda can degrade into more dangerous and potently destructive compounds. People can get PFS like symptoms from fresh ashwaganda. What I took was a nuclear bomb and explains my severe reaction. I understand if I receive no sympathy for this stupid mistake and it’s ironic, when I told docs at the hospital this, instead of checking for Neurotoxicity was just told, oh, it probably just lost some potency. Quite the contrary. It destroyed my brain, my body, and my life. I’m staying strong everyday even as I deteriorate further. I am not looking forward to being permanently bedridden for what life I have left but my surgeon told me, unfortunately, it is a realistic possibility, given all my circumstances.
Self-reporting template - ONLY USE FOR FUTURE POSTS TO REPORT ANY TRIALS OF TREATMENTS, NOT YOUR INITIAL MEMBER STORY
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Name of the therapy/substance:
- Dosage:
- How often you took it:
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Status
- Still using [ ]
- Stopped with no lasting change to initial symptoms [ ]
- Stopped with persistent change to symptoms [ ]
- Duration of use: Days [ ] Months [ ] Years [ ]
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Response when you started:
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]
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Current response (if you’re still using the therapy/substance) OR Response in the time before you stopped the treatment
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]
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Lasting changes to initial symptoms after cessation (if you have stopped for more than 3 weeks)
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]
