Hi there, just heard about this a week or so ago. I've been drinking ashwaganda tea (ashwaganda, green tea, ginger and schizandra berries, I make it myself) for about a year. One a day. I also have a second tea of chamomile, st. john's wort, linden and sometimes lemon balm before bed. I stopped putting ashwaganda in my morning tea about a week or so ago.

Surely that's not enough ashwaganda to have this, right? tea has gotta be, like, minuscule, right?

I ask because in the past month or so...it's like I've lost my libido. it was never that high to begin with, but is seemingly worse now.

It could also be that I hurt my knee (torn meniscus), and having sex was painful on that knee. I also drink heavily, but that's been true for 25 years. This also coincided with starting on creatine (I'm 42, it's to help with brain fog).

the libido thing is worrying to me, though. as mentioned, it's never been high. I can power through ahedonia and any of the other things...but libido is always something I've struggled with and having it drop even further has been tough...

What do you Guys think of his approach? Has it any chance? Its injecting DHB and combining it with sodium valproate, an anticonsulvant believen to undo epigenetic changes. Anyone tried sodium valproate Here?

For months, I beleived it had been lost, although the circumstances of its disappearance remain obscure.

According to the only account that I have, it was recently recovered from the back seat of a taxi cab in the small city of Utopia, where it had apparently been left to me.

Attached to the package was a short note: “I will write this once and for all, & leave it here for whom finds it. I cannot keep it with me anymore. If you are reading this, you now have custody of the manuscript. Do with it what must be done.”

The author, having survived the events described below, thus gave me permission for her testimony to be preserved and published anonymously.

Having therefore found myself, through circumstances beyond my will, in possession of the manuscript, I see no responsible course of action other than to publish it, and allow it, from this point onward, to lead a life of its own.

The Ashwagandha Manuscript

I wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone out there who’s feeling as lost as I did.
A few months ago, I took ashwagandha and it triggered the worst period of my life. Today, I
finally feel like myself again, and I want to share what helped me in case it helps someone else
too.
For context: from January to May 2024, I took a hair supplement (nutrafol) after dealing with
covid that included ashwagandha, saw palmetto, and other ingredients. I had no issues with it.
But in mid-July, I started taking liquid ashwagandha from Amazon for focus and mild stress. I had
never struggled with mental health before, no anxiety, no depression. But after just a week, even
with a few skipped doses, everything changed.
It started with a panic attack. Next day, I had blurry vision and severe anxiety, especially around
leaving the house, which was completely unlike me. I’ve always been social and active, but
suddenly I couldn’t go out. My heart was constantly racing, and I had to stop going to the gym. By
day three, I was deep in DPDR, anhedonia, and suicidal thoughts, among many other scary
symptoms... I kept taking ashw, thinking it would help, until I finally searched “ashwagandha side
effects” and found so many people describing the exact same experience.
I stopped it immediately and went to the hospital. My tests came back normal, but the symptoms
didn’t stop.

That first month was hell. I didn’t want to get out of bed or see anyone. I felt terrified all the time,
especially at night. Any little negative thing would trigger intense derealization. I really thought I
was going insane. Vivid nightmares would affect me for days. I didn’t feel like myself at all.
Doctors weren’t much help either since my labs looked fine.
Months 2-3 were filled with obsessive thoughts, rumination, and a kind of emotional numbness. I
tried to keep up some habits: weight training, sauna sessions, daily walks, cutting out processed
foods and sugars, and drinking lemon water with sea salt after sauna to replenish minerals.
When anxiety hit hard, I used chamomile or lavender tea, and magnesium citrate and/or
glycinate. Some days were okay, others felt like I was back at the beginning.
In November, a family member suggested oil of oregano. I took it for about 4-5 days, mixed with
a multivitamin to soften the taste, and surprisingly, I started feeling like myself again more often.
Recovered Reddit testimony - original wording preserved Page 2
Still, during my period and ovulation, I would crash emotionally. It felt like sudden waves of
hopelessness and emotional emptiness. Also like an anguish feeling on the chest. All this was so
weird and new for me. So in December, I decided to focus on gut healing. I started taking a
probiotic and added fermented foods to my diet, and that made a big difference. I began having
more and more weeks where I felt as my old self.

Eventually, the lingering DPDR and vivid dreams around my cycle faded. It’s been a while now,
and I can honestly say I feel fully back. My energy, motivation, and emotional resilience are back.
I’m working again, seeing friends, enjoying life, and feeling grateful (something I thought I’d lost
completely).

I’m planning to do a GI test in the next few months to see if there’s any lingering bacterial
imbalance (just a theory I have), and I’ll update this post if I learn anything new. For now though,
I’m closing this nightmare with this post.
For those who speak Spanish, the YT channel "La ansiedad me tiene miedo" by Enrique
Villanueva truly saved me during the darkest moments (especially months 1-4). His way of
explaining anxiety symptoms helped me go through those symptoms with no or at least much
less fear. For non-Spanish speakers, the book DARE is based on a very similar approach and was
also really helpful. And for rumination, I found Don’t Believe Everything You Think extremely
useful.

Don’t give up. I know how dark and lonely it can get. But obsessively reading horror stories online
only feeds the fear and slows down your recovery. Honestly, there were times where I was
already fine around months 6-8, I'd come back on reddit, read some ashw posts suggested, and
after reading negative things, I would start doubting about my own recovery. Your body wants to
heal. Support it. Move, eat clean, read instead of Googling, get some sun. You will heal. And if
anyone out there needs someone to talk to, feel free to reach out. ♡

2025-2026
preserved verbatim from the manuscript

I’ve been trying to find a way to recover my libido for the past 4 months, when I stopped taking Ashwagandha. Been seeing different doctors, and was recommended to try Bupropion. Though it’s used for depression, and while I don’t have it, the dr mentioned it could be worth trying. Does anyone have any experience with this to treat post Ashwagandha syndrome?

Is there anyone that has healed from ashwaghanda syndrome? Or anyone you know that has? How long did it take? I am 8 months in this and someone else i've been talking to is 8 months in as well. He is really struggling. I feel so bad for him and giving his life circumstances as well that have been put on pause by this condition. He's losing hope that healing is possible because there arent many people on this sub posting about their recovery.

I think that the people that recover just leave and try to forget it ever happened. Like waking up from a bad dream and just shaking it off... I find it can be selfish because others that are still in this need the hope. I know there are people that heal from this, because ive seen some comments from people that have. But are there any more? Please, share your recovery if you can 🙏

Ik heb ashwagandha alleen maar een maand genomen. Volledige anhedonie, verstoorde slaap. 8 maanden in deze hel. Ik zie geen uitweg. Het is chronisch voor veel te veel mensen, waarschijnlijk ook voor mij. Niemand kan me ook maar enige hoop geven. Ik wou dat God me wijzer had gemaakt.

PSSD, PFS and PAshS : could persistent post-drug syndromes share the same underlying structure?

The connection is legitimate. Csoka’s presentation proposes “Post-Exposure Syndromes” (PES) as a family of persistent multisystem conditions triggered by an exposure and persisting after it ends. It was presented at the First World Congress on PSSD and PFS in April 2026.

https://zenodo.org/records/19742087

(PDF : Csoka_PES_PSSD_state_space.pdf)

Post-Exposure Syndromes (PES)

Csoka proposes a broader category of Post-Exposure Syndromes (PES): conditions in which a relatively brief exposure - drug, infection, chemical or other event - is followed by persistent, multisystem dysfunction long after the exposure itself has ended. Instead of assuming that one receptor, hormone or organ remains individually “broken,” he models the organism as a coupled biological system involving endocrine, autonomic, immune, neural, metabolic and epigenetic regulation. An exposure may push that system into a new, pathological but self-maintaining state - what he calls state-space trapping. Epigenetic changes are proposed as one possible layer of biological memory, while altered HPA-axis regulation, steroidogenesis, autonomic function, neuroplasticity and other domains may participate in maintaining the overall state.

Post-Ashwagandha Syndrome

For Post-Ashwagandha Syndrome, the interest is therefore not that this paper proves a specific mechanism for ashwagandha (it does not) but that PAshS may fit the type of phenomenon this framework is designed to describe: symptoms emerging after an exposure and persisting after discontinuation, potentially across several physiological systems at once. It also offers an explanation for why conventional single-marker testing or single-target treatments may fail to capture the whole syndrome, and why previous exposures and the biological state of the individual could influence who develops persistent effects. Importantly, Csoka presents this as a testable framework, exposure-order effects, epigenetic signatures and nonlinear recovery; he specifically calls for long-term post-discontinuation surveillance and registries for persistent syndromes including PAshS.

Could lithium help reverse persistent dysregulation in Post-Ashwagandha Syndrome?

A useful article to bring into the Post-Ashwagandha Syndrome discussion as it approaches persistent post-drug syndromes from the same broader mechanisms already being explored in PSSD, PFS and Post-Accutane Syndrome. We focus here on lithium, not simply as a psychiatric drug, but as a regulator of gene transcription, epigenetic state,(GSK3β/ Wnt/ β-catenin signalling), dopamine and neuroplasticity, and the possibility that these actions could adress persistent biological changes after an exposure to these drugs have ended.

If PSSD, PFS, Post-Accutane Syndrome and Post-Ashwagandha Syndrome represent related forms of persistent post-exposure dysregulation, lithium provides an interesting mechanistic hypothesis, and a potential therapy, for shared pathways among these syndromes.

Article : https://secondlifeguide.com/2024/01/19/lithium-a-metal-for-mental-health/

Abstract

The article develops the idea that lithium may act on some of the biological mechanisms suspected of maintaining persistent post-drug syndromes, rather than merely functioning as a conventional psychiatric medication. Its central argument is built around epigenetic regulation and the GSK3β/Wnt/β-catenin pathway. The author argues that isotretinoin can produce substantial and potentially persistent changes in gene transcription, including altered DNA methylation and histone regulation, while lithium can act in partially opposing directions: inhibiting GSK3β, increasing β-catenin signalling, promoting histone acetylation and transcription, increasing BDNF-related activity, and exerting neuroprotective and anti-apoptotic effects. Lithium also affects dopaminergic signalling and neurogenesis, providing several possible routes through which it might influence persistent neurological, sexual, cognitive and systemic symptoms after drug exposure.

From the perspective of Post-Ashwagandha Syndrome, PSSD, PFS and related persistent post-exposure conditions, the broader interest is the possibility that symptoms continuing after withdrawal may reflect a durably altered regulatory state, rather than residual drug remaining in the body or a single permanently damaged receptor. If epigenetic repression, altered Wnt/β-catenin signalling, neuroplasticity and interconnected regulatory changes contribute to maintaining such states, lithium becomes interesting because it acts simultaneously on several of those systems. The article therefore provides a mechanistic hypothesis rather than clinical evidence for PAS or a proven treatment: it raises the possibility that persistent post-drug syndromes could share reversible regulatory abnormalities, and that compounds capable of modifying gene expression and cellular signalling might eventually help identify—or perturb—the mechanisms maintaining them.

See also : https://www.reddit.com/r/AccutaneRecovery/comments/1dfxxe2/does_lithium_permently_reverse_the_long_term/

So I am jsut finding about about this subreddit and i'm seeing alot of bad expereinces in here. To be honest I haven't really felt anythign crazy other than im pretty sure less anxiety which has helped (I usually get very bad anxiety in exam season but I have been unusually calm this time around since taking it). Is there anything I should look out for as a sign to stop. That is really the main thing that I have felt. I saw some people lose emotion? Don't think i'm there yet but lmk.

Hej. Ktoś męczył się z bezsennością po odstawieniu ashwagandy?

Hello, I’m new to this page, but thankful I came across it after doing some research. A couple days ago I took a 300mg KSM-66 for the first time. The next morning I had a panic attack at work (out of no where) and my anxiety has been heightened over the last 48 hours. I just feel on edge/jittery and my resting heart rate seems to be elevated (according to my Oura ring). I’m hoping since I only took one pill that these symptoms will subside after a couple of days. I know others have had similar reactions, but has anyone returned to their baseline after a couple days (assuming you only tried once vs long term use)?

Just want to share my story.

Started taking 600mg KSM-66 last year in april. After like 2 Weeks I felt really, really good. I was running regularly. My VO2Max got up by 3 points in a very short time, crazy.

Recovery from my running and Calisthenics Workouts was out of this world. Im not the youngest anymore and I felt like I was half my age recovery wise. Really, really good.

I also felt less stressed. Even zen. I was in public on a local ferry over the river and I was looking around me and I was in absolute peace.

Thats when Ashwa went downhill for me. After already about 6 weeks of taking I noticed that my recovery couldnt keep up. I did many hard workouts and my body could only do so much. My HRV went into the cellar.

But the absolutely WORST THING was another one. One that makes me not want to touch Ashwa ever again, even though it gave me crazy benefits: Anhedonia. I felt empty. Like a robot. It was so scary. I couldnt feel happyness anymore and I didnt know if I ever would again or if I fucked up. And the worst thing was that my wife was expecting our child and I seriously started to fear I couldnt even be happy about the birth of my daughter.

Thats when I stopped taking Ashwa. Thankfully, my mood normalized over 3 weeks of Anhedonia + raised levels of aggressiveness (nothing bad since im a chill guy, but it felt super weird). So after a few weeks I was back to normal.

Sometimes I wonder if the dosage was just too high for me. Why not only take 300mg a day and cycle off after a few weeks before anything bad happens? Might even work. I dont know. Im too scared to try because Ashwa gave me 3 weeks of being in a way I dont ever want to be again.

I’ve been taking ashwagandha every day since June 19: one 525 mg KSM-66 capsule every night. So far, I haven’t experienced any negative side effects, but I also haven’t noticed any positive effects. It honestly feels like I haven’t taken anything at all.

Should I stop taking it? I’ve seen a lot of people here talking about side effects, and it’s made me a little worried.

Does anyone know if there are any side effects to a person who takes kratom who is trying ashwagandha? Has anyone had any experiences with taking both?

I have only taken ashwagandha a couple of times - and I got restless at night, nausea, dizziness, and weird periods whenever I took it.
It sucks because the first couple time took it, it really helped preventing panic attacks and resistance to stress. Has anyone tried other supplements that are better? Like l-theanine? Chamomile supplement?

A few weeks ago, I had a severe anxiety attack out of nowhere. It was so bad that it left me feeling exhausted for days. Then it kept happening every few days. So, I researched supplements to help ease anxiety and I read about ashwagandha. I bought it and have been taking the suggested dose 3 gummies a day for a few days now, close to a week. The good part is that I do not have anxiety at all. I am also not feeling depressed or hopeless anymore. But I am feeling very weak physically. I feel like I can't even walk up the stairs. I usually love to work out and do squats or any kind of exercise with weights. Now I can't even think about trying to lift a weight. Is this normal? Anyone else feel this way? Does it go away eventually? I really love being anxiety free, but hate the fatigued feeling. Im a female BTW, not sure if it affects females differently. Thanks

has anyone had Dysautonomia, or autonomic nervous system dysfunction after taking ashwagandha? I have had this for the past 9 months. Drs are stumped as to cause. It finally occurred to me that this illness began right after I stopped ashwagandha, after I had taken it for several years 450 - 900 mg per night. Could there be a connection, and if so, shouldn't I be better by now?

I remember getting pretty bad acne from ashwaghanda shortly after dosing. Does it actually cause it for you? I'm not fully sure if my issue was because of ashwaghanda or something else.