Alex’s Story
By Alex, Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD), United States, January 11, 2021
My name is Alex, I am 30 years old and have simply been living in torture and agony since taking Escitaloptam over a year ago in the summer of 2019. Over the course of being on the drugs I developed many symptoms I previously had never experienced. For the first time in my life I could not get aroused or have any sense of desire for intimacy of any kind.
This scared me so much that upon reading that these symptoms could be permanent, I immediately ceased intake and began what would be a months long process of withdrawal, further loss of physical functions and emotional numbing and extreme insomnia. I also experience many of the other typical symptoms of PSSD, physical loss of sensation in genitals, genital shrinkage, total loss of appetite and bad tremors which alone would prevent me from continuing the career I had even if the other symptoms were not present. I have screaming tinnitus in my left ear at all times. There is something truly horrific about losing your sexual function to something often touted as a "happy pill". But to then go on to see that it was simply the tip of the ice burg is when the real horror began for me. I completely lost any sense of emotional connection to my loved ones and anything that previously gave me joy or peace. This is not depression. I have experienced down times in life where not much was good but always something was. A game, a film, a walk, being around friends and family. I can no longer derive good feelings from these things and it feels like I am now trapped in a box of misery and isolation that is absolutely inescapable. Much like the pain people experience with akathisia. No amount of movement or positive engagement ever helps me to feel even a fraction of what I always did my whole life. I know people who are stuck with this for decades with no improvements and often worsening as I have seen with my own case.
People with this condition have no answers from anyone and are suffering unimaginably. The general consensus of the medical community is that this does not happen, despite persistent sexual dysfunction being listed on the Prozac leaflet in the US since 2011 I believe. The EMA has recognized PSSD and now manufacturers of SSRI are required to list persistent effects as a side effects at least for distribution in the European markets. An untold number of us suffer in agony on a daily basis, infinitely regretting the decision to ever take such poisons without more questions. Doctors need to wake up and self educate if they want to help prevent other men women and children from walking into this minefield. All it takes is the medical community to have an open mind and ask some basic questions to be able to see and know the truth. This is my story but there are too many others like it.
Most have been dismissed as psychosomatic and are given more drugs. Some are told they are now psychotic and are institutionalized. The lucky ones have been acknowledged by doctors that what they experience is real, though unfortunately there is not much they can do about it. This 100 percent a real condition that is both destroying people's qualities of life and in many cases placing individuals in a situation where they feel there is no other option but suicide. This is a condition that we don't need to fight to solve in the future. We just need to recognize that, through these drugs we are causing it.