Anger issues and no patience

kenmika1

New Member
Hello. I have been on Testosterone therapy for over 2 weeks now (Just got my 3rd shot Monday). I am starting to have a horrible temper towards my girlfriend. I have zero patience for her stupidity now. She is a horrible listener and repeats stuff all the time. Also, I have quit taking zoloft completely now about a week ago. Do you think the temper and lack of patience is from the Testosterone or quitting the SSRI or both? Also, will this go away. She has always been a little bit annoying to me but I just dismissed as I know no one is perfect and her heart is in the right place. It is just lately I am so sick of having to tell her over and over the same thing. Today, for example, I was trying to teach her how to drive my sandrail. What a nightmare. She could take off fine to my suprise but she wasnt comprehending when to shift. What was getting me angy was I would tell her to shift and she would ok but then not shift. I would have to tell her like 4 freakin times before she would shift. This went on for about 20 minutes. Also, I would tell to avoid boulders and large bumps if she could. Her response, "ok" and them bam right into rocks and dips that werent neccesary. it was like she trying to hit everything she could. I swear I wanted to choke the life out her (I am not a physically violent person and have never laid hands on a women nor would I). Long story short, she was crying and we drove home without talking. I am losing it here. Every little thing she does irratates the crap out of me. I have been with her for 3 years with no problems. Please tell me my patience will return.
 
its a new substance to ur body , u need to walk away and take a breather , let your body get used to it , maybe take a little less till you regulate .

my test makes me relaxed , so you have to find the right dose , and dont read into the whole roidrage thing , your not taking anywhere near the dose that would cause that . do some pushups or go for a jog , redirect the energy !!!

good luck bud:banghead:
 
Thanks for the advice. I definately dont think it is roid rage. It feels more like what I would guess female pms is like. I do run every night and lift weights 3 times a week. I do walk away when I can but I am still so furious in my mind it is crazy. I have always been very passive most of my life. I think I am beginning to figure it out. I am pretty sure it is the zoloft that I quit taking. I have been on some form of ssri for 15 years and I think they killed all my emotions pretty much. Now that I am off I have to relearn how to deal with my emotions (sounds like a woman dont it). I took those meds for 15 years for panic attacks and trusted the doctor that I was "depressed" and went along with it. I met this girl and she got my head on straight and helped me realize I didnt need the meds. Again, I only took them for panic issues. Funny thing is, I have less panic issues now that I am off the meds than I did when i was on them. All in all I am heading in the right direction health wise. i am happy with everything except my very, very short fuse. I have even been having violent dreams (not about my girlfriend) lately. It is like I have a bunch of pent up aggression or anger that is just now coming out. Hope this sheds a little more light on my problem and I hope it isnt the testosterone messin with my emotions (and I don't mean in the roid rage sort of way).
 
Probably the zoloft. Was a mistake stopping so close to you beginning TRT as you have two variables at play here. If it becomes intolerable I'd say add back in the zoloft. Ive quit SSRI's many times and I would fly off the handle at the drop of a hat. Also if you want to quit an SSRI the right way, taper super slow, get it in liquid form if you have to. Another trick is too switch to prozac and taper with that as the withdrawals are milder and prozac has a long half life. A final trick is to add in low dose lithium as you taper, stay on the lithium for a month or two and then taper that. When I say low dose lithium I mean under 300mg. Good luck.
 
1erCru, thanks for the input. It sounds like it is the zoloft. I idid taper super slow. It took me about 3 months to get quit 100mg zoloft. This is just the beginning with none. I quit under the supervision of a doctor if that means anything. I dont mind the physical withdrawal symptoms (head zaps, dizziness and other things to add a few) its just this temper thing. It is so new to me. I guess I knew the answer to my own question but I just needed to rant I suppose. I definately will never go back on any ssri's in the future. They didn't work for me. I only took them so long because I thought you could trust your doctor 100 percent. Pretty naieve of me. I also used to think you could trust the government too. I have changed so much as I have grown. haha. thanks for the reply
 
It's probably the SSRI. In my opinion, testosterone's effect on anger highly depends on the person was originally. If the person is a dick with a bad attitude, testosterone will make it worse. If they were nice to begin with, it can't change them, but you can definitely feel that testosterone makes it so you don't accept any form of disrespect. But when you're in control, you're in control.
 
Its great that you tapered. Another not so well know factoid about zoloft is that its dopaminergic and pretty strongly so. So basically without the drug your serotonin AND dopamine receptors are working suboptimally.
 
Are you familiar with SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome - [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSRI_discontinuation_syndrome]SSRI discontinuation syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 
Dude, you sound exactly like me. Shortly after I started TRT (mistake) everything my old lady did drove me frigin nuts. She yaps a lot and like you, I was on SSRI's for years, and that really helped but I got tired of feeling like a zombie so I quit them.

After I adjusted I was ok for quite awhile until I started Testim and, even tho things are better than at first, I have days where everything she does gets on my nerves.

I started on some Provigil first which doesn't help the matter any but the Testim really made it bad. Hope your gets better.
 
Thanks for the advice. I definately dont think it is roid rage. It feels more like what I would guess female pms is like. I do run every night and lift weights 3 times a week. I do walk away when I can but I am still so furious in my mind it is crazy. I have always been very passive most of my life. I think I am beginning to figure it out. I am pretty sure it is the zoloft that I quit taking. I have been on some form of ssri for 15 years and I think they killed all my emotions pretty much. Now that I am off I have to relearn how to deal with my emotions (sounds like a woman dont it). I took those meds for 15 years for panic attacks and trusted the doctor that I was "depressed" and went along with it. I met this girl and she got my head on straight and helped me realize I didnt need the meds. Again, I only took them for panic issues. Funny thing is, I have less panic issues now that I am off the meds than I did when i was on them. All in all I am heading in the right direction health wise. i am happy with everything except my very, very short fuse. I have even been having violent dreams (not about my girlfriend) lately. It is like I have a bunch of pent up aggression or anger that is just now coming out. Hope this sheds a little more light on my problem and I hope it isnt the testosterone messin with my emotions (and I don't mean in the roid rage sort of way).

You cant really seperate the two (increase in T and stopping SSRI), your behavior is the interplay of newly rediscovered feelings with your personality and the T`s effect on you perceptions. It can definitely effect perception, personality and behavior, especially at higher doses. Add that to the undeadening effect of stopping SSRI and there you have it. Hope you and she can wait it out and see if you adjust well to the new circumstances. Little late now, but better to change only one thing at a time. GL
 
Or maybe his gf really is just a pain in the ass.

I mean, it's not like that never happens, right?
 
Are you familiar with SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome - SSRI discontinuation syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I am familiar with this SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome and have read that page several times. I may have missed it, but I don't recall seeing seeing anger/irritability as one of the symptoms for sertraline. I did see that listed as a lack of diagnostic criteria though. Maybe I am misreading it. Either way, I am pretty sure now it is the SSRI causing the issues and I have been starting to calm down since first posting. It is weird, now that I know I have the issue it is much easier to deal with. My girlfriend didn't change, I did. Haha
 
You cant really seperate the two (increase in T and stopping SSRI), your behavior is the interplay of newly rediscovered feelings with your personality and the T`s effect on you perceptions. It can definitely effect perception, personality and behavior, especially at higher doses. Add that to the undeadening effect of stopping SSRI and there you have it. Hope you and she can wait it out and see if you adjust well to the new circumstances. Little late now, but better to change only one thing at a time. GL

Thank you so much for you advice. So, you agree that Testosterone can effect perception and personality? That is interesting. I am not doubting you, just curious. So, one person might be a better candidate for TRT versus another just based on personality? That adds a whole other dimension to treatment that I never considered. For instance, maybe someone who is too passive could benefit from a small dose of testosterone? Anyways, now I am rambling. Thank you for your reply. I wonder if there is any correlation between violent criminals and high testosterone.
 
Here's another vote for blaming the Zoloft. From what I've heard about that drug, what you're experiencing will continue to improve until you normalize.

Also, here's a quick test to help distinguish between the two: back when you were taking Zoloft, did you ever miss a dose? Or perhaps two (say, if you forgot to refill your prescription on time)? From what I've heard, missing a dose or two of Zoloft can make you an incredible asshole: absolutely zero frustration tolerance, etc.
 
I was always so paranoid about missing a dose that I can say that I never missed more than one day. I was paranoid that I would have a seizure or something if I ever missed taking it. I was so afraid of this medicine and yet believed it was helping me for so long. Again, i think they work great for most people but all this medicine did was rob me of the last 15 years. It did nothing really for my panic attacks. Cognitive behavior therapy worked/works better for me than any long term medicine. You would think after 15 years of having panic attacks and not dieing from it that I would finally realize that I am never going to die from a panic attack. I wish it was that easy. The brain is a crazy thing.
 
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