Finasteride and anxiety?

[Donny J]

Thanks for the response donny. So you have been off finasteride for 4 months now? What have you noticed since being off? Are you sure it fun was the cause? Cheers

after 3 weeks off of the drug, i experienced a very severe/debilitating crash/withdrawal...i battled with this for a couple months before it ceased. after that point, as i've mentioned, i'm still experiencing the anxiety/eye issues that began a little over a year ago for me.

that said, i've also noticed some positives since quitting -- my hangovers are VASTLY better now than when i was on finasteride. i never actually correlated my awful hangovers (lasting 2-3 days, feeling like a zombie & unable to fully concentrate on anything) to the finasteride when i was on it, but this cleared right up. Also, I noticed a solid increase in my libido after about 2 months off of the drug...i'd say a 30% increase or so.

in regards to whether or not i'm positive it was the finasteride that caused the anxiety/eye issues, the answer is no -- if it had cleared up right away after quitting, then i could say absolutely, but sadly, that hasn't occurred. from a gut-feeling-perspective, i do think that it's from my finasteride usage, solely because i've seen how the finasteride has effected my body in other negative ways. i also have no history of anxiety (quite the opposite, actually). i fought with the decision to quit finasteride for quite some time before actually committing to doing so -- and i only decided to quit after trying nearly everything else (drugs, visiting several doctors, etc.) possible, solely because i didn't want to believe that it was from the drug and I was in denial for some time (because i liked the positives that I received from the drug as well).

hope this helps.

 

[corza000]

Thanks for the insight Donny. Did you have a few noticeable sides while on it? There has to be a way or some kind of blood test to find out if finasteride is a cause without going cold turkey for a few months and hoping for the best. Someone did say you could go to a neurologist but I wouldn't know what to ask them to look for. I have taken a break from the drug for a week now and nothing has changed I did the EOD and didn't notice any difference either.

 

[Donny J]

Thanks for the insight Donny. Did you have a few noticeable sides while on it? There has to be a way or some kind of blood test to find out if finasteride is a cause without going cold turkey for a few months and hoping for the best. Someone did say you could go to a neurologist but I wouldn't know what to ask them to look for. I have taken a break from the drug for a week now and nothing has changed I did the EOD and didn't notice any difference either.

the eye/anxiety problem started April of 2013, and I got off of the drug roughly 4 months ago now, so that "side" (putting this in quotes for now, because there's still the unknown on this one) developed while on the drug. As far as other sides go, yes -- I battled brain fog (not the "i feel slightly off today" kind of brain fog, but the very debilitating, disassociative, dream-like-state kind) from the very beginning...the only way i was able to actually take propecia is that i discovered that after taking the drug (ED, .625mg) for 3 weeks straight, then it was that point where i began to experience brain fog. because i was able to pin-point it to this exact timing, i started taking the drug 3 weeks on, 1 week off (which I later changed to mon-fri on, sat-sun off), which seemed to make the brain fog sides manageable (read: far less frequent).

i unfortunately didn't consider taking blood tests until i had already decided that i had to get off the drug... i got my first blood tests (T, Free-T, Estrogen, DHT, Iron, etc.) done after I was off of the drug for 7-8 weeks. everything checked out then, but i didn't have a very good baseline to compare it to.

 

[corza000]

Sorry to hear about the hard times but good to hear you are getting better. These blood tests you speak of - am I able to get these to work out if finasteride is having an effect on anxiety/depression? What should I be looking out for?
Thanks

 

[Donny J]

Sorry to hear about the hard times but good to hear you are getting better. These blood tests you speak of - am I able to get these to work out if finasteride is having an effect on anxiety/depression? What should I be looking out for?
Thanks

i don't know if there's a specific test for anxiety/depression itself, but the typical things to test for which finasteride is known to alter in your body are the hormones i listed above

 

[Aesthetic]

i get so sick of hearing about anxiety its all in ur head (Srs)

build some confidence, relax, breath, find ways to deal with it

i cant wait to start my finasteride, so i can see for myself if all the side affect BS is true or not

 

[Donny J]

i get so sick of hearing about anxiety its all in ur head (Srs)

build some confidence, relax, breath, find ways to deal with it

i cant wait to start my finasteride, so i can see for myself if all the side affect BS is true or not

lmao. i hope you don't experience ****. there's nothing more than i would love than to continue using finasteride without any sides.. clearly though, it's not a good fit for me. but don't discard other people's problems -- some of them are rather serious medical conditions.

 

[Notcoolanymore]

There are many guys that actually suffer from finasteride sides. There are many more that think they do.

 

[corza000]

Thanks for the responses. Just an update- I have been taking 0.625mg for a week now and I'll wait to see how it goes. If no such luck I'll either discontinue finasteride or supplement it with anti anxiety tablets. Based on what I've read I am coming to think that all of this could have been caused by a decrease in allopregnanolones from finasteride. From what I've read I can't test this either so I'll have to get off finasteride and hope for the best or further medicate with anti anxiety tablets to increase allopregnanolone levels! I am waiting on a blood test but not sure what info this will give me to help.