Do I have PFS?

[Mojo]

Welcome, whatever it is that ails you, you have come to a place of support and understanding. Right now you are in a bad place psychologically. I’ve been in your exact situation so this is the advice I would have told myself.

Accept it happened, whether it’s PFS or a mental breakdown, life is going to suck for a while and the sooner you come to terms with this the faster you will start to feel better.

It doesn’t matter what the source is. Dwelling on this issue will feed into OCD/GAD. That shit loves doubt. The way forward is the same anyway so thinking about it will only feed the furnace.

Stay away from negativity cesspools like propeciahelp or reddit. Don’t google anything to do with finasteride, I promise you there is no information out there that is useful to you right now.

Start implementing breathing exercises and meditation right away. I use headspace on ios and the wim hoff breathing app. If you feel like you are losing your mind hop into a cold shower.

Talk to a real person. Open the flood gates of all that built up anxiety.

Get a blood test done to see if there are any immediate issues. Not necessarily related to PFS.

In regards to the remeron: I’ve taken it for 4 months during my recovery. It helped me very slightly but getting off it was definitely a hard fight and in the end - IN MY CASE - not worth it. Some here will disagree with me on this one, but I’m not going to tell someone that is feeling suicidal to toss his medication. If you are feeling close to giving up it might be worth a try, people all react differently on these meds. However, and I need to stress this, you have what it takes to tackle this. You aren’t helpless or broken or beyond hope. It will be a defining moment of your life and one of tour hardest battles, but you can get out of this stronger.

So first things first. Take a step back. Evaluate your mental situation. Talk to people. Calm down as much as you can. Walk a lot.
When you feel ready, take a look at the protocol and prepare to take life into your hands.

[DUB]

Welcome, whatever it is that ails you, you have come to a place of support and understanding. Right now you are in a bad place psychologically. I’ve been in your exact situation so this is the advice I would have told myself.

Accept it happened, whether it’s PFS or a mental breakdown, life is going to suck for a while and the sooner you come to terms with this the faster you will start to feel better.

It doesn’t matter what the source is. Dwelling on this issue will feed into OCD/GAD. That shit loves doubt. The way forward is the same anyway so thinking about it will only feed the furnace.

Stay away from negativity cesspools like propeciahelp or reddit. Don’t google anything to do with finasteride, I promise you there is no information out there that is useful to you right now.

Start implementing breathing exercises and meditation right away. I use headspace on ios and the wim hoff breathing app. If you feel like you are losing your mind hop into a cold shower.

Talk to a real person. Open the flood gates of all that built up anxiety.

Get a blood test done to see if there are any immediate issues. Not necessarily related to PFS.

In regards to the remeron: I’ve taken it for 4 months during my recovery. It helped me very slightly but getting off it was definitely a hard fight and in the end - IN MY CASE - not worth it. Some here will disagree with me on this one, but I’m not going to tell someone that is feeling suicidal to toss his medication. If you are feeling close to giving up it might be worth a try, people all react differently on these meds. However, and I need to stress this, you have what it takes to tackle this. You aren’t helpless or broken or beyond hope. It will be a defining moment of your life and one of tour hardest battles, but you can get out of this stronger.

So first things first. Take a step back. Evaluate your mental situation. Talk to people. Calm down as much as you can. Walk a lot.
When you feel ready, take a look at the protocol and prepare to take life into your hands.

Are you saying that getting off of Remeron was not worth it or going on it in the first place was not worth it? At thing point I am just desperate for something to help me sleep through the night and hopefully bring my anxiety/depression down which will help me move forward and perhaps reduce some of the physical symptoms I am experiencing if they are a result of anxiety. I would also like to get back to work sooner than later as that is causing me great anxiety in and of itself.

[Mojo]

Are you saying that getting off of Remeron was not worth it or going on it in the first place was not worth it? At thing point I am just desperate for something to help me sleep through the night and hopefully bring my anxiety/depression down which will help me move forward and perhaps reduce some of the physical symptoms I am experiencing if they are a result of anxiety. I would also like to get back to work sooner than later as that is causing me great anxiety in and of itself.

Getting on it gave me minimal improvements and getting off it amplified my problems. Again, this is not advice: getting on remeron was not worth it for me personally. Your mileage may vary. The good thing about remeron compared to traditional SSRI's is the benefits should be felt immediately as opposed to 6 weeks down the line. So I guess you could also stop it again fairly fast without triggering severe withdrawal symptoms.

[DUB]

Getting on it gave me minimal improvements and getting off it amplified my problems. Again, this is not advice: getting on remeron was not worth it for me personally. Your mileage may vary. The good thing about remeron compared to traditional SSRI's is the benefits should be felt immediately as opposed to 6 weeks down the line. So I guess you could also stop it again fairly fast without triggering severe withdrawal symptoms.

Thank you for your replies Mojo. Your response and your own personal story has been a beacon of hope in this hellish time. I am getting bloodwork done on friday. My GP has ticked off glucose, HbA1C, TSH, Creatinine, ALT, Albumin, B12, Calcium, Folate, and Free Testosterone on my requisition. He seemed reluctant to check my hormonal profile when I told him some of my early symptoms brought on by Fin. I dont think they are covered by the government health insurance. What additional things should I get checked so I have a baseline for recovery and to determine if finasteride threw anything out of balance. I'd be willing to pay for the additional tests.

How were you able to cope through your worst times? Were you still able to work? Happy you are doing better. You and some of the others on here have been an inspiration to me.

[Mojo]

Personally I have had a bunch of tests done and during the course of the last year my blood has shown a variety of changing deviations. My thyroid marker (TSH) went out of bounds, my cholesterol shot up, my ferritin levels skyrocketed, my estrogen was elevated and I tested positive for recent CMV activity. I wish I could tell you either of these had a direct solution but in the end it was just a nice-to-know and my body just needed some time to fix it on it’s own.

Most deviations on your test will only tell you that your body is in turmoil. This can easily be caused by chronic high level stress so any deviations should not immediately be a reason for concern. Unless the test shows you an easily supplemented deficiency (like salts or vitamins) I would not expect miracles. So look at it with a common sense state of mind.

My problems started just before covid, and since I work in a sector that is heavily impacted I’ve had the blessing of not having to work all that much for almost a year now. I started my journey completely oblivious to what was happening to me and all I had as a place for answers was propeciahelp. Needless to say I got endlessly stressed out and tried my hand at xanax and remeron. Both burned me and I wish I had found this place a lot earlier in my recovery. Coping was very hard in the beginning. Passing all stages of grief and the endless doubt whether this was a pure mental problem or PFS drained me. Once I got passed that and just focused on getting better and nothing else, while finding this small community of positive energy, I started to feel immediate relief.

It can be a long and hard fight. This is not unique to PFS. I have a friend with very similar problems that had never touched finasteride. So dwelling on this will only increase your struggle.

Make sure you try to tackle your mental state to the best of your abilities early on and I promise you that soon, you will find a lot of energy to push through. You just have to learn to accept whatever it is that is happening and see it as an opportunity to better yourself.

Starting your own log can be helpful as a therapeutic journal. Or reply to any existing threads for advice. Just make sure that, for the benefit of yourself and other, try to look at everything in a positive light.

Also, concerning the ‘protocol’ (I really dislike that word): it gave me something to hold on to. Just believing I was doing something positive and working towards a goal helped me cope a lot. There will be moments you start to feel better. This could be brief but is very important. Remind yourself of these times. They show you that this is not an endless fight. When you get inevitably worse again your mind/GAD will try to convince you these moment never happened and doubt will cloud your mind. This is a fight with a lot of ups and downs, and for some cruel reason your mind will only acknowledge the downs.