Were you under stress when you stopped taking fin/crashed?

General Discussion
#1

Were you under stress when you stopped the drug?

  • Yes I definitely had greater than normal stress/anxiety at the time
  • I was under slight stress/anxiety compounded by taking finasteride
  • I was not under any stress of any degree

0 voters

It has been noted by a few people on here that many members have reported that when they noticed bad symptoms on the drug, or around the time between stopping and crashing, they were under significant stressors of some kind. By this I mean drinking to excess, recreational drug use, problems with work/partners/spouses, illnesses or just ‘bad lifestyle’ at that time.

I’ve made a poll to see if any significant pattern emerges. I would also define it as significant stress, be that to the mind or body, rather than something that normally wouldn’t have been that bothersome were you not taking a medication which reduced your ability to deal with anxiety.

For myself, I had a couple of nights partying hard when I quit (initially thought this was causing my insomnia) and got drunk the night before. Also had some big stress in other areas at the time.

Before someone inevitably jumps in and says it is all about taking a 5AR inhibitor for hairloss, I am NOT disputing this at all, merely wondering if many of us were pushed over the edge to crash or just crashed harder because of it.

#2

I actually was living the best time of my life. Loved my job, was doing very well financially and my social life was good as well. I had no reason for stress or anxiety.

#3

Under no stress whatsoever at the time. Even when my symptoms began I was rather dismissive of them as I was busy enjoying life, work, etc. Wasn’t until I suddenly and bizzarely became anhedonic while cleaning my house one evening that all hell started breaking loose. So, stress did not cause this in my case.

#4

I had been on fin for four years with no problems whatsoever apart from a tiny dip in sex drive and a tiny dip in erection strength,these were so tiny it was barely noticeable,i thought these were the possible sides which I had read on the paperwork which came with the fin,id even came off fin a handful of times in that four years for maybe 3 weeks or more with no problems,then in 2007 I had a massive project on at work and really bad relationship problems at home,then one day I crashed hard,one day fine next day a different person,ive been fucked ever since…

#5

You should consider separating out this data into short term and long term usage. Something like those that used less than a year and anything more than a year.

I’d be curious to see if a pattern emerged.

#6

This is probably pure coincidence, but I was also cleaning the first time I started having mental side effects. I thought I had inhaled fumes from the cleaning chemicals or something…

#7

When I crashed I hadn’t slept much for a couple days and went to the gym… it was after the gym I crashed.

#8

I was slowly recovering and felt more or less fine until about six weeks after I stopped taking it. I found this forum, and really lost my shit when I realized I possibly fucked myself up for life. The sudden and extreme stress seemed to trigger the crash, which left me bedridden for a couple weeks.

#9

i was definitely under stress when I crashed. Big yes.

#10

-Finasteride inhibits neurosteroids by 800% (“only” inhibits DHT by 300%)
-With little nuerosteroids, GABA-a receptors are not activated.
-GABA-a activation is our bodies main mechanism for combating and handling stress.
-With this mechanism deactivated…

Perfect storm for a CNS meltdown/crash.

#11

I was definitely under stress, and in retrospect there were clues and a ramp up the week leading up to the crash- General anxiety, poor sleep, night sweats, and hot flashes during the day. I started having a glass of wine each night which only made the insomnia worse, and by the weekend I fell off the cliff.

#12

I think stress/anxiety is a part of what happened to me - although I didn’t have a specific “crash” event, where everything just went at once. I was on the drug for 15 months.

Probably 6 months or so in. I noticed that I was putting on a ridiculous amount of fat around my belly/hips. Generally, my life was kind of stressful – I’m an anxiety-prone person by nature – so maybe the combo of that general stress and the drug caused the fat issue. At any rate, I didn’t connect it to fin when it happened. Just couldn’t figure out why, despite exercising daily and eating well, I had all this fat.

Then starting around month 9 I got issues with hot flashes and intense sweating (from very little exertion, or at night) and temperature sensitivity. It would be a mild winter day – like 45 degrees – and I’d need to wear like 4 layers of clothes to keep from shivering outside. Again, maybe the stress/fin combo was at work.

But the most direct connection I can draw came in 5/12 – more than a year after starting the drug. Sexually, I’d been fine for all of that time. But then a long-term relationship abruptly ended. I got dumped. It was brutal – I don’t think I’ve ever felt like the kind of loss and despair I felt when that happened. I was a total wreck. Couldn’t sleep, heart racing, crying constantly. In hindsight, it’s kind of funny how hard I took it. But anyway, it was while I was going through that that I lost my sex drive I remember it really well. A few days after the break-up, I just realized that I hadn’t even had any desire to masturbate since it had happened. I chalked it up to the break-up – not propecia. But looking back, I think both were at work.

That was more than a year ago. I finally made the connection to fin in 6/12 and quit immediately. I experienced no post-quitting crash/surge. Just a steady state of low sexual desire/erection issues, a worsening of the body fat situation (diet hasn’t changed, I still exercise – but clothes that used to fit no longer fit), onset of relentless urinary frequency, and now my sweat smells like vinegar (overall, I don’t sweat anything like I did on the drug and the hot flashes and temperature sensitivity issues have improved).