Paciente destacado

Age: 27 | Spain

"At the age of 16, I was prescribed Lexapro (escitalopram) for anxiety. My anxiety was not severe at all, however, my doctor told me that it would be good for me to take it anyway.

I initially took it for 6 months. When I wanted to stop, I experienced horrible depressive episodes that I had never had before and cognitive problems appeared.

Shortly after stopping the first time, I reinstated the medication because my doctor told me my symptoms were psychological, even though I now know that I was actually experiencing withdrawal.

This happened to me several times. Once I realized that many of my health problems were due to the medication, I decided to stop taking it for good.

Shortly after quitting, I crashed heavily and horrible PSSD symptoms started to appear. I now struggle with anhedonia, sexual dysfunction, tinnitus, cognitive problems, photophobia and depersonalization.

It has been 3 years since I crashed, and it has been very hard for me to grasp all this. I hope that my story and the stories of many others will help raise awareness of PSSD. Us sufferers should come together and help one another get through this."

Age: 23 | USA

"I was given 10 mg of Lexapro after an adverse reaction to risperidone to help the side effects I had, it only took 22 days of 10 mg to experience full-blown genital numbness.

It has been nearly 3 years and I have yet to recover from the numbness and cognitive issues.

My emotions feel extremely blunted, crying is nearly impossible, I used to be an emotional person, my vision worsened as well.

I also developed concentration issues and awful sexual dysfunction at the age of 20."

Age: 30 | Mexico

"I started taking Paxil (paroxetine) for mild anxiety on the 31st of March 2022. I took 5mg daily, which is the minimum dose.

I continued with the same dose and stopped taking it on April the 15th of the same year, that was it.

While on the medication, I felt sedated and apathetic, I had never been like this, normally I'm always happy, hyperactive as well as passionate about music and life.

Shortly after stopping, a whole bunch of symptoms started to appear.

I lost my libido completely, I experience cognitive issues, sexual dysfunction, fatigue, emotional numbness and genital numbness.

I'm also unable to feel love or any kind of sexual attraction.

To this day, 7 months later, my symptoms have not gotten any better, they've only gotten worse.

The last 7 months have been a living nightmare. Without energy and emotions I just stay alone at home, suffering from the symptoms that paroxetine left me with.

I've had to quit my job and I have become a hermit. I'm begging for answers."

Age: 22 | USA

“1 year ago, I was dealing with excessive anxiety due to the pandemic and OCD. I had finally decided to do something about it and went to see a psychiatrist. I was given the smallest dose of Celexa (Citalopram). After about 30 minutes of taking it for the first time, I started to feel my whole body become numb. I panicked and discontinued the medication immediately.

I ended up with anhedonia, numbness, and complete loss of any pleasurable feelings. I first tried turning to alcohol due to the suicidal thoughts arising from this condition. I became desperate and tried various supplements throughout the past year, which had only made things worse.

I’ve gotten used to faking my emotions now, as I can no longer find things funny and enjoy being in others’ presence. Something that I won’t get used to though is living with this forever, and what keeps me here is the faith I have in the current researchers trying to find us answers."

Age: 24

"I took Paxil (paroxetine) from February 2020 until May 2020.

It has been nearly 3 years since I quit the medication.

While taking Paroxetine I experienced extreme genital numbness, erectile dysfunction, pleasureless and weak orgasms.

It took 30 mins after taking the first pill for all of these symptoms to take effect.

After coming off of the medication, these symptoms were still in full effect.

Today I still suffer from severe genital numbness, weak erections and weak orgasms despite coming off of the medication nearly 3 years ago.

There have been some windows of improvement in the last 3 years, but nothing significant."

Age: 23

"I started sertraline when I was 16 for OCD and immediately lost all my libido and sexual feelings after taking the first pill. I didn’t really mind as I was still in school and told myself I’d come off when I left for university.

During the time I was on the drug my emotions became blunted, I experienced cognitive decline and loss of concentration / memory.

My OCD was basically cured but when I stopped the medication I noticed that only about 20% of my sexual functioning was left. I also experienced a huge increase in anxiety, prompting my doctors to increase my dose all the way up to 200mg per day.

This caused further problems so the doctors made me switch to Celexa (citalopram), then to Prozac (fluoxetine) and then to Effexor (venlafaxine). Throughout the years the medications impaired me cognitively so much that I had to quit university. On top of that, my sexual function declined to about 5-10%.

I’ve spent the majority of the past few years alone in my room with a drinking problem as it’s the only way I could feel emotions again. I also experience complete anhedonia.

A few months ago, I noticed my emotions and sexual functioning were starting to return to about 50%. Then I was prescribed Bupropion (wellbutrin) for depression, and I took it because I thought it was safe.

I’ve lost all sexual functioning and am now at 0%. I’m devastated as I was finally recovering after 7 years and now it’s the worst it’s ever been."

Age: 23 | Australia

“I started taking Lexapro (escitalopram) for symptoms of anxiety/depression/OCD that were exacerbated by the Covid lockdowns in Australia. I thought starting this medication would be the best decision for improving every aspect of my health, but it had the complete opposite effect.

I only took escitalopram for 4.5 months at a low dose from August to December of 2020 and did a taper to stop the medication. I have been off the medication for over 2 years now and I have not made a significant step forward in recovery of my PSSD symptoms. On the medication, I could hardly function.

I experienced sexual dysfunction, complete anhedonia, I couldn’t feel my emotions at all and couldn’t cry. I also experienced extreme DP/DR, Visual snow, Tinnitus, full body numbness, severe fatigue, lack of strength.

The medication didn’t even help my original symptoms but only made my situation much worse.

Upon quitting the medication my symptoms improved slightly but still mostly remain to this day. I still experience difficulties connecting to others and feeling emotions deeply. I experience no romantic or sexual attraction as well as genital numbness.

All these symptoms are the opposite of the person I was before taking escitalopram. The original depression I was seeking help for is nowhere near as bad as the symptoms I experience now. I feel as if I've already witnessed my own death.

I can’t have a relationship in this state, and knowing that others can experience pleasure in their life while I feel stuck behind a glass jar is torture.”

Age: 30 | Poland

“In December 2019 I went to a psychiatrist because I felt a little bit down. She prescribed me Cymbalta (duloxetine).

I took the smallest dose, and after 2 weeks I started feeling strange, I lost all interest in romantic relationships, and relationships with people in general.

My genitals started to feel numb, and I lost my libido completely.

I also developed anhedonia and derealization at the same time. This was the darkest time of my life.

I slowly started to reduce the dosage over several weeks when I learned about PSSD in March 2020.

My derealization and anhedonia improved about 9 months after quitting the medication, but to this day, I'm still struggling with the sexual symptoms of PSSD.

It's been exactly 3 years of a numb, joyless life. I'm alive, but I feel dead inside. I try to live day by day.

Since I developed PSSD, I've experimented with hundreds of supplements in the hopes of finding something that cures me.”

Age: 45 | Spain

“Ten years ago, I took #Lexapro (escitalopram) 20 mg, for 1 year and 4 months.

At first, it felt great, my anxiety disappeared very suddenly. I never struggled with depression prior to taking the medication, only with anxiety.

Months went by, and I started to feel like I was a robot with no feelings, but my sexuality was not affected by much.

My problems started as soon as I stopped taking the medication. A few days after stopping, I noticed that my libido did not come back and that I was no longer able to feel romantic attraction. I basically became asexual and aromantic.

This had a brutal effect on my mental well-being. Due to the loss of my sexuality and emotional feelings, I started to develop severe depression that led me very close to taking my life.

Ten years later I still experience the same symptoms, I did not recover anything.

I have not been able to adapt to the person that I've become due to the medication.

Days go by, and I think about what will become of me, I feel like I will always be alone and unable to start a family.

I am afraid of ending up alone, and I'm distraught that I'm not able to bond with someone.

Since I developed PSSD, I struggle with suicidal thoughts on a daily basis.”

Age: 38 | Finland

“In February 2022 I was prescribed Cymbalta for lower stomach pain. It helped with the pain, but shortly after taking it I started to experience bad neurological symptoms. Additionally, my genitals started to feel very painful and I also stopped having my period.

When I was on medication, my sexual function was normal. 7 weeks in, I had to stop taking Cymbalta due to the neurological symptoms I was experiencing.

About 3 weeks after stopping, I lost the feeling of love for my partner. It was incredibly scary.

At this time, I also experienced twitches and numbness in my genitals.

Last summer, everything got worse. I thought that it can't get any worse, but it did.

I now experience memory loss, anhedonia, anxiety, complete absence of libido, brain fog, pressure in my head and genital pain.

Now, 8 months after quitting Cymbalta, I have no feelings of joy left in my life.

My happiness was stolen from me. I don't feel anything good, only the bad things. I feel like I'm alive but, I’m unable to live my life.

I have an understanding partner who loves me, but this situation is horrible. I just want my life back.”

Age: 25 | USA

“I began taking antidepressants because of my anxiety disorder. I've been off medications since October 18, 2022, however PSSD symptoms began after my first attempt at stopping the medication in 2020.

This was when I learned about PSSD, I was trying to figure out why, for the first time ever, my libido had substantially dropped. The symptoms never went away and instead got worse upon reinstatement of my medication 6 months later in 2021.

Since then, symptoms have worsened even more. I'm off of Trintellix today in the hopes that my body can recover on its own given enough time, as some sufferers have been lucky enough to escape this hole with time. Others have it indefinitely.

While on the medication, I had no issues and I always say that they helped me a lot to deal with my anxiety issues.

I quit because I made the decision to see how I could handle being off of them after being in a much better spot in life. After all, I could just go back on them with no issues if I needed to, right?

Wrong. Here I am today, practically unable to feel the feelings of excitement, of love, of joy, sadness, every emotion. I also experience the common PSSD symptom of numb genitalia, where in my case everything just feels like the back of my hand.

Looking at members of the opposite sex evokes almost no emotion any more. I never experienced any of this before I ever took this medication. My quality of life has been destroyed because there is quite literally no more enjoyment to be had out of life.

This community gives me the power to push on, I'd be lost without them. We have been harmed. We desperately need more research into PSSD. We need a cure.”

Age: 19 | USA

“I started taking Prozac (fluoxetine) and Lexapro (escitalopram) for my anxiety and OCD.

I took a low dose of Prozac for a couple of months, back in April/May, followed by one dose of Lexapro. It has been over 6 months since the last dose.

A few weeks into the medication, I noticed loss of emotion, as well as terrible derealization/brain fog. I had never experienced these side effects before taking these meds, but I was 100 percent confident that they would disappear when I got off of them.

After discontinuing, within a week, my symptoms got dramatically worse.

The brain fog led me to quit my job. I lost my social life. I also had to defer my first year of college. I felt drunk and dissociated from my body all the time. Unable to have normal conversations, my short-term memory was little to non-existent.

As well as a complete loss of my emotion and sex drive. Went from being an emotionally driven person to someone who could no longer feel love for my family, cry, feel happiness or romance.

Throughout the next couple of months, my energy began to deteriorate as well. I am not even close to having the energy I had before taking the meds. Went from being able to work out for a couple of hours to barely being able to work out for 20 minutes.

It has been over half a year and my brain fog and fatigue have slowly gotten worse, while my emotions are still not back to normal.”