From Submissive to Fearlessness with Testosterone and DHT

Don’t you hate the feeling of anxiety and then succumbing to submission?

Too anxious to stand up for yourself, say something, ask something or be who you know you can be.

It’s humiliating. I know. I’ve been there. It sucks! It even leads to self-hatred/despise.

In the past when I had low testosterone, I:

Was too afraid to ask a question in class.

Would get a very tight neck and even twitch when I felt uncomfortable in public.

Was too afraid to say something in a group because then everyone would look at me.

Would get an overexaggerated stress response if I was going to pass a fancier car than me on the road. I worried that he might speed up and prevent me from passing.

Struggled to make eye contact because I felt everyone was more dominant than me.

Didn’t want to talk to people because I didn’t want to get laughed at.

Would, by default, be aggressive out of fear that people might be upset with me.

Got sweaty palms and freak out in my head when others seemed upset with me.

These are a few examples. Embarrassing, but that was the reality. Now with high T, I’m a new man.

The cause of uncontrolled stress, intimidation and submission

In short, low testosterone and especially lower DHT.

Low testosterone leads to low-stress tolerance as well as a greater stress response to a stressor. Instead of getting a normal spike in cortisol, your cortisol spikes x2 to x3 times higher. And it stays elevated for hours after the stressor has passed.

Testosterone opposes the stress cascade and helps with stress resiliency.

Low testosterone:

Make you intimidated by perceived things, such as voice, posture, body language, etc. A deep voice can make you feel more submissive or go into impulse aggression. Testosterone reduces vocal-induced stress (R). This includes not panicking when someone is scolding you or is talking in a frustrated tone.

Enhance dominance perception sensitivity. “Men’s dominance sensitivity was significantly weaker in the testosterone group compared to those in the placebo group. Moreover, men’s dominance sensitivity was negatively associated with their self-reported dominance” (R).

Enhances submission. “Testosterone or dihydrotestosterone (DHT) replacement reduced submissive behavior in castrated males (116).” (R)

Enhances amygdala (the fear center in the brain) activity when seeing angry faces or aggressive behavior (R)

Worse of all, withdrawing from stress can lower testosterone. But fighting it can prevent it from dropping or even increase it (R). Point being, don’t run away from your fears. Fears are almost always unjustified.

Testosterone and stress resiliency

Two of the main ways how androgens promote stress resiliency are by:

Reducing hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activation (less cortisol release). Testosterone and DHT suppress CRH-stimulated cortisol release (R, R, R).

Activating GABA receptors (which chill you out).

DHT is actually the main androgen that makes us stress-resilient. It gets metabolized into Androstan-3,17-diol (3β-diol) which binds to estrogen receptor beta (ERβ), which lowers cortisol.

3α-diol (another metabolite of DHT), but not 3β-diol, has a strong affinity for the GABA receptor (R). Blocking the conversion of DHT to 3alpha-diol in the hippocampus can prevent the anti-anxiety effects of testosterone (R).

Summary

Higher T makes you more stress resilient by:

promoting a positive mood, and

desensitizing us to stressors, such as angry faces, voices, etc.,

This makes you a better leader and reduces aggression (not dominance) (R). All good things.

What I did that helped me

Here’s what I’ve done or used back then that had the best result for me:

Gonadin (the old formula; it was strong GABA-ergic)
Aspirin (500mg-1g per day) and lots of sugar (milk and sugar most of the time, or meat and lots of potatoes)
Heating up – such as sitting in the car in the sun, exercising, using 1g aspirin, etc.
Androsterone – just 2 drops were good enough for a strong effect. If I used more I would get extremely irritable and short-tempered.
Tribulus Terrestris (3g daily of the NOW brand.)

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