Mark’s Story
Mark, age 32
BC, Canada
PSSD 7 years
To Whom It May Concern:
I am a 32 year-old male. I would like to bring some awareness to a condition I suffer from called Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction, or PSSD. In expanding on its symptoms and the impact it has had on my life, I wish to educate readers and hopefully alert the medical community to this under-recognized and under-reported ailment which surely affects thousands of others in similar if not even more devastating ways.
I first took the SSRI Zoloft in September of 2006 at age 18 for OCD and depression, while attending University. I worked my way up to a dosage of 100mg per day. I continued on this dosage until I stopped the medication altogether in June of 2008. My original anxiety and depression crept back up on me in September of 2009, so I went back on the medication until December of the same year, when I again came off the drug. I managed to handle my mental health problems without medication until 2017 when my original symptoms started re-emerging. I took Zoloft for the last time for about 10 months between August of 2017 and May of 2018. Each time I went back on the SSRI I found it quelled my anxiety and depression fairly effectively, however it left some lingering sexual side-effects that unfortunately still continue to this day.
For one, it seems my entire arousal process is affected. Before taking the medication, an intimate encounter would produce an erection almost instantly. I also remember a rush-like sensation, similar to how one might describe adrenaline, coming in a wave accompanying the erection. Both of these processes are severely compromised. I no longer have the ability to achieve full erections without manual stimulation. Additionally, the rush-like sensation concomitant with erections feels nothing like it did before. Now I am left with a near total lack of sensation up until orgasm - an orgasm that often feels like it's a third of the strength that it once was. I used to daydream about sex quite often. Now I have virtually no sexual thoughts, even after going weeks without masturbating.
Though I have tried to make the best of this condition, relying on Viagra, experimental supplements and medications and supportive if not sometimes frustrated partners, it has and will continue to have a catastrophic impact on my psyche and my overall ability to function as a human being. An intact sexuality is a human right, and the fact that mine has been so severely altered leaves me in a mental state more dire than I originally felt in the doctor's office 14 years ago. I would do anything to have those feelings back. Experience reports and testimonies online by hundreds of others echo the above symptoms, as well as a hindered ability to fall in love, properly experience emotions, or receive the same pleasure from listening to music. If a human being cannot love properly, or get pleasure from sex and music, how are they bound to feel? Not to mention in a society emphasizing sex at every turn. It truly is a modern day tragedy.
Had I been given the offer of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy instead of medication and if the side-effects of the SSRI's I took were outlined to me in a more serious way, I would have never taken them to begin with. I feel this should be more common practice in psychiatry, especially with young people whose brains are still developing, like mine was when I took that first dose. As a former mental health worker I have concerns that some patients who take SSRIs may develop this condition and suffer for years to come. Though I am only one person, my hope is to raise awareness and to inspire others to come forward in meaningful ways, potentially leading to a response from the medical community to work towards a cure. No one should have endure this kind of agony.
Mark Werthermore