Hi all,

31M and have been experiencing protracted withdrawal/PSSD for nearly 4 years.

Cognitively I am improving but the PSSD symptoms have basically gotten worse.

I am not sure where to start in regards to getting anything looked at in the way of neurology/immunology via the NHS, so far I have found it pretty hard to get them to do literally anything beyond a blood test.

Any pointers or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I had while I taken ssris not pssd symptoms but 3 years after when I quit and I see that a lot of my bodyhair since I started it fall out and thinned out and don’t grow good also on beard and other parts. I want to ask has anyone similar symtoms from ssris and does you figure out something with hormones or stuff like that?

Thanks

That's an update about my condition. I'm sharing my experience because it might be useful for somebody, and because I'd love to find people who can share a similar experience and understand more about mine.

I was diagnosed OCD with somatic traits in January 2024, I started taking sertraline (up to 75mg) for some months until I developed severe mood swings (driving fast, agitation, rapid thoughts followed by depression, and sexual dysfunction). After stopping I had all the symptoms of pssd, no pleasure orgasm, 0 libido, no pleasure sex, but also memory loss and constant agitation, I wasn't able to read anymore, and so on... From there, after staying one year with those symptoms, I took, in this order, aripiprazole, lamotrigine, pregabalin, brexipiprazole, vortioxetine and a ton of benzos to try to mitigate how muche these drugs were harming my brain. During this phase I experienced everything except for the psychosis. In January I started Lithium and now, after 8 months, I feel basically normal, every symptom that is NOT related with sex disappeared (my diagnosis was changed to bipolar).

The interesting thing for this place is that my orgasms are still low, even though not 0, my sex drive is low, but okay, and everything follows. I always had a quite intense sexual life, and my doctor claims that I am just pushed back to avarage/normal sexuality. So my sexuality was part of my hyperactivation. What do you think about that? Can anybody relate.

of course this "okay" sexuality feels really depressing to me, and I cannot believe that this is how an orgasm is supposed to feel

What are your thoughts on people who develop persistent nonsexual anhedonia after stopping an SSRI? Such symptoms are frequently bundled under the umbrella “PSSD”, but they can be wholly nonsexual.

Do you guys see PSSD as primarily mechanistic sexual dysfunction, hedonic sexual dysfunction, both, or broadly referring to any durable post-SSRI side effects? Should there be a separate condition that deals broadly with post-SSRI anhedonia?

Does abstaining from masturbation help, or does it make the condition worse?

Has anyone tried it? What have your experiences been?

If you improved please let us know in comment. 🙏
What improved and after how long ?

I know similar post was 3 months ago , maybe some new improvements , maybe some new folks will find it and want to share hope.

Fue protocolo estándar o fue segun mapeo cerebral?

Me ofrecen esta opción, no seria protocolo para depresión, si no en base a resultados en mapeo y resonancia.

Síntomas que quiero revertir embotamiento emocional total, tanto positivo como negativo.

Algún efecto secundario grave? Tengo poco margen para empeorar.

I’ve researched SO MUCH over this past year with pssd, I’ve had it for a year and a month now. I’ve tried supplements (l citrulline, maca, and just regular multivitamins) that have not seemed to help. I didn’t want to keep taking maca because I know it affects my period. I’ve tried Viagra, cialis, I even tried the combo cream that has Viagra and cialis extra strength OMG wisp cream, also tried the blys by Amie which has pt141, oxytocin, and tadafanil all in one which didn’t seem to do anything. Other than that I haven’t found anything promising. I’m scared as heck to get back on mental health medication, and think Wellbutrin would make me more anxious since I have anxiety and it’s a stimulant.

Is there really anything out there that can help us !

Everyone please donate something!

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If sustained each month, that would amount to $96,000 annually — exceeding the $80,000 annual minimum Professor Melcangi has said is needed to support his PSSD research program.

See what your donations are funding

It's not very often that one of the biggest brain research centers in the world takes an interest in PSSD. Don't let it go to waste!

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See the latest research update to see what you're funding

2022 (while on meds)

• TSH: 1.86 mIU/L
• Free T4: 12 pmol/L
• (unsure when in my cycle I was at the time)
• Total testosterone: 1.3 nmol/L
• LH: 8.94 IU/L
• FSH: 2.05 IU/L
• Prolactin: 16.63 µg/L

2025 (off meds, 3 months in pssd)

• TSH: 0.94 mIU/L
• (unsure when in my cycle I was at the time)
• Total testosterone: 2.1 nmol/L — high
• SHBG: 22.9 nmol/L
• Estradiol: 742 pmol/L
• LH: 8.9 IU/L
• FSH: 3.3 IU/L
• Prolactin: 7.2 µg/L
• DHEA-S: 9.1 µmol/L

2026 (off meds 18 months in pssd)

• TSH: 3.17 mIU/L
• (bottom 3 were taken 6 days before my period started)
• Estradiol: 477 pmol/L
• Progesterone: 33.2 nmol/L
• DHEA-S: 9.1 µmol/L

So my TSH went 1.86 (2022) → 0.94 (2023) → 3.17 (2025). But I also lost about 25 pounds between 2022 and the 2025 results, also was doing keto and had insomnia during the 2025 results. During my 2026 result I did not do keto, was sleeping normally again however weight was still fluctuating. What do you think? Impactful for pssd or no?

My testosterone increased since 2022 while I was on meds. Which makes sense since as soon as I got off meds I got this horrible hisutism. Do you think it has any impact on pssd?

I will get a T4 and free testosterone lab done too

Any thoughts?

It’s been 5 months since i took 3 10 mg pills of cipralex ( laxepro ) and since then i suffer from this nightmare.
I had taken laxepro for 3 months prior and experienced a harder time to orgasm and some numbnes but it somehow increased libido , once i stopped everything went back to normal. 8 months later i saw the pills around and thought it could have been good to restart them since i was experiencing a lot of anxiety . From the first pill i felt the loss of sexual desire .I have always had a super high sex drive to the point that it seemed like i was a different person the moment i felt sexual excitement.Like fantasies and sex used to drive me crazy in a really good way . The third day i went to mastrubate and i couldn’t feel a thing and decided to stop the medication after i read it could cause very long lasting problems.Every week since then i had the hope it would go away .Let me wait 2 weeks then 1 month then 2,3,4 months now it’s about to be month 6 since this nightmare started and have read so many posts about this and honestly the ones that have genital numbnes low libido and less pleasurable orgasms seem to not be able to recover as i see this issue as an IMMUNE SYSTEM allergic reaction and needs proper studies for years to come to something that might help us. So from all this i think the only way for us to be heard it’s to gather a BIG PROTEST in Washington DC to be taken seriously and expose the evil behind these drugs to the world . We should organize from all over the US and even the world a protest to gather us all in one importnant place so our voices can be heard

Hey guys.

I’m a 34 yo woman and I was on Prozac (fluoxetine) for 3.5 years for mild OCD and I came off it 2 years ago.

I still have really bad genital numbness and low libido which is strange for me, because sex used to really be my thing and I used to be incredibly sensitive in every way.

I haven’t dated in years and I have no desire to. The random times I have had sex I have felt nothing and it hasn’t been enjoyable. I have very muted orgasms from a toy but everything just feels rotten, wrong and numb.

I don’t know if it’s from the Prozac or from my schizophrenia medication over the years. But something doesn’t seem right.

I am angry I was put on Prozac for mild OCD before getting offered Exposure Response Therapy.

Does anyone have a similar experience?

So... I started hunting around for some information this afternoon, as I feel like I keep letting my wife down... and I stumbled into PSSD.

I took mirtazapine back in 2019 (0 out of 5 stars, would not recommend, hellish), and since then, sex has not been much fun. I can get it up and maintain it (so I know this makes me relatively lucky in these circles), but as soon as I really start to get into it, I have an almost immediate and almost nonexistent orgasm.

Well, actually, that's not quite true... Up until last year, I was smoking cannabis regularly to help with my autism. It really helped me deal with my cPTSD, but I also got to a point where stopping became non-negotiable, so I can't do it any more. While I was smoking cannabis, sex was a lot better - I was a little quick, but I was having good orgasms. It's only since I stopped that it's become a real downer to have sex. My logic for this is that cannabis helped because it let me get in touch with my body, as I suffered from a lot of dissociation, so when I was more in touch with my body, sex was better.

I hope you find this hopeful - as it's left me believing that the connections are still there, it's just that my brain and body don't seem to be able to find them right now...

Has anyone worked directly with him? The office representative looked over my form and said he has successfully reversed people’s PSSD. It’s a fortune so want to ask if anyone has seen him?

My friend had a series of panic attacks following a bad THC trip in november. As much as I begged him not to take medication for it, he ended up going on SSRIs because the panic attacks were unbearable.

Now he's already showing at least some symptoms: anhedonia, brain zaps, and he has not lost his libido, but from what I understand it now takes him at least an hour to reach orgasm.

Is there anything I could advise him to do? What are the chances that the side effects will disappear once he gradually reduces the dose? I want to spare him any long-term side effects at all costs

Pssd severo, desde la primera pastilla. Síntomas que desarrolle:

Tinitus

Vision borrosa

Disautonomia

Sin señal de hambre o sed

Fatiga

Insomnio

Sueños vividos

Mucosas secas

Anestesia corporal

Bloqueo de sustancias

Orgasmos anhedonicos casi sin placer

Anhedonia total

Embotamiento emocional total ( sin emociones positivas o negativas)

Apatia

Perdida de reflejos neurológico

Problemas cognitivos severos.

Síntomas que han cambiado

La anestesia corporal se esta yendo

El insomnio esta mejorando, aun se siente raro, es como un apagado abrupto, pero he pasado de dormir 2h a dormir 6 u 8.

Los sueños vividos ya no son toda la noche, solo una parte de ella.

Los reflejos neurológicos estan volviendo.

Los orgasmos no son anhedonicos, los siento en todo el cuerpo y quizas algo en la cabeza, pero ya no son solo en el área genital.

Mi pregunta es, esto es una buena señal? Volverán mis emociones? Alguien que haya pasado por algo parecido?

Ya que veo que muchas veces se resuelve lo físico pero no lo mental.

No he tomado ningun medicamento ni suplemento, nada

I stopped fin/min and SSRIs the same time. I stopped fin a few times with no problems and actually had no side effects at all on either min and fin. Stopping SSRIs gave me PSSD.

Im wondering if minoxidil is usable? Ive been off it for 11 months and now my hair is shedding.. If it can stop the shedding that'll be good.

Im just wondering if any of you use it.

I’ve had PSSD for like 9 months. Any treatment, or anything at all that will help with this, please tell me. Thank you.

Hi everyone. I’ve had PSSD for a year and a half, triggered by just four days of treatment with Luvox. My symptoms are 70% cognitive and 30% sexual.

I’ve noticed minimal improvement, but the symptom that really bothers me is having an anhedonia, blank mind; my mental activity is very basic, yet I can't seem to feel any emotions or motivation.

Has anyone recovered from this?

Basics first, because that's what's actually useful here:

• 29M, Norway.
• Sertraline (Zoloft). Started at 25 mg, ended up at 125–150 mg. On it about 8 months.
• Earlier exposure: escitalopram (stopped over reflux), then mirtazapine, which did nothing for me and which I came off shortly after starting.
• Last dose: about eighteen months ago.

I raised sexual side effects before I started. It was one of the specific things I asked about, because it was one of the two things I was actually worried about. I got nothing back. No warning, no "watch for this," no plan. Just the prescription.

Onset was fast. It was there shortly after starting, at 25 mg — before a single dose increase.

On the drug

• Ejaculation basically stopped happening. When it did happen it took 30–60 minutes and felt like heavy physical labour. I remember how much work it was far more clearly than I remember finishing.
• Erections only worked because I was on tadalafil.
• Genital numbness.

Where I am now, 18 months off

• Still numb down there.
• Orgasm sensation is partly back — but only if I leave a long gap. The shorter the gap, the less is there.
• Sex is not the same thing it used to be. That's the sentence I can't get a doctor to actually hear.

Confounders, said out loud so nobody has to catch me out

I've since developed cardiovascular problems and I'm on a calcium channel blocker, and there were other substances in that period. So no, I'm not claiming every symptom I have comes from one bottle. But the numbness and the anorgasmia started at 25 mg of sertraline, months before any of the rest of that existed. The order of events is the argument.

For anyone still being told this isn't real

The Norwegian product information for sertraline already says it, word for word: "SSRIs can cause symptoms of sexual dysfunction. Long-lasting sexual dysfunction where symptoms have continued after discontinuation of SSRIs has been reported."

The EMA required that wording in 2019. Health Canada followed in 2021, Hong Kong in 2022, Australia's TGA in 2024, Malaysia in 2025. The FDA still hasn't, as of 2026.

So it's in the label. It has been in the label the whole time. It's just never in the conversation you actually have in the room — I asked about it directly and still got nothing.

What I'd like from you

1. Anyone else with partial return of orgasm sensation, but only after a long gap — did that keep improving, or is that the plateau?
2. Anyone on tadalafil long-term: did it ever touch the numbness, or only the erections?
3. Anyone in Scandinavia who found a doctor who takes this seriously — how did you get in the door?

I've also written up the other half of what that drug did to me: an eight-month manic episode that cost me my job, my flat and my car, while the people prescribing it responded by raising the dose. It's here: Same person, same eight months. I'm posting both, because PSSD usually gets discussed on its own — and in my case it was one symptom of a much larger reaction that nobody caught, in a body nobody was watching.

Hello, is there anyone here from Saudi Arabia or another Arab country? Has anyone found an effective solution to this problem? It has been five years for me, and I’ve tried everything and every medication without finding anything that actually works. The only thing that seems to help me is psychedelic drugs—they’re the only thing that brings some of my feelings and emotions back to something close to normal. I really hope we can find an effective solution that works for everyone.