Symptoms: Brain zaps, emotional blunting, sexual dysfunction, cognitive impairment, insomnia, severe anxiety/panic, anhedonia
I was prescribed an antidepressant in 2019 during a difficult period, trusting it was a safe and standard treatment. At no point was I warned that it could affect my sexual function long-term, especially after stopping.
While on the medication, I experienced sexual side effects, which I was told were common and would resolve. But after coming off the drug, those effects didn’t go away. They persisted.
Over time, I realised this wasn’t temporary. It impacted not just my sexual function, but my sense of self, my relationships, and my emotional connection to life.
When I tried to find help, I was met with confusion or dismissal. There was no clear pathway, no guidance, and no real acknowledgment of what I was experiencing.
Only later did I discover others going through the same thing, and that this condition—PSSD—had been reported for years.
Looking back, what stands out most is that I was never given the information needed to make a fully informed decision. If I had known there was even a small risk of long-term effects like this, I would have thought very differently about starting the medication.