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)?
United states
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?)
What is your current age, height, weight?
28, 5’8 150 lbs
What specific drug did you use (finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto, isotretinoin/Accutane, fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, leuprorelin, etc…)?
Trazodone
What dose did you take (eg. 1 mg/day, 1 mg every other day etc.)?
One 25 mg pill
What condition was being treated with the drug?
Insomnia
For how long did you take the drug (weeks/months/years)?
One day
Date when you started the drug?
May 4th
Date when you quit the drug?
May 4th
Age when you quit?
28
How did you quit (cold turkey or taper off)?
Only took one dose
How long into your usage did you notice the onset of side effects?
Next day
What side effects did you experience that have yet to resolve since discontinuation?
-anhedonia
-low libido
-emotional blunting
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
[ ] Inability or Difficulty to Ejaculate / Orgasm
[ ] Reduced Sperm Count / Motility
Mental
[ X] Emotional Blunting / Emotionally Flat
[ ] Difficulty Focusing / Concentrating
[ ] Confusion
[ ] Memory Loss / Forgetfulness
[ ] Stumbling over Words / Losing Train of Thought
[ ] Slurring of Speech
[ ] Lack of Motivation / Feeling Passive / Complacency
[X ] Extreme Anxiety / Panic Attacks
[ x] Severe Depression / Melancholy
[ x] Suicidal Thoughts
Physical
[ ] Penile Tissue Changes (narrowing, shrinkage, wrinkled)
[ ] Penis curvature / rotation on axis
[X ] Testicular Pain
[ ] Testicular Shrinkage / Loss of Fullness
[ ] Genital numbness / sensitivity decrease
[ ] Weight Gain
[ ] Gynecomastia (male breasts)
[ ] Muscle Wastage
[ ] Muscle Weakness
[ ] Joint Pain
[ ] Dry / Dark Circles under eyes
Misc
[ ] Prostate pain
[ ] Persistent Fatigue / Exhaustion
[ ] Stomach Pains / Digestion Problems
[ ] Constipation / “Poo Pellets”
[ ] Vision - Acuity Decrease / Blurriness
[ ] 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?
None
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)?
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.
Miguel Carranza, 28 years old.
In 2022, I had an adverse reaction to fluoroquinolones, an antibiotic called ciprofloxacin. They caused an immediate disability in me.
Symptoms:
- Intense DP/DR
- Suicidal thoughts
- Extreme brain fog
- Anxiety
- Dissociation
- Anhedonia
- Cognitive problems
Total mental and physical disability. I could barely speak normally. During Christmas that year, I stayed isolated in my room because I could not tolerate people’s voices. I tried to work and didn’t even last one day at my job. I couldn’t stand for more than 5 seconds. I felt extremely dizzy, as if I were drunk. My family came to visit me and I stayed in my room; I couldn’t even say hello to them.
I kept going to school, but hearing the teachers’ voices caused me terror. I felt extremely uncomfortable, but I kept attending however I could. I learned nothing, but I finished. I had no motivation at all. I didn’t care about anything except dying, but I decided to keep going because it was my last semester and I thought, “maybe my future self could recover and would regret not finishing.”
For about 1.5 years I felt uncomfortable with absolutely everything. Being around my best friend made me feel anxious and uncomfortable, like I wanted to run away, even though she had always been one of my safe places for many years.
I had suicidal thoughts for about two years. I didn’t want to die, but I could no longer tolerate the pain. It felt as if something inside me was telling me I needed to kill myself. The only reason I didn’t do it was because of my parents.
I didn’t attend my university graduation because I didn’t care. My mother called me lazy and useless when sometimes I couldn’t even move. I have worked full-time since I was 15 years old and I have two college degrees. Why did my own mother see me as lazy when I was so severely ill?
Almost nobody believed what had happened to me, but to me it was obvious. A change overnight. You can Google “Fluoroquinolone Toxicity” and it appears immediately. I don’t think anyone around me even took the time to look into it or try to help me. Nobody really stopped and asked, “what if he’s telling the truth?” A five-minute search would have been enough.
I went to doctors and they told me it was anxiety. Anxiety does not cause all of this overnight. I’ve lived with anxiety my entire life; this was not anxiety. The change was extremely obvious after taking that antibiotic. These antibiotics literally have warnings describing everything I went through, but because they prescribed it to me in Mexico, I never saw those warnings. And why would I have doubted whether it was safe or not? Never in a million years did I think a few pills could cause this much damage.
Why is it that whenever doctors are presented with people who have complex health problems, they immediately go toward anxiety? Why is it so difficult for them to try to look for a real solution instead of immediately prescribing anxiety medications?
I also had many physical symptoms:
- Neuropathy
- Daily headaches for months that would not go away with anything. The headaches were truly unbearable and lasted for days at a time.
- Chronic fatigue. I could do nothing except sleep. I slept 80% of the time. I never dreamed about anything good again.
- Tinnitus, which I still have to this day.
- Exercise intolerance
There were too many symptoms to even write here. I truly don’t know how I survived that level of mental and physical disability. I lived like that for a long time. Little by little I adapted to my new normal and slowly improved over the years.
I thought about going to therapy because I had significant PTSD, but I felt it wouldn’t help because the trauma was still actively happening due to my health problems. But my symptoms never fully disappeared. I was never able to exercise again. Music did not sound the same anymore. I couldn’t connect with new people. I didn’t enjoy going out because I saw no point in it. Most of the time I was simply pretending.
I went to concerts, but they no longer gave me that emotional feeling. There was always some kind of wall preventing me from truly enjoying anything. Little by little I started enjoying certain things again, but I was never the same. I was no longer the person I used to be: full of emotions, sensitive, attentive, intense in both sadness and happiness.
This also completely affected my libido. I became somewhat asexual. I stopped smoking and drinking to give my body the best chance to heal. Sometimes certain things would trigger emotions in me, but very rarely. I went over a year, probably at age 25–26, without any sexual activity.
I went bankrupt because I could not work. After two years I finally got a job again. I started doing more things with friends and with my partner at the time. There were good moments. I still had anhedonia and emotional blunting, but life still had some good moments.
My parents separated and internally I felt nothing. No negative feelings, no positive feelings. My partner of 5 years left me and I was sad for a few days, then it passed. That was strange for me because normally it would have devastated me, but there was a very strong emotional barrier.
I survived those two years thanks to people I met who went through the same thing: Marci, Andres, and Talia. All of them told me things would improve, and even though every second of being conscious felt like a battle, I believed them blindly. I don’t know what I would have done without them. I honestly think I would not still be alive.
It takes superhuman strength to survive something like this. In my mind, I constantly thought that I wished I had been hit by a car or killed instead, because at least then people would have shown me some compassion. For a long time I literally prayed to God to take anything from me — my legs, my arms — as long as my brain problems would heal.
January 2025
I had been living like this for a long time, but life was okay enough. One day I tried something I saw had helped people with my condition: Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) intravenously, which is a powerful brain antioxidant. I went to a clinic in El Paso and received it.
The next day I started feeling intense emotions again. I had a relapse in my symptoms. The neuropathy returned and my legs hurt terribly again. But my emotions also came back intensely. I reconnected with someone I hadn’t spoken to in a long time and I felt happy and excited, then deeply sad afterward. But I was feeling again. I had regained my emotions after that treatment.
I don’t know how it was possible, but music sounded good again. It was overwhelming because it had been so long since I had truly felt it. My brain had not allowed me to. Everything became intense. But the mental problems I had before improved significantly. My mind felt clearer. I could feel my emotions again. I could think a little better again.
April 2025
I met someone I connected with immediately. I completely fell in love. We became a couple within weeks of meeting, and by the next month we were already living together. Everything was going very well. I felt extremely happy. I felt — and still feel — a lot of love for him. Everything seemed perfect. My health was never 100%, but for the first time in a very long time, I truly felt good.
August 2025
Then I got COVID and my health declined severely again, and I never fully recovered. Many symptoms worsened and I developed a new one called PEM (post-exertional malaise). You can Google it. It is terrible. It prevented me from doing almost any physical or even mental activity.
One time I walked for one hour downtown and I had terrible symptoms for an entire week afterward. Another time I focused mentally on something for too long and I developed symptoms again. Social activities also became exhausting, especially if there were more than two people. My brain could no longer process so much information so quickly, so I stopped attending events.
I knew I had to protect my energy carefully, both mentally and physically. Even so, I kept working however I could. I cut my work hours significantly and took breaks throughout the day. I rested before work, during work, after work, before showering, and after showering. I was tired all the time, but I still tried to occasionally do small things like going out to eat or going to the movies.
I had stopped driving a few weeks or months before because my cognitive problems became so severe that driving became dangerous. I almost crashed several times. My brain no longer worked fast enough to make split-second decisions, so out of responsibility toward others I stopped driving.
April 2026
I started having insomnia after COVID and woke up every two hours. In April 2026 I contacted a doctor and was prescribed an antidepressant called trazodone, which is commonly used in low doses for sleep.
I extensively researched the medication to see if it was safe and I saw nothing negative. I trusted it completely and thought that if I could fix my sleep, my life would improve. I had avoided medications for a long time because I was afraid of reliving what happened in 2022, but I decided to let go of the fear and believed maybe things would finally improve.
I took half a pill (25 mg) and immediately developed nasal congestion, head pressure, and felt horrible and strange, but I told myself it would pass by the next day.
I woke up feeling the same, with a terrible headache and severe nausea. I spoke with the doctor and he told me it was normal and would pass in a few days, but to stop taking the medication.
It has now been almost two weeks. The nausea and those initial symptoms passed, but my libido dropped to zero and I developed intense anhedonia (which I already had before, but now much worse). Food no longer tastes the same. I no longer feel thirst or hunger properly. Nothing I do creates any feeling of happiness. Being with my dog, watching shows I normally love, nothing creates emotion anymore.
I have had strong suicidal thoughts every day, and I have cried every day. I do not feel normal. It feels as if that trazodone pill flipped a switch in me overnight.
When I became severely ill in 2022, I still had hope despite how bad everything was. Right now I don’t feel hope. I don’t feel anything. My mind feels completely blank. And the worst part is that I cannot even go running, exercise, or distract myself because PEM prevents me from doing those things.
These past days have made me question my existence in this world. I once thought that someday, when I recovered, I would share my story publicly, but now I feel like that day may never come.
I searched online and found terrible cases. I found people describing the exact same thing after low-dose trazodone. Four of them committed suicide. Some recovered and others are still suffering six years later.
I relived the trauma all over again. I lost my work and basically my life, because my situation was already extremely fragile.
Years ago I had taken antidepressants and although it was difficult, I never felt like this. I had temporary similar symptoms while adjusting to them and stopping them, but never at this intensit.
Something truly changed in my brain. And this time it happeyned after only one dose. I honestly don’t even understand how that is possible, but it is.
I feel trapped in an alternate world, like a permanent bad trip. It is terrifying and desperate. I don’t know what is going to happen to me. I am afraid of dying, but I also already feel half dead. I truly feel like I may not stay alive much longer.
My life as I knew it ended at 25 years old. And now at 28 it feels like it is ending all over again.
The little normality I still had is disappearing, and with it, my strength to keep going. My soul is tired.
I feel embarrassed sharing my life this openly and in this much detail because I have always been an extremely private person, but I think it is important to do so.