I started supplementing with a powder in my coffee, in an attempt to help balance my body from an array of symptoms relating to hormonal imbalance when recovering from stopping hormonal birth control nearly 2 years ago. I took a powder from a health food store. Unfortunately it has taken me over a year to connect the dots and realize the ashwaghanda I incorporated into my natural treatments was then the culprit of some of the very symptoms I was trying to combat. Namely: low/no sex drive, being completely emotionally numb, extreme fatigue, debililtating brainfog. I will say it can lower anxiety, but along with this lowers my ability to feel any emotion at all and during acute stage I felt like a complete zombie, and had zero motivation. This affects so many hormones (is GABAergic, serotonergic, dopaminergic, affects your sex hormones, drastically lowers cortisol) The strong effect on all of this resulted in persistent and impactful imbalance eg: you really, really need cortisol..at the correct levels, to feel motivated and content emotionally) Yes I cycled it, and took half a teaspoon on the days I had it, a common recommendation. It wasn't til I restocked and commenced a new cycle nearly every day for 3 weeks (in January this year) that I noticed something was really, really wrong.. It does not work well with my, and many others' bodies. I have now been 2.5 months off so far and the extreme fatigue, brainfog, demotivation, and feeling dead inside have subsided (they were practically debilitating and I have lost a lot of my life to this supplement making me sick). I am becoming much more alert, my menstrual cycle is no longer extremely short like 21 days, I still can't feel all my emotions, nor is my sex drive working and that is significant, beyond having sex. Sexual energy is a life force, the feeling of embodiment. Whereas I am dissociated. I am 30 and know myself very, very well and this is distinctly an imbalance my body/brain are trying to recover from- my thoughts themselves are not negative. I literally can't feel my emotions. This really is not for everyone, please be careful and know that as an ayurvedic herb act very differently on each person depending on their energetic/biological make up and it would be best assessed and monitored by a qualified practitioner of herbal medicine. The consistency of use may also vary a lot per person, IF you're suited to use it, Too many people take this with bare minimum information. It is a drug, and it can have significant, lasting effects that are very detrimental. Be very carefulRead More Read Less