PSSD Forum

Hi, I am 19yo man currently studying at University. Here's my story. I have been suffering from social anxiety for 7 years now. It started pretty rapidly but affected only some parts of my life like public speeches, and kept getting worse. I ended in the state where right now I have tremor of all my body parts almost all time due to anxiety, I can't eat dinner with my closest family without taking beta-blockers, in university I can't focus on anything and only trying to calm down. 1 year ago, when my social anxiety reached that level, and psychotherapy didn't help much, I decided to try SSRIs. What's funny is that I knew what is PSSD before I took the first dose, and I was scared that I will have it but I decided to take a risk because I was in terrible situation anyway. And I took... 1 pill of paxil, my penis went totally numb and libido dropped to 0. I said to myself that even if it helped with anxiety, I can't live like that, so I didn't take the 2nd pill. But days were passing and my libido went to like 5% of what I had before and there was no further improvement. I need to metion that before this pill I could call myself hypersexual, even severe episodes of depression where I couldn't get up from bed couldn't stop my high libido . But this one pill almost killed it. Also, I have the thing on my penis called fordyce spots which is not an illness but because of that my penis looks terrible, and it's not treatable (just like PSSD ). Wow man I am so lucky in life, I was almost ceiternly sure that I will never have sex in my life because of my severe Social Anxiety and these fordyce thing, and now I can't even get turned on. My life s*cks but nobody knows about anything. I get no help because I don't ask for it. I guess it's because of the nature of social anxiety that people with this disorder hide their problems.

How long ago did you take the pil?

Darman wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 11:54 pm How long ago did you take the pil?

About 9 months ago.
Btw. Do you know any medication that would help?
I read about Trazodone and vortioxetine being the most effective but also risky because they can possibly worsen pssd. I am not considering bupriopion because of my severe anxiety (it makes anxiety worse). I already tried Loratadine with no success. Is there anything I should try before Trazodone?

Hi Painball
I'm sorry, no. I have tried many things without success. Others have though. It seems very hit and miss.
I wish you all the best. Keep checking the forum for new info.

Please painball do not make the mistake I did. Try supplements first. People have reported sizeable improvement with supplements. Some claim that „natural“ products don’t work but that’s not true they contain pharmacologically active substances just as medications. I crashed hard from trazodone. It didn’t help my pssd at all and numbed me even more. Before trazodone I at least had a bit of emotions but now nothing. Wish you all the best!

Thank you DerHerrS for your warning, I was writing my post right after I diagnosed myself with pssd (before I gave myself some hope that it's not it) so I was kinda desperate to help myself. But I know I need to be careful and I will try some supplements for sure. I have plenty of them at home for social anxiety and some apparently were mentioned on this forum. So right now I started taking zinc+magnesium, tumeric and fish oil, unfortunetely no changes so far

It seems like there's a "biological" issue with your brain (amygdala ?) so you are in constant state of Fight or Flight .

Libido, at this moment, should be the last of your worries .

You are not able to have dinner with your PARENTS.
You need to address the anxiety issue ASAP with medical intervention.

IMHO Paxil was PERFECT for treating this problem .
You seem to have a BIG issue, and you need to treat it RIGHT NOW if you want to live a decent life.

Find a good natural holiatic doctor, or forget about sexual side effects for a while (6 months ?) and get a "weaker" SSRI, hopefully it would do the trick and "normalize" your amygdala

To be honest. When I took my first pill of Escitalopram back in 2018 I was feeling the way you feel right now (could not eat a dinner sometimes, could not focus at university, public speaking was the worst thing ever). After the "treatment" I am not sure if my anxiety resolved. I feel just more emotional blunted, maybe that is why I do not care so much about stuff I took care long time ago. Taking those meds was not worth it. You remembered me all of this. Soon it will be my fifth year with PSSD.. The point is I think you should try to resolve your issue in better way than taking SSRI. Like The_Eye I would reccomend a holiatic doctor, do some blood tests, go to normal doctor and tell him about your problems. Your PSSD may resolve after some time. But first focus on your mental health.