Worse symptoms in the mornings?

Symptoms
#1

All,

I seem to have settled into a bit of a cycle where I’m much worse in the mornings and seem to get better as the day goes on. I’m at roughly 5 months post-fin now and my main symptoms are as follows and seem to come and go mostly together currently.

  • no libido
  • severe ED/impotence
  • anhedonia
  • emotional blunting
  • loss of all interests
  • severe anxiety/depression
  • lack of motivation and loss of all aggressiveness
  • insomnia (Typical night 2-3 sessions = 4-5 hr + 1 hr + <1hr.)

Rating system is as follows: 0 is rock bottom
Suicidal mess, 5 is just starting to feel emotions returning, not good, not bad, just very flat. 6 is when I can just start to enjoy things again, 10 is 100% normal pre-PFS.

When I first wake up I’m almost always a 0-4, throughout the day I can improve and usually do to some extent and 2 days this week I’ve topped out at about a 7 with some libido and high erectile function returning. I’ve had days in the past month of hitting 8-10 but those haven’t happened lately. When I hit these 7+periods, I can’t help but capitalizing on the situation with my wife typically which has been about once a week recently. I almost always go to bed at least 4-5 and sometimes higher. On good nights I commonly wake up mid-night and still feel good, but by final wake up I’m always back to feeling shitty.

Does anybody else see this type of pattern or have any idea why this might be happening? Any thoughts on anything I can do to make my mornings better and maybe make the evening upswings come earlier, more often, be higher? Here are the things I’m currently doing for symptoms:

  • Carnivore/zero/very low carb
  • Probiotic morning and night
  • Vitamin D 1000IU morning and afternoon
  • melatonin 0.5mg time release at bedtime
  • Herbal tea with MCT oil late evening
  • Daily Exercise, mostly running and HIIT sprinting, some weight lifting maybe 2 times per week, 3 max.
#2

What’s your schedule? What time do you usually go to sleep?

#3

I’m laughing at this post. Not because it’s funny, but because it is so similar to my case that I legit could see this being something I wrote up.

To answer your question: Yes, and have posted about a similar thing probably well over a year ago about how I am always the worst in the morning and also get some relief as the day goes on. This pattern has been the case for nearly 5 years now. Sorry. No idea why it happens. Actually kind of ironic as testosterone levels tend to be the highest in the morning.

#4

Also i wouldnt be surprised if you didn’t benefit from some sort of intermittent fasting (not recommending - I am not an expert on anything.) but given your symptoms, that’s another pattern I’ve noticed. Sometimes not eating for 6-8 hours seems to give me some relief.

#5

I would highly recommend to watch some Hubermanlab podscast episodes dedicated to circadian rhytmes and intermittent fasting. Prof. Huberman explains in detail the mechanisms behind these things and how you can use it for your benefit.

#6

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I generally sleep from 11:30PM to around 7AM. I typically net around 5-6 hours of sleep with two awakenings. My sleep has been very slowly getting better at 5 months off fin and has just only recently become consistent without anymore sleepless nights. I usually get one four hour session and then two smaller ones, but occasionally I can get that first main session up to 5 or rarely 6 hours.

#7

How do you feel when you exercise / lift weights?

Could be that your body struggles currently with testosterone.

#8

Exercise and lifting weights has been my one outlet through this whole thing. It made me feel great through my first crash, after my 2nd crash and my loss of motivation and anhedonia it doesn’t make me good anymore but it’s one of the only thing that is a significant distraction from my situation.

Weird thing is I’ve always been relatively fit, but even at my most fit I’ve never been able to build muscle and I was lifting way more than I do now. Now, I’m lifting maybe 2-3 times a week and nowhere near as intense and I feel like I’m bulking up faster. And my testosterone tests out near the bottom of normal range now.