Posted by crabwalk on May 16, 2006, at 9:46:18
In reply to Re: from LAtimes: post-antidepressant sexual side fx » crabwalk, posted by Larry Hoover on May 15, 2006, at 22:59:16
>Something about this attitude really ticks me off.
Everything about this entire phenomenon really ticks me off. I'm actually surprised to hear people on this board be so complacent about it. I suppose maybe they are older, but I am 23, and my wellbeing depends on fixing this problem, which I will either do or die trying. It is without a doubt the reason I am depressed, and I think it causes depression not only psychologically but also biologically, i.e. I think that the biological changes that antidepressants cause that kill interest in and pleasure from sex underlie, at least in part, the biological illness of depression. I think this is why AD's, especially ssris, cause emotional blunting too, and I think this is their effect in far too many people. In this sense, antidepressants can cause long term depression by permanently blunting our ability to experience pleasure, be it physical or from something more intellectually or emotionally complex. I was not nearly as depressed before ssris as I am now. Now I feel I can't experience pleasure from much at all. I know this is a symptom of depression, but I was numb the entire time I was on ssris. I experienced neither joy nor sadness, I was anesthetized. I thought these effects would go away, but they've screwed me over maybe permanently, and I believe it is criminal. I feel like my life was taken by ssris.
Oh, and with respect to birth control, that is just as upsetting. People make the same assumption about bc and AD's, that we would have heard about any problems before, so there can't be a problem now. That is ridiculously short/narrow-sighted in an epidemiological/historical sense (birth control and psych drugs, hell the very field of psychiatry, are brand new in an epidemiological scope), and as was mentioned, does not take into account the social taboo of discussing sexual problems, especially for women.
Sorry for the rambling, but this issue has obviously outraged me.
poster:crabwalk
thread:644354
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060515/msgs/644669.html