PSSD Forum

Hi Guys
Finally I am writing my story.
I am an expat living in amsterdam, 28 years old. I work in an IT consultancy company. I was never chronically depressed or something, I think I had a happly life generally throughout
I had a stressful last year at work and a small burnout too. During that time I also had a breakup. I got a little stressed and went to a psychiatrist. He prescribed me with Venlaflaxin. Although I did not really need the medication as I was not very depressed. But I decided to take it as I had a month off from work and I thought its a good time to try the medication( little did I know what was coming my way). That was October 2016.
I started with 75mg vanlaflaxin and i noticed some decrease in erection on the fourth day, I tried to call my psychiatrist but he was busy. I decided to keep on taking the medication thinking the side effects will go away soon. in a few days the erection was solid so i was relieved. I remained on the medication for about 4.5 months. I had noticed my libido had decreased to half but I thought it was not important as I was not in a relationship and busy at work and I did not care as long as the erections were fine and i could masturbate every now and then and thought I can get off medication and everything will be fine. The anti depressant did help me get out of the little gloomy feeling I had
I decided to tapper off from the medication in february. I slowly reduced the medication and I was drug free start of March.
My life was going great. I had a great time at work. I am traveling abroad for work related projects and was getting recognized for my performance at work. so I decided to tapper off from the medication. Even after I was off from the medication, I was feeling even better for a month my sex drive was constant ( neither increased nor decreased, i thought it will increase soon) .For the first 20 days or so, and I remember I was so happy with life and I remembered telling my friends at that time that i was on top of the world.
Suddenly a month ago I started getting some problems, diarhea, low sex drive, headaches, low energy and then suddenly i noticed i did not get the morning erections. every single day the symptoms were getting worse and worse. I tried masturbating to see how it was, my semen count decreased and i had muted orgasm.
I feel my body totally numb with no sensation in my penis. my penis shrunk in size and libido decreased to 0. I kept on getting weird headaches and diarhea every day since this all started. weakness in limbs and total lack of motivation and energy, lack of sleep.

I got scared as I was on top of the world just a few weeks ago. I panicked and started googling and found this damned thing called PSSD.
I went to my GP last week and booked an apointment for a neuro psychiatrist in amsterdam.
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Today morning I had a very bad headache and very strong anhedonia. I had researched the symptoms of high serotonin so I thought my symptoms are coz of that. I decided to buy BCAAs today and I took them. It is supposed to decrease serotonin. BCAA did help me today with the headache.

I am right now feeling really worried and scared of my future and I am finding it hard to accept that I got his damned PSSD thing. I am also searching desparately for the success stories of people recovering from PSSD here on the forum and also on the internet. but I am afraid I have not been able to find very many. It scares me to see so many people here on this forum struggling for so many years. Treatment options seems very vague and uncertain.

I feel unable to even cry coz of anhedonia. If I try to force myself to cry then I get this weird headache.

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I came accross this research on the internet ( i have also posted it on the forum)
http://www.smsna.org/scottsdale2016/pre ... ns/001.pdf

This basically says that Serotonin ( 5ht2, 3) all affect sexual desire negativily and prolactin and opiods also adversly affects it

I am taking this as a starting point to do further research on this subject. I also request that you guys can suggest me any options too.
It seems like a long long struggle. I hope we all get cured.

Hi
Man sorry to hear that it happened to you, that place is a good shelter for US AS Shadow once said.
I also hope that we can overcome that.
I m in similar situation , scared, ustable etc.
Although it is terrible and i d prefer that didn't happen to US good to see you here.
Im not good in science but im serching common mechanisms things that were, reported to help someone it can be some trail....
BTW IF you need talkyou can find me on facebook
PATRICK VIOLIN (FAKE ACCOUNT)

Thanks for the support.
I will keep updating this thread if I get any improvements
So far its been a hard 2-3 weeks
Cant believe this is happening

Sometimes it resolves after 2-3 months...

I hope so.
Did not see a 2-3 month success story here on the forum. Maybe those who recover quickly do not post their story

Here i hvan t seen but on general anxiety forum i sav recoveries up to 6 months

Yea I even had a psychiatrist once tell me that up to about a month after it is fairly common to still see these things.

Hi Ghost so you are saying that there is a chance that I can get better in a month or two.

it's possible, yes

Updating my situation - for my own reference

Had all the hormones level tested. SHBG , LS FSH were a bit on the lower side. Rest were normal

Its been 5.5 months now with this PSSD. I have tried a few things. Nystatin, Ginko, CUrcumin, low dose SSRI. These things did not work. I am taking Licorice now for last 3 months along with Ltyrosine, I am also taking Inositol for the last two weeks. Inositol gave me some good improvements in the first 2-3 days.. but those improvements are gone now.

Regarding my situation: Cognitive problems have improved considerably but still not 100 percent. Motivational problems are still there.
Regarding the sexual stuff, I have not seen any improvements . Maybe 5 percent. I have had a few days when the improvements were more visible ( maybe they were the windows everyone talk about) or maybe they were just a bit of spike because of some supplementation I was taking.

Emotional status : getting a bit desparate on this PSSD thing. Hoping for some improvements