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Misc What's best to counter sexual side effects of ssri?

G

glab

Bluelighter
Joined
May 3, 2015
Messages
182
I just started zoloft 4 days ago. I take 100mg and yesterday I already couldn't orgasm anymore. It was awful.
It took me over an hour of jacking off to porn like a lunatic until I finally made it and it was really not funny. It's like I feel absolutely
nothing and only the last few seconds before finally orgasming I feel a short sensation.
I thought that ritalin would help with this cause yesterday I took 20mg Ritalin LA a few hours before but I dont think that it helped
much.
This is really dragging me down. There are days where I just want to be able to jack off quickly and not have to struggle for an hour.
I also dont want to depend on porn to be able to jack off. I dont think this is healthy. Porn messes with your brain and I also think it
downregulates dopamine receptors when you're used to getting dopamine rushes by watching porn all the time. :(

I know that wellbutrin is often used for this but if ritalin doesn't seem to be strong enough the I guess wellbutrin also wont do much.

Even if the zoloft should work then I dont know if I could arrange with this situation for a long time.
It's really scary when you know that you can't simply cum when you want to cum. This frightens me.
 
Ritalin will make things WORSE; MPH and EPH are the worst things I have ever taken in terms of completely killing sex drive, so definitely go without it if you possibly can. Have you tried Yohimbine?
 
hey there!
i've been on Zoloft for the best part of a year now, i understand your pain.
i can't speak for everyone but i had similar issues when i started on zoloft. the crippling paranoia and agoraphobia of the first 2 weeks was more of an issue for me, rather than the sexual side effects. for me, these issues faded slowly. i occasionally have trouble getting an erection, but i put more of that down to the fact i'm on diazepam too. As Ozle said, stimulants will make things much much worse. a bit of cannabis could possibly help if you enjoy cannabis.
hope this reassures you somewhat!
feel free to PM me if you have any more queries.
 
I'm on sertraline too, 50mg / day and I have tried sildenafil, which worked fairly well for my erections and I recently tried a low dose of yohimbine which seemed to arouse me mentally. Orgasms will probably always be shitty as long as you're taking an ssri.

By the way, you seem to be too dependent on masturbation.
 
Id be switching to Mirtazapine instead you will be blowing like Krackatoa !!
 
OP, you didn't mention your dosage of zoloft. But I assume it's somewhere ~100-150 mg. If it's much higher than that, this may not apply.

But in my experience (and the experience of several friends), if you can wait it out, that side effect has a tendency to abate. It might take a good while (like 1-2 months), and I suppose maybe you're chemistry is just different. But I think it's likely that your body will find its way back without bringing other drugs into the mix, which, if you're really suffering from depression, is prolly not the first thing to try.

also: you didn't mention your gender. i'm assuming you're a dude b/c i don't know a lot of ladies who jack off to porn very often ;). My experience only pertains to dudes.
 
I take 100mg but will probably go higher to see if it works.

Why does MPH make it worse? This is strange. Dopamine should make you more sexually excited.
 
The real only honest answer I can give you: stop taking SSRIs

I was a bit of an atypical responder in that they sent my sex drive through the roof (prozac and citalopram). But not ever being able to get off was a complete fucking curse. Prozac had me manic and going on multiple dates with multiple girls and sealing the deal, all sorts of crazy shit, but when you plow until you feel like youre going to die and your dick is nowhere near ready to go its just ruthless.

supplementing with another medication is typically what your doctor/psych would have you do.

I've been on Bupropion for a while now with no sexual side effects, though I think I did have a mini seizure one night when I was drinking.. and I've gone right ham into a 2 week long coke/crack binge fwiw. Pretty sure it stopped working. I need to "re-up" and Im considering not doing so. Aye these psychiatric medications are all a crapshoot. I wish I werent so fucked up that I give into them.
 
@infantannihilator, are you seriously telling the OP to quite SSRIs because he can't nut? you have no idea how deep the OP's depression is (that's between him and his doc), but for serious depression, SSRIs have an unbelievably strong track record of minimizing danger/abject misery.
 
Have you tried Lexapro? I've never been on Zoloft but I had no issues with erections or climax with Lexapro.
 
you will exp sexual side effects on all SSRI's
i was on zoloft also 25mg for 3 months it didnt work all that well and i would take forever to get it up but lasting over 2 hrs wasnt a bad deal on my gf's end haha
i had her smiling harder than the joker
but for quickie online porn sessions or adventurous bouts with a gf or a thot you need to get off the SSRI even with meds itll never be the same
why? because the drug is doing what its suppose to do
it suppresses your emotion and thoughts and of course sexual thoughts and emotions
 
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Ginseng and ginkgo biloba have mild aphrodisiac properties and work great in combination. Ginseng works as a partional agonist on the androgen receptor (receptor for testosterone) as well as increasing NO signalling, which is crucial for strong erections. Ginkgo causes minor increases in brain dopamine levels as well as acting as a vasodilator. So these two herbs increase sex drive on a hormonal level via androgen receptor activation, mentally by increasing dopamine, and physically by facilitating erections.

I've never been on SSRIs, but I do on occasion go through a periods of taking St Johns wort for minor depression, and it also has a bit of a dampening effect on my sex drive. These two herbs in combination seem to cancel that effect out quite nicely. When I take them when I'm not on SJW they give me rock hard boners and I get aroused much more easily than usual.

Cannabis also works quite well as an aphrodisiac for me and my girl... If we are having a bit of a sex marathon and I feel like I've not got much left in me erection wise, a few puffs can help get me super aroused all over again ;).

I'd recommend going for herbal remedies initially before turning to stimulant drugs like ritalin or adderall. Taking stimulants just before sex (before bedtime) will also keep you up all night, which isn't always desirable :p.
 
glab said:
I take 100mg but will probably go higher to see if it works.

Why does MPH make it worse? This is strange. Dopamine should make you more sexually excited.
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I actually have no idea. All I know as that Ritalin (and EPH, I honestly couldn't tell the difference between then) is the single drug that caused me the worst sexual dysfunction of anything I've taken. I took Prozac for a few months (20mg I think) and that didn't come close; I couldn't achieve anything close to an errection when I was on Ritalin.
 
simco said:
@infantannihilator, are you seriously telling the OP to quite SSRIs because he can't nut? you have no idea how deep the OP's depression is (that's between him and his doc), but for serious depression, SSRIs have an unbelievably strong track record of minimizing danger/abject misery.
Click to expand...

Yeah he did, probably because of the same reason I was gonna say it: not being able to have a functional sex life was more goddamned depressing than everything else. Celexa was the least interruptive for me, but looking it up again, seems they've found some problems with it since I was on it.... dunno if anyone is still prescribing it, and even Celexa can cause sex side effects. Last time I went to a shrink I said I wanted a drug that: a) was generic (as I didnt have insurance) b) didnt cause massive weight gain/diabetes and c) didnt knock my dick in the dirt.

Anyone who can make an antidepressant devoid of those three side effects will be a billionaire.
 
deos68 said:
you will exp sexual side effects on all SSRI's
Click to expand...

Not true, just because one SSRI causes sexual side effects does not mean all of them will.

As one poster said before me, sexual side effects often lessen over time with SSRI use. If they don't, you should just talk to your doctor about finding a new antidepressant. I was prescribed Prozac for a few years and never had any sexual side effects, but many people do and I can understand how intolerable it may be.

In short, talk to your doctor, there are many more SSRIs than (and other types of antidepressants for that matter) and like I said, not all of them will necessarily have these side effects.

P.s. I also agree with flyhighk, you seem a bit obsessed with masturbation; maybe that's another thing to mention to your doc lol.
 
simco said:
@infantannihilator, are you seriously telling the OP to quite SSRIs because he can't nut? you have no idea how deep the OP's depression is (that's between him and his doc), but for serious depression, SSRIs have an unbelievably strong track record of minimizing danger/abject misery.
Click to expand...

I'm not TELLING him to, I'm just saying that, in all likelyhood these effects, IME and in the vast majority of other people, will not go away until you stop taking SSRIs. Sexual side effects are THE #1 reported and experienced side effect of SSRIs and MANY people don't get any relief until they quit taking the SSRIs. It is literally the#1 reason people quit taking them.

Ime SSRIs bring more misery to life which causes you to sit back and think "well hey shit wasnt that bad look at me now"

If you happen to have the magic cards dealt to you and an antidepressant or other psych med works wonders for you, count your blessings, but don't hold your breath, its going to 'poop' out within months. Or they'll raise you to the max dose and then you'll find out 10 years later from some class action lawsuit that long term use of the doses you were taking cause left ventricle detereoration that the pharma company slid under the rug.

I say all this as someone whos been diagnosed with MDD and has attempted suicide and pretty much contemplates it all the time. I have a fucked up head and fucked chemistry I guess. No antidepressant does anything for longer than 4 months for me before I feel back to baseline. I'm at the point now where I'm going to quit bupropion and probably just go on a massive health kick and do a bunch of steroids
 
I've been on every SSRI except Luvox, and yeah, they can cause sexual side effects. You know what though? I tried to get off Prozac before I attempted to taper further on Valium, and I just couldn't do it. Constant panic attacks, etc.

They aren't evil drugs. I've had to reinstate on a very low dose of Prozac (10mg) in order to stabilize and taper off my Valium. It sucks, because I do have some sexual side effects, but my dick still gets hard and I can still fuck. In fact, it has been a good thing as far as the girls are concerned since I last a long time.

Do I want to take the SSRI? No, I don't. I wish I never took any drugs prescribed to me. But in order to get off Valium, I have to be on Prozac. It's not like you can't fuck if you take an SSRI though, that's SO far from the truth. I think dosages have a lot to do with it. Luckily at 10mg, it's not bad at all.

In my situation, I have to focus on the greater of two evils, though I wouldn't really call an SSRI evil. I have to get off Valium. The longer I stay on it, the harder it will be. Once I'm off, then I can focus on the SSRI.
 
Mirtazapine has been proven more effective in treating severe depression with comorbid anxiety than SSRI s why not change it ? Yes it will make u put on a couple of kgs and at first it will make u drowsy as fuck but it actually improves sexual performance
 
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