Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published on our affiliate site, Mad in the UK.
I’m Simon, a 33-year-old male from the UK. Back in 2012 after I graduated university I had a period of low mood and anxiety. I went to my GP who within a couple of minutes prescribed me an antidepressant, citalopram (Celexa). Little did I know that this would derail my life.
I experienced dark intrusive thoughts, numbed emotions, and numbing of my genitals over the subsequent months. I told my GP, who said that the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the name of this class of antidepressant drugs) needed more time to ‘settle in’ and take effect. It was at this point that he upped my dose.
This made me lethargic, tired all the time and unmotivated to do my job. I figured this was my ‘underlying depression’ and not the SSRIs.
After a few more months I went back to my GP and he switched me over to sertraline (Zoloft). This made my genitals even more numb and I was unable to orgasm. I moved to Australia around this point and my mood became incredibly low, with frequent mood swings and more dark, intrusive thoughts. Again, I never made the connection to the SSRIs and thought it was my underlying depression. After all, my GP never made the connection and I was repeatedly told this was likely my depression returning.
All I did was trust the ‘experts’
In 2015 I went back to my GP and he said that as citalopram and Zoloft hadn’t worked, I should instead try the SNRI venlafaxine. This was just before I went travelling and I was only on venlafaxine for two weeks until I decided that enough was enough. The withdrawal symptoms were brutal—like someone cattle-prodded my skull (severe brain zaps). I was barely able to stand up and had severe emotional blunting.
At this point my genitals were completely numb. I went back to my GP after returning from travelling and he put me on a low dose of citalopram, which I remained on until June 2022.
Throughout SSRI use I experienced debilitating brain fog, slurred speech, OCD, and bruxism, where I would grind my teeth. All of these symptoms have stopped since stopping SSRIs, but I am left with the sexual dysfunction and emotional blunting.
Buried alive with a deep sense of grief
Since stopping antidepressants for good in June 2022 I have developed erectile dysfunction, severe emotional blunting, and more genital numbing. I feel like a prisoner inside my own body, and nobody is able or willing to help. Chemical castration is a form of torture and is banned in most countries. I feel like I’m being punished for trusting the medical profession.
It wasn’t until December 2022 that I learned about the condition called PSSD (Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction) and that there were thousands of other people just like me who had unknowingly taken SSRIs, or the similar drugs known as SNRIs, which had led to permanent sexual dysfunction. PSSD could break the strongest person.
I’m not the same person after SSRIs/SNRIs
It isn’t just the sexual dysfunction that’s the problem. SSRIs have given me severe emotional blunting (called anhedonia by doctors) and now I don’t enjoy anything. I no longer have a creative spark. I’m no longer spontaneous. I could stare at a wall all day. I don’t enjoy music anymore. I don’t enjoy driving anymore. I don’t get a runner’s high anymore. I don’t enjoy travelling anymore.
Before taking antidepressants, I would get an erection and feel turned on throughout my body if I was in the presence of an attractive girl. Now my body has no physical response.
The impact of PSSD and anhedonia
Finding out I have something that is potentially permanent has been devastating. I run my own business and have a high-pressure day job, and because of the regret about what I’ve done to myself and hopelessness about my future, each day I think of ending my life.
While lots of research is underway to identify the root cause of PSSD, I have had no help from the GP who prescribed these drugs, who simply said that my condition was rare and that I should see a psychiatrist to explore any other underlying causes. None of this helped or made me feel validated.
Having your sexual function and range of emotions stripped from you leads to a lot of grief. Every time I take a shower or go to the toilet I am reminded of my numb genitals. Going to a therapist doesn’t help because I take the damage with me. PSSD feels like pharmaceutical rape.
The prevalence of PSSD
PSSD has been reported to regulators in the US and UK since 1991, with the first studies on the condition in 2006, yet no action has been taken to remove these drugs from the market.
Data released in 2021 under the UK’s Freedom of Information Act by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency showed that in a total of 1654 cases of adverse effects from SSRIs, in 1069 cases the reaction did not continue after the drug was withdrawn, in 225 cases the reaction continued after the drug was withdrawn with the recovery time being unknown, and in 144 cases the reaction continued after the drug was withdrawn and the recovery time was known.
A retrospective review published in The Journal of Urology in 2020 stated that between 2009 and 2019, 4% of the male patients whose charts were assessed in the review (43 patients total) met the criteria for PSSD, having displayed sexual dysfunction symptoms for longer than six months after stopping an SSRI.
A 2023 study, ‘Estimating the Risk of Irreversible Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) due to Serotonergic Antidepressants’ in the Annals of General Psychiatry, found that 1 in 216 males who have taken SSRI/SNRI medication experience sexual dysfunction long after discontinuation. There are 50 million Americans currently prescribed SSRIs/SNRIs. In the UK there are 8.3 million. When you consider how many took them in the past and have since stopped, these numbers could easily be double the amount currently taking them. For example, in my family, 3 out of 5 of us once took SSRIs, although none of us do currently. This means there could be around 460,000 US citizens and 80,000 UK citizens with permanent PSSD.
Finding a path forward
While PSSD has had a tremendous impact on me and my family, I have received no support or responses from the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency), who are responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe. I thought the UK was supposed to be the ‘world’s best healthcare system’ so I have lost a lot of trust.
Many experts believe PSSD is either a localised problem, or based in the brain, or both. The genital numbness is theorised to be some form of neuropathy of the peripheral and/or small nerve fibres, but more research is desperately needed. I am currently awaiting a small fibre neuropathy biopsy which is costing me £2644, most of my life savings. The NHS kept rejecting my application to see a neurologist so I have had no choice but to explore what has happened to me privately. As for my emotional blunting, I don’t hold out much hope for a cure for that as it feels like permanent brain damage; although I am no expert, having PSSD has forced me to become one due to the complete lack of support from the medical community.
How you can help make a difference
I regularly help as a volunteer for https://www.pssdnetwork.org, which is run by a group of sufferers and their loved ones. Its mission statement is: ‘At PSSD Network we aim to raise awareness of Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction as well as accelerate research, whilst also offering patients and loved ones support when it is needed. Furthermore, we want to provide a platform where people can find information on everything there is to know about PSSD.’
Here you can find support groups, donate to ongoing research, and read content such as the stories in ‘patient spotlights’. Over at RxISK.org you can find the latest PSSD research developments. I have made new connections with these organisations and our goal is to grow @PSSDNetwork’s following so that hopefully one day, those with the power to do something to protect the world’s 100+ million SSRI and SNRI users will take action, and might even help find a cure. Please join us if you can.
Thank you for using your anger and grief to try and help others. It’s an excellent article. Unless someone’s depression is making them absolutely non-functional I don’t think antidepressants should be prescribed. They are prescribed too often and too casually.
I never would have taken an antidepressant if a doctor had told me it could cause permanent sexual dysfunction, emotional blunting, damage to vision, high blood pressure, diabetes and protracted acute withdrawals that can disable a person for years. The dangers are just too great to prescribe for depression and anxiety that can be treated with natural remedies.
I’ve realized that one problem with psychiatrists steering people away from drugs is that they would be advising themselves out of a job since all psychiatrists do these days is prescribe meds.
Unfortunately that would be a drop in the bucket regarding the numbers of prescriptions written, because in the US 4 out of 5 psychiatric meds are prescribed by physicians who are not psychiatrists.
The over prescribing of psych meds is a worldwide crisis. Antidepressants, benzodiazepines and antipsychotic drugs are “prescribed harm.”
It is taking me 6 years to safely taper off Cymbalta 60 mgs. That’s a relatively low dose, nowadays most people are taking 120 mgs. And more people are prescribed Cymbalta for pain than depression; it is the go-to drug for fibromyalgia.
It is taking 6 years to taper to avoid the horrific withdrawals that almost killed me. I narrowly escaped PAWS and suicide.
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Thank you Laura, I wish I’d addressed my unmet physical and emotional needs back in 2012 rather than ending up on the brain pellets. I’d have been better off developing a class A drug habit. Glad to hear you’ve dealt with the withdrawals despite your challenges.
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Dear Simon, Thank you for your bravery in sharing your story. I am deeply saddened by your story and think the medical profession and drug companies are culpable for and extremely negligent in addressing the conditions you raise. I will certainly support your work and share your article.
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Thank you Ann, it’s been a painful 11 years, meeting girls I thought I should fall in love with and wondering why despite liking them with my heart, there’s no physical response. I feel like a heterosexual man trapped in an asexual body. Just got to keep going and keep driving awareness so fewer people end up with PSSD, it’s a bloody nightmare.
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The harm is made worse because of the context of the AIDS crisis. The side effects were seen as a benefit. When confronted with these side effects of SSRI’S the response was ‘there’s an AIDS crisis, you shouldn’t be having sex anyway.’
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Yes I’ve heard my PSSD situation compared to the AIDS crisis a number of times, in a way it’s much more debilitating.
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One of the results of the early mismanagement of the AIDS crisis was a reduction of efficacy and safety standards for drugs that fill an unmet need. After previous failed attempts Elly Lilly used these relaxed standards to get Prozac approved for the treatment of depression.
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Trust me, it’s not just men. Thank you for making noise about it.
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Hi Simon. My brother (TX, USA) is going thru the same thing. 44 yrs old and hasnt had the ability to enjoy his physical existence with his wife for almost 10 yrs. Thanks to…ssris. Ive had 2 friends, my 19 yr old nephew and my 22 yr old neice commit suicide within months of being put on these. Now, nobody in my family will touch them. I tried them briefly and, within 3 days, I was suicidal and Im not prone to any mental disorders previously. Drs prescribe these things and dont care about patients bc….the US legal system allows it. If Big Pharma can get the FDA to approve their medications, of course vetted by their own studies as the FDA rarely conducts any of their own, then they can legally prescribe with zero legal consequences to them. Instead the consequences are allocated to the pharma companies, which are funded by million dollar lawyers and ready to stop any litigation. It should be a criminal issue, but America is now corporately owned. Corporations have zero of the restrictions our government is bound to by law and Constitution. So they purchase politicans who write the laws as the lobbyists and corporations want them to. Americans no longer have the power in our country and our fatcat pharma companies are killing Americans everyday and there is nothing our corrupt government will do. Your dr has apathy bc theyre not legally liable. If they were, theyd care more to give better care. Sounds like he wasnt a very good dr anyway, just prescribing pills to you and forgetting about you the moment you left office. Im so sorry this happened to you.
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Hello Simon,
I had experienced some similar side effects after taking sertraline for two years (my sexual feelings have come back) but my blunted emotion and severe brain fog keep me working in slow motion compared to who I was before.
I know your main focus is the side effect of sexual dysfunction but have you found out or have any resources regarding the cognitive impairments? I feel like another person since my discontinuation of sertraline.
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Thank you Simon.
I want to report my side effects as you asked. I went on RXed and listed all my many many chronic conditions (All are caused by psych meds btw.) including g sexual dysfunction.
But even if I’d just listed one side effect, they want to know which drug caused it.
Well that’s a little hard to answer considering I was on 6 different psych meds.
And I’ve been on over 20 different ones for the past 40 years.
Any suggestions on where or how I am supposed to report that?
I probably sound angry. And that’s because I am. Very! But not at you Simon. Definitely not at you.
How are we supposed to fight this? How can we even prove that these drugs are harmful? They don’t use science to prove these drugs are safe. But if we want to disprove that they are safe, we are asked to use science. But how can we? We don’t have the resources. They do. And even when I try to prove it, how can I when I can’t isolate which drug did what?
Is it really as hopeless as it seems? Or am I just depressed????
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We shouldn’t have to prove they are dangerous. The standard is that the doctors/pharma need to prove they are safe. I think the biggest problem is we have hired a lot of foxes guarding the henhouse of drug safety. If we had a REAL set of standards with honest, non-corrupt people applying them, we’d all be a lot safer and it would be a lot easier to get complaints heard and acted upon!
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Hello Simon, So troubling to read your story. Clearly the medical establishment has harmed you. I do not know if my self-help EMDR program could help you, but it focuses on discovering and expressing emotion. It might be the beginning of recovering your emotional self. If you email me at: [email protected], I will respond with a free link to download the program. You can preview it before you decide at Se-REM.com. Take care, David B., LCSW (retired trauma therapist).
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Simon, this is such an important topic. Your article is being shared far and wide including internationally where words are used differently.
I must ask, please change ‘attractive girl’ to ‘attractive woman’. I would hate for your message to be compromised by a misinterpretation of ‘girl’. It’s just too important. Thankyou.
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Hi Simon, I am living out your story. Sadly, by the time I was prescribed an SSRI, the medical community was well aware of PSSD. And yet my GP said nothing about the risk when she prescribed. Informed consent be damned. I think doctors are making life changing decisions for us and without our knowledge or agreement. This must stop.
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I’m in the same boat too, I’ve been like this since 2016 from only 2 weeks on Sertraline. My memory has improved over the last couple of years but the anhedonia remains and I can only have sex with viagra and experience zero pleasure. The UK was a real let down, the NHS psych docs just said I’d get better one day and that was that, they also refused to prescribe Nardil and Parnate which could help the anhedonia, they just offered me SSRIs again. I’m not sure they would help with the sexual disfunction but there are 2 drugs in development (KarXT and Xen1101) which could help the anhedonia, fingers crossed.
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