PSSD sufferer | I regret taking antidepressants

Harmed by SSRI antidepressants. Emotional blunting, anhedonia, cognitive impairment, fatigue. Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction #PSSD

[PSSD sufferer | I regret taking antidepressants @PSSD_sufferer]

I took SSRI antidepressants escitalopram and sertraline without being properly informed about the risks. I wish I had made a different choice. I got severe side effects and even after stopping the antidepressants I still feel altered and not like myself. I ended up with #PSSD.

[Lauren Friedman @lololizzle]

Thank you @newstart_2024 for platforming this conversation, and my testimony. It is time that the truth of these medications be brought to light.

[rosie @ROSIE_PSSD]

@GamalielBaer I have PSSD, and it’s been a NIGHTMARE to raise awareness for - firstly it involves sexual health concerns so a lot of people are too embarrassed to come forward about it, and secondly, there are soooooo many ppl in the world on SSRIs who are horrified about this information

[Mansplaining it to you @RZR1776]

@HetMasMan @newstart_2024 I was on an SSRI for a couple months 10 years ago. I quit taking it because it gave me ED. That ED never went away. I have had to take viagra for the last 10 years, and my libido basically disappeared.

[Camus @newstart_2024]

“I have no sensation in my genitals. My clitoris is completely numb.”

Lauren Friedman, 23, shared her devastating experience with PSSD (Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction) — permanent loss of libido, sensation, and ability to orgasm after taking antidepressants.

Chris Williamson and Isabel Brown reacted with shock, noting how little mainstream coverage this issue receives.

Sexual side effects from SSRIs affect 50-70% of users. For a subset of people, these effects (including genital numbness and anorgasmia) persist long after discontinuation, a condition known as Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD). The exact prevalence is unknown, but patient reports and emerging research suggest it may be under-recognized.

People deserve full informed consent about potential long-term risks before starting these medications.

What do you think, should PSSD get more public and medical attention?

[Katie Collingwood @KatieRColl]

People with #PSSD share tragic and harrowing stories with the hope of being helped somehow. And so many people out there put us down, meet it with hostility, denial, projection, or cognitive dissonance.

Meanwhile people with PSSD are out here grieving lost identities, fighting low motivation, and trying to stay strong. When will people start to respond with compassion or show respect? PSSD almost feels exempt from human decency at times.

I'm really tired of being trapped in a hostile space with a horrible condition that's outside of my control.

[David Wayne @DescribeHealth]

@KennethMPeters1 @CorewellHealth @BeaumontUrology As a psych nurse, I proposed an update to our patient education materials to include a warning about PSSD. The medical director's response? "No, that will create hesitancy"

[danielle gansky @DanielleGansky]

PSSD is not simply the loss of sexual function. It extends far beyond that. It involves emotional dissolution, the loss of cognitive abilities, personality loss, identity loss, and profound disruptions to the experience of being human.

it’s a feeling of confinement within your own consciousness. It feels as though my mind had been placed in a chemical straitjacket. My thoughts, emotions, personality, and sense of self all feel restricted. I no longer feel fully able to access, express, or experience who I was ( or life itself) in the way I once could.

My sense of agency has been diminished within my own mind, almost like a loss of free will. I no longer feel free to think in the expansive way I once could. (something I had always taken for granted and never imagined I could lose at such young age.)

How do you describe the loss of something as subjective, invisible, abstract, and intangible as your own mind and consciousness?

Because the injury is invisible unlike a broken bone in a cast or a visible physical wound, others cannot truly grasp the depth of the devastation and damage of someone's internal world.

In the beginning I felt frustrated as words could not fully convey the reality of what was happening to me. The inability for me to communicate the experience made me feel even more trapped.

The very faculty I needed to describe what was happening had itself been affected.

What gets shattered Is the very instrument through which we experienced existence itself.

@PSSDNetwork #PSSD

[USA TODAY @USATODAY]

After stopping antidepressants, this 23-year-old said she experienced a “chemical castration." What to know about PSSD, according to experts. https://t.co/jfG3KoxoMq

[Mark Millich @Unstoppable218]

The news articles that say finasteride or SSRIs "may" cause or increase the risk of sexual dysfunction and depression are such a minimization of what these drugs can actually cause: anhedonia, emotional blunting, cognitive dysfunction, bone-related issues, muscle wasting, physical changes, and much more. And to not emphasize that these changes can be permanent is a serious slap in the face to those suffering.

I can't believe we're still at this stage of highlighting the absolute bare minimum of this harm.

[Dr Joanna Moncrieff @joannamoncrieff]

Long-term use of antidepressants: little evidence of benefit and growing evidence of risks, including sexual dysfunction, emotional numbing, cognitive impairment, weight gain and increased risk of physical health problems in older adults.

[Jorge Hernández PSSD @redpavement]

The brainfog it's so incredibly bad. I get so confused.

And remember, no treatment, no help, very few research.

An SSRI caused me this.

[ani @pssdganjedi]

as if pssd wasnt hellish enough, a lot of us also receive nothing but gaslighting and denial of harm from our families who js parrot and believe what theyve been told by the psychiatrist and dont even begin to try understanding what we are going through

[Adam Urato, MD @AdamUrato1]

If serotonin plays a crucial role in pregnancy & fetal development - and

If SSRIs disrupt the serotonin system -

Then SSRIs must disrupt the pregnancy & alter fetal development.

Thank you @Vthetherapist for having me on your podcast. https://t.co/zCvWGp103C

[Jorge Hernández PSSD @redpavement]

I kind of ruined my life by taking an SSRI (sometimes called "antidepressants"), specifically Escitalopram.

[fireworks and confetti @fworksconfetti]

On paroxetine, I was alive in name only.

Starting paroxetine and later trying to stop it led to hell, including nearly dying from akathisia.

But being on it was another kind of death- the slow, boiling frogs kind- because I was:

- Constantly saying “So what, who cares?”: I became known for this phrase

- Dead inside: everything about me was flatlined

- Chemically lobotomised: my inner monologue (my best friend, my confidant, my ideas assistant, my analyst, my dreamer) was silenced

- Chemically castrated: zero sex drive, zero sexual function and in turn partners blaming themselves for not being able to please me (not helped by me not caring that this upset them)

- Lacking ALL emotions that make humans, human (and not just the so-called “bad” ones that psychiatry stupidly thinks is about eradicating at all costs)

- Unable to cry, meaning couldn’t share important experiences of connecting with others such as crying at a funeral, or crying with laughter

- Stunted as a person; inertia instead of growth. I couldn’t care less that the things I once loved disappeared and I no longer wanted to pursue them; couldn’t care less if I hurt someone that I loved (people I’d always loved, thanks to the paroxetine, I came to only love them on paper)

- Living a life that was in suspended animation

I could go on describing many more ways paroxetine flatlined me but I’ll stop there because- as patients like me are told again and again by manipulative emotional blackmailers who cosplay as mental health professionals- describing my experience of taking and stopping paroxetine is sTiGmAtIsiNg mEnTal IlLnEss *eye roll so big my eyes fly out the back of my skull*

[Psychological_Coercion @Joe81355703]

Im living with permanent neurological damage from a few ssri pills a took 8 years ago. I still feel the DEEP ache in the middle of my brain and the emptiness inside. Nothing is firing correctly even after years of being off the drug.

[Iatrogenic Awareness @iatrogenicaware]

In many cases with PSSD/PFS your family will act like nothing happened to you and treat you as if you have a papercut, when in reality you've experienced a soul destroying, life altering injury.

[Pear Joseph @thepearjoseph]

I did an interview about SSRIs, PSSD and my experience with the mental health industry.

Link in replies.

[PBS News @NewsHour]

Have you taken medication for depression or anxiety and decided to stop?

We want to hear from you for an upcoming story: https://t.co/KwJc0zSEg3

[Medicating Normal @MedicatingNorm1]

MAD IN CANADA'S SURVEY ON INFORMED CONSENT DURING THE PRESCRIPTION OF ANTIDEPRESSANTS

This survey on the informed consent process experienced by adults (18 and older), is for those who are living in Canada, and who have been prescribed antidepressants.

For more info and to take the survey: https://t.co/Xct8nAREcp

#MentalHealth #antidepressants #canada