Symptoms: Emotional blunting, sexual dysfunction, insomnia, depersonalization/derealization, tinnitus, severe anxiety/panic
I was put on Prozac at 12 and stayed on it for 13 years. There was no informed consent, no honest conversation about what it could mean for my developing mind, body, emotions, or sense of self, including emotional blunting and sexual dysfunction. That disconnect from myself showed up as gender dysphoria.
For years, I lived in a state without questioning the drug. I was told I had anxiety. I was made to feel I wouldn’t be able to function without the pills. Years later I finally started to question if I really needed them. It wasn’t until I tapered off and made it through withdrawal that things started to come into focus. As the emotional blunting lifted and I reconnected with myself, the gender dysphoria went away and I no longer experience it. I see the world through a whole new lens. I am grateful every day for it. It’s beautiful, but profoundly sad, to realize I lived so much of my life disconnected from what I now experience as life unfiltered.
I’m an advocate now on X, pushing for real informed consent—especially around SSRIs and hormonal birth control—because people deserve the full truth. My recovery didn’t just bring clarity—it raised a question I can’t ignore: how many others are experiencing this without realizing it? No one should have to discover, years later, what they were never told at the beginning.