M26 – High ACTH, Brain Fog, Emotional Numbness & Libido Loss for 2+ Years, need HELP
I started going to the gym in summer 2022 and initially felt very good. I was training regularly, taking whey protein, vitamin D3, magnesium, sometimes around 30 mg zinc, and eating about 1 kg of liver weekly. After 1–2 months of training with my brother, I started noticing strange symptoms: my legs became very pale, I had extreme fatigue, darker lips, severe muscle soreness after leg workouts, and my libido would completely drop after training. However, around 5 days later, once the soreness disappeared, I would suddenly feel high libido, confidence, motivation, and energy again. During this period I was also doing nofap, although I sometimes edged.
Toward the end of summer, I developed an elbow infection and was prescribed antibiotics for 5 days (possibly cephalexin or ciprofloxacin). After the antibiotics I temporarily felt normal again. About a month later, while still eating liver almost every week, I started sweating excessively at work. At that time I weighed around 94 kg at 181.5 cm. Then after one ejaculation while watching porn, I noticed a dramatic crash in libido along with a strange “feminine” feeling and loss of drive, which made me stop masturbation completely.
During that time I was eating eggs almost daily, dark chocolate at work, and started taking maca root for libido support. Around the end of December I experienced a massive crash with headaches, blurred vision, skin peeling around my nose, severe brain fog, anhedonia, memory issues, emotional numbness, zero libido, loss of confidence, and sleep problems. I had many medical tests done, but everything was mostly normal except for elevated bilirubin, and I was diagnosed with Gilbert syndrome. After the crash I also developed pulsing and numbness in my legs along with blurred vision. Heart tests were normal, and magnesium improved some symptoms like numbness and vision, although the pulsing remained.
At that time my testosterone was around 390, which felt low for my age. A neurologist told me it was anxiety and prescribed antidepressants, which helped slightly at first, but I stopped because it didn’t feel like the root issue. I then switched to eating mostly eggs and red meat, which stopped the pulsing, but I still had severe anhedonia, depression, and completely absent libido. For nearly a year I had no sexual interest at all, not even attraction to porn or women.
In 2024 I saw an endocrinologist. My testosterone had dropped to around 290, ACTH was high, and SHBG was low, but I was told nothing was wrong because I was young. The worst part was emotional numbness I couldn’t cry, feel anger, or feel emotionally connected to anything. I then started experimenting myself and noticed that high-dose B-complex temporarily restored morning erections and libido, but once I stopped, everything went back to zero again, especially after ejaculation. One thing became very clear: whenever libido improved, almost all my symptoms improved as well.
Later that summer I ate watermelon daily for 2–3 weeks and around 90% of my symptoms disappeared — libido returned, memory improved, and brain fog almost vanished. But again, after one ejaculation everything reset back to zero. After that I worked with a functional medicine practitioner who had similar issues himself and was now on TRT. I started taking zinc, selenium, ashwagandha, B12, B9, D3, and K2, while also losing weight to improve SHBG. After about a month I felt calmer and less wired, but brain fog still remained. Around that time I noticed bilirubin, which had been high during the crash period, had started decreasing.
I then became interested in theories about low vitamin A and thought my liver overconsumption might have caused toxicity. I tried a zero-fat diet for four months while taking high-dose zinc and selenium. After around two months my testosterone increased from roughly 260 to 490 and I felt more confidence and libido, but ejaculation still caused another complete crash. Eventually I developed symptoms resembling hypervitaminosis A, including loss of coordination, metallic taste, and worsening brain fog. I donated blood and switched my diet to rice, potatoes, white meat, and two eggs daily.
Later I tried a protocol with Proviron and Clomid. During the protocol my sleep improved and I gained muscle, but libido was still weak. After 21 days my ACTH became very high, all hormones increased, and TSH also increased, which led me to start T3. While continuing Proviron, I noticed penile sensitivity slowly returning, almost as if my nervous system was “waking up” again. However, after stopping Proviron, testosterone dropped again. Later supplements like NAC increased testosterone up to around 720. Ashwagandha and rhodiola improved confidence, drive, stress tolerance, and libido, but ejaculation still caused a major reset.
I later lost weight from 85 kg to 76 kg with lots of cardio, thinking it would improve hormones, but instead testosterone dropped again and I started feeling what seemed like adrenal stress around my kidneys. During fasting periods I could barely sleep. I also noticed a repeating pattern: if I stopped supplements and felt somewhat okay, masturbation would immediately trigger another crash. Another endocrinologist later stopped T3 and gave me a supplement protocol including ashwagandha, rhodiola, D3, K2, CoQ10, magnesium glycinate, L-theanine, zinc, selenium, and R-ALA. After around 1.5 months I again felt significantly better, I could tell my libido was much higher, but stopping ashwagandha and masturbating would still reset symptoms, and going to the gym continued causing a pale, exhausted appearance afterward.
Currently I still experience severe brain fog, weak stress tolerance, libido instability, poor tolerance to fats and gluten, puffy nipples that worsen with carbs, and high ACTH whenever I stop ashwagandha. I’ve noticed that when bilirubin is high I feel calmer but have almost zero libido or drive, while lower bilirubin seems to increase hormones but also increases stress and worsens symptoms without supplements. A no-fat diet made me calmer but emotionally numb, whereas adding fats together with ashwagandha improved libido, cognition, mood, and what feels like bile flow. Blood donation sometimes reduces symptoms when stress is low, and supplements improve grip strength and libido by around 50–60%, but severe brain fog still remains. MRI scans of my brain and pituitary were normal, and my doctor now suspects some possible adrenal or brain-related dysfunction if symptoms continues. I dont think its POIS since they usually get their libido back after some days, in my case its low constantly with too much brain fog, memory issues and not in tune with the emotions, without supplements especially aschwaganda my ACTH goes high and I feel like shit , like runing on Adrenaline and I cant tolerate gym,sometimes sweating , social anxiety without it.
