Hey everyone,
Some of you may have seen my posts on swolesource, however as that forum is a shitshow these days I will be starting a log here.
Recap of my story:
I am 23 years old, and took
Finasteride from from December 2018 to December 2020.
Accutane from June 2019 to Jan 2020.
Some brain fog and depression developed gradually from Fin, beginning in 2019 probably.
Then Accutane induced dry eyes, lips and skin which remained after quitting.
Then was hit with ahedonia and hardcore sexual symptoms in December 2020, after a night of heavy drinking and weed smoking. And the brain fog got way more intense.
And from this point on, many PFS symptoms appeared or worsened, before stabilizing into a pretty brutal case.
My symptoms eventually included:
-Extreme brain fog that felt like I was intoxicated
-Head pressure
-Erectile dysfunction
-No libido
-Anhedonia, emotional numbness
-Dry skin, lips and eyes
-Depression & Zero motivation
-Numb, dry glans that remained soft during erections
-Cold shrunken genitals
-“Hard flaccid”
-No masculinity / "mojo"
-Anxiety
-Gum recession
-Always feeling dehydrated
-Loose skin
-Joint pain
Basically everything except insomnia.
I quit fin and thought I was fucked for life but after a few months I discovered TMO. Started the protocol originally in July 2021 but fell off.
My biggest weakness is that my brain will go to places like: "TMO won't work for me because I took accutane" and this has derailed me several times.
Nonetheless, I regained my composure in January 2022, restarting the protocol with a 2nd juice cleanse. From then on, there was slow but noticeable improvement. I also did an 8-day water fast in May 2022.
Between August 2022 and June 2023 I did 3 cycles of Ultra Hard.
By late 2022, most days I felt around 60-70% recovered. Lots of really good days. Then I plateaued for a while, going several months without much change but I was still overall satisfied with the way things were going. Then in May of this year, I was hit with a MASSIVE downswing where I experienced a return/worsening of symptoms. I was on my 3rd cycle of ultrahard when the downswing began. I’m unsure if the ultrahard was to blame but I decided that would be my last prohormone cycle.
During this downswing I once again became concerned that I had accutane damage that was potentially not reversible by TMO.
I went to a real dark place where I stopped doing TMO properly and started obsessively reading forums and research on every corner of the internet. Was going nuts trying to sort through all the proposed mechanisms and protocols on post drug syndromes. I went balls deep. Fell back into drinking/weed too.
Ultimatley, nothing came of all this reading, (no suprises there). I read a lot of work on PAS/PFS by a guy who has a bioinformatics/biomed background on r/accutanerecovery. He essentially claims to have found the cause of these syndromes and the cure, but my gut tells me he might be speaking too soon. There are people trying the "cure" on the subreddit so I'll periodically check on their results.
Also I did see cannabinoids (rick simpson oil) cured a few post-accutane guys and I even obtained some from a good source but that's more of a plan B at the moment than something I plan to hop on immediatley.
I'm back to TMO which is still my preffered way forward as simplicity and structure is important for me personally. Just gotta take it day-by-day. Doubt and self-sabotage have undoubtedly delayed my progress.
That being said, the hackstasis natural electrolyte protocol is interesting. While I don't currently plan on doing it I'll keep it in the back of my mind.
As for how I feel today: Around 50%. I'm still not completley out of the downswing that started in May but I'm trending upward. Lately there have been more days with improved mental clarity, mood and libido.
Thinking of doing another water fast.
Any suggestions welcome and I hope everyone is doing well.
Never giving up.
Some of you may have seen my posts on swolesource, however as that forum is a shitshow these days I will be starting a log here.
Recap of my story:
I am 23 years old, and took
Finasteride from from December 2018 to December 2020.
Accutane from June 2019 to Jan 2020.
Some brain fog and depression developed gradually from Fin, beginning in 2019 probably.
Then Accutane induced dry eyes, lips and skin which remained after quitting.
Then was hit with ahedonia and hardcore sexual symptoms in December 2020, after a night of heavy drinking and weed smoking. And the brain fog got way more intense.
And from this point on, many PFS symptoms appeared or worsened, before stabilizing into a pretty brutal case.
My symptoms eventually included:
-Extreme brain fog that felt like I was intoxicated
-Head pressure
-Erectile dysfunction
-No libido
-Anhedonia, emotional numbness
-Dry skin, lips and eyes
-Depression & Zero motivation
-Numb, dry glans that remained soft during erections
-Cold shrunken genitals
-“Hard flaccid”
-No masculinity / "mojo"
-Anxiety
-Gum recession
-Always feeling dehydrated
-Loose skin
-Joint pain
Basically everything except insomnia.
I quit fin and thought I was fucked for life but after a few months I discovered TMO. Started the protocol originally in July 2021 but fell off.
My biggest weakness is that my brain will go to places like: "TMO won't work for me because I took accutane" and this has derailed me several times.
Nonetheless, I regained my composure in January 2022, restarting the protocol with a 2nd juice cleanse. From then on, there was slow but noticeable improvement. I also did an 8-day water fast in May 2022.
Between August 2022 and June 2023 I did 3 cycles of Ultra Hard.
By late 2022, most days I felt around 60-70% recovered. Lots of really good days. Then I plateaued for a while, going several months without much change but I was still overall satisfied with the way things were going. Then in May of this year, I was hit with a MASSIVE downswing where I experienced a return/worsening of symptoms. I was on my 3rd cycle of ultrahard when the downswing began. I’m unsure if the ultrahard was to blame but I decided that would be my last prohormone cycle.
During this downswing I once again became concerned that I had accutane damage that was potentially not reversible by TMO.
I went to a real dark place where I stopped doing TMO properly and started obsessively reading forums and research on every corner of the internet. Was going nuts trying to sort through all the proposed mechanisms and protocols on post drug syndromes. I went balls deep. Fell back into drinking/weed too.
Ultimatley, nothing came of all this reading, (no suprises there). I read a lot of work on PAS/PFS by a guy who has a bioinformatics/biomed background on r/accutanerecovery. He essentially claims to have found the cause of these syndromes and the cure, but my gut tells me he might be speaking too soon. There are people trying the "cure" on the subreddit so I'll periodically check on their results.
Also I did see cannabinoids (rick simpson oil) cured a few post-accutane guys and I even obtained some from a good source but that's more of a plan B at the moment than something I plan to hop on immediatley.
I'm back to TMO which is still my preffered way forward as simplicity and structure is important for me personally. Just gotta take it day-by-day. Doubt and self-sabotage have undoubtedly delayed my progress.
That being said, the hackstasis natural electrolyte protocol is interesting. While I don't currently plan on doing it I'll keep it in the back of my mind.
As for how I feel today: Around 50%. I'm still not completley out of the downswing that started in May but I'm trending upward. Lately there have been more days with improved mental clarity, mood and libido.
Thinking of doing another water fast.
Any suggestions welcome and I hope everyone is doing well.
Never giving up.
