Hello all, here is my little introduction. To start things off, my name is James. I’m a 21 year old guy living in North Carolina. Unfortunately my experience with pheromones has been pretty limited to a trial of some unknown pheromone (that surprisingly resulted in some extra attention and more smiles than I was expecting in random encounters), some studying on my own behalf as the subject fascinates me (psychology student here, it’s great to learn about these chemicals and how they can influence not only how schemas in our psyche are affected but even how they’re created revolving new stimuli.), and one of my best friends (black_ice_pc on here) being a pheromone enthusiast and sharing his own tidbits and advice. After plenty of reading, lurking and asking I’ve been brought here and have to say I’m pretty happy to be here! So now a little bit more about myself, hopefully not to bore anyone.
As far as my personality I’m your pretty average early 20’s college student. I’ve always been science minded though and this led me to be more the kid who stayed home watching Discovery Channel or collecting weird plants than the kid who was practicing at football games. I’ve never really been a shy person or anything of that sort, I just tended to prefer that lifestyle. As I’ve grown more and more I’ve basically moved from corner to corner of the United States, and was lucky enough to take part in an international ambassadorship program to Australia in high school. Over the years I’ve developed a strong love for Psychology and this is truly part of what has led me to be so interested by pheromones, as well as a personal reason I’ll discuss later. One of the biggest drawbacks I’ve found so far though about me being “the geeky guy” out of all my friends though is that they seem to not be able to stand my ranting about the things I’ve learned about for more than a few minutes at a time, so hopefully I’ll be able to contribute some interesting conversation to off topic and on topic threads here. I’m a very friendly and caring person typically, and unfortunately this has many more times than once led me to be directed kindly to the friend zone rather than the date zone. Despite my ambitions and ability to be responsible I still have a bit of an immature streak as well, being perfectly content and happy swinging on swingsets and things like that. Again, unfortunately this tends to lead to a lack of respect from my more adult peers but I’m still unwilling to let go of enjoying some of those same things I loved in childhood lol.
As for the big reason why I’m here, besides the earlier reasons given. On top of the fact that for most of my life I’ve been what is considered “overweight” and geeky to boot, in early spring I was informed of a reason behind not only the weight problem but also alot of my recently developing problems with keeping myself centered and energetic and confident. I was informed that I have a small tumor pressing against my pituitary gland, which is offsetting the production of certain hormones and producing some of its own (it’s a prolactinoma for anyone medically minded). Fortunately it’s a benign tumor and seems to be responding to treatment so that’s a bunch of good news of it’s own. Unfortunately one of the hormones affected (And I’m sure you guys won’t laugh, but trust me this is still embarrassing to admit even to my best friends, it is a bit easier on an online forum where nobody knows me though I have to admit.) has been testosterone, with levels of it plummeting. That’s honestly been the biggest punch to my self esteem I could imagine, to find out that I was having trouble producing a hormone that many people identify as the hormone that “makes a man a man.” For the past few months I’ve kept my same smile and friendly persona but been feeling very lost because I haven’t really even had the confidence to attempt any extra academic OR romantic endeavors, and have lost a pretty big deal of respect for myself. Now, don’t get me wrong, it has never crossed my mind that pheromones could ever be some sort of “testosterone replacement” and I’m not here to treat something as serious as a tumor with pheromones. What drew me here from this experience I just described was the realization that while pheromones couldn’t treat me, perhaps if I’m lucky enough to have a good response of body chemistry to them I would be capable of using some pheromones (Instant Shine and A314 were my friends first suggestions for this) to give myself a bit of ground to stand on with myself. I’m looking to regain some of my initial confidence and poise that I used to have no problem displaying to others, whether it was fruitful or not. That’s hard to do though when I’m constantly seeking reassurance from me myself and I. I have since read about Instant Shine’s ability to inspire confidence and vibrancy in the wearer as well as others though which obviously greatly intrigued me, as I’m interested in how confident I would be able to present myself if I weren’t as worried about the underlying physical problem that’s still under repair. A314 came to mind as well, potentially to offer myself some of my old self respect and with the best of luck even be able to present myself as someone deserving of respect and admiration to others around me, something I haven’t exactly felt in a while. If I have a completely wrong idea or am way off track I do encourage anybody to warn me, but as of now and as of my own reading and understanding and studying I have hopes that there is at least some bit of a “stepping stool” to be found in these pheromones.
So there it is, you guys and gals probably know more about me than you ever wanted to but I’m wanting to get to know people here and become part of the community so I figured the best way was to put as much as myself out there as I could without writing a novel or scaring everyone off the site. I hope to become more and more active and participate, and if anyone would like to talk please feel free to message me, as said earlier I’m plenty easy to get along with 
