Question for long term pssd guys

[Markc1113]

I’m really having a tough time lately. I have been wandering, over the years, has time improved symptoms a little? I realize all of you guys still have pssd or else you may not be here but has not improved at all? I keep telling myself the number sensations may not improve but if libido atleast becomes existent and I can get an erection I’d consider myself lucky. I’m six months in.. will time improve some of this enough to where I’m not better but learn to live with it?

[AnhedonicApe]

I’m really having a tough time lately. I have been wandering, over the years, has time improved symptoms a little? I realize all of you guys still have pssd or else you may not be here but has not improved at all? I keep telling myself the number sensations may not improve but if libido atleast becomes existent and I can get an erection I’d consider myself lucky. I’m six months in.. will time improve some of this enough to where I’m not better but learn to live with it?

I think the best thing you get with time is more acceptance/being calm about the whole PSSD thing. Actual symptom improvement with time is rare/unlikely.

[dangerwood]

I think the best thing you get with time is more acceptance/being calm about the whole PSSD thing. Actual symptom improvement with time is rare/unlikely.

Not true at all, don’t scare the poor guy. A lot of people improve to some extent over time, but I will admit that to get a full 100% recovery you will need to take something, a natural full recovery is unlikely.

[cls]

tl;dr I have seen improvements emotionally, very little sexually, but trending positively at a rate that makes a snail seem like a Bugatti Chiron.

I'm almost 7 months in since SSRIs, 4 months since Wellbutrin (but Wellbutrin worked super well for me sexually, so I don't use that as my end date most of the time), so not really a long time, but I figured I'd give a response anyways. I've had some improvement emotionally, but not much sexually. I do have low free T and I'm trying to treat it, so I can at least see if that's causing something, although this was never an issue pre-PSSD, so I'm not overly confident about it. I've had very, very slight improvement sexually after taking boron for a few days and I'll be starting a combo of Shilajit and Tongkat Ali at the end of the month. My libido seems to have some potential too as I'm at least interested in women again, although sex drive has not been strong at any point post-Wellbutrin except when I took Ginkgo/Panax Ginseng for two days a few weeks ago. My caffeine tolerance has risen as well and I'm able to handle about 35mg of caffeine again without adverse effects (whereas I couldn't ingest more than 10 without weird effects before).

Ultimately, I think this will come down to a biological lottery. Many here have not recovered, many have disappeared without giving a status update, some say they've recovered. Improve yourself as best as you can (sleep, diet, therapy) and whatever you do, do NOT take SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOIs, or Tricyclics ever again. I have not seen a case here where anyone was cured with reinstatement and it personally did not work when I mistook rebound depression for actual depression. We have a reported long-term treatment success from one of our members on lithium (mood stabilizer), but I personally am opting not to touch psychiatric medication again except in the form of herbal medicine until there's something more promising.

One thing I will absolutely guarantee that will not come back for me is a trust in psychiatrists. That train is gone and I will never trust another one, no matter how nice, intelligent, or qualified they are. I put my life into their hands and their standard practices have left me broken. Even though I won't blame the individuals, I blame the medical community as a whole for not being more careful with treatment (e.g. failure to notify of side effects, failure to understand the severity of side effects, blaming the patient even when it was clearly the drug, etc.).

[AnhedonicApe]

I think the best thing you get with time is more acceptance/being calm about the whole PSSD thing. Actual symptom improvement with time is rare/unlikely.

Not true at all, don’t scare the poor guy. A lot of people improve to some extent over time, but I will admit that to get a full 100% recovery you will need to take something, a natural full recovery is unlikely.

Mmmm. I am in a groupsapp with people ranging over all the years. 13 years, 6 years, 2 years. The biggest part did not improve with time, with some rare exceptions. I have to say, most improvement is made in the first months, after that, it's mostly steady going (for the most). The thing is, we are dealing with an altered homeostasis here. Why would there be improvement with time? The body thinks we are doing just fine within this new homeostasis and sees no reason to ''heal''. Like I said, it's not impossible, but at least the people I speak with do not have symptoms improve overtime, mostly the first months, is when changes still happen. Saying a lot of people do heal with time, is not what I see happening in the groupsapps or on the forums. It's more rare than common or a lot. I don't want to give this guy a false idea of what time does for this condition, it's minimal in my experience. Also not saying PSSD can't be cured etc., just saying I wouldn't count on time here.

[hs1312]

I’m really having a tough time lately. I have been wandering, over the years, has time improved symptoms a little? I realize all of you guys still have pssd or else you may not be here but has not improved at all? I keep telling myself the number sensations may not improve but if libido atleast becomes existent and I can get an erection I’d consider myself lucky. I’m six months in.. will time improve some of this enough to where I’m not better but learn to live with it?

I think the best thing you get with time is more acceptance/being calm about the whole PSSD thing. Actual symptom improvement with time is rare/unlikely.

there are 50 recovery stories on ghosts site and a lot of them were natural. u need to be a little more optimistic too.

[Markc1113]

Thanks guys. I have had it six months and actually gone up and down. I did try wellebutrin but don’t want to try anything ssri wise. I had some really good ups almost to the point where I thought I was better from tapering wellebutrin back down again to some lows. Lately it has seemed to get worse with libido and sensation so hoping maybe it will atleast stabilize to where I can have sex. Otherwise I guess I will ride the Ed pills until they don’t work anymore and look at implants after that.. just want to live a normal life. It’s sad this happened to us.

[nasibi]

I think the best thing you get with time is more acceptance/being calm about the whole PSSD thing. Actual symptom improvement with time is rare/unlikely.

I second this. It has been over 3 years for me and no improvements. I have kind of gotten used to it though.

[AnhedonicApe]

I’m really having a tough time lately. I have been wandering, over the years, has time improved symptoms a little? I realize all of you guys still have pssd or else you may not be here but has not improved at all? I keep telling myself the number sensations may not improve but if libido atleast becomes existent and I can get an erection I’d consider myself lucky. I’m six months in.. will time improve some of this enough to where I’m not better but learn to live with it?

I think the best thing you get with time is more acceptance/being calm about the whole PSSD thing. Actual symptom improvement with time is rare/unlikely.

there are 50 recovery stories on ghosts site and a lot of them were natural. u need to be a little more optimistic too.

I never said natural healing does never happen. I am saying it´s very rare. And the number you just gave me proves that. 50 people, and only a part of that is natural healing like you said. So over all these years only a part of 50 people healed naturally. Don´t you see that is the vast minority, and most just remain having PSSD. About your remark about being positive. I try to stay as positive as I can within realistic ideas. I won´t fool myself and expect my PSSD to heal naturally. This just simply does not happen for the majority of sufferers.

[afx]

Those who heal naturally do not necessarily post stories about it and even less probable hang around on any forums or groups. Only persistent sufferers are around active. The number of registered users tells nothing about how they later evolve with time. There are somewhat like 100 total max 200 people around who ever posted a thing. We cannot talk probabilities and if we do then if for the number of people who ever posted there are 50 recovered? Thats not that bad. Main point is lets not project and generalize everything on everybody and the whole syndrome and how its gonna evolve for someone else. Probabilities cannot be applied just like that, be it natural recoveries or time improvements, it could be Yes or No that we cannot predict for someone else and give probabilities