marpolatyc: Please help me understand what I am going through

[marpolatyc]

Hi there. Long story short, I am 20M and the thing that freaks me out is that I lost my sex drive/arousal over a year ago (May 2022 to be precise) and I link it with a relatively short mianserin exposure back then. I do have erections, spontaneous ones too, morning wood occasionally, orgasms, I can ejaculate and so on. But I completely lost my sexual interest in the opposite gender (I am still attracted to women, don't get me wrong) and simply can get turned on. 

 

Now about the drug I've been taking.

 

In February 2022 I've been on 100mg of trazodone for 2 weeks due to panic attacks (yeah i know it is a terrible choice for such symptoms). I cold turkey it because of orthostatic hypotension which scared me to death (wasn't my decision, the doc told me to do so, yeah i blame him a lot for that)

 

In March-April 2022 I had a severe mental breakdown with strong consequential suicidal intentions. And at that time I was prescribed mianserin. 7.5 mg x2 per day for 3 weeks. Then 7.5 once a day for one week. About a week or two later after gradual discontinuation, I noticed that I do not experience arousal anymore. I haven't been paying attention to that until now because of the crazy rhythm of my life in 2022-2023 (I live in Ukraine btw, lol).

 

Recently I visited the doc who prescribed me mianserin. He told me that his clinical practice of using this drug is around 7 years and no one has ever had any symptoms related to sexual function besides the elderly ones (50 yo and older) who are just in a higher risk group. 

 

The only thing that calms me down a bit is that I had a similar experience before back then in 2019-2020 when I was 16. It also was due to a mental breakdown (jeez, now i realize i do have a tendency for it). And I completely lost sexual interest for nearly 2 years or so. But fortunately it slowly came back by the end of 2020. 

 

Please, help me understand what I am going through right now

Edited June 24, 2023 by manymoretodays
name to topic title

[Shep]

Hi, @marpolatyc

 

Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants.

 

Sexual dysfunction and loss of interest is common with these drugs. It happens to young people, as well as older people. Not sure where your doctor is coming from.

 

Are you off all psychiatric drugs now?

 

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Once we know your drug history and timeline, we can give you more targeted advice and information. 

[marpolatyc]

@Shep

 

Yes, I'm off all psych drugs since May 2022 (wouldn't take bacopa and ginkgo into consideration)

[Shep]

@marpolatyc From your drug history, it looks like you've been exposed to Mianserin and Trazodone. Even though neither of those are a SSRI, you may still have something comparable to PSSD (Post Serotonin Sexual Dysfunction), since drugs like Trazodone have a lot in common with the SSRIs. You may find it helpful to read through others' experiences with PSSD:

 

PSSD Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction 

 

Do you have any other withdrawal symptoms? 

 

 

 

 

[marpolatyc]

@Shep

I highly doubt the possibility of PSSD because of Trazodone. I had strong libido and orgasms on and after this drug.

And no, 0 withdrawals after quitting mianserin. Absolutely painless

[marpolatyc]

Hi. On Apr 21 2022 I was prescribed low-dose mianserin (7.5mg x2 a day) due to a mental breakdown and strong suicidal intentions. Since then, my sleep has been very prolonged compared to how it usually was before the meds (around 8 hrs) Now it takes me 9-11 hours If I do not use an alarm. Of course, sometimes (but very, very rarely) I do get those precious 8 hrs of sleep, but it happens like once a month or so.