Originally Posted by
slfmade
I'm in agreement with the guys above. First thing would be to make an appt with your primary care doc and get those labs, but be sure to talk with him about your mental health as well and be upfront with him. You say you were cycling for 8 years and then just decided to quit. I'm assuming something must've changed in your life to spawn such a decision. I mean, gear seemed to be a part of your life for a significant amount of time - to go and drop it like that is interesting. You don't have to tell me or anybody else why, but let your doctor know if there was some major life event or change that influenced your decision to give it up.
Also, anybody that tells you that gear can't be mentally addicting is just plain ignorant. I don't care who you are, It feels good to look good. Sure, some guys are in this game for performance reasons, but the vast majority - if they're honest about it - use gear because they like the way it makes them look, the way it makes them feel, and the attention that they get from others. You feel special, you feel like superman. When you take that away, you can feel weak and powerless and you blend in with the masses. Now you may still be 10x bigger than 90% of the population but in your mind, you look small. I freely admit, I have body image issues and I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of guys on gear have body image issues in some way or another too. If they didn't have them before gear, they do when they come off.
I'm not saying you have a primary mental health diagnosis. In fact, It's probably just a symptom of years of AAS abuse that will likely clear up when the underlying cause is corrected. Regardless, you need to be treated for your depression and you need to be treated correctly and immediatly. Unfortunately, mental health issues too often get blown off in primary care and it's something I have a real beef with. A lot of times it's due to the patient not being upfront with the Dr. so be sure to tell him how you feel and don't sugar coat it or play it off like it's not that bad or something your dealing with on your own. Tell him exactly how bad your depression is making you feel. If you don't act like it's serious, He won't treat it serious. It's going to take time for your hormone situation to get worked out. No good doctor worth a damn is going to make you live in misery while you guys figure out your hormones together. He'll likely put you on an SSRI. Prozac is common and a good one to go with if you feel tired as it's the most energizing of the SSRI's; however, it sucks if you're dealing with insomnia because...well, it's energizing. Lexapro is becoming one of the go to SSRIs - it's weight neutral and good for both anxiety and depression.
Last but not least. I think for you this may be important. It may be wise to ask for a benzo to hold you over until the SSRI kicks in. In can take 4-6 weeks before that SSRI starts to improve your mood. Even worse, energy typically kicks in before it's anti-depressive qualities do. This can be a real problem because for people that were previously so depressed they wanted to end their life but lacked the energy to do it...now they have the energy yet still no signficant improvement in mood. It can be dangerous is all I'm saying. So ask for benzo to help you out over the next few weeks. Be prepared for some questions though. If you have a history of drug abuse some doctors won't prescribe benzos to previous addicts. I wouldn't consider even the heaviest AAS user in this category, but I know many doctors that would so...it's going to depend on your doctor and on you. Even if my patient was a heroin addict, if I believed the benefit outweighed the risk, I would prescribe. Good luck to you man