Long-Term Extascy/MDMA use...Sexual Dysfunction?

[First Bad Comedown]

Good news:

Lexapro has a long half-life. The drug stays in your bloodstream at least two days after you take the last pill. The effects take weeks or months to wear off. There is a building up of the drug in brain tissues, which doesn't just go away quickly either.

Why is this good for you?
Because the MDMA was not allowed to enter the synapses that were still occupied.

In other words, the lexapro has a higher affinity for some of these receptors than the MDMA.
SSRIs have been proven to block the neurotoxicity of MDMA in many animal experiments. Even with PROVEN toxic doses.

That means you were likely offered substantial protection from actual damage.....but it is also the reason you didn't roll at all. It blocks the euphoria AND the toxicity. I have read reports from others that say there roll is very weird and wirey....no euphoria...because of the SSRI.

So take a deep breath...and believe this. I am certain the lexapro helped you avoid a MUCH worse fate.

But you still feel altered from the roll. Not a big surprise.
You still managed to burn up some serotonin. You killed off the enzyme responsible for making more serotonin too.
And you did this while your serotonin was already dropping due to lowering your dose.

No wonder you feel empty and slow again.

My recommendation is to keep taking the lexapro. Taper off very slowly. Cut your pills into fragments and come off of it over the next month. It may be another two months until you can synthesize more serotonin, so give it some time.

Avoid the 5-htp and SJW. You do NOT need to try and make more serotonin right now. You can get more than enough from bananas, eggs, and milk. And any kind of meat.

If you still have insomnia, add melatonin to your nightly routine. Take it around 10 pm every night. It takes several days to really start working, but once it does it makes me sleepy. Also, turn off ALL lights at night. They seriously fuck up your circadian rhythm.

Oh and the OJ was a good idea....but you need more next time.
Let me be clear, the amount of VIT C needed to block neurotoxicity is MASSIVE. You would have to take 3000mg at least three or four times during your roll to make a big difference. Up the vit C next time.

And what about your damn piracetam?
That would have offered even more protection, in my opinion.

But that's ok.

Start the lexapro back up and taper off slowly. It will be a while before your body can synthesize enough serotonin on its own.

You are going to be ok.
Consider it a good thing you didn't roll at all. If you had, you would be much worse off.
What you are feeling is just an accelerated withdrawal from the lexapro.

 

[somedud]

Awesome I appreciate your input. I'm pretty sure I took lexapro a day before the night I rolled, yes it was really wirey, extremely weird with no euphoria, didn't even feel like talking. I'll cease my HTP use, pick up the lexapro again and forget the SJW. I thought it was a good idea. Melatonin doesn't work, I'm going to do the same treatment catinthehat4 used, BSC.

Aswell, I took 1500 mg of Aniracetam the morning before I rolled, which is a more potent version of piracetam, 250 mg of alpha lipic acid, lots of vit c, and a multi vit.

So I suppose that's good, im just curious as to why I feel so slowed down, like you said probably the burning of serotonin and diabiling of the P490 enezyme I believe?

Anyways, thanks for the help, you've provided some great reassurance. How long do you figure I should taper off the lexapro, I.e. routine? Go back to 10 or pick up at 5 and continue?

 

[First Bad Comedown]

No problem, glad I could help.

Do the melatonin anyways.
What you need to know is that melatonin is made with the same enzyme that makes serotonin. Because you have no serotonin, the enzyme is making practically no melatonin. Insomnia is one of the hallmark side effects of MDMA toxicity.

Research also shows that sleep deprivation is a reliable way to worsen the symptoms of recovering MDMA users.

Take the melatonin whether or not you think it does anything. It can't hurt you. And it might just help to increase the availability of the precious enzyme that you have turned off.

The enzyme in question is tryptophan hydrolase. TPH is critical to the production of serotonin, and it is permanently deactivated by MDMA. By permanent, they mean 1-3 months.

So I recommend you go back on the 5mg dose of lexapro for the next month. Then taper it very slowly over the following two weeks. That should give you enough time to get more TPH.

When you start to taper...expect to feel bad again.
From a group of recovering SSRI users, I have heard time and time again that coming off of lexapro left them feeling 'flat', 'empty', 'emotionless', 'unhuman'. It gets worse than that. Some of them can't feel their libido or their genitals for YEARS. They describe having no emotion towards other people at all, much less sexual ones.

THAT is why you need to taper off that shit, and do it soon.
The only reason you are going back on right now is because you just emptied your serotonin all the way and turned off your TPH.

No matter what, you are going to feel shitty coming off this medication. The antiracetam will help, no doubt. But expect to feel this emptiness again. The only difference will be next time you will KNOW that it is only the lexapro causing it. It should happen much slower, though. You may not notice it for weeks or more. These people on my email group say that they got worse in the months after tapering, not right away.

But keep in mind, many of them were on it for years.

Of note, I have seen many examples of people that were OK on other SSRIs and switched to lexapro. They experienced an immediate loss of libido and sensation. It got worse and stayed worse even after discontinuation.

The SSRI causes down-regulation all on its own.
I'm sure it has helped smooth out your recovery wonderfully. But I also believe there are regions of the brain that still need to start their recovery. You have put a leash on the normal process. It is going to suck when you taper off.

One day in the distant future, you may be able to roll again. If I were you I would be waiting 2 years at least.

You still have some hard times ahead, because you can't keep living on the SSRI. But at least you know the MDMA didn't do much to you.

Good luck, and feel free to PM me anytime.

 

[Thizz Man]

No problem, glad I could help.

Do the melatonin anyways.
What you need to know is that melatonin is made with the same enzyme that makes serotonin. Because you have no serotonin, the enzyme is making practically no melatonin. Insomnia is one of the hallmark side effects of MDMA toxicity.

Research also shows that sleep deprivation is a reliable way to worsen the symptoms of recovering MDMA users.

Take the melatonin whether or not you think it does anything. It can't hurt you. And it might just help to increase the availability of the precious enzyme that you have turned off.

The enzyme in question is tryptophan hydrolase. TPH is critical to the production of serotonin, and it is permanently deactivated by MDMA. By permanent, they mean 1-3 months.

So I recommend you go back on the 5mg dose of lexapro for the next month. Then taper it very slowly over the following two weeks. That should give you enough time to get more TPH.

When you start to taper...expect to feel bad again.
From a group of recovering SSRI users, I have heard time and time again that coming off of lexapro left them feeling 'flat', 'empty', 'emotionless', 'unhuman'. It gets worse than that. Some of them can't feel their libido or their genitals for YEARS. They describe having no emotion towards other people at all, much less sexual ones.

THAT is why you need to taper off that shit, and do it soon.
The only reason you are going back on right now is because you just emptied your serotonin all the way and turned off your TPH.

No matter what, you are going to feel shitty coming off this medication. The antiracetam will help, no doubt. But expect to feel this emptiness again. The only difference will be next time you will KNOW that it is only the lexapro causing it. It should happen much slower, though. You may not notice it for weeks or more. These people on my email group say that they got worse in the months after tapering, not right away.

But keep in mind, many of them were on it for years.

Of note, I have seen many examples of people that were OK on other SSRIs and switched to lexapro. They experienced an immediate loss of libido and sensation. It got worse and stayed worse even after discontinuation.

The SSRI causes down-regulation all on its own.
I'm sure it has helped smooth out your recovery wonderfully. But I also believe there are regions of the brain that still need to start their recovery. You have put a leash on the normal process. It is going to suck when you taper off.

One day in the distant future, you may be able to roll again. If I were you I would be waiting 2 years at least.

You still have some hard times ahead, because you can't keep living on the SSRI. But at least you know the MDMA didn't do much to you.

Good luck, and feel free to PM me anytime.

But by taking melatonin are we sure our brains will still produce it as it used to?

 

[somedud]

Indeed I agree with the idea of SSRIs putting a leash on recovery. I believe the study your referring to is this;


"Effects on Tryptophan Hydroxylase
-Administration of MDMA results in irreversible inhibition of TPH, suspected time to replenish TPH is 1-3 months
-Not directly caused by MDMA but rather from redox/quinone metabolites
-MDMA increases ROS and nitric oxide, nitric oxide itself inhibits TPH"

Your on the ball as usual. As you mentioned downregulation , this is where I thought the SJW could come into play, it's been proven to upregulate certain types of your 5 HT receptors, and make them more sensitive, so I figured that with the mood boost would be a perfect supplement for recover. Why do you caution against?

I hope this stupid "blank mind state" is from the SSRI withdrawals, is like a sensation off no thought, almost like anxiety but a bit different. This was since thr last use, before that it was straight brain zaps, I almos feel like brain zPs are in a sense damage to your 5 HT receptors, but that's just my own opinion. As for the inhuman part, yeah i feel that, but it's like, I can't pick up the emotinals realm of another person in a sense? Everyone use to have this large glowing energy that reflected who they were, how they feel currently, and how it even defined them as a person, if that makes sense. Seems a bit "ti chi" , but that's thr only inhuman part I can relate too, besides not understanding the point in even socializing anymore, seems meaningless, but that's just lack of interest, I.e. typical depression.

Yet again, why caution agaisnt SJW? And would SAMe be a good supplement to use instead, I almost feel like I need something, but then again that could be the same boat that got me here huh? What about curcumin and Ginko, both are herbal non selective Mao-a/b inhibitors..

Aswell, I've spoken to a naturo who suggested a sleeping aid with SJW passion flower and valerian root, but I'm guessing that'll be a no go bc of sjw, even though it's relatively low dose of it.

Ps I have Tianeptine aswell, an SSRE. Maybe get off SSRIs and start that, think that may speed recovery/sprouting of axons? The only bad side is it's killer for insomnia, which I believe is giving me all these crazy cognitive deficits.

 

[catinthehat4]

yo firstbadcomedown check your email!

 

[Concernedaf]

So AFOAF is currently dealing with a similar situation, after abusing MDMA/E this Summer- he dosed maybe 10-15 times with at least a week or a fortnight in between (the quality of his supply somewhat varied and the magic was lost relatively quickly also), he slowly became aware that his sex-drive had been lacking significantly but didn't make the connection until later in November when he took his last pill and his sex-drive vanished (his sex-drive had been improving up until this point), his emotional response was somewhat off around this time too.

During this time he had been dabbling with cocaine, drinking quite heavily along with his drug experiences and smoked weed multiple times a day. 10 days ago, he decided to quit weed as it had become less appealing and he wanted to make a lifestyle change, as a result of this, his diminished sex-drive has depleted to zero and his emotional response to things, in terms of anger, passion, fear and love has disappeared, he no longer feels a natural necessity for intimacy which is probably the most concerning thing of all, although he does want to want it. On a side-note, besides the withdrawals, he found it unusually easy to give up weed and has experienced no cravings at all, in fact the idea of craving anything seems a little alien at the moment, something which may or may not be attributed to burning up the synaptic pathways that lead to addiction in the first place?

Since this is an old thread, many of you have had time in which I'm sure you've been experimenting with supplements etc. and have hopefully had positive results, I have read extensively that time is the best healer, so now, after time- have any of you repaired to a level you feel comfortable with?

 

[ShortTermExpert]

Hey concernedaf, been checking this thread a few times over the past few weeks and your post has encouraged me to sign up and contribute.

I'm in a very similar situation to your FOAF. Far too heavy usage over the summer and beyond (I smashed nearly 5 gram over a 4 days music festival in August... big mistake). My sex drive took a massive hit after that, but was still functional. However, things kind of got worse, suffered ED with a girl back in October (mostly to do with the anxiety/depression I've been left with) which made the anxiety/depression much worse, and has almost switched off my libido at times... it's still there, and I THINK its getting better with abstinence. I know my other physical symptoms are improving (strong pulse, weird sensation in chest when I turn my head at an angle, sensitivity to loud noises when it's quiet), but it's not 100%. And it's counfounded by this performance anxiety that can apparently sap libido all on its own accord... christ. So many girls I could link with as well man, it's so depressing. Not quite confident enough yet to go for it, got some viagra for when the time comes so maybe that'll do the trick.

I had an ECG and it was fine. Was really worried I'd fucked up my heart for a while. Though I do a lot of cardio and weight training without heart trouble symptoms (highly recommend excercise to your bro if he isn't already. LOTS of it).

I can relate to your friends emotional situation. Except with me, it's like an emotional rollercoaster. I can go from insanely depressed and sobbing in the morning, to happy, jubilant and singing along to myself by early evening, to raging anxiety at night, to just plain calm. All in the course of a day.

I have experimented a lot with supplementation. It's really hard to tell what is being effective, but I can definitely vouch for the fish oil. Though recently I've just started to eat more proper fish in my diet, which is probably gonna be better in the long run.

I would say multivitamins are good as well but honestly, diet is the key... supplementation is not gonna give you anything you can't get from good food. And good food gives you a lot more besides, minerals, nutrients etc.. Was taking various multivitamins last year and I cant say any of them made a positive difference. Maybe vitamin D would help this time of year (that's if you northern hemisphere)

In early August I was 100%. After the festival, and the copious amount of MD. I must of been about 5%. Literally thought I was gonna die bro. It wasn't the last time either. I went a bit overboard again in September, clearly hadn't learnt my lesson. Last time I dabbled was a minuscule amount on NYE, so I've been clean for 3 weeks nearly now.

It does get better man, that's all I can say. What's helped me more than anything through my own stupidity has been excercise and sleep. Without a shadow of a doubt, I would of gone crazy by now without jogging and weights. Meditation as well, it's always been hard for me to meditate (my mind has always been an undisciplined thing) but at times when I've gotten into the swing of it it has helped tremendously. Literally turned my mood around.

Let me know how things go man. Peace

 

[Concernedaf]

What's up man, glad to hear you're doing well and of a successful recovery story- AFOAF is actually feeling much better in terms of sexual function, he's probably at around 75% in terms of libido and is improving each day, he's been eating healthily and exercising since the new year and it has helped tremendously in terms of physicality and cognitive function, he's no longer feeling anxiety or depressed but feels as though his outlook on life has changed quite drastically although this could be down to a variety of other factors, some of these changes seem quite positive although the one that is now striking him as most concerning is his lack of drive or willingness to participate in building a future for himself, he was once motivated to strive for things despite being a lazy fuck, now he feels as though he's not as interested in pursuing these kinds of things..

Again this could just be down to his current position in life, it can be irritating when you can't pin-point a solution or cause to your problems, but never mind, I'll tell him to start back up on the omega-3's and to look into meditation, thanks for taking the time to reply

 

[ShortTermExpert]

Your friend sounds like they're they doing very well. 75% libido is very good, mine fluctuates immensely and its kind of confounded with this negative view I have of life atm... I'm very cynical by nature, cynicism and libido are very much contradictory. I'd say I'm on about 35% most of the time.

I can relate to the lack of drive. I feel as though it's a side effect of the depression, and I think it'll be the last thing to recover in that respect. Still, it fluctuates so much for me, the ups and downs are incredible. Tbf I'm thankful that I even get to esperience ups, I know of people who experience similar, but who never get a respite. My heart goes out to those guys who are perpetually locked in a dark hole, and who can't blame drugs for their plight. I feel as though, through abstaining and taking the right steps, I'll fully recover from this self-inflicted neurosis. Whereas life proves too much for some even without drugs.

I hope your friend works things out. A new view on life is to be expected after your brain has undergone such a dramatic transformation. Though I'm sure if you continue to push for what you want, in time your grey matter will reorganise itself accordingly. I'm guessing beyond a healthy lifestyle, a healthy mindset is the most important thing. And that applies to everyone including us e-tards

Stay safe bro.

 

[scrwed]

Hey everyone, I was abusing MDMA/E quite frequently last year...I have been clean for 7 months now...after using MDMA for about 2 or 3 months, I noticed that I wouldnt get aroused like I used to and unable to sustain erections for long...but didnt pay any attention to it.

Anyways, after using E for about 6 or 7 months I made the connection and quit...basically, I dont get aroused like I used to, and i have trouble sustaining an erection now.

Does anyone know any vitamins to help this? (besides ed drugs)?

I am more looking for something to heal brain damage. Im guessing I damaged my serotonin nerves or axonal damage...something along those lines? if anyone could shed some light on what exactly happened, that would be great too because this whole situation has me freaked out! (Im only 20 years old!). Thanks in advance

Hi everyone

So, what happened in the end? Does erectile dysfunction diminishes in the end or is it permanent? Been searching about this issue and cannot find a definite answer as to if it ends after a long while and if so how long.

 

[Jabberwocky]

^I work out 4x a week and am a very healthy person...i am 100% sure this is all brain damage and im freaking out man

It's because you are stressed out -- from fixating on the issue -- actually making it worse.

Prolactin is the hormone that causes the refractory period after orgasm (Rod of Steel = Mr. Softie). High or higher than normal levels cause erectile dysfunction and anorgasmia.

[h=1]Psychologic stress increases plasma levels of prolactin, cortisol, and POMC-derived peptides in man.[/h]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2838865


Chill the fuck out -- relax those blood vessels -- take cialis if you have to -- and see if the pecker will still get hard

Fantasize about some really nasty sexy dirty fucking with a bunch of androids that are indistinguishable from humans - and are programmed to do whatever you desire.

Sometimes the stimulation needs to be cranked up

 

[scrwed]

So its still a mistery if this lack of sex drive and ed will heal or not. But i think it will heal as otherwise we would hear of some suicide news . I wonder how the original poster is doing. It has been a year since my heavy abuse of nearly two years. I have not rolled for a year nor do i will to do so but i feel helpless and sometimes i think this problem will stay with me forever

 

[Jabberwocky]

So its still a mistery if this lack of sex drive and ed will heal or not. But i think it will heal as otherwise we would hear of some suicide news . I wonder how the original poster is doing. It has been a year since my heavy abuse of nearly two years. I have not rolled for a year nor do i will to do so but i feel helpless and sometimes i think this problem will stay with me forever

have you had your prolactin levels measured?