Current Symtoms
Low libido (ranges from ‘not as good as before’ to zero), a degree of anhedonia, brain fog, ‘just not feeling myself’, very easily stressed to point of ‘I can’t think straight/can’t take this’, ADD-like symptoms, periodic depression.
On the plus side, no ED, sometimes feel fine/good/ok, except for low libido and still a nagging ‘things aren’t right’.
Based off Ksman’s sticky:
Symptoms: Why are you here
-Brain fog, no one knows what that means but everyone knows if they have it! [yep]
-Social withdrawal - “I would rather not go out” [yep]
-Why do I have boobs? [puffy nipples unless cold, but had this since adolecence]
-Why do I carry fat like a woman? [nope, except above]
-Why am I a moody bitch? [grumpy more than in past, but ‘unemotionality’ more of an issue]
-Can’t get it up? [no probs here thankfully, but not quite so quick of the mark sometimes]
-It is up, now it’s gone. [sometimes]
-My penis is numb -your nerves love T too. [not totally numb, but less nice sensations, some pain/discomfort]
-My testes are softer and smaller [think so, not sure]
-My testes ache 24x7 [maybe a bit, not aching though]
-Nocturnal erections [yep, sometimes]-
“morning wood” -things are working [yep]
-Why do really hot looking women and girls now look like art instead of lust? [this is a strange one. A bit of both, and actually the thing that is most worriesome is the art bit]
-Loss of hair on lower legs, skin below the knees is smooth and shiny. [no, but bit of loss on upper legs]
-Why do I feel cold easily or all of the time? [no, though did have this a while back]
-Why do really stressful situations leave me feeling physically beat up. [yes, physically shaking sometimes]
-I am not depressed, I just don’t care about anything, no joy, no motivation, no reward [too absolute a statement, but some degree of this is one of my main bugbears]
Did the Braverman assessment, for what it’s worth. Unsure whether this is quack medicine, legit, or somewhere inbetween, but anyways I came out as clearly DA dominant (with ACh a close second) but relatively balanced overall. Dificiencies were again, DA and Ach, DA being the biggest, but with smaller deficiencies for SE and GABA too.
History
~3 years ago, I developed a pretty severe angxiety disorder, linked to . The stress of this, lack of sleep >depression and libido divebombed. Went on prozac for 4 months. Didn’t help anxiety, lifted depression somewhat but went off it as ‘life felt boring’. Have gradually recovered from those ‘dark days’ (current symptoms excepted) with help of vit D, conquering anxiety dissorder (cutting coffe for 2 weeks gave my space to start to tackle it), change to diet (lowish/med carb paleo), some CBT, and personal reflection.
When I first went paleo it was low carb this time last year, I got pretty lean and by last summer I was in the best shape (although not biggest) I’d been for a long while. The ‘slightly puffy nipples’ I have had since adolecence thing went away, but libido wasn’t improved.
Diet Lifestyle
Diet is paleo ish, moderate carb. More likely hypo rather than hyper caloric, but nowhere near CR-like levels.
Supps: 10,000Ius/day vit d (+K2),6 caps of FO, 400mg Mg Cit, 500mg C, 15mcg Iodine. Strangely, although the FO make me feel better physically and mentally, they seem to somewhat attenuate my libido.
Drugs: Coffee and smoking (yeah I know)are my vices. I don’t drink much at all. Again, perhaps strangly, if I get drunk enough to wake up both hung over and half-cut at the same time, my libido seems almost back to normal for a short while (albeit I feel like crap otherwise).