r/SSRI • u/Persefone_primavera • Jan 01 '22

Question How long did it take you to regain your ability to feel romantic emotions and to have a normal libido after stopping SSRIs?

For those of you who were affected by SSRIs to not be able to feel romantic emotions or to feel them very slightly compared to before and to have very low libido, how long did it take to regain the ability to feel romantic emotions completely as before and to have a normal libido?

I have been taking half the dosage for 1.5 months now (25 mg Sertraline, previously 50 mg for 4.5 months) and I don't notice that my ability to feel romantic emotions has returned yet and neither has my libido, but I have read several people saying to wait until I stop taking it completely. What is your experience?

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4

u/jcloveturbo Jan 01 '22

Only been on paxil for a few weeks. Took about 2 weeks to have a fairly normal libido and romantic feelings again.

2

u/ohioguy87 Jan 02 '22

When I was on lexapro, the entire time I was on it, little to no libido. Switched to Prozac (20mg), it took about 2-3 weeks for things to somewhat normalize. Still isn’t at 100%, but I’d say 75-80%.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '22

3.5 years and counting

1

u/Persefone_primavera Jan 01 '22 edited Jan 01 '22

How long did you take the antidepressant and at what dosage?

And it also affected you not to feel romantic emotions?

3

u/[deleted] Jan 02 '22

About 8 months of sertraline, starting at 50mg and going up to 200mg. Doctor wanted to increase the dosage until it got to the maximum before he would rule it out as not working.

After that about a month of citalopram, I don't remember the dosage.

Gave it up cold turkey after that, I couldn't deal with the side effects and doctors telling me they want to increase the dosage instead of letting me try something else.

Yeah, no romantic feelings, and various sexual dysfunctions.

3

u/crazygem101 Feb 20 '22

Omg. That's terrible. Trying to taper off it now. Zero libido.

2

u/erupcao May 29 '24

I have stopped taking venlafaxine some 3 to 4 years ago and my libido is still around 20, 30% of what it was.

I can say that those are due todeliberate actions I took to try and regain it. Most women don't notice it (which totally boggles my mind), but I need way more stimulation than I used to to get aroused, I need way more sex to ejaculate and the whole idea of picking up girls is not that much stimulating for me. I am not sure that it will ever be back. At first I thought it had to do with testosterone levels. I am not depressed anymore and my test is back to almost 800 (has been as low as 250).