ytho - Intro (Escitalopram / Lexapro & PSSD)

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ytho
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2021 11:07 am
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ytho - Intro (Escitalopram / Lexapro & PSSD)

Unread post by ytho »

Hello there.

Thanks for hosting this forum and giving us a place to share our stories! Here is mine, I am trying to make it short:

(Please note that english is not my native language.)

I'm 31 years old, male, and have been taking 10mg of Escitalopram (I heard in the US they call it Lexapro) daily for about 7 months. My doctor put me on it for what he said was a depressive episode, which showed itself by physical / bodily symptoms only, like constant dizzyness, drowsiness, exhaustion etc. I had never had any mental illness before.

I was doing pretty good on the drug and - since nobody told me not to do that - after like 5 months I reduced the dosage by myself to 5mg every second day. Big mistake. I was still doing good for another 6 weeks, but then the original symptoms came back, so I told my doctor that I had reduced the dosage on my own. He said I could go back to 10mg daily to counter the symptoms, which I did. The symptoms were gone again and after 2 weeks of 10mg he asked me to go on 5mg for one week and then on 0mg. I took my last pill in October 2020.

Day 1 without it was good, day 2 as well. Day 3 is when the problems started. The original symptoms were back. Not all of them, but some. And also some new symptoms, like the sexual problems.

I heard about withdrawal symptoms and I was pretty sure its just them and it will all be good in a few days or weeks. But it hasn't been good ever since.


I experience the following symptoms every day since October 2020:

1. Heavy exhaustion / fatigue (I constantly want and need to sleep) and constant drowsiness (the way I experience my surroundings feels kind of dull, like if I was below a cheese bell).
2. Lack of motivation and power to do anything.
3. Unable to "feel" any real emotion, like real joy or love even. The only emotion I have right now is aggression.
4. Sexual problems:
- Complete loss of libido. I just dont feel the "desire" anymore. The problem is, I know I "should" want sex and I "should" want to masturbate, so I am trying to, but the desire is gone.
- No spontaneous erections and morning erections at all.
- Inability to create an erection. If I can manage to create one "by force" during masturbation, I can not keep it. If I stop the manual stimulation at any time, the erection is gone within 5 seconds. I can look at my wife, pictures, porn, whatever, nothing moves down there.
- Heavy premature ejaculation. Instead of being able to get an erection through manual stimulation, most of the time I just "finish" after a few seconds. I am done without even getting an erection.
- Genital numbness.


Before taking the antidepressant I was able to masturbate whenever I wanted to.
If my wife just looked at me the "wrong" way, I was already rock hard.
Yes, I must admit, at some times I did not last as long as I wanted to when having sex, but that were exceptions and mainly caused by being to aroused...

So the problem is, my doctors keep telling me that all of the mentioned symptoms can be caused by another depressive episode, which yes, could be true I guess. I could be in another depressive episode right now, judged on symptoms 1 - 3. But the fact that the sexual problems were not present in my first depressive episode and only started exactly 3 days after my last pill of the antidepressant is alerting to me. I did not have any sexual problems during my first episode nor while I was on the antidepressant.

My doctors (GP and therapist) both tell me, that the cause must be the mental illness again, because I couldn't have "permanently destroyed" anything by taking these antidepressants, that would be impossible. Well yeah...

I agree on the fact that these sexual problems can be caused by depression, by taking antidepressants and by withdrawing them. But from all my research and from the way it feels, I am pretty sure that this might be PSSD.

By the way, I was trying Sildenafil (something like Viagra) a couple of times before all of this, and it worked great. I tried it like two times these days and it still works to get an erection, although it feels a bit less hard and because of the genital numbness it kind of feels strange. Also it's just not the same if you can't feel anything emotionally when doing it.

Does this sound like PSSD to you?

I would be very happy to discuss with you guys about this.
Let me know if I missed something.

Sorry for the long text and thank you for your input.

Best regards,
Tim



Edit: I found some questions which seems I should answer, so I will:

Code: Select all

1- What is your gender? 
-> Male
2- Why did you take antidepressants in the first place? and for how long were you on them? which med? 
-> Escitalopram / Lexapro 10mg for first depressive episode, took for 7 months
3- How was your sexual and emotional function before antidepressant intake? 
-> Perfect, good desire, erections and orgasms.
4- What are your symptoms exactly and when did they start? sexual dyfunction alone, or cognitive/emotional/hedonistic as well? which symptom is bothering you the most? 
-> answered above but worst symptoms are drowsiness, fatigue and sexual problems
5- What meds/suppplements have you tried so far? 
-> to fight "withdrawal": Vitamin D, B, Zinc, Omega 3, Magnesium
-> to fight sexual problems: Maca, Sildenafil
6- Do you have access to meds without prescription (buy online), or would strictly require a prescription for meds to try? 
-> Could get Sildenafil without, but mostly prescription
7- Can you tolerate garlicky foods? what about proteins? 
-> Yes to both, not tested, but so far I am fine with both. I like to eat garlick and when I was doing sports, I would take proteins regularly.
8- Have you done any blood testing? what were the results? 
-> Yes, about one year ago. All values were good, at least my GP did not ask me to change anything.
ytho
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2021 11:07 am
Contact:

Re: ytho - Intro (Escitalopram / Lexapro & PSSD)

Unread post by ytho »

Hello there. Is anyone interested to talk to me about this topic? I am feeling quite alone with all this.

Mainly I am unsure as to where the sexual problems come from. Is it still depression or could it really be PSSD? How would the layman be able to differentiate?

Also i read some success stories from users on here, like Beetlebum, who used SJW to recover from PSSD. I guess that would be something is could try?

Before I was put on Escitalopram, my doctor tried SJW on me for resolving the depression, but that did not work. But if it is not working as an antidepressant for me, maybe it works for the sexual problems?

Thank you for any input.
Sb919
Posts: 60
Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2019 11:07 pm
Contact:

Re: ytho - Intro (Escitalopram / Lexapro & PSSD)

Unread post by Sb919 »

It's still pretty early to tell. I can't really give any good advice other than giving it time, and forcing yourself to do things that are mentally and physically stimulating. I wouldn't go too crazy supplementing or trying other drugs until you see where you're at about a year out. Time seems to be biggest factor for most.

Sometimes it takes a bit to get replies here. @Meso seems to have his hands full a lot of the time, but I'm sure he will have a look soon.

Good luck man, and welcome to the forum. Sorry we had to meet under these circumstances. It gets better.
JP1985
Posts: 201
Joined: Thu May 21, 2020 3:11 am
Contact:

Re: ytho - Intro (Escitalopram / Lexapro & PSSD)

Unread post by JP1985 »

ytho wrote: Mon Mar 15, 2021 4:44 pm Hello there.

Thanks for hosting this forum and giving us a place to share our stories! Here is mine, I am trying to make it short:

(Please note that english is not my native language.)

I'm 31 years old, male, and have been taking 10mg of Escitalopram (I heard in the US they call it Lexapro) daily for about 7 months. My doctor put me on it for what he said was a depressive episode, which showed itself by physical / bodily symptoms only, like constant dizzyness, drowsiness, exhaustion etc. I had never had any mental illness before.

I was doing pretty good on the drug and - since nobody told me not to do that - after like 5 months I reduced the dosage by myself to 5mg every second day. Big mistake. I was still doing good for another 6 weeks, but then the original symptoms came back, so I told my doctor that I had reduced the dosage on my own. He said I could go back to 10mg daily to counter the symptoms, which I did. The symptoms were gone again and after 2 weeks of 10mg he asked me to go on 5mg for one week and then on 0mg. I took my last pill in October 2020.

Day 1 without it was good, day 2 as well. Day 3 is when the problems started. The original symptoms were back. Not all of them, but some. And also some new symptoms, like the sexual problems.

I heard about withdrawal symptoms and I was pretty sure its just them and it will all be good in a few days or weeks. But it hasn't been good ever since.


I experience the following symptoms every day since October 2020:

1. Heavy exhaustion / fatigue (I constantly want and need to sleep) and constant drowsiness (the way I experience my surroundings feels kind of dull, like if I was below a cheese bell).
2. Lack of motivation and power to do anything.
3. Unable to "feel" any real emotion, like real joy or love even. The only emotion I have right now is aggression.
4. Sexual problems:
- Complete loss of libido. I just dont feel the "desire" anymore. The problem is, I know I "should" want sex and I "should" want to masturbate, so I am trying to, but the desire is gone.
- No spontaneous erections and morning erections at all.
- Inability to create an erection. If I can manage to create one "by force" during masturbation, I can not keep it. If I stop the manual stimulation at any time, the erection is gone within 5 seconds. I can look at my wife, pictures, porn, whatever, nothing moves down there.
- Heavy premature ejaculation. Instead of being able to get an erection through manual stimulation, most of the time I just "finish" after a few seconds. I am done without even getting an erection.
- Genital numbness.


Before taking the antidepressant I was able to masturbate whenever I wanted to.
If my wife just looked at me the "wrong" way, I was already rock hard.
Yes, I must admit, at some times I did not last as long as I wanted to when having sex, but that were exceptions and mainly caused by being to aroused...

So the problem is, my doctors keep telling me that all of the mentioned symptoms can be caused by another depressive episode, which yes, could be true I guess. I could be in another depressive episode right now, judged on symptoms 1 - 3. But the fact that the sexual problems were not present in my first depressive episode and only started exactly 3 days after my last pill of the antidepressant is alerting to me. I did not have any sexual problems during my first episode nor while I was on the antidepressant.

My doctors (GP and therapist) both tell me, that the cause must be the mental illness again, because I couldn't have "permanently destroyed" anything by taking these antidepressants, that would be impossible. Well yeah...

I agree on the fact that these sexual problems can be caused by depression, by taking antidepressants and by withdrawing them. But from all my research and from the way it feels, I am pretty sure that this might be PSSD.

By the way, I was trying Sildenafil (something like Viagra) a couple of times before all of this, and it worked great. I tried it like two times these days and it still works to get an erection, although it feels a bit less hard and because of the genital numbness it kind of feels strange. Also it's just not the same if you can't feel anything emotionally when doing it.

Does this sound like PSSD to you?

I would be very happy to discuss with you guys about this.
Let me know if I missed something.

Sorry for the long text and thank you for your input.

Best regards,
Tim



Edit: I found some questions which seems I should answer, so I will:

Code: Select all

1- What is your gender? 
-> Male
2- Why did you take antidepressants in the first place? and for how long were you on them? which med? 
-> Escitalopram / Lexapro 10mg for first depressive episode, took for 7 months
3- How was your sexual and emotional function before antidepressant intake? 
-> Perfect, good desire, erections and orgasms.
4- What are your symptoms exactly and when did they start? sexual dyfunction alone, or cognitive/emotional/hedonistic as well? which symptom is bothering you the most? 
-> answered above but worst symptoms are drowsiness, fatigue and sexual problems
5- What meds/suppplements have you tried so far? 
-> to fight "withdrawal": Vitamin D, B, Zinc, Omega 3, Magnesium
-> to fight sexual problems: Maca, Sildenafil
6- Do you have access to meds without prescription (buy online), or would strictly require a prescription for meds to try? 
-> Could get Sildenafil without, but mostly prescription
7- Can you tolerate garlicky foods? what about proteins? 
-> Yes to both, not tested, but so far I am fine with both. I like to eat garlick and when I was doing sports, I would take proteins regularly.
8- Have you done any blood testing? what were the results? 
-> Yes, about one year ago. All values were good, at least my GP did not ask me to change anything.
Hi Tim

Yeah it sounds exactly like PSSD! All of us here have all those symptoms and more or we just have some of them.. I personally suffer mostly sexually with numbness but I also have tinnitus, blunted emotions, can’t fall in love and fatigue! I used to have bad head pressure and dizziness but they’ve mostly gone now thankfully! Hopefully you will get better in time.. there’s a more active chat group you could join on ‘discord’ which I’m in and many others.. sometimes you get answers quicker there - https://discord.gg/v5MS69HQ (link expires in 7 days)

Don’t panic, people DO recover.. sometimes it takes months sometimes years!
Last pill March 2019 - Citalopram for 7 years
Numbed penis and weak orgasm
Fatigue
Slightly blunted
Dizziness (this has improved a lot in the last 6 months)
ytho
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2021 11:07 am
Contact:

Re: ytho - Intro (Escitalopram / Lexapro & PSSD)

Unread post by ytho »

JP1985 wrote: Wed Mar 17, 2021 2:53 pm Hi Tim

Yeah it sounds exactly like PSSD! All of us here have all those symptoms and more or we just have some of them.. I personally suffer mostly sexually with numbness but I also have tinnitus, blunted emotions, can’t fall in love and fatigue! I used to have bad head pressure and dizziness but they’ve mostly gone now thankfully! Hopefully you will get better in time.. there’s a more active chat group you could join on ‘discord’ which I’m in and many others.. sometimes you get answers quicker there - https://discord.gg/v5MS69HQ (link expires in 7 days)

Don’t panic, people DO recover.. sometimes it takes months sometimes years!
Sb919 wrote: Wed Mar 17, 2021 11:38 am It's still pretty early to tell. I can't really give any good advice other than giving it time, and forcing yourself to do things that are mentally and physically stimulating. I wouldn't go too crazy supplementing or trying other drugs until you see where you're at about a year out. Time seems to be biggest factor for most.

Sometimes it takes a bit to get replies here. @Meso seems to have his hands full a lot of the time, but I'm sure he will have a look soon.

Good luck man, and welcome to the forum. Sorry we had to meet under these circumstances. It gets better.
Thank you both for your replies, I am glad I can have some conversation about this topic, because it is really difficult to keep this for myself.

@Sb919 I agree, and I also read that a lot of people here suggest to not try every pill or supplement out there in the early phases. For me it has been about 5 months now, so I guess it is till somewhat early.

@JP1985 I didn't read up on your story as of now, so may I ask what condition, and mainly symptoms, led you to taking the SSRI? I am just asking, because all of these symptoms, like sexual difficulties, tinnitus, blunted emotions and fatigue can all be caused by depression itself as far as I researched. So I guess what I am trying to say is that I find it difficult to know, whether the symptoms described by me and also you are caused by PSSD or the original mental illness again. Don't get me wrong, I accept whatever the cause for the symptoms is, but how can one know its one cause or the other?

Oh and thanks for the Discord link, I will see if i can figure this out.

Thank you for your input.
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