Welcome to our community. Please fill in the following template as a way of introducing yourself, and helping others to understand your background and situation.
Where are you from (country)? Croatia
How did you find this forum (Google search – if so, what search terms? Via link from a forum or website – if so, what page? Other?) PSSD google search
What is your current age, height, weight? 27, 193cm, 92kg
What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)? paroxetine
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)? 1/day 20mg initially, 10mg later
What condition was being treated with the drug?
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)? 2 years
Date when you started the drug? ~April 2016
Date when you quit the drug? ~Sep 2018
Age when you quit? 23
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)? taper off
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects? Not sure…it was a messy time for me. I didn’t notice much sexual side effects until later looking back into things
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation? hyposexuality compared to before SSRI
Check the boxes that apply. You can save your post first, then interactively check/uncheck the boxes by clicking on them. If your symptoms change, please update your list.
Sexual
[x] Loss of Libido / Sex Drive
[x] Erectile Dysfunction
[ ] Complete Impotence
[ ] Loss of Morning Erections
[ ] Loss of Spontaneous Erections
[ ] Loss of Nocturnal Erections
[ ] Watery Ejaculate
[ ] Reduced Ejaculate
[x] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ ] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[x] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[x] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[ ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ ] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ ] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[ ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[x] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[x] Muscle Weakness
[x] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[x] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[x] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[x] Tinnitus (ringing or high pitched sound in ears)
[ ] Hearing loss
[ ] Increased hair loss
[ ] Frequent urination
[ ] Lowered body temperature
[ ] Other (please explain)
What (if any) treatments have you undertaken to recover from your side effects since discontinuation of the drug?
I’ve tried various diet approached…but nothing completely cured me.
If you have pre or post-drug blood tests, what hormonal changes have you encountered since discontinuing the drug (please post your test results in the “Blood Tests” section and link to them in your post)?
Blood tests are fine, the usual ones, as well as testosterone (though I don’t have before SSRI testosterone to compare, since it may be my body being used to higher than normal dosage)
Anything not listed in the above questions you’d like to share about your experience?
Tell us your story, in your own words, about your usage and side effects experienced while on/off the drug.
Story
In the fall of 2015 got mononucleosis, and went on student in 2016 exchange in Portugal, alone, at some point just felt horrible about everything, I fell from the usual 90kg weight to 65-70kg and just felt overall miserable. My neck hurt from a minor sprain, and my abdomen hurt from a minor sprain (but doctors couldn’t find anything causing the pain…it was deemed psychosomatic)….I just overall felt like shit. All I wanted to go back home due to being alone and recovering from sickness
That didn’t happen, my parents wanted me to finish my degree, so I went to a psychiatrist and got some drugs -> I was on Olanzapine 2.5mg for a few months, and Paroxetine 20mg (for 3 months) from ~April 2016. When I returned home from Portugal I stopped Olanzepine and dialed down Paroxetine to 10mg until completely stopped in September 2018. The druge never ever helped me…I was just repeatedly convinced to give it time and was afraid of the withdrawal effect to get off it.
For a long time, it was hard to separate effect from mono, SSRIs, etc. I feel chronically tired from this period, and I have a feeling drugs made it worse. I remember time between SSRI and starting mono recovery when I felt better, despite lacking stamina.
IBS started soon after mononucleosis, but become more pronounced issues around end of 2016…and it’s still affecting me to this day (mostly pain, stool is fine).
I feel pain throughout my body since 2016, hard to tell if is it post-mono or SSRI; it’s low intensity though, but always there. No known causes.
Sexuality-wise, post-mono recovery but before SSRIs I even managed to masturbate too much that I ended up in a urologist; always been hypersexual. Post and during SSRI sex does not feel the same. I don’t get aroused the same, don’t get hard as often, masturbation frequency dropped sharply (sometimes going weeks without masturbation). I’ve been in 2 relationships since…so it wasn’t this. I had a bunch of casual kinky sex…so it wasn’t that. It’s just that something changed and I don’t know how to recover it. Sometimes I lose erection, sometimes I have a hard time cumming. It’s not me being nervous…it’s more, “I’m bored” or “let’s do something else”…it’s like hard to sustain the focus and sexual excitement. It’s a more ambivalent feeling, and starting sex is a habit, known behavior, not a hormone-driven activity (ok, I do get an erection when started, but unless I’m being touched on it, it can quickly go away). Also, the penile head always feels drive post-SSRI, and I don’t remember being an issue before. Before SSRI I could go 3xday having sex or masturbation(for some limited period)…after…lol…it’s more like 2-3x a week at most.
Self-reporting template - ONLY USE FOR FUTURE POSTS TO REPORT ANY TRIALS OF TREATMENTS, NOT YOUR INITIAL MEMBER STORY
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Name of the therapy/substance: paroxetine
- Dosage: 20mg
- How often you took it: 1/day
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Status
- Still using [no]
- Stopped with no lasting change to initial symptoms [ ]
- Stopped with persistent change to symptoms [ ]
- Duration of use: 2 years
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Response when you started:
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [ ]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [x]
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Current response (if you’re still using the therapy/substance) OR Response in the time before you stopped the treatment
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [x]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]
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Lasting changes to initial symptoms after cessation (if you have stopped for more than 3 weeks)
- Greatly improved [ ]
- Slightly improved [ ]
- Stayed the same [x]
- Slightly worsened [ ]
- Greatly worsened [ ]