The impact of seeking treatment

[viet nom nom]

Funny thing about this the stress of just getting started. For me it was deciding that finasteride seemed to be the most promising avenue, then

(1) Dealing with fear of side effects and vanity
(2) Dealing with anxiety about seeing a doctor
(3) Dealing with anxiety about filling the script
(4) Dealing with anxiety about telling my signif (vanity)
(5) Dealing with anxiety about sides now that I took a pill
(6) Dealing with anxiety about others finding out

On point 2, my doctor was chill and told me finasteride was a good route and don't worry about the sides. I left feeling like 'that was all'?

On point 3, the first time I went to the pharmacy there were only two hot girls working. No real judgement though. One offered that people often save money by getting 5 mg pills and cutting them up. Oddly, I was more anxious the second time when the tech was a bald dude.

Point 4...women tend to have more denial than men on these kinds of issues. I think its what keeps relationships together in general. But overall, I think she was proud of me for recognizing something that bothered me and taking action.

Point 5. I was scared for a week, but I am often around a lot of women, so it was easy to know my libido was unaffected.

Point 6, and this is the odd one. When I started I was mortified by the thought of someone finding out. Mortified. Funny thing, though. 5 months in and pretty much everyone I hang out with regularly knows. Funny thing is, 5 months ago, I was unbelievably self conscious about my hair. Now I freely joke about it, and I find that people are nowhere as concerned with it as I am.

Its been a funny transition from a dark fear to just a part of my life, but I don't think this would have happened without seeking treatment and slowly letting that fear transition from inside to the outside.

I am curious about other peoples' experiences on this path.

 

[scorpiolove]

My first fear was acknowledging that I had a hair loss problem,I was about 16 years old when it all started, I thought I was sick physically or dying slowly and I kept silent about it,my second fear was that I wouldn't reach my potential in the dating world,I felt ugly inside and this feeling still haunts me from time to time.
I have women look at me admirably all the time but I just wasn't in the moment as much most of the time because I felt so ugly inside, my third fear was what will my friends think? Nowadays I'm mostly thinking fvuck them because they resent me for being successful despite my problems with hair loss and life problems. They don't realize how hard I work everyday to keep what I have and they're at me with their palms up begging for change, I give money to them though because I have the good spirit to, but their resentment of my success is a burden to me. I use to think hair loss was my biggest problem,it used to be,but my success is my biggest problem, people go out of their way to talk to me now when they never gave a fvuck before. Now they say things like I'm special and ish,they weren't saying that ish when I was down and out. But back to the subject my hair loss ultimately made me feel like I had no control over my life,and as a norwood 6 I can say theres much more to life than hair, I have the power to say to some women, lets go out! lets have fun! lets get to know each other better, without the fear of rejection. I lost my ego and in the process I found myself,sounds kinda contradictory but its true.

 

[zzzzz]

(1) Dealing with fear of side effects and vanity
(2) Dealing with anxiety about seeing a doctor
(3) Dealing with anxiety about filling the script
(4) Dealing with anxiety about telling my signif (vanity)
(5) Dealing with anxiety about sides now that I took a pill
(6) Dealing with anxiety about others finding out

holy ****ing **** how do you even get through life when even just going to the pharmacy to get some stupid pills scares the **** out of you

I looked forward to seeing a doctor, looked forward to getting and taking my first pills, I openly talk about it and enjoy talking about it whenever the topic comes up in real life, and mention to my hairdresser how I want my hair done to complement my thinning hair best shamelessly every time I get a haircut

 

[viet nom nom]

I don't think I'm alone in those kinds of anxieties. I always assumed that it was one motivating factor for people avoinding scripts and going online. Either way, it does seem silly now.

But that's part of my point, I guess. 6 months ago I could have never guessed how much more comfortable I was going to be in my own skin. Simply seeking treatment was a big part of helping my outlook.

 

[Agustin Araujo]

When my male pattern baldness started, my first concern was about finding treatments that would actually work, especially that there's hundreds, maybe even thousands of products that claim to help hair loss when they don't do anything. I'm extremely grateful that there's medication that will actually help treat this problem.

 

[swingline747]

seeking the treatment was the easy part. Didnt even bother me getting it at the PX. The worst part was having to give it up due to the extremely painful sides.
Knowing you have NO options is the hard part, well no options except the barrel of a gun in your mouth