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Circadian cycles, drugs, and hormonal imbalance.

Jamshyd

Jamshyd

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fastandbulbous said:
^ Yeah, I was thinking that - melatonin has very little to do with motivation or reward pathways, which is what makes the previously discussed drugs so interesting. As vecktor said, they'd just chance to fuck up the circadian rhythm, meaning that you'd get disturbed levels of things like cortisol etc that are mostly released at certain times of day.
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This blew my mind - besides my strange depressive moods, I also seem to never have "fulfilling" sleep, I almost never remember dreams, and I find myself more alert at night.

WHat is more, I find myself most prone to panic attacks and depression between 1pm and 6pm. I also have a back acne invasion that seems to be still going 12 years after puberty, and my sexual habits are almost like PMS.

I have stopped an amphetamine habit 3 months ago (yay!). Although that certainly didn't help, many of the above was there before that habit.

Any input? (especially from the guy who inspired this ;))
 
Have you tried taking melatonin to see how it alters your symptoms? After that it could give you a clue to what you've been suffering from - high doses of corticosteroids (turbocharged versions of cortisol used to treat allergic reactions etc) have been implicated in depression, anxiety/panic attacks and paranoia.

Whiole it might not give you any further insifghts to try this, if it does it's something that you can mention to a doctor, just in case your psychological problems are in some way influenced by an iffy endocrine output/function
 
^ Well, this morning I actually made an appointment with my doctor to ask him if there is a way I could test for endocrine levels (are you aware if such a thing is done?). I tried melatonin sporadically a long time ago, but I never monitored its effects of my mood.

I'll try tomorrow and let you know :)
 
Sometimes I feel like my circadian cycles get knocked out of whack.

I make sure to eat lots of healthy whole foods and drink plenty of water.

Primarily, I increase the amount of cardiovascular activity I am doing. This really helps get sleep back to what its 'supposed to be' and makes me generally feel better about things.

I also abstain from taking on board any psychoactive chems. They take their own toll that sometimes is easier to do without.
 
^ Currently? With exception of a few and far in-between trips, I am tapering from a tiny benzo habit, and expecting to completely stop in the coming week. Thats about it. I occasionally smoke a hookah (small ammounts of tobacco), and have an occasional glass of wine. Otherwise, I haven't taken anything for months. However, I have had all these problems before I started using any drugs.

To update: Last night I took 9mg of Melatonin before sleep.

This morning was the first time I felt like a completely woke up when I did. It is also 4:30pm right now and I don't feel significant mood/energy fluctuation. I'm not sure if its just a good day, or if it is the melatonin.

EDIT: Oh, right. I forgot to mention that I have a small cup of mild coffee or a smaller cup of tea (Probably not more than 50mg caffeine) every morining.
 
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Huh - i don't know where this came from (the original thread) but i've been fucking frustrated myself about certain things, ahem.. *lately* sex drive for one, lately because it got me pretty pissed off, Sat. night.. of course, when its "down", the chance for a 'sex party' that would normally have me insanely happy came up, but 'it' was down, and just not interested... :(

I go through these periods... a week long, peaking for 3-4 days or so, where my sex drive is out of control, i'm so horny its crazy, i'd say about a week out of a month (i should start timing it, seems like some cycle), my behavior is different.. *MUCH* more "aggressive" sexually (all good intentions here), to a point where i'm aggressively trying, to persue any possible opportunities, and if i had my way with a female during those times she'd be so happy and in pain... and i've got endless energy, attempting to remedy the uncomfortable situation myself does NO good.. over and over,

Then the phase ends, and well it just ends.. until the next come around of the cycle..

Other things like sleep, hunger patterns, all seem to cycle too.. not necessarily related to each other though.. I can't go and say its not drug related unless i totally got off everything for an extended period of time though, but the cycles existed before any drugs and aren't affected during (lets say, a super horny cycle).

Who knows.. of course the rare times when some drunk, sexy whores in the fun-club (ahem, new, younger ones i mean) can't get enough of the spanking me and telling me to come to their place, and then numbers/maps written on napkins talking about spa parties after 2am, don't interest me, well thats....sad..... :( snort IM some MDPV does no good when its cycle downtime..
 
LOL F&B.

Yes, I have the same problem as Yoyoman as well. I get a week of nymphomania during a month of celebacy, every month.

Day2: 9mg Melatonin before sleep. Woke up feeling great. No mood fluctuations during the day. I'm enthralled!! If this keeps up, I'll soon have enough energy during the day to actually start working on maintaining my body physically :)

In any case, I have today made arrangements with my doc for an analysis for "Free/Total Testosterone Level" and "Metanephrine" (which, according to him, should tell of corticosteroid levels. I have not bothered to look up what metanephrine is so far, but I assume it is somekind of adrenergic metabolite).

The restrictions I was given where: No caffeine, fruits, or vanilla for 48 hours. Anyone has any more suggestions of things to avoid for more accurate results? I suppose it would be a good idea to skip the melatonin. I actually think I might go for full-on fasting, since I've done that before for spiritual reasons and have no problem with it - but I wonder if this might actually affect hormonal balance?

The doctor should have taken benzos into account since he was the one who prescribed them!

I would appreciate more input from BigBenn, since I assume you have some experience in that area being a Steroids Forum regular. But anyone else please feel free to chime in :)

Protovac: Thanks for the tip - I have actually been doing exactly that for the past week as much as I can.
 
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You definately shouldn't fast for your test. That will shoot your cortico lvls through the roof and make you look quite unhealthy.

I am interested in your story but I feel like your problem may be something psychological rather than hormonal. At least at the root.

Sleeping problems can cause endocrine dysfunction. Cortisol will be on the rise as anabolic hormones along with gh and IGF are low. Sleep is an important time for hormone secretion and recovery. If you have had this insomnia for a while it could be causing alot of secondary symptoms.

How long have you been experiencing the insomnia/sexual issues?

My apologies if I offended you by the abrupt recreational drug question initially, I just find recreational drug use to change the equation alot when approaching a problem.

Your blood test should tell you alot, keep us updated.
 
BigBenn said:
You definately shouldn't fast for your test. That will shoot your cortico lvls through the roof and make you look quite unhealthy.

I am interested in your story but I feel like your problem may be something psychological rather than hormonal. At least at the root.

Sleeping problems can cause endocrine dysfunction. Cortisol will be on the rise as anabolic hormones along with gh and IGF are low. Sleep is an important time for hormone secretion and recovery. If you have had this insomnia for a while it could be causing alot of secondary symptoms.

How long have you been experiencing the insomnia/sexual issues?

My apologies if I offended you by the abrupt recreational drug question initially, I just find recreational drug use to change the equation alot when approaching a problem.

Your blood test should tell you alot, keep us updated.
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Thanks a lot for the input :). Nope, no offense taken - I can totally see the importance of your question.

Re: fasting, I guess I'll just stick to my diet then. It is actually a rather well-balanced pisco-vegetarian diet, so I'm not too worried.

It is interesting you note that Anabolic hormones are lowered as cortisol levels rise. I have tried several times to add some meat to my bones with lots of training and proteine supplementation, but it never did anything. My weight almost never, ever went above 125lb (it did go 10lb lower during my amp. use, understandably).

As for how long this has been going on: the acne problem has been the same and consistent for at least 10 years (I am 22 now). The sleeping and sexual issues started about 5 years ago, along with my depression.

But yes, I agree with you. It seems like the root of the problem is more psychological, espcially that a large chunk of my negative thoughts revolve around sexuality. Though I suppose it shouldn't be bad to check, eh?
 
^^Its a good thing to get your hormone levels tested. Its another part of knowing your body. You will truly know whats going on in there, atleast from a testosterone standpoint.

Its a waste to speculate until you get your results back. If anything is abnormal (and even if its normal), the doctor will probobly order more tests. I am interested to see how your test comes back.

Do you notice any other estrogen related side effects like gyno, water retention, fat gain in strange places, moodyness, etc?

Best of luck.
 
BigBenn said:
^^Its a good thing to get your hormone levels tested. Its another part of knowing your body. You will truly know whats going on in there, atleast from a testosterone standpoint.

Its a waste to speculate until you get your results back. If anything is abnormal (and even if its normal), the doctor will probobly order more tests. I am interested to see how your test comes back.

Do you notice any other estrogen related side effects like gyno, water retention, fat gain in strange places, moodyness, etc?

Best of luck.
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Thanks :) I'll definitely keep you updated.

I have never had estrogen-related issues. I am not exactly moody - it is more like bipolar. The only thing that might be estrogen-like is that I do seem to have "periods" as mentioned above.

Well, that, and my homosexuality - but even then, I am still on the "masculine" side of the mannerism scale.

Btw, here is the 3rd day of Melatonin same as the above two, and results are consistent.

I plan on doing the analysis next weekend since it needs 48 hours of abstinance from mentioned items and I would be useless in class without my morning tea ;).
 
Wow glad i found this thread.

^^Its a good thing to get your hormone levels tested. Its another part of knowing your body. You will truly know whats going on in there, atleast from a testosterone standpoint.

Its a waste to speculate until you get your results back. If anything is abnormal (and even if its normal), the doctor will probobly order more tests. I am interested to see how your test comes back.

Do you notice any other estrogen related side effects like gyno, water retention, fat gain in strange places, moodyness, etc?

Best of luck.
Click to expand...

Well shit.. i've noticed extra weight gain in the stomach area for a while now, but more recently seems there's excess FAT going around my waist (or just above it) starting from the stomach area going around my sides although not my back. (oh no 8o )

Water retention.. what would you make of this: When i gotta pee.. well i gotta pee. There's no point in me "trying to go" before going somewhere (long drive whatever) cause i have to be "full" (usually) it seems before ..i gotta pee.

----------

BTW, over a year ago I ordered a vial of injectable testosterone (i forget which ester.. the one that lasts a week or two), just to see (actually i *expected*) if it would boost my sex drive way up. Nada.. didn't notice a damn thing (it was just "to try it" i wasn't regularly using it).

My uncle is bald, and just about a year ago started to notice my hair wasn't growing fast like usual (usually very fast), or considerably slowed down, and noticed yep... going bald.. (family used to always tell me that when i was younger, "you're gonna be BALD! when your 20!" (i'm 26 now).

I had *horrible* acne after puberty, but went away pretty much totally by the time i was 20..21..or so. Facial hair is still growing as fast and as crazy as ever (if i miss one day of shaving i look like a burnt out old hippie who doesn't like to shower). Hell i'll shave in the morning, then if i'm going out at night shave again.

Yeah there's periods where i'm either an insomniac.. OR.... i just can't get enough sleep. I haven't been keeping track of patterns but, as of right now my sex drive is shit, and i can't get enough sleep. A couple weeks ago (maybe a tad more than 2 weeks) my sex drive was out-of-fucking-control, and insomnia was there along with it. When in sex-overdrive mode, i do feel more 'aggressive' i think, i guess an example of this would be.. super-high sex drive: "yeah yeah hun whatever blah blah, sooo... what about that sick, twisted fucked up fantasy you were talking about again.. see i came up with something, i took mine and yours mixed 'em came up with this, more fucked fantasy," (and conversations that are "less intellectual" - about other deep stuff, way more sex talk/lack of anxiety/aggressive..).

--hehe.. sorry Jamshyd ! haha..

--- oh, also, I talked to this girl who's husband has almost no sex drive, so they went and got his test. levels taken, "normal range", and they left it at that. I went online and saw some stuff saying sometimes what they'll tell you is "normal" actually might be quite on the low side (i dunno..). Now i've taken Tribulus (sp), certain supplements that seemed to skyrocket my drive, but i'm not so sure it might have just coincidentally been when i was about to have my "week of hornyness"...

Edit: Forgot to include I have cycles of hunger.. sometimes i can eat like a pig, eat..eat..more and more, then my stomach is growling.. eat more... then that ends, and i'm rarely hungry at all for a period of time.
 
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