Re: I've recovered (it's long-term and complete)

January 11, 2008

It all makes sense. Thanks for the post and

congratulations!

I remember a couple of years ago being at the gym

regularly, i had better self esteem and cared more

about my appearance. I think the gym made me feel

better and it spilled over and made me MUCH more

social and confident. Things were the best ever, until

i got a boyfriend and neglected everything else as

well--stopped going out, stopped going to the gym. I

am more anxious again as well--so i buy into your

theory totally--i had a similar situation and i agree

that at least when i exercised more i felt better and

cared more about myself and put myself out there in

social settings. Good luck--thanks for the story!

lisa

--- biologic1981 wrote:

> Hey, everyone, it's me again. I just thought I'd

> update everyone on the status of my

> recovery. If you don't remember, I'm the guy who

> theorized about the link between social

> dominance, SSRIs and PSSD. You can search the list

> using my user name for links to these

> discussions if you missed them.

>

> It's been more than a year since I started taking

> the steps that I believe led to my recovery

> from PSSD. In that time I went from having

> full-blown PSSD of the worst kind, to being

> completely recovered. My symptoms included:

>

> • Total lack of response to visual stimuli

> • Inability to achieve an erection without

> aggressive and constant physical stimulation

> • Orgasms were very difficult to obtain

> • Almost complete inability to feel romantic

> feelings of attraction

> • Feeling of disconnectedness from my penis

> • Almost complete penile anesthesia much of the time

>

> I can now:

>

> • Get very aroused by visual stimuli.

> • I get erections very quickly. It's even been

> mentioned that I get them unusually quickly.

> It doesn't take much more than 15-20 seconds to get

> 100%

> • I orgasm as easily as I did pre-SSRI

> • I can feel romantic feelings again

> • The feeling of disconnectedness still crops up

> once in awhile, but it doesn't cause any

> harm and is getting better and better as the months

> pass

> • I fairly consistently have 100% of the feeling to

> my penis.

>

> By almost every measure I am cured.

>

> I don't know how applicable my methods are to other

> people, but I certainly think it's

> worth exploring whether or not they can be of some

> use. I wrote about them extensively

> in my other two threads, and I encourage you to read

> through them. I will summarize

> them here. I realize that this approach may seem

> strange, but it seems to have worked for

> me. It's also not going to be easy. But if recovery

> was as easy as popping a pill, we'd all be

> cured by now...

>

> The first thing I did was take steps to eliminate my

> extremely severe anxiety and

> depression. I started this process years before I

> recovered, and was finally fully successful

> about a year ago. At this point many of you are

> probably thinking that this won't be

> possible for you. You think that your depression or

> anxiety are just too strong and cannot

> be dealt with by any method besides medications.

> Maybe you've been depressed for years

> or maybe you feel that there is something

> organically wrong with your brain, and it cannot

> be reversed. You might be right. I don't know. But I

> can say that I had very debilitating

> anxiety and depression possible almost from birth,

> but I recovered from in completely. I

> can just barely remember a time in my life when I

> wasn't constantly sick from anxiety and

> in a lethargic, depressed daze. At it's worst I

> could barely drive because I was so

> depressed that I couldn't will myself to switch my

> foot from the brake to the gas pedal at a

> stop sign. It was not good.

>

> I'll go over what I did to get over my problems in a

> minute. But I'm really not sure they are

> applicable to the majority of people. I think the

> best bet for most is to seek cognitive-

> behavioral therapy. A good therapist can focus on

> eliminating those maladaptive behaviors

> and thought patterns that perpetuate the cycle of

> depression or anxiety. It takes a long

> time to recover, but it is statistically at least as

> effective as medication, and has a lower

> relapse rate. Plus it won't maim your personality or

> cause lasting side-effects like drugs

> can often can. In my case, I didn't see a

> therapist, but instead discovered the root causes

> of my anxiety and depression on my own. This was

> very hard to do, because the anxiety

> and depression would persist for a long time after I

> removed the causes. They had become

> ingrained in my way of being. One of the factors

> that helped sustain my poor mental

> health was dehydration. I was so depressed, that I

> lost my ability to distinguish specific

> human urges from general anxiety. I wouldn't feel

> thirsty, I would feel anxious. I wouldn't

> feel hungry, I would feel anxious (and somewhat

> hungry). I wouldn't feel sleepy, I would

> just feel very, very anxious (and groggy, but not

> truly tired). I think a root cause of the

> anxiety was my poor eating and water drinking

> habits. When I decided to eat and drink

> water more regularly, the effects weren't immediate.

> It would take days to feel a

> difference, and it was hard to tell cause and

> effect. In effect, my anxiety+depression

> button was stuck in the ON position out of habit or

> momentum. But eventually, improving

> my sleeping, eating and drinking schedule relieved

> my anxiety a little. I still had a lot left

> over. I think this is because my brain had come to

> associate almost everything with

> anxiety. Everywhere I had been, both publicly and

> privately, was associated with such

> painful anxiety, that being anywhere triggered panic

> reactions. This was the hardest thing

> for me to fix. I had to decondition my brain to

> react negatively to these stimuli, but since I

> was still having panic reactions to absolutely

> everything, the reinforcement continued, and

> I was stuck in a very nasty cycle. Intellectually I

> knew there was nothing anxiety provoking

> about these situations, but my unconscious brain

> didn't agree.

>

> The trick to beating this was conceptually simple,

> but hard to implement. Fortunately there

> were times when I was less anxious than at other

> times. I found running would relieve my

> anxiety somewhat. So I would approach particularly

> anxiety provoking situations only

> when I was more relaxed than average. The average

> person would still find the anxiety felt

> in these situations to be agonizingly painful, but

> since it was an improvement over what I

> was used to, my anxiety began to slowly get

> extinguished. I would move to a new baseline

> anxiety level and on my good days (or hours,

> really), I would expose myself to anxiety

> provoking situations, find some success in dealing

> with them, and further extinguish my

> anxiety. This took years to do fully, but I am now

> generally almost anxiety free. I've been

> told by several friends that I am one of the most

> confident people they know. I should also

> mention that dressing better helped improve my

> confidence. I wish it wasn't so, but

> looking good is certainly a good morale booster.

>

> So that took care of the anxiety. Now what about the

> depression? That was a little easier

> for me. The anxiety caused a good chunk of the

> depression. Being wracked by unbearably

> painful anxiety was very depressing, needless to

> say. I did have some issues that weren't

> related to the anxiety. The change in diet helped a

> lot. So did sleep and getting enough

> water. Making really great friends helped too. I may

> be unique here, but the biggest

> trigger for depression in me is laziness. I NEED to

> accomplish stuff every single day or my

> mood goes down the drain. Accomplishing tasks and

> setting ambitious goals for myself

> helps me stay depression free. I am now probably one

> of the happiest people most people

> have met. It is such a joy to be living my life for

> the first time, without the disabilities that

> dragged me down before. I travel the world, meet

> wonderful people, climb mountains and

> try new things all the time that would have been

> impossible to enjoy before I got better.

>

> But unfortunately for a long time I was doing these

> things under the burden of PSSD. I

> could finally attract women, but now I was unable to

> enjoy that fact. In fact, I was tortured

> by it. PSSD SUCKS. You all know what I'm talking

> about here... Life was still great, but

> obviously I was missing something very important.

>

> So I did my research. I went the drug route. Nothing

> helped. I lived with PSSD for years.

>

> At this point, I probably wasn't the coolest person

> on earth. In the past I could barely even

> talk because the anxiety made me stammer so much.

> Needless to say, my social skills

> were sub-par. My social skills has been slowly

> improving over the years of my recovery

> from anxiety, but they weren't great. I had friends,

> some good, but I was never the leader

> of the group, I never walked in the middle of the

> pack, I was always on the outside, not

> quite fully an equal...

>

> Then I met a new group of friends. One was neurotic,

> the

=== message truncated ===

________________________________________________________________________________\

____

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January 11, 2008

Wow - congratulations. This is great. Needless to say I'm jealous.

I've worked on my anxiety and depression issues a lot over the years

and believe I'm making progress, so that's good news.

Since I'm already doing well with that, the element of time interest

me most. How long did you have PSSD before you felt you had made a

significant recovery? How long has it been since the PSSD started

until reaching the point you are at now?

>

> Hey, everyone, it's me again. I just thought I'd update everyone on

the status of my

> recovery. If you don't remember, I'm the guy who theorized about the

link between social

> dominance, SSRIs and PSSD. You can search the list using my user

name for links to these

> discussions if you missed them.

>

> It's been more than a year since I started taking the steps that I

believe led to my recovery

> from PSSD. In that time I went from having full-blown PSSD of the

worst kind, to being

> completely recovered. My symptoms included:

>

> • Total lack of response to visual stimuli

> • Inability to achieve an erection without aggressive and constant

physical stimulation

> • Orgasms were very difficult to obtain

> • Almost complete inability to feel romantic feelings of attraction

> • Feeling of disconnectedness from my penis

> • Almost complete penile anesthesia much of the time

>

> I can now:

>

> • Get very aroused by visual stimuli.

> • I get erections very quickly. It's even been mentioned that I get

them unusually quickly.

> It doesn't take much more than 15-20 seconds to get 100%

> • I orgasm as easily as I did pre-SSRI

> • I can feel romantic feelings again

> • The feeling of disconnectedness still crops up once in awhile, but

it doesn't cause any

> harm and is getting better and better as the months pass

> • I fairly consistently have 100% of the feeling to my penis.

>

> By almost every measure I am cured.

>

> I don't know how applicable my methods are to other people, but I

certainly think it's

> worth exploring whether or not they can be of some use. I wrote

about them extensively

> in my other two threads, and I encourage you to read through them. I

will summarize

> them here. I realize that this approach may seem strange, but it

seems to have worked for

> me. It's also not going to be easy. But if recovery was as easy as

popping a pill, we'd all be

> cured by now...

>

> The first thing I did was take steps to eliminate my extremely

severe anxiety and

> depression. I started this process years before I recovered, and was

finally fully successful

> about a year ago. At this point many of you are probably thinking

that this won't be

> possible for you. You think that your depression or anxiety are just

too strong and cannot

> be dealt with by any method besides medications. Maybe you've been

depressed for years

> or maybe you feel that there is something organically wrong with

your brain, and it cannot

> be reversed. You might be right. I don't know. But I can say that I

had very debilitating

> anxiety and depression possible almost from birth, but I recovered

from in completely. I

> can just barely remember a time in my life when I wasn't constantly

sick from anxiety and

> in a lethargic, depressed daze. At it's worst I could barely drive

because I was so

> depressed that I couldn't will myself to switch my foot from the

brake to the gas pedal at a

> stop sign. It was not good.

>

> I'll go over what I did to get over my problems in a minute. But I'm

really not sure they are

> applicable to the majority of people. I think the best bet for most

is to seek cognitive-

> behavioral therapy. A good therapist can focus on eliminating those

maladaptive behaviors

> and thought patterns that perpetuate the cycle of depression or

anxiety. It takes a long

> time to recover, but it is statistically at least as effective as

medication, and has a lower

> relapse rate. Plus it won't maim your personality or cause lasting

side-effects like drugs

> can often can. In my case, I didn't see a therapist, but instead

discovered the root causes

> of my anxiety and depression on my own. This was very hard to do,

because the anxiety

> and depression would persist for a long time after I removed the

causes. They had become

> ingrained in my way of being. One of the factors that helped sustain

my poor mental

> health was dehydration. I was so depressed, that I lost my ability

to distinguish specific

> human urges from general anxiety. I wouldn't feel thirsty, I would

feel anxious. I wouldn't

> feel hungry, I would feel anxious (and somewhat hungry). I wouldn't

feel sleepy, I would

> just feel very, very anxious (and groggy, but not truly tired). I

think a root cause of the

> anxiety was my poor eating and water drinking habits. When I decided

to eat and drink

> water more regularly, the effects weren't immediate. It would take

days to feel a

> difference, and it was hard to tell cause and effect. In effect, my

anxiety+depression

> button was stuck in the ON position out of habit or momentum. But

eventually, improving

> my sleeping, eating and drinking schedule relieved my anxiety a

little. I still had a lot left

> over. I think this is because my brain had come to associate almost

everything with

> anxiety. Everywhere I had been, both publicly and privately, was

associated with such

> painful anxiety, that being anywhere triggered panic reactions. This

was the hardest thing

> for me to fix. I had to decondition my brain to react negatively to

these stimuli, but since I

> was still having panic reactions to absolutely everything, the

reinforcement continued, and

> I was stuck in a very nasty cycle. Intellectually I knew there was

nothing anxiety provoking

> about these situations, but my unconscious brain didn't agree.

>

> The trick to beating this was conceptually simple, but hard to

implement. Fortunately there

> were times when I was less anxious than at other times. I found

running would relieve my

> anxiety somewhat. So I would approach particularly anxiety provoking

situations only

> when I was more relaxed than average. The average person would still

find the anxiety felt

> in these situations to be agonizingly painful, but since it was an

improvement over what I

> was used to, my anxiety began to slowly get extinguished. I would

move to a new baseline

> anxiety level and on my good days (or hours, really), I would expose

myself to anxiety

> provoking situations, find some success in dealing with them, and

further extinguish my

> anxiety. This took years to do fully, but I am now generally almost

anxiety free. I've been

> told by several friends that I am one of the most confident people

they know. I should also

> mention that dressing better helped improve my confidence. I wish it

wasn't so, but

> looking good is certainly a good morale booster.

>

> So that took care of the anxiety. Now what about the depression?

That was a little easier

> for me. The anxiety caused a good chunk of the depression. Being

wracked by unbearably

> painful anxiety was very depressing, needless to say. I did have

some issues that weren't

> related to the anxiety. The change in diet helped a lot. So did

sleep and getting enough

> water. Making really great friends helped too. I may be unique here,

but the biggest

> trigger for depression in me is laziness. I NEED to accomplish stuff

every single day or my

> mood goes down the drain. Accomplishing tasks and setting ambitious

goals for myself

> helps me stay depression free. I am now probably one of the happiest

people most people

> have met. It is such a joy to be living my life for the first time,

without the disabilities that

> dragged me down before. I travel the world, meet wonderful people,

climb mountains and

> try new things all the time that would have been impossible to enjoy

before I got better.

>

> But unfortunately for a long time I was doing these things under the

burden of PSSD. I

> could finally attract women, but now I was unable to enjoy that

fact. In fact, I was tortured

> by it. PSSD SUCKS. You all know what I'm talking about here... Life

was still great, but

> obviously I was missing something very important.

>

> So I did my research. I went the drug route. Nothing helped. I lived

with PSSD for years.

>

> At this point, I probably wasn't the coolest person on earth. In the

past I could barely even

> talk because the anxiety made me stammer so much. Needless to say,

my social skills

> were sub-par. My social skills has been slowly improving over the

years of my recovery

> from anxiety, but they weren't great. I had friends, some good, but

I was never the leader

> of the group, I never walked in the middle of the pack, I was always

on the outside, not

> quite fully an equal...

>

> Then I met a new group of friends. One was neurotic, the other kinda

boring and the other

> a huge dork. But we were all interested in the same scientific

topics. So we became friends

> and got along well. But unlike my previous relationships, I was the

center of the group. I

> brought them together. And since my anxiety was quickly getting

better, I was getting

> more and more confident. And BOOM. I was the ALPHA MALE! This was

when I first started

> to see some recovery. I had a short lived relationship with a member

of the growing

> group, and sexually, I started to regain a little pleasure. Sex was

alright, not impossible or completely unsatisfying. It still wasn't

great, but there was some improvement. It was

> almost worth having, but not much better than the joy experienced

from eating a tasty

> meal.

>

> Eventually the shit hit the fan with that group. Long story, but it

was done. Shortly after

> that I started a new group of friends. I started to hang out with a

couple guys I hung out

> with in the past before I moved away. Before they were a bit cooler,

a bit more socially

> dominant, but now the tables were turned. I was much more socially

adept and charming

> at this point, and I became the center of a new group. Quickly, it

became quite large and

> wonderful. I am still great friends with all these people now, and

they are amazing people.

> Best of all I felt a sense of belonging...and a sense of power and

control. I was the hub of

> the group, and was naturally well respected. Not because I was

controlling or anything,

> just because they respected me a lot. The same way I respected the

people in the groups

> back when I had my anxiety issues. Shortly after that I met a

beautiful girl. She was the

> first attractive girl I was able to date, because my anxiety and

depression didn't make me

> very datable before. I did try and hook up with a few before, but

the PSSD stopped me

> from being able to get it up, and the numbness made it unworkable.

This new relationship

> helped me recover more. She was understanding of my condition, and

very attractive. I

> think it was the rise in dominance that I experienced that helped me

regain some of my

> ability to get aroused. I could start to feel emotional attachment

again. I started neglecting

> my friends a bit because of the new girlfriend, and it wasn't long

before things started to

> go downhill again. I wasn't getting my dominance fix. When I threw a

party and started

> hanging out with them more, thing got much better again. This may

sound weird, but they

> were especially good right when I was hanging out with my friends.

My girlfriend and I

> would constantly sneak away to have sex, because this is when I was

most arousable. The

> progress of my recovery seemed to correlate directly with my social

status and success. I

> moved to a different city for a time, and I regressed. When I came

back, I recovered more,

> and now after being back for a few months and being a dominant

member of my group, I

> can say that I have fully recovered.

>

> In short, I think that biological feelings of social dominance can

help relieve and reverse

> the symptoms of PSSD. I explained the theory for why this might be

in a previous thread.

> Basically I think it caused my brain to reverse the

" fall-from-dominance-like " impact that

> the abrupt discontinuation of my SSRIs may have had on our brains.

>

> I apologize if my writing is hard to understand, as it is almost 4

in the morning now, and

> I'm very tired. I hope this is of some use to somebody.

>

January 11, 2008

Hey biologic, congrats on your success. I went down a similar path last

year, but due to different circumstances and results. It's ironic,

because when I first came off of the effexor and became depressed, I

became lonely and thought that this was why I was depressed. You know

how it is, we make mountains out of molehills when depressed and try to

pin our suffering on some specific reason. So I started doing social

things I never would have done before, such as attending a bartending

class, joining a soccer team, becoming a waiter in a restaurant, etc. I

met a lot of people and did a lot of things I never would have done. I

had a lot of fun, though I had relapsed and went back on the effexor to

cut the overwhelming tension.

I have two questions for you. How many girls have you been with between

the time you got and fixed your PSSD? I wonder if this helped wake up

your system. I've thought about trying this route, it just seems hard to

do because I would basically be faking any attraction. Second, did you

ever have any lab work done on yourself during any of this? Just

wondering if testosterone was ever a problem for you. The effexor shut

off my testosterone, which is contributing to my problems. The only

remedy that I've seen is a life sentence of shots.

The good news is that I did meet tons of people who I still know. The

bad news is that is that it didn't cure my tension. I say tension

because it's not anxiety that I had. I remember anxiety, like when I had

to do piano recitals when younger or presentations in front of a

classroom. But apparently this overwhelming tension that I had/have was

due to excess histamine levels due to undermethylation, or breakdown of

histamine. The SSRIs helped because methylation is a part of their

process, so they masked the cause. (I wonder if they also screwed up the

whole methylation process as well.) As crazy as it sounds, taking a

benadryl will turn me back into my old, happy self for 24 hours. It's

treatable but will take a few months. Hopefully I can then just focus on

fixing the PSSD by then.

Shay

biologic1981 wrote:

>

> Hey, everyone, it's me again. I just thought I'd update everyone on

> the status of my

> recovery. If you don't remember, I'm the guy who theorized about the

> link between social

> dominance, SSRIs and PSSD. You can search the list using my user name

> for links to these

> discussions if you missed them.

>

> It's been more than a year since I started taking the steps that I

> believe led to my recovery

> from PSSD. In that time I went from having full-blown PSSD of the

> worst kind, to being

> completely recovered. My symptoms included:

>

> • Total lack of response to visual stimuli

> • Inability to achieve an erection without aggressive and constant

> physical stimulation

> • Orgasms were very difficult to obtain

> • Almost complete inability to feel romantic feelings of attraction

> • Feeling of disconnectedness from my penis

> • Almost complete penile anesthesia much of the time

>

> I can now:

>

> • Get very aroused by visual stimuli.

> • I get erections very quickly. It's even been mentioned that I get

> them unusually quickly.

> It doesn't take much more than 15-20 seconds to get 100%

> • I orgasm as easily as I did pre-SSRI

> • I can feel romantic feelings again

> • The feeling of disconnectedness still crops up once in awhile, but

> it doesn't cause any

> harm and is getting better and better as the months pass

> • I fairly consistently have 100% of the feeling to my penis.

>

> By almost every measure I am cured.

>

> I don't know how applicable my methods are to other people, but I

> certainly think it's

> worth exploring whether or not they can be of some use. I wrote about

> them extensively

> in my other two threads, and I encourage you to read through them. I

> will summarize

> them here. I realize that this approach may seem strange, but it seems

> to have worked for

> me. It's also not going to be easy. But if recovery was as easy as

> popping a pill, we'd all be

> cured by now...

>

> The first thing I did was take steps to eliminate my extremely severe

> anxiety and

> depression. I started this process years before I recovered, and was

> finally fully successful

> about a year ago. At this point many of you are probably thinking that

> this won't be

> possible for you. You think that your depression or anxiety are just

> too strong and cannot

> be dealt with by any method besides medications. Maybe you've been

> depressed for years

> or maybe you feel that there is something organically wrong with your

> brain, and it cannot

> be reversed. You might be right. I don't know. But I can say that I

> had very debilitating

> anxiety and depression possible almost from birth, but I recovered

> from in completely. I

> can just barely remember a time in my life when I wasn't constantly

> sick from anxiety and

> in a lethargic, depressed daze. At it's worst I could barely drive

> because I was so

> depressed that I couldn't will myself to switch my foot from the brake

> to the gas pedal at a

> stop sign. It was not good.

>

> I'll go over what I did to get over my problems in a minute. But I'm

> really not sure they are

> applicable to the majority of people. I think the best bet for most is

> to seek cognitive-

> behavioral therapy. A good therapist can focus on eliminating those

> maladaptive behaviors

> and thought patterns that perpetuate the cycle of depression or

> anxiety. It takes a long

> time to recover, but it is statistically at least as effective as

> medication, and has a lower

> relapse rate. Plus it won't maim your personality or cause lasting

> side-effects like drugs

> can often can. In my case, I didn't see a therapist, but instead

> discovered the root causes

> of my anxiety and depression on my own. This was very hard to do,

> because the anxiety

> and depression would persist for a long time after I removed the

> causes. They had become

> ingrained in my way of being. One of the factors that helped sustain

> my poor mental

> health was dehydration. I was so depressed, that I lost my ability to

> distinguish specific

> human urges from general anxiety. I wouldn't feel thirsty, I would

> feel anxious. I wouldn't

> feel hungry, I would feel anxious (and somewhat hungry). I wouldn't

> feel sleepy, I would

> just feel very, very anxious (and groggy, but not truly tired). I

> think a root cause of the

> anxiety was my poor eating and water drinking habits. When I decided

> to eat and drink

> water more regularly, the effects weren't immediate. It would take

> days to feel a

> difference, and it was hard to tell cause and effect. In effect, my

> anxiety+depression

> button was stuck in the ON position out of habit or momentum. But

> eventually, improving

> my sleeping, eating and drinking schedule relieved my anxiety a

> little. I still had a lot left

> over. I think this is because my brain had come to associate almost

> everything with

> anxiety. Everywhere I had been, both publicly and privately, was

> associated with such

> painful anxiety, that being anywhere triggered panic reactions. This

> was the hardest thing

> for me to fix. I had to decondition my brain to react negatively to

> these stimuli, but since I

> was still having panic reactions to absolutely everything, the

> reinforcement continued, and

> I was stuck in a very nasty cycle. Intellectually I knew there was

> nothing anxiety provoking

> about these situations, but my unconscious brain didn't agree.

>

> The trick to beating this was conceptually simple, but hard to

> implement. Fortunately there

> were times when I was less anxious than at other times. I found

> running would relieve my

> anxiety somewhat. So I would approach particularly anxiety provoking

> situations only

> when I was more relaxed than average. The average person would still

> find the anxiety felt

> in these situations to be agonizingly painful, but since it was an

> improvement over what I

> was used to, my anxiety began to slowly get extinguished. I would move

> to a new baseline

> anxiety level and on my good days (or hours, really), I would expose

> myself to anxiety

> provoking situations, find some success in dealing with them, and

> further extinguish my

> anxiety. This took years to do fully, but I am now generally almost

> anxiety free. I've been

> told by several friends that I am one of the most confident people

> they know. I should also

> mention that dressing better helped improve my confidence. I wish it

> wasn't so, but

> looking good is certainly a good morale booster.

>

> So that took care of the anxiety. Now what about the depression? That

> was a little easier

> for me. The anxiety caused a good chunk of the depression. Being

> wracked by unbearably

> painful anxiety was very depressing, needless to say. I did have some

> issues that weren't

> related to the anxiety. The change in diet helped a lot. So did sleep

> and getting enough

> water. Making really great friends helped too. I may be unique here,

> but the biggest

> trigger for depression in me is laziness. I NEED to accomplish stuff

> every single day or my

> mood goes down the drain. Accomplishing tasks and setting ambitious

> goals for myself

> helps me stay depression free. I am now probably one of the happiest

> people most people

> have met. It is such a joy to be living my life for the first time,

> without the disabilities that

> dragged me down before. I travel the world, meet wonderful people,

> climb mountains and

> try new things all the time that would have been impossible to enjoy

> before I got better.

>

> But unfortunately for a long time I was doing these things under the

> burden of PSSD. I

> could finally attract women, but now I was unable to enjoy that fact.

> In fact, I was tortured

> by it. PSSD SUCKS. You all know what I'm talking about here... Life

> was still great, but

> obviously I was missing something very important.

>

> So I did my research. I went the drug route. Nothing helped. I lived

> with PSSD for years.

>

> At this point, I probably wasn't the coolest person on earth. In the

> past I could barely even

> talk because the anxiety made me stammer so much. Needless to say, my

> social skills

> were sub-par. My social skills has been slowly improving over the

> years of my recovery

> from anxiety, but they weren't great. I had friends, some good, but I

> was never the leader

> of the group, I never walked in the middle of the pack, I was always

> on the outside, not

> quite fully an equal...

>

> Then I met a new group of friends. One was neurotic, the other kinda

> boring and the other

> a huge dork. But we were all interested in the same scientific topics.

> So we became friends

> and got along well. But unlike my previous relationships, I was the

> center of the group. I

> brought them together. And since my anxiety was quickly getting

> better, I was getting

> more and more confident. And BOOM. I was the ALPHA MALE! This was when

> I first started

> to see some recovery. I had a short lived relationship with a member

> of the growing

> group, and sexually, I started to regain a little pleasure. Sex was

> alright, not impossible or completely unsatisfying. It still wasn't

> great, but there was some improvement. It was

> almost worth having, but not much better than the joy experienced from

> eating a tasty

> meal.

>

> Eventually the shit hit the fan with that group. Long story, but it

> was done. Shortly after

> that I started a new group of friends. I started to hang out with a

> couple guys I hung out

> with in the past before I moved away. Before they were a bit cooler, a

> bit more socially

> dominant, but now the tables were turned. I was much more socially

> adept and charming

> at this point, and I became the center of a new group. Quickly, it

> became quite large and

> wonderful. I am still great friends with all these people now, and

> they are amazing people.

> Best of all I felt a sense of belonging...and a sense of power and

> control. I was the hub of

> the group, and was naturally well respected. Not because I was

> controlling or anything,

> just because they respected me a lot. The same way I respected the

> people in the groups

> back when I had my anxiety issues. Shortly after that I met a

> beautiful girl. She was the

> first attractive girl I was able to date, because my anxiety and

> depression didn't make me

> very datable before. I did try and hook up with a few before, but the

> PSSD stopped me

> from being able to get it up, and the numbness made it unworkable.

> This new relationship

> helped me recover more. She was understanding of my condition, and

> very attractive. I

> think it was the rise in dominance that I experienced that helped me

> regain some of my

> ability to get aroused. I could start to feel emotional attachment

> again. I started neglecting

> my friends a bit because of the new girlfriend, and it wasn't long

> before things started to

> go downhill again. I wasn't getting my dominance fix. When I threw a

> party and started

> hanging out with them more, thing got much better again. This may

> sound weird, but they

> were especially good right when I was hanging out with my friends. My

> girlfriend and I

> would constantly sneak away to have sex, because this is when I was

> most arousable. The

> progress of my recovery seemed to correlate directly with my social

> status and success. I

> moved to a different city for a time, and I regressed. When I came

> back, I recovered more,

> and now after being back for a few months and being a dominant member

> of my group, I

> can say that I have fully recovered.

>

> In short, I think that biological feelings of social dominance can

> help relieve and reverse

> the symptoms of PSSD. I explained the theory for why this might be in

> a previous thread.

> Basically I think it caused my brain to reverse the

> " fall-from-dominance-like " impact that

> the abrupt discontinuation of my SSRIs may have had on our brains.

>

> I apologize if my writing is hard to understand, as it is almost 4 in

> the morning now, and

> I'm very tired. I hope this is of some use to somebody.

>

January 11, 2008

Interesting. What age did you get pssd, and how old are you now. What

medications caused this for you>??

January 12, 2008

I tried out some benadryl yesterday after reading Shay's post. I

noticed my sadness disppeared and felt pretty good until now, I think

im back to where I was. It did make me very sleepy, somewhat similar

to when I started out zoloft for the first few days for break in

period. I havent really felt that good in awhile. I found some

interesting people who have used it to counteract the SSRI withdraw

symptoms. I was wondering if it could possibly help us if taken

carefully in low dosages cycled.

It says here that benadryl has similar SSRI action.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphenhydramine

" In the 1960s it was found that diphenhydramine inhibits reuptake of

the neurotransmitter serotonin. This discovery led to a search for

viable antidepressants with similar structures and fewer side

effects, culminating in the invention of fluoxetine (Prozac), a

selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). A similar search had

previously led to the synthesis of the first SSRI zimelidine from

chlorpheniramine, also an antihistamine. "

I found few sites where people talk about using benadryl for SSRI

withdrawl.

http://www.crazyboards.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7564

http://www.dr-bob.org/tips/split/Antidepressant-discontinua.html

http://www.drugs.com/forum/featured-drugs/does-diphenhydramine-help-

lexopra-w-d-symptoms-37044.html

http://mb.rxlist.com/rxboard/zoloft.pl?noframes;read=1081

January 14, 2008

i read somewhere that benadryl might stop night time erections, it

was advised for treatment of prostatitis. apparently to give the sex

organs a break from stimulation.

>

> I tried out some benadryl yesterday after reading Shay's post. I

> noticed my sadness disppeared and felt pretty good until now, I

think

> im back to where I was. It did make me very sleepy, somewhat

similar

> to when I started out zoloft for the first few days for break in

> period. I havent really felt that good in awhile. I found some

> interesting people who have used it to counteract the SSRI withdraw

> symptoms. I was wondering if it could possibly help us if taken

> carefully in low dosages cycled.

>

> It says here that benadryl has similar SSRI action.

>

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphenhydramine

>

> " In the 1960s it was found that diphenhydramine inhibits reuptake

of

> the neurotransmitter serotonin. This discovery led to a search for

> viable antidepressants with similar structures and fewer side

> effects, culminating in the invention of fluoxetine (Prozac), a

> selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). A similar search had

> previously led to the synthesis of the first SSRI zimelidine from

> chlorpheniramine, also an antihistamine. "

>

> I found few sites where people talk about using benadryl for SSRI

> withdrawl.

>

> http://www.crazyboards.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7564

>

> http://www.dr-bob.org/tips/split/Antidepressant-discontinua.html

>

> http://www.drugs.com/forum/featured-drugs/does-diphenhydramine-help-

> lexopra-w-d-symptoms-37044.html

>

> http://mb.rxlist.com/rxboard/zoloft.pl?noframes;read=1081

>

January 15, 2008

I had PSSD for about 5 years before I started getting better. It took me about a

year to get

over the PSSD completely after I started recovering. The start of the recovery

correlated

very well with meeting that new group of three friends, which I mentioned in my

mine was, I

think you are on the right track toward recovery.

> >

> > Hey, everyone, it's me again. I just thought I'd update everyone on

> the status of my

> > recovery. If you don't remember, I'm the guy who theorized about the

> link between social

> > dominance, SSRIs and PSSD. You can search the list using my user

> name for links to these

> > discussions if you missed them.

> >

> > It's been more than a year since I started taking the steps that I

> believe led to my recovery

> > from PSSD. In that time I went from having full-blown PSSD of the

> worst kind, to being

> > completely recovered. My symptoms included:

> >

> > • Total lack of response to visual stimuli

> > • Inability to achieve an erection without aggressive and constant

> physical stimulation

> > • Orgasms were very difficult to obtain

> > • Almost complete inability to feel romantic feelings of attraction

> > • Feeling of disconnectedness from my penis

> > • Almost complete penile anesthesia much of the time

> >

> > I can now:

> >

> > • Get very aroused by visual stimuli.

> > • I get erections very quickly. It's even been mentioned that I get

> them unusually quickly.

> > It doesn't take much more than 15-20 seconds to get 100%

> > • I orgasm as easily as I did pre-SSRI

> > • I can feel romantic feelings again

> > • The feeling of disconnectedness still crops up once in awhile, but

> it doesn't cause any

> > harm and is getting better and better as the months pass

> > • I fairly consistently have 100% of the feeling to my penis.

> >

> > By almost every measure I am cured.

> >

> > I don't know how applicable my methods are to other people, but I

> certainly think it's

> > worth exploring whether or not they can be of some use. I wrote

> about them extensively

> > in my other two threads, and I encourage you to read through them. I

> will summarize

> > them here. I realize that this approach may seem strange, but it

> seems to have worked for

> > me. It's also not going to be easy. But if recovery was as easy as

> popping a pill, we'd all be

> > cured by now...

> >

> > The first thing I did was take steps to eliminate my extremely

> severe anxiety and

> > depression. I started this process years before I recovered, and was

> finally fully successful

> > about a year ago. At this point many of you are probably thinking

> that this won't be

> > possible for you. You think that your depression or anxiety are just

> too strong and cannot

> > be dealt with by any method besides medications. Maybe you've been

> depressed for years

> > or maybe you feel that there is something organically wrong with

> your brain, and it cannot

> > be reversed. You might be right. I don't know. But I can say that I

> had very debilitating

> > anxiety and depression possible almost from birth, but I recovered

> from in completely. I

> > can just barely remember a time in my life when I wasn't constantly

> sick from anxiety and

> > in a lethargic, depressed daze. At it's worst I could barely drive

> because I was so

> > depressed that I couldn't will myself to switch my foot from the

> brake to the gas pedal at a

> > stop sign. It was not good.

> >

> > I'll go over what I did to get over my problems in a minute. But I'm

> really not sure they are

> > applicable to the majority of people. I think the best bet for most

> is to seek cognitive-

> > behavioral therapy. A good therapist can focus on eliminating those

> maladaptive behaviors

> > and thought patterns that perpetuate the cycle of depression or

> anxiety. It takes a long

> > time to recover, but it is statistically at least as effective as

> medication, and has a lower

> > relapse rate. Plus it won't maim your personality or cause lasting

> side-effects like drugs

> > can often can. In my case, I didn't see a therapist, but instead

> discovered the root causes

> > of my anxiety and depression on my own. This was very hard to do,

> because the anxiety

> > and depression would persist for a long time after I removed the

> causes. They had become

> > ingrained in my way of being. One of the factors that helped sustain

> my poor mental

> > health was dehydration. I was so depressed, that I lost my ability

> to distinguish specific

> > human urges from general anxiety. I wouldn't feel thirsty, I would

> feel anxious. I wouldn't

> > feel hungry, I would feel anxious (and somewhat hungry). I wouldn't

> feel sleepy, I would

> > just feel very, very anxious (and groggy, but not truly tired). I

> think a root cause of the

> > anxiety was my poor eating and water drinking habits. When I decided

> to eat and drink

> > water more regularly, the effects weren't immediate. It would take

> days to feel a

> > difference, and it was hard to tell cause and effect. In effect, my

> anxiety+depression

> > button was stuck in the ON position out of habit or momentum. But

> eventually, improving

> > my sleeping, eating and drinking schedule relieved my anxiety a

> little. I still had a lot left

> > over. I think this is because my brain had come to associate almost

> everything with

> > anxiety. Everywhere I had been, both publicly and privately, was

> associated with such

> > painful anxiety, that being anywhere triggered panic reactions. This

> was the hardest thing

> > for me to fix. I had to decondition my brain to react negatively to

> these stimuli, but since I

> > was still having panic reactions to absolutely everything, the

> reinforcement continued, and

> > I was stuck in a very nasty cycle. Intellectually I knew there was

> nothing anxiety provoking

> > about these situations, but my unconscious brain didn't agree.

> >

> > The trick to beating this was conceptually simple, but hard to

> implement. Fortunately there

> > were times when I was less anxious than at other times. I found

> running would relieve my

> > anxiety somewhat. So I would approach particularly anxiety provoking

> situations only

> > when I was more relaxed than average. The average person would still

> find the anxiety felt

> > in these situations to be agonizingly painful, but since it was an

> improvement over what I

> > was used to, my anxiety began to slowly get extinguished. I would

> move to a new baseline

> > anxiety level and on my good days (or hours, really), I would expose

> myself to anxiety

> > provoking situations, find some success in dealing with them, and

> further extinguish my

> > anxiety. This took years to do fully, but I am now generally almost

> anxiety free. I've been

> > told by several friends that I am one of the most confident people

> they know. I should also

> > mention that dressing better helped improve my confidence. I wish it

> wasn't so, but

> > looking good is certainly a good morale booster.

> >

> > So that took care of the anxiety. Now what about the depression?

> That was a little easier

> > for me. The anxiety caused a good chunk of the depression. Being

> wracked by unbearably

> > painful anxiety was very depressing, needless to say. I did have

> some issues that weren't

> > related to the anxiety. The change in diet helped a lot. So did

> sleep and getting enough

> > water. Making really great friends helped too. I may be unique here,

> but the biggest

> > trigger for depression in me is laziness. I NEED to accomplish stuff

> every single day or my

> > mood goes down the drain. Accomplishing tasks and setting ambitious

> goals for myself

> > helps me stay depression free. I am now probably one of the happiest

> people most people

> > have met. It is such a joy to be living my life for the first time,

> without the disabilities that

> > dragged me down before. I travel the world, meet wonderful people,

> climb mountains and

> > try new things all the time that would have been impossible to enjoy

> before I got better.

> >

> > But unfortunately for a long time I was doing these things under the

> burden of PSSD. I

> > could finally attract women, but now I was unable to enjoy that

> fact. In fact, I was tortured

> > by it. PSSD SUCKS. You all know what I'm talking about here... Life

> was still great, but

> > obviously I was missing something very important.

> >

> > So I did my research. I went the drug route. Nothing helped. I lived

> with PSSD for years.

> >

> > At this point, I probably wasn't the coolest person on earth. In the

> past I could barely even

> > talk because the anxiety made me stammer so much. Needless to say,

> my social skills

> > were sub-par. My social skills has been slowly improving over the

> years of my recovery

> > from anxiety, but they weren't great. I had friends, some good, but

> I was never the leader

> > of the group, I never walked in the middle of the pack, I was always

> on the outside, not

> > quite fully an equal...

> >

> > Then I met a new group of friends. One was neurotic, the other kinda

> boring and the other

> > a huge dork. But we were all interested in the same scientific

> topics. So we became friends

> > and got along well. But unlike my previous relationships, I was the

> center of the group. I

> > brought them together. And since my anxiety was quickly getting

> better, I was getting

> > more and more confident. And BOOM. I was the ALPHA MALE! This was

> when I first started

> > to see some recovery. I had a short lived relationship with a member

> of the growing

> > group, and sexually, I started to regain a little pleasure. Sex was

> alright, not impossible or completely unsatisfying. It still wasn't

> great, but there was some improvement. It was

> > almost worth having, but not much better than the joy experienced

> from eating a tasty

> > meal.

> >

> > Eventually the shit hit the fan with that group. Long story, but it

> was done. Shortly after

> > that I started a new group of friends. I started to hang out with a

> couple guys I hung out

> > with in the past before I moved away. Before they were a bit cooler,

> a bit more socially

> > dominant, but now the tables were turned. I was much more socially

> adept and charming

> > at this point, and I became the center of a new group. Quickly, it

> became quite large and

> > wonderful. I am still great friends with all these people now, and

> they are amazing people.

> > Best of all I felt a sense of belonging...and a sense of power and

> control. I was the hub of

> > the group, and was naturally well respected. Not because I was

> controlling or anything,

> > just because they respected me a lot. The same way I respected the

> people in the groups

> > back when I had my anxiety issues. Shortly after that I met a

> beautiful girl. She was the

> > first attractive girl I was able to date, because my anxiety and

> depression didn't make me

> > very datable before. I did try and hook up with a few before, but

> the PSSD stopped me

> > from being able to get it up, and the numbness made it unworkable.

> This new relationship

> > helped me recover more. She was understanding of my condition, and

> very attractive. I

> > think it was the rise in dominance that I experienced that helped me

> regain some of my

> > ability to get aroused. I could start to feel emotional attachment

> again. I started neglecting

> > my friends a bit because of the new girlfriend, and it wasn't long

> before things started to

> > go downhill again. I wasn't getting my dominance fix. When I threw a

> party and started

> > hanging out with them more, thing got much better again. This may

> sound weird, but they

> > were especially good right when I was hanging out with my friends.

> My girlfriend and I

> > would constantly sneak away to have sex, because this is when I was

> most arousable. The

> > progress of my recovery seemed to correlate directly with my social

> status and success. I

> > moved to a different city for a time, and I regressed. When I came

> back, I recovered more,

> > and now after being back for a few months and being a dominant

> member of my group, I

> > can say that I have fully recovered.

> >

> > In short, I think that biological feelings of social dominance can

> help relieve and reverse

> > the symptoms of PSSD. I explained the theory for why this might be

> in a previous thread.

> > Basically I think it caused my brain to reverse the

> " fall-from-dominance-like " impact that

> > the abrupt discontinuation of my SSRIs may have had on our brains.

> >

> > I apologize if my writing is hard to understand, as it is almost 4

> in the morning now, and

> > I'm very tired. I hope this is of some use to somebody.

> >

>

January 15, 2008

The medicine was Paxil, I got PSSD when I was 20 or so, and I am now 26.

>

> Interesting. What age did you get pssd, and how old are you now. What

> medications caused this for you>??

>

January 15, 2008

Hi Shay,

Thanks. I was with a few women before I recovered, and those were definitely

cases of

faking the attraction. I think that was actually counter-productive. It was

frustrating, and

made sex seem like a useless, pleasureless, awkward thing. While recovering I

was with

the two women I mentioned in my original post. After being with the second one

for a

couple months I'd say I was 70% recovered. I definitely had some really good

days, but I

had bad days too. Since then I've been with a couple more, and I do think that

repeatedly

having great sex is a good way to get back in the swing of things. I think the

physical

symptoms of PSSD can cause a lot of psychological issues with sex, but with a

little

reconditioning, these can be eliminated after the recovery process has

progressed a bit.

Having an understanding girlfriend probably helped me a lot in this regard too.

I never had any lab work done.

-b

> >

> > Hey, everyone, it's me again. I just thought I'd update everyone on

> > the status of my

> > recovery. If you don't remember, I'm the guy who theorized about the

> > link between social

> > dominance, SSRIs and PSSD. You can search the list using my user name

> > for links to these

> > discussions if you missed them.

> >

> > It's been more than a year since I started taking the steps that I

> > believe led to my recovery

> > from PSSD. In that time I went from having full-blown PSSD of the

> > worst kind, to being

> > completely recovered. My symptoms included:

> >

> > • Total lack of response to visual stimuli

> > • Inability to achieve an erection without aggressive and constant

> > physical stimulation

> > • Orgasms were very difficult to obtain

> > • Almost complete inability to feel romantic feelings of attraction

> > • Feeling of disconnectedness from my penis

> > • Almost complete penile anesthesia much of the time

> >

> > I can now:

> >

> > • Get very aroused by visual stimuli.

> > • I get erections very quickly. It's even been mentioned that I get

> > them unusually quickly.

> > It doesn't take much more than 15-20 seconds to get 100%

> > • I orgasm as easily as I did pre-SSRI

> > • I can feel romantic feelings again

> > • The feeling of disconnectedness still crops up once in awhile, but

> > it doesn't cause any

> > harm and is getting better and better as the months pass

> > • I fairly consistently have 100% of the feeling to my penis.

> >

> > By almost every measure I am cured.

> >

> > I don't know how applicable my methods are to other people, but I

> > certainly think it's

> > worth exploring whether or not they can be of some use. I wrote about

> > them extensively

> > in my other two threads, and I encourage you to read through them. I

> > will summarize

> > them here. I realize that this approach may seem strange, but it seems

> > to have worked for

> > me. It's also not going to be easy. But if recovery was as easy as

> > popping a pill, we'd all be

> > cured by now...

> >

> > The first thing I did was take steps to eliminate my extremely severe

> > anxiety and

> > depression. I started this process years before I recovered, and was

> > finally fully successful

> > about a year ago. At this point many of you are probably thinking that

> > this won't be

> > possible for you. You think that your depression or anxiety are just

> > too strong and cannot

> > be dealt with by any method besides medications. Maybe you've been

> > depressed for years

> > or maybe you feel that there is something organically wrong with your

> > brain, and it cannot

> > be reversed. You might be right. I don't know. But I can say that I

> > had very debilitating

> > anxiety and depression possible almost from birth, but I recovered

> > from in completely. I

> > can just barely remember a time in my life when I wasn't constantly

> > sick from anxiety and

> > in a lethargic, depressed daze. At it's worst I could barely drive

> > because I was so

> > depressed that I couldn't will myself to switch my foot from the brake

> > to the gas pedal at a

> > stop sign. It was not good.

> >

> > I'll go over what I did to get over my problems in a minute. But I'm

> > really not sure they are

> > applicable to the majority of people. I think the best bet for most is

> > to seek cognitive-

> > behavioral therapy. A good therapist can focus on eliminating those

> > maladaptive behaviors

> > and thought patterns that perpetuate the cycle of depression or

> > anxiety. It takes a long

> > time to recover, but it is statistically at least as effective as

> > medication, and has a lower

> > relapse rate. Plus it won't maim your personality or cause lasting

> > side-effects like drugs

> > can often can. In my case, I didn't see a therapist, but instead

> > discovered the root causes

> > of my anxiety and depression on my own. This was very hard to do,

> > because the anxiety

> > and depression would persist for a long time after I removed the

> > causes. They had become

> > ingrained in my way of being. One of the factors that helped sustain

> > my poor mental

> > health was dehydration. I was so depressed, that I lost my ability to

> > distinguish specific

> > human urges from general anxiety. I wouldn't feel thirsty, I would

> > feel anxious. I wouldn't

> > feel hungry, I would feel anxious (and somewhat hungry). I wouldn't

> > feel sleepy, I would

> > just feel very, very anxious (and groggy, but not truly tired). I

> > think a root cause of the

> > anxiety was my poor eating and water drinking habits. When I decided

> > to eat and drink

> > water more regularly, the effects weren't immediate. It would take

> > days to feel a

> > difference, and it was hard to tell cause and effect. In effect, my

> > anxiety+depression

> > button was stuck in the ON position out of habit or momentum. But

> > eventually, improving

> > my sleeping, eating and drinking schedule relieved my anxiety a

> > little. I still had a lot left

> > over. I think this is because my brain had come to associate almost

> > everything with

> > anxiety. Everywhere I had been, both publicly and privately, was

> > associated with such

> > painful anxiety, that being anywhere triggered panic reactions. This

> > was the hardest thing

> > for me to fix. I had to decondition my brain to react negatively to

> > these stimuli, but since I

> > was still having panic reactions to absolutely everything, the

> > reinforcement continued, and

> > I was stuck in a very nasty cycle. Intellectually I knew there was

> > nothing anxiety provoking

> > about these situations, but my unconscious brain didn't agree.

> >

> > The trick to beating this was conceptually simple, but hard to

> > implement. Fortunately there

> > were times when I was less anxious than at other times. I found

> > running would relieve my

> > anxiety somewhat. So I would approach particularly anxiety provoking

> > situations only

> > when I was more relaxed than average. The average person would still

> > find the anxiety felt

> > in these situations to be agonizingly painful, but since it was an

> > improvement over what I

> > was used to, my anxiety began to slowly get extinguished. I would move

> > to a new baseline

> > anxiety level and on my good days (or hours, really), I would expose

> > myself to anxiety

> > provoking situations, find some success in dealing with them, and

> > further extinguish my

> > anxiety. This took years to do fully, but I am now generally almost

> > anxiety free. I've been

> > told by several friends that I am one of the most confident people

> > they know. I should also

> > mention that dressing better helped improve my confidence. I wish it

> > wasn't so, but

> > looking good is certainly a good morale booster.

> >

> > So that took care of the anxiety. Now what about the depression? That

> > was a little easier

> > for me. The anxiety caused a good chunk of the depression. Being

> > wracked by unbearably

> > painful anxiety was very depressing, needless to say. I did have some

> > issues that weren't

> > related to the anxiety. The change in diet helped a lot. So did sleep

> > and getting enough

> > water. Making really great friends helped too. I may be unique here,

> > but the biggest

> > trigger for depression in me is laziness. I NEED to accomplish stuff

> > every single day or my

> > mood goes down the drain. Accomplishing tasks and setting ambitious

> > goals for myself

> > helps me stay depression free. I am now probably one of the happiest

> > people most people

> > have met. It is such a joy to be living my life for the first time,

> > without the disabilities that

> > dragged me down before. I travel the world, meet wonderful people,

> > climb mountains and

> > try new things all the time that would have been impossible to enjoy

> > before I got better.

> >

> > But unfortunately for a long time I was doing these things under the

> > burden of PSSD. I

> > could finally attract women, but now I was unable to enjoy that fact.

> > In fact, I was tortured

> > by it. PSSD SUCKS. You all know what I'm talking about here... Life

> > was still great, but

> > obviously I was missing something very important.

> >

> > So I did my research. I went the drug route. Nothing helped. I lived

> > with PSSD for years.

> >

> > At this point, I probably wasn't the coolest person on earth. In the

> > past I could barely even

> > talk because the anxiety made me stammer so much. Needless to say, my

> > social skills

> > were sub-par. My social skills has been slowly improving over the

> > years of my recovery

> > from anxiety, but they weren't great. I had friends, some good, but I

> > was never the leader

> > of the group, I never walked in the middle of the pack, I was always

> > on the outside, not

> > quite fully an equal...

> >

> > Then I met a new group of friends. One was neurotic, the other kinda

> > boring and the other

> > a huge dork. But we were all interested in the same scientific topics.

> > So we became friends

> > and got along well. But unlike my previous relationships, I was the

> > center of the group. I

> > brought them together. And since my anxiety was quickly getting

> > better, I was getting

> > more and more confident. And BOOM. I was the ALPHA MALE! This was when

> > I first started

> > to see some recovery. I had a short lived relationship with a member

> > of the growing

> > group, and sexually, I started to regain a little pleasure. Sex was

> > alright, not impossible or completely unsatisfying. It still wasn't

> > great, but there was some improvement. It was

> > almost worth having, but not much better than the joy experienced from

> > eating a tasty

> > meal.

> >

> > Eventually the shit hit the fan with that group. Long story, but it

> > was done. Shortly after

> > that I started a new group of friends. I started to hang out with a

> > couple guys I hung out

> > with in the past before I moved away. Before they were a bit cooler, a

> > bit more socially

> > dominant, but now the tables were turned. I was much more socially

> > adept and charming

> > at this point, and I became the center of a new group. Quickly, it

> > became quite large and

> > wonderful. I am still great friends with all these people now, and

> > they are amazing people.

> > Best of all I felt a sense of belonging...and a sense of power and

> > control. I was the hub of

> > the group, and was naturally well respected. Not because I was

> > controlling or anything,

> > just because they respected me a lot. The same way I respected the

> > people in the groups

> > back when I had my anxiety issues. Shortly after that I met a

> > beautiful girl. She was the

> > first attractive girl I was able to date, because my anxiety and

> > depression didn't make me

> > very datable before. I did try and hook up with a few before, but the

> > PSSD stopped me

> > from being able to get it up, and the numbness made it unworkable.

> > This new relationship

> > helped me recover more. She was understanding of my condition, and

> > very attractive. I

> > think it was the rise in dominance that I experienced that helped me

> > regain some of my

> > ability to get aroused. I could start to feel emotional attachment

> > again. I started neglecting

> > my friends a bit because of the new girlfriend, and it wasn't long

> > before things started to

> > go downhill again. I wasn't getting my dominance fix. When I threw a

> > party and started

> > hanging out with them more, thing got much better again. This may

> > sound weird, but they

> > were especially good right when I was hanging out with my friends. My

> > girlfriend and I

> > would constantly sneak away to have sex, because this is when I was

> > most arousable. The

> > progress of my recovery seemed to correlate directly with my social

> > status and success. I

> > moved to a different city for a time, and I regressed. When I came

> > back, I recovered more,

> > and now after being back for a few months and being a dominant member

> > of my group, I

> > can say that I have fully recovered.

> >

> > In short, I think that biological feelings of social dominance can

> > help relieve and reverse

> > the symptoms of PSSD. I explained the theory for why this might be in

> > a previous thread.

> > Basically I think it caused my brain to reverse the

> > " fall-from-dominance-like " impact that

> > the abrupt discontinuation of my SSRIs may have had on our brains.

> >

> > I apologize if my writing is hard to understand, as it is almost 4 in

> > the morning now, and

> > I'm very tired. I hope this is of some use to somebody.

> >

>

January 16, 2008

i agree! the shock when you firsts realise whats happened to you has to

play a role psychologically.

probably an element of post traumatic stress disorder going on, maybe

even the feeling of just giving in after a while is enough to start a

recovery.

>

> I think it may be possible that for some patients PSSD is partly

> physiological anf partly psychological. I mean that the original PSSD

> symptoms are self enhancing by the stress and grief caused by it.

>

> ..............

> > I think the physical symptoms of PSSD can cause a lot of

> psychological > issues with sex, but with a little reconditioning,

> these can be

> > eliminated after the recovery process has progressed a bit.

>

January 16, 2008

Hi every one

i did not read all the messages

but i am convinced and believe in this one.

the drug route will get you more anxious and confused.

a request for the modurator:put this message and

all valuable like it in a special section

thank you

January 16, 2008

Would you please explain why you don't seem to believe in 'the drug

route'?

>

> Hi every one

> i did not read all the messages

> but i am convinced and believe in this one.

> the drug route will get you more anxious and confused.

January 17, 2008

I'm assuming it's because drugs got us in this mess and he fixed the

situation without them.

Shay

stevehazek wrote:

>

> Would you please explain why you don't seem to believe in 'the drug

> route'?

>

> >

> > Hi every one

> > i did not read all the messages

> > but i am convinced and believe in this one.

> > the drug route will get you more anxious and confused.

>

January 21, 2008

Congratulations on your recovery!!

Was there any order that you recovered. Did you for example feel more

sexual thoughts and then other things improved or did everything

improve together gradually such as sensation, visual stimulation,

erections etc...

if there is a order of pattern in what things recovered first then

second and so on, some of us maybe able to use it to our benefit for

ways of recovering.

well done

>

> Hey, everyone, it's me again. I just thought I'd update everyone on

the status of my

> recovery. If you don't remember, I'm the guy who theorized about

the link between social

> dominance, SSRIs and PSSD. You can search the list using my user

name for links to these

> discussions if you missed them.

>

> It's been more than a year since I started taking the steps that I

believe led to my recovery

> from PSSD. In that time I went from having full-blown PSSD of the

worst kind, to being

> completely recovered. My symptoms included:

>

> • Total lack of response to visual stimuli

> • Inability to achieve an erection without aggressive and constant

physical stimulation

> • Orgasms were very difficult to obtain

> • Almost complete inability to feel romantic feelings of attraction

> • Feeling of disconnectedness from my penis

> • Almost complete penile anesthesia much of the time

>

> I can now:

>

> • Get very aroused by visual stimuli.

> • I get erections very quickly. It's even been mentioned that I get

them unusually quickly.

> It doesn't take much more than 15-20 seconds to get 100%

> • I orgasm as easily as I did pre-SSRI

> • I can feel romantic feelings again

> • The feeling of disconnectedness still crops up once in awhile,

but it doesn't cause any

> harm and is getting better and better as the months pass

> • I fairly consistently have 100% of the feeling to my penis.

>

> By almost every measure I am cured.

>

> I don't know how applicable my methods are to other people, but I

certainly think it's

> worth exploring whether or not they can be of some use. I wrote

about them extensively

> in my other two threads, and I encourage you to read through them.

I will summarize

> them here. I realize that this approach may seem strange, but it

seems to have worked for

> me. It's also not going to be easy. But if recovery was as easy as

popping a pill, we'd all be

> cured by now...

>

> The first thing I did was take steps to eliminate my extremely

severe anxiety and

> depression. I started this process years before I recovered, and

was finally fully successful

> about a year ago. At this point many of you are probably thinking

that this won't be

> possible for you. You think that your depression or anxiety are

just too strong and cannot

> be dealt with by any method besides medications. Maybe you've been

depressed for years

> or maybe you feel that there is something organically wrong with

your brain, and it cannot

> be reversed. You might be right. I don't know. But I can say that I

had very debilitating

> anxiety and depression possible almost from birth, but I recovered

from in completely. I

> can just barely remember a time in my life when I wasn't constantly

sick from anxiety and

> in a lethargic, depressed daze. At it's worst I could barely drive

because I was so

> depressed that I couldn't will myself to switch my foot from the

brake to the gas pedal at a

> stop sign. It was not good.

>

> I'll go over what I did to get over my problems in a minute. But

I'm really not sure they are

> applicable to the majority of people. I think the best bet for most

is to seek cognitive-

> behavioral therapy. A good therapist can focus on eliminating those

maladaptive behaviors

> and thought patterns that perpetuate the cycle of depression or

anxiety. It takes a long

> time to recover, but it is statistically at least as effective as

medication, and has a lower

> relapse rate. Plus it won't maim your personality or cause lasting

side-effects like drugs

> can often can. In my case, I didn't see a therapist, but instead

discovered the root causes

> of my anxiety and depression on my own. This was very hard to do,

because the anxiety

> and depression would persist for a long time after I removed the

causes. They had become

> ingrained in my way of being. One of the factors that helped

sustain my poor mental

> health was dehydration. I was so depressed, that I lost my ability

to distinguish specific

> human urges from general anxiety. I wouldn't feel thirsty, I would

feel anxious. I wouldn't

> feel hungry, I would feel anxious (and somewhat hungry). I wouldn't

feel sleepy, I would

> just feel very, very anxious (and groggy, but not truly tired). I

think a root cause of the

> anxiety was my poor eating and water drinking habits. When I

decided to eat and drink

> water more regularly, the effects weren't immediate. It would take

days to feel a

> difference, and it was hard to tell cause and effect. In effect, my

anxiety+depression

> button was stuck in the ON position out of habit or momentum. But

eventually, improving

> my sleeping, eating and drinking schedule relieved my anxiety a

little. I still had a lot left

> over. I think this is because my brain had come to associate almost

everything with

> anxiety. Everywhere I had been, both publicly and privately, was

associated with such

> painful anxiety, that being anywhere triggered panic reactions.

This was the hardest thing

> for me to fix. I had to decondition my brain to react negatively to

these stimuli, but since I

> was still having panic reactions to absolutely everything, the

reinforcement continued, and

> I was stuck in a very nasty cycle. Intellectually I knew there was

nothing anxiety provoking

> about these situations, but my unconscious brain didn't agree.

>

> The trick to beating this was conceptually simple, but hard to

implement. Fortunately there

> were times when I was less anxious than at other times. I found

running would relieve my

> anxiety somewhat. So I would approach particularly anxiety

provoking situations only

> when I was more relaxed than average. The average person would

still find the anxiety felt

> in these situations to be agonizingly painful, but since it was an

improvement over what I

> was used to, my anxiety began to slowly get extinguished. I would

move to a new baseline

> anxiety level and on my good days (or hours, really), I would

expose myself to anxiety

> provoking situations, find some success in dealing with them, and

further extinguish my

> anxiety. This took years to do fully, but I am now generally almost

anxiety free. I've been

> told by several friends that I am one of the most confident people

they know. I should also

> mention that dressing better helped improve my confidence. I wish

it wasn't so, but

> looking good is certainly a good morale booster.

>

> So that took care of the anxiety. Now what about the depression?

That was a little easier

> for me. The anxiety caused a good chunk of the depression. Being

wracked by unbearably

> painful anxiety was very depressing, needless to say. I did have

some issues that weren't

> related to the anxiety. The change in diet helped a lot. So did

sleep and getting enough

> water. Making really great friends helped too. I may be unique

here, but the biggest

> trigger for depression in me is laziness. I NEED to accomplish

stuff every single day or my

> mood goes down the drain. Accomplishing tasks and setting ambitious

goals for myself

> helps me stay depression free. I am now probably one of the

happiest people most people

> have met. It is such a joy to be living my life for the first time,

without the disabilities that

> dragged me down before. I travel the world, meet wonderful people,

climb mountains and

> try new things all the time that would have been impossible to

enjoy before I got better.

>

> But unfortunately for a long time I was doing these things under

the burden of PSSD. I

> could finally attract women, but now I was unable to enjoy that

fact. In fact, I was tortured

> by it. PSSD SUCKS. You all know what I'm talking about here... Life

was still great, but

> obviously I was missing something very important.

>

> So I did my research. I went the drug route. Nothing helped. I

lived with PSSD for years.

>

> At this point, I probably wasn't the coolest person on earth. In

the past I could barely even

> talk because the anxiety made me stammer so much. Needless to say,

my social skills

> were sub-par. My social skills has been slowly improving over the

years of my recovery

> from anxiety, but they weren't great. I had friends, some good, but

I was never the leader

> of the group, I never walked in the middle of the pack, I was

always on the outside, not

> quite fully an equal...

>

> Then I met a new group of friends. One was neurotic, the other

kinda boring and the other

> a huge dork. But we were all interested in the same scientific

topics. So we became friends

> and got along well. But unlike my previous relationships, I was the

center of the group. I

> brought them together. And since my anxiety was quickly getting

better, I was getting

> more and more confident. And BOOM. I was the ALPHA MALE! This was

when I first started

> to see some recovery. I had a short lived relationship with a

member of the growing

> group, and sexually, I started to regain a little pleasure. Sex was

alright, not impossible or completely unsatisfying. It still wasn't

great, but there was some improvement. It was

> almost worth having, but not much better than the joy experienced

from eating a tasty

> meal.

>

> Eventually the shit hit the fan with that group. Long story, but it

was done. Shortly after

> that I started a new group of friends. I started to hang out with a

couple guys I hung out

> with in the past before I moved away. Before they were a bit

cooler, a bit more socially

> dominant, but now the tables were turned. I was much more socially

adept and charming

> at this point, and I became the center of a new group. Quickly, it

became quite large and

> wonderful. I am still great friends with all these people now, and

they are amazing people.

> Best of all I felt a sense of belonging...and a sense of power and

control. I was the hub of

> the group, and was naturally well respected. Not because I was

controlling or anything,

> just because they respected me a lot. The same way I respected the

people in the groups

> back when I had my anxiety issues. Shortly after that I met a

beautiful girl. She was the

> first attractive girl I was able to date, because my anxiety and

depression didn't make me

> very datable before. I did try and hook up with a few before, but

the PSSD stopped me

> from being able to get it up, and the numbness made it unworkable.

This new relationship

> helped me recover more. She was understanding of my condition, and

very attractive. I

> think it was the rise in dominance that I experienced that helped

me regain some of my

> ability to get aroused. I could start to feel emotional attachment

again. I started neglecting

> my friends a bit because of the new girlfriend, and it wasn't long

before things started to

> go downhill again. I wasn't getting my dominance fix. When I threw

a party and started

> hanging out with them more, thing got much better again. This may

sound weird, but they

> were especially good right when I was hanging out with my friends.

My girlfriend and I

> would constantly sneak away to have sex, because this is when I was

most arousable. The

> progress of my recovery seemed to correlate directly with my social

status and success. I

> moved to a different city for a time, and I regressed. When I came

back, I recovered more,

> and now after being back for a few months and being a dominant

member of my group, I

> can say that I have fully recovered.

>

> In short, I think that biological feelings of social dominance can

help relieve and reverse

> the symptoms of PSSD. I explained the theory for why this might be

in a previous thread.

> Basically I think it caused my brain to reverse the " fall-from-

dominance-like " impact that

> the abrupt discontinuation of my SSRIs may have had on our brains.

>

> I apologize if my writing is hard to understand, as it is almost 4

in the morning now, and

> I'm very tired. I hope this is of some use to somebody.

>

January 22, 2008

Thanks! Good question. My general " sex drive " or interest in sex was probably

the first

thing to start recovering. Before this point I would only WANT to have the

desire to have

sex. At the beginning of my recovery I starting to desire sex around certain

women,

although the urge wasn't uncontrollable or intense like it was before the SSRIs.

Interestingly I still had no ability to be made interested in sex by visual

stimulation, so to

get to this point some touching or verbal flirting would be necessary. I could

get only a

weak to medium erection and it had to be maintained by almost constant genital

stimulation. Visual stimulation was still nonexistent, which made sex pretty

unsatisfying. I

was also too numb to much pleasure out of sex. I just couldn't get properly

turned on,

either mentally or physically.

Eventually the ability to react to visual stimuli starting returning. Along with

it came my

ability to have and maintain erections that would last between bouts of actual

tactile

stimulation. The numbness of my penis was still subpar, although it had improved

to a

point where sex was " worth it " again. I remember one weekend that my (then)

girlfriend

and I spent at a hotel in downtown Chicago. We were having the best sex I'd had

since

PSSD, but I still found myself paying a little attention to the TV while in

doggystyle

position. Clearly my mind wasn't quite entirely in the game, although I was so,

so, so

much better than I'd been in the midst of PSSD. I still wasn't reaching the

heights of sexual ecstasy.

Since then I improved to get to the point I am at now. Some light flirting can

now get me

aroused to the point of erection. Visual excitability is back 100%. Erections

are back 100%. Sensitivity is back 100%. I still feel some " disconnect " from my

penis about 70% of the

time, but it isn't really a problem, since it goes away when I'm aroused at all.

This has

been quickly improving as well. I also have regained the ability to experience

the full

breath of romantic emotions, although my standards for that sort of thing are

now quite

high. This is an exciting time for me, since for the first time in my life I

know I am fully

capable of attracting and satisfying the woman of my dreams.

> >

> > Hey, everyone, it's me again. I just thought I'd update everyone on

> the status of my

> > recovery. If you don't remember, I'm the guy who theorized about

> the link between social

> > dominance, SSRIs and PSSD. You can search the list using my user

> name for links to these

> > discussions if you missed them.

> >

> > It's been more than a year since I started taking the steps that I

> believe led to my recovery

> > from PSSD. In that time I went from having full-blown PSSD of the

> worst kind, to being

> > completely recovered. My symptoms included:

> >

> > • Total lack of response to visual stimuli

> > • Inability to achieve an erection without aggressive and constant

> physical stimulation

> > • Orgasms were very difficult to obtain

> > • Almost complete inability to feel romantic feelings of attraction

> > • Feeling of disconnectedness from my penis

> > • Almost complete penile anesthesia much of the time

> >

> > I can now:

> >

> > • Get very aroused by visual stimuli.

> > • I get erections very quickly. It's even been mentioned that I get

> them unusually quickly.

> > It doesn't take much more than 15-20 seconds to get 100%

> > • I orgasm as easily as I did pre-SSRI

> > • I can feel romantic feelings again

> > • The feeling of disconnectedness still crops up once in awhile,

> but it doesn't cause any

> > harm and is getting better and better as the months pass

> > • I fairly consistently have 100% of the feeling to my penis.

> >

> > By almost every measure I am cured.

> >

> > I don't know how applicable my methods are to other people, but I

> certainly think it's

> > worth exploring whether or not they can be of some use. I wrote

> about them extensively

> > in my other two threads, and I encourage you to read through them.

> I will summarize

> > them here. I realize that this approach may seem strange, but it

> seems to have worked for

> > me. It's also not going to be easy. But if recovery was as easy as

> popping a pill, we'd all be

> > cured by now...

> >

> > The first thing I did was take steps to eliminate my extremely

> severe anxiety and

> > depression. I started this process years before I recovered, and

> was finally fully successful

> > about a year ago. At this point many of you are probably thinking

> that this won't be

> > possible for you. You think that your depression or anxiety are

> just too strong and cannot

> > be dealt with by any method besides medications. Maybe you've been

> depressed for years

> > or maybe you feel that there is something organically wrong with

> your brain, and it cannot

> > be reversed. You might be right. I don't know. But I can say that I

> had very debilitating

> > anxiety and depression possible almost from birth, but I recovered

> from in completely. I

> > can just barely remember a time in my life when I wasn't constantly

> sick from anxiety and

> > in a lethargic, depressed daze. At it's worst I could barely drive

> because I was so

> > depressed that I couldn't will myself to switch my foot from the

> brake to the gas pedal at a

> > stop sign. It was not good.

> >

> > I'll go over what I did to get over my problems in a minute. But

> I'm really not sure they are

> > applicable to the majority of people. I think the best bet for most

> is to seek cognitive-

> > behavioral therapy. A good therapist can focus on eliminating those

> maladaptive behaviors

> > and thought patterns that perpetuate the cycle of depression or

> anxiety. It takes a long

> > time to recover, but it is statistically at least as effective as

> medication, and has a lower

> > relapse rate. Plus it won't maim your personality or cause lasting

> side-effects like drugs

> > can often can. In my case, I didn't see a therapist, but instead

> discovered the root causes

> > of my anxiety and depression on my own. This was very hard to do,

> because the anxiety

> > and depression would persist for a long time after I removed the

> causes. They had become

> > ingrained in my way of being. One of the factors that helped

> sustain my poor mental

> > health was dehydration. I was so depressed, that I lost my ability

> to distinguish specific

> > human urges from general anxiety. I wouldn't feel thirsty, I would

> feel anxious. I wouldn't

> > feel hungry, I would feel anxious (and somewhat hungry). I wouldn't

> feel sleepy, I would

> > just feel very, very anxious (and groggy, but not truly tired). I

> think a root cause of the

> > anxiety was my poor eating and water drinking habits. When I

> decided to eat and drink

> > water more regularly, the effects weren't immediate. It would take

> days to feel a

> > difference, and it was hard to tell cause and effect. In effect, my

> anxiety+depression

> > button was stuck in the ON position out of habit or momentum. But

> eventually, improving

> > my sleeping, eating and drinking schedule relieved my anxiety a

> little. I still had a lot left

> > over. I think this is because my brain had come to associate almost

> everything with

> > anxiety. Everywhere I had been, both publicly and privately, was

> associated with such

> > painful anxiety, that being anywhere triggered panic reactions.

> This was the hardest thing

> > for me to fix. I had to decondition my brain to react negatively to

> these stimuli, but since I

> > was still having panic reactions to absolutely everything, the

> reinforcement continued, and

> > I was stuck in a very nasty cycle. Intellectually I knew there was

> nothing anxiety provoking

> > about these situations, but my unconscious brain didn't agree.

> >

> > The trick to beating this was conceptually simple, but hard to

> implement. Fortunately there

> > were times when I was less anxious than at other times. I found

> running would relieve my

> > anxiety somewhat. So I would approach particularly anxiety

> provoking situations only

> > when I was more relaxed than average. The average person would

> still find the anxiety felt

> > in these situations to be agonizingly painful, but since it was an

> improvement over what I

> > was used to, my anxiety began to slowly get extinguished. I would

> move to a new baseline

> > anxiety level and on my good days (or hours, really), I would

> expose myself to anxiety

> > provoking situations, find some success in dealing with them, and

> further extinguish my

> > anxiety. This took years to do fully, but I am now generally almost

> anxiety free. I've been

> > told by several friends that I am one of the most confident people

> they know. I should also

> > mention that dressing better helped improve my confidence. I wish

> it wasn't so, but

> > looking good is certainly a good morale booster.

> >

> > So that took care of the anxiety. Now what about the depression?

> That was a little easier

> > for me. The anxiety caused a good chunk of the depression. Being

> wracked by unbearably

> > painful anxiety was very depressing, needless to say. I did have

> some issues that weren't

> > related to the anxiety. The change in diet helped a lot. So did

> sleep and getting enough

> > water. Making really great friends helped too. I may be unique

> here, but the biggest

> > trigger for depression in me is laziness. I NEED to accomplish

> stuff every single day or my

> > mood goes down the drain. Accomplishing tasks and setting ambitious

> goals for myself

> > helps me stay depression free. I am now probably one of the

> happiest people most people

> > have met. It is such a joy to be living my life for the first time,

> without the disabilities that

> > dragged me down before. I travel the world, meet wonderful people,

> climb mountains and

> > try new things all the time that would have been impossible to

> enjoy before I got better.

> >

> > But unfortunately for a long time I was doing these things under

> the burden of PSSD. I

> > could finally attract women, but now I was unable to enjoy that

> fact. In fact, I was tortured

> > by it. PSSD SUCKS. You all know what I'm talking about here... Life

> was still great, but

> > obviously I was missing something very important.

> >

> > So I did my research. I went the drug route. Nothing helped. I

> lived with PSSD for years.

> >

> > At this point, I probably wasn't the coolest person on earth. In

> the past I could barely even

> > talk because the anxiety made me stammer so much. Needless to say,

> my social skills

> > were sub-par. My social skills has been slowly improving over the

> years of my recovery

> > from anxiety, but they weren't great. I had friends, some good, but

> I was never the leader

> > of the group, I never walked in the middle of the pack, I was

> always on the outside, not

> > quite fully an equal...

> >

> > Then I met a new group of friends. One was neurotic, the other

> kinda boring and the other

> > a huge dork. But we were all interested in the same scientific

> topics. So we became friends

> > and got along well. But unlike my previous relationships, I was the

> center of the group. I

> > brought them together. And since my anxiety was quickly getting

> better, I was getting

> > more and more confident. And BOOM. I was the ALPHA MALE! This was

> when I first started

> > to see some recovery. I had a short lived relationship with a

> member of the growing

> > group, and sexually, I started to regain a little pleasure. Sex was

> alright, not impossible or completely unsatisfying. It still wasn't

> great, but there was some improvement. It was

> > almost worth having, but not much better than the joy experienced

> from eating a tasty

> > meal.

> >

> > Eventually the shit hit the fan with that group. Long story, but it

> was done. Shortly after

> > that I started a new group of friends. I started to hang out with a

> couple guys I hung out

> > with in the past before I moved away. Before they were a bit

> cooler, a bit more socially

> > dominant, but now the tables were turned. I was much more socially

> adept and charming

> > at this point, and I became the center of a new group. Quickly, it

> became quite large and

> > wonderful. I am still great friends with all these people now, and

> they are amazing people.

> > Best of all I felt a sense of belonging...and a sense of power and

> control. I was the hub of

> > the group, and was naturally well respected. Not because I was

> controlling or anything,

> > just because they respected me a lot. The same way I respected the

> people in the groups

> > back when I had my anxiety issues. Shortly after that I met a

> beautiful girl. She was the

> > first attractive girl I was able to date, because my anxiety and

> depression didn't make me

> > very datable before. I did try and hook up with a few before, but

> the PSSD stopped me

> > from being able to get it up, and the numbness made it unworkable.

> This new relationship

> > helped me recover more. She was understanding of my condition, and

> very attractive. I

> > think it was the rise in dominance that I experienced that helped

> me regain some of my

> > ability to get aroused. I could start to feel emotional attachment

> again. I started neglecting

> > my friends a bit because of the new girlfriend, and it wasn't long

> before things started to

> > go downhill again. I wasn't getting my dominance fix. When I threw

> a party and started

> > hanging out with them more, thing got much better again. This may

> sound weird, but they

> > were especially good right when I was hanging out with my friends.

> My girlfriend and I

> > would constantly sneak away to have sex, because this is when I was

> most arousable. The

> > progress of my recovery seemed to correlate directly with my social

> status and success. I

> > moved to a different city for a time, and I regressed. When I came

> back, I recovered more,

> > and now after being back for a few months and being a dominant

> member of my group, I

> > can say that I have fully recovered.

> >

> > In short, I think that biological feelings of social dominance can

> help relieve and reverse

> > the symptoms of PSSD. I explained the theory for why this might be

> in a previous thread.

> > Basically I think it caused my brain to reverse the " fall-from-

> dominance-like " impact that

> > the abrupt discontinuation of my SSRIs may have had on our brains.

> >

> > I apologize if my writing is hard to understand, as it is almost 4

> in the morning now, and

> > I'm very tired. I hope this is of some use to somebody.

> >

>

January 22, 2008

I know this question wasn't addressed to me, but I have grown skeptical of the

" drug

route " as well. My " fall from dominance " theory about the cause of PSSD may

explain why

drugs have generally failed up until this point. Since the PSSD sufferer's brain

" thinks " it is

in the body of a subdominant individual, it may regulate its chemistry to keep

itself in line

with this assumption. So when a PSSD-sufferer takes a drug like Adderol, it may

provide

some short-term improvement, but the brain soon compensates to keep the behavior

of

the individual in line with the sub-dominant position. The trick then would be

to convince

the brain that it is in the body of a more dominant individual so it does some

precision

balancing of our brain chemicals for us, without the need for sloppy drugs. Of

course I

could be completely wrong, although this mthod has done wonders for me.

> >

> > Hi every one

> > i did not read all the messages

> > but i am convinced and believe in this one.

> > the drug route will get you more anxious and confused.

>

January 23, 2008

This is a really interesting thread. Biologic, your success seems to endorse the

theory that

a lot of this PSSD stuff is phsycological, or at least can be overcome and

reversed without

chemical intervention. It seems like finding a partner we are excited about, and

sticking

with that person, is really the best course to reverse PSSD. All the herbs,

supplements,

drugs, etc. aren't any substitute for finding someone we care about, and then

reconditioning our brains toward sex.

It's almost like our brains get turned off from sex by the SSRI, and then we

have to do

some work get get them in the " on " position again.

If I met someone on the street suffering from this, I would say get out there

and date and

find someone you are excited about. Then take your time, and let it all come

back. But

don't put any pressure on yourself, that could be counter productive.

Maybe a cure to this is simpler than we thought. However, not necessarily

speedy.

J

> > >

> > > Hey, everyone, it's me again. I just thought I'd update everyone on

> > the status of my

> > > recovery. If you don't remember, I'm the guy who theorized about

> > the link between social

> > > dominance, SSRIs and PSSD. You can search the list using my user

> > name for links to these

> > > discussions if you missed them.

> > >

> > > It's been more than a year since I started taking the steps that I

> > believe led to my recovery

> > > from PSSD. In that time I went from having full-blown PSSD of the

> > worst kind, to being

> > > completely recovered. My symptoms included:

> > >

> > > • Total lack of response to visual stimuli

> > > • Inability to achieve an erection without aggressive and constant

> > physical stimulation

> > > • Orgasms were very difficult to obtain

> > > • Almost complete inability to feel romantic feelings of attraction

> > > • Feeling of disconnectedness from my penis

> > > • Almost complete penile anesthesia much of the time

> > >

> > > I can now:

> > >

> > > • Get very aroused by visual stimuli.

> > > • I get erections very quickly. It's even been mentioned that I get

> > them unusually quickly.

> > > It doesn't take much more than 15-20 seconds to get 100%

> > > • I orgasm as easily as I did pre-SSRI

> > > • I can feel romantic feelings again

> > > • The feeling of disconnectedness still crops up once in awhile,

> > but it doesn't cause any

> > > harm and is getting better and better as the months pass

> > > • I fairly consistently have 100% of the feeling to my penis.

> > >

> > > By almost every measure I am cured.

> > >

> > > I don't know how applicable my methods are to other people, but I

> > certainly think it's

> > > worth exploring whether or not they can be of some use. I wrote

> > about them extensively

> > > in my other two threads, and I encourage you to read through them.

> > I will summarize

> > > them here. I realize that this approach may seem strange, but it

> > seems to have worked for

> > > me. It's also not going to be easy. But if recovery was as easy as

> > popping a pill, we'd all be

> > > cured by now...

> > >

> > > The first thing I did was take steps to eliminate my extremely

> > severe anxiety and

> > > depression. I started this process years before I recovered, and

> > was finally fully successful

> > > about a year ago. At this point many of you are probably thinking

> > that this won't be

> > > possible for you. You think that your depression or anxiety are

> > just too strong and cannot

> > > be dealt with by any method besides medications. Maybe you've been

> > depressed for years

> > > or maybe you feel that there is something organically wrong with

> > your brain, and it cannot

> > > be reversed. You might be right. I don't know. But I can say that I

> > had very debilitating

> > > anxiety and depression possible almost from birth, but I recovered

> > from in completely. I

> > > can just barely remember a time in my life when I wasn't constantly

> > sick from anxiety and

> > > in a lethargic, depressed daze. At it's worst I could barely drive

> > because I was so

> > > depressed that I couldn't will myself to switch my foot from the

> > brake to the gas pedal at a

> > > stop sign. It was not good.

> > >

> > > I'll go over what I did to get over my problems in a minute. But

> > I'm really not sure they are

> > > applicable to the majority of people. I think the best bet for most

> > is to seek cognitive-

> > > behavioral therapy. A good therapist can focus on eliminating those

> > maladaptive behaviors

> > > and thought patterns that perpetuate the cycle of depression or

> > anxiety. It takes a long

> > > time to recover, but it is statistically at least as effective as

> > medication, and has a lower

> > > relapse rate. Plus it won't maim your personality or cause lasting

> > side-effects like drugs

> > > can often can. In my case, I didn't see a therapist, but instead

> > discovered the root causes

> > > of my anxiety and depression on my own. This was very hard to do,

> > because the anxiety

> > > and depression would persist for a long time after I removed the

> > causes. They had become

> > > ingrained in my way of being. One of the factors that helped

> > sustain my poor mental

> > > health was dehydration. I was so depressed, that I lost my ability

> > to distinguish specific

> > > human urges from general anxiety. I wouldn't feel thirsty, I would

> > feel anxious. I wouldn't

> > > feel hungry, I would feel anxious (and somewhat hungry). I wouldn't

> > feel sleepy, I would

> > > just feel very, very anxious (and groggy, but not truly tired). I

> > think a root cause of the

> > > anxiety was my poor eating and water drinking habits. When I

> > decided to eat and drink

> > > water more regularly, the effects weren't immediate. It would take

> > days to feel a

> > > difference, and it was hard to tell cause and effect. In effect, my

> > anxiety+depression

> > > button was stuck in the ON position out of habit or momentum. But

> > eventually, improving

> > > my sleeping, eating and drinking schedule relieved my anxiety a

> > little. I still had a lot left

> > > over. I think this is because my brain had come to associate almost

> > everything with

> > > anxiety. Everywhere I had been, both publicly and privately, was

> > associated with such

> > > painful anxiety, that being anywhere triggered panic reactions.

> > This was the hardest thing

> > > for me to fix. I had to decondition my brain to react negatively to

> > these stimuli, but since I

> > > was still having panic reactions to absolutely everything, the

> > reinforcement continued, and

> > > I was stuck in a very nasty cycle. Intellectually I knew there was

> > nothing anxiety provoking

> > > about these situations, but my unconscious brain didn't agree.

> > >

> > > The trick to beating this was conceptually simple, but hard to

> > implement. Fortunately there

> > > were times when I was less anxious than at other times. I found

> > running would relieve my

> > > anxiety somewhat. So I would approach particularly anxiety

> > provoking situations only

> > > when I was more relaxed than average. The average person would

> > still find the anxiety felt

> > > in these situations to be agonizingly painful, but since it was an

> > improvement over what I

> > > was used to, my anxiety began to slowly get extinguished. I would

> > move to a new baseline

> > > anxiety level and on my good days (or hours, really), I would

> > expose myself to anxiety

> > > provoking situations, find some success in dealing with them, and

> > further extinguish my

> > > anxiety. This took years to do fully, but I am now generally almost

> > anxiety free. I've been

> > > told by several friends that I am one of the most confident people

> > they know. I should also

> > > mention that dressing better helped improve my confidence. I wish

> > it wasn't so, but

> > > looking good is certainly a good morale booster.

> > >

> > > So that took care of the anxiety. Now what about the depression?

> > That was a little easier

> > > for me. The anxiety caused a good chunk of the depression. Being

> > wracked by unbearably

> > > painful anxiety was very depressing, needless to say. I did have

> > some issues that weren't

> > > related to the anxiety. The change in diet helped a lot. So did

> > sleep and getting enough

> > > water. Making really great friends helped too. I may be unique

> > here, but the biggest

> > > trigger for depression in me is laziness. I NEED to accomplish

> > stuff every single day or my

> > > mood goes down the drain. Accomplishing tasks and setting ambitious

> > goals for myself

> > > helps me stay depression free. I am now probably one of the

> > happiest people most people

> > > have met. It is such a joy to be living my life for the first time,

> > without the disabilities that

> > > dragged me down before. I travel the world, meet wonderful people,

> > climb mountains and

> > > try new things all the time that would have been impossible to

> > enjoy before I got better.

> > >

> > > But unfortunately for a long time I was doing these things under

> > the burden of PSSD. I

> > > could finally attract women, but now I was unable to enjoy that

> > fact. In fact, I was tortured

> > > by it. PSSD SUCKS. You all know what I'm talking about here... Life

> > was still great, but

> > > obviously I was missing something very important.

> > >

> > > So I did my research. I went the drug route. Nothing helped. I

> > lived with PSSD for years.

> > >

> > > At this point, I probably wasn't the coolest person on earth. In

> > the past I could barely even

> > > talk because the anxiety made me stammer so much. Needless to say,

> > my social skills

> > > were sub-par. My social skills has been slowly improving over the

> > years of my recovery

> > > from anxiety, but they weren't great. I had friends, some good, but

> > I was never the leader

> > > of the group, I never walked in the middle of the pack, I was

> > always on the outside, not

> > > quite fully an equal...

> > >

> > > Then I met a new group of friends. One was neurotic, the other

> > kinda boring and the other

> > > a huge dork. But we were all interested in the same scientific

> > topics. So we became friends

> > > and got along well. But unlike my previous relationships, I was the

> > center of the group. I

> > > brought them together. And since my anxiety was quickly getting

> > better, I was getting

> > > more and more confident. And BOOM. I was the ALPHA MALE! This was

> > when I first started

> > > to see some recovery. I had a short lived relationship with a

> > member of the growing

> > > group, and sexually, I started to regain a little pleasure. Sex was

> > alright, not impossible or completely unsatisfying. It still wasn't

> > great, but there was some improvement. It was

> > > almost worth having, but not much better than the joy experienced

> > from eating a tasty

> > > meal.

> > >

> > > Eventually the shit hit the fan with that group. Long story, but it

> > was done. Shortly after

> > > that I started a new group of friends. I started to hang out with a

> > couple guys I hung out

> > > with in the past before I moved away. Before they were a bit

> > cooler, a bit more socially

> > > dominant, but now the tables were turned. I was much more socially

> > adept and charming

> > > at this point, and I became the center of a new group. Quickly, it

> > became quite large and

> > > wonderful. I am still great friends with all these people now, and

> > they are amazing people.

> > > Best of all I felt a sense of belonging...and a sense of power and

> > control. I was the hub of

> > > the group, and was naturally well respected. Not because I was

> > controlling or anything,

> > > just because they respected me a lot. The same way I respected the

> > people in the groups

> > > back when I had my anxiety issues. Shortly after that I met a

> > beautiful girl. She was the

> > > first attractive girl I was able to date, because my anxiety and

> > depression didn't make me

> > > very datable before. I did try and hook up with a few before, but

> > the PSSD stopped me

> > > from being able to get it up, and the numbness made it unworkable.

> > This new relationship

> > > helped me recover more. She was understanding of my condition, and

> > very attractive. I

> > > think it was the rise in dominance that I experienced that helped

> > me regain some of my

> > > ability to get aroused. I could start to feel emotional attachment

> > again. I started neglecting

> > > my friends a bit because of the new girlfriend, and it wasn't long

> > before things started to

> > > go downhill again. I wasn't getting my dominance fix. When I threw

> > a party and started

> > > hanging out with them more, thing got much better again. This may

> > sound weird, but they

> > > were especially good right when I was hanging out with my friends.

> > My girlfriend and I

> > > would constantly sneak away to have sex, because this is when I was

> > most arousable. The

> > > progress of my recovery seemed to correlate directly with my social

> > status and success. I

> > > moved to a different city for a time, and I regressed. When I came

> > back, I recovered more,

> > > and now after being back for a few months and being a dominant

> > member of my group, I

> > > can say that I have fully recovered.

> > >

> > > In short, I think that biological feelings of social dominance can

> > help relieve and reverse

> > > the symptoms of PSSD. I explained the theory for why this might be

> > in a previous thread.

> > > Basically I think it caused my brain to reverse the " fall-from-

> > dominance-like " impact that

> > > the abrupt discontinuation of my SSRIs may have had on our brains.

> > >

> > > I apologize if my writing is hard to understand, as it is almost 4

> > in the morning now, and

> > > I'm very tired. I hope this is of some use to somebody.

> > >

> >

>

January 24, 2008

I agree completely. However, we should not discount the fact that the connection between the psychological and the physical is often very great. I do however, firmly believe that the PRIMARY cause of pssd is physical damage done to the brain/central nervous system by poisonous drugs. Remember, as we all know, pssd is not simply impotence. it is also numbness, genital anesthesia, reduced or absent liibido, and orgasmic ahedonia. In my case it is also tingling, which the wikipedia article mentions as a symptom. impotence when being intimate with a woman is often psychological. I used to have normal morning erections, now I never have them! That is physical damage! The problem is, that we cannot put our finger on exactly what has been damaged, how it was damaged, and how it can be fixed. Unless there is a Big Pharma conspiracy surrounding this, I believe that pssd will come out one day into the media, there will be class action lawsuits, and the FDA will lie to the public (all things we have seen with the breast implant case.) I (being something of a libertarian) don't mind if they keep selling ssri's. However, they should be REQUIRED to warn the public that these drugs may cause pssd. Pharma knows the truth, and they will keep lying so as to fill their coffers. A grevious judgement awaits them in the next world. That is my belief anyhow. Either way, they deserve to be brought to justice on this earth. Let us hope we are all compensated for our pain and suffering

Who's never won? Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.

January 24, 2008

Most doctors first response when confronted with PSSD stories is that

the patient has not completely recovered from depression/anxiety and

so is psychologically prevented from enjoying sex. This is the

standard argument many of us will have had and it has some merit since

recover can be quite hard to define, leaving more exotic explanations

for sexual dysfunction to wait until this mundane one is dealt with.

The case described here is good support for that idea. However, whilst

it has been a happy outcome for this person, there are many others who

would give their right arm to find that their problem can be overcome

by improving their psychological health. Many do really seem to have

physical problems with as yet unknown causes, so the search continues.

K.

> > > >

> > > > Hey, everyone, it's me again. I just thought I'd update

everyone on

> > > the status of my

> > > > recovery. If you don't remember, I'm the guy who theorized about

> > > the link between social

> > > > dominance, SSRIs and PSSD. You can search the list using my user

> > > name for links to these

> > > > discussions if you missed them.

> > > >

> > > > It's been more than a year since I started taking the steps

that I

> > > believe led to my recovery

> > > > from PSSD. In that time I went from having full-blown PSSD of the

> > > worst kind, to being

> > > > completely recovered. My symptoms included:

> > > >

> > > > • Total lack of response to visual stimuli

> > > > • Inability to achieve an erection without aggressive and

constant

> > > physical stimulation

> > > > • Orgasms were very difficult to obtain

> > > > • Almost complete inability to feel romantic feelings of

attraction

> > > > • Feeling of disconnectedness from my penis

> > > > • Almost complete penile anesthesia much of the time

> > > >

> > > > I can now:

> > > >

> > > > • Get very aroused by visual stimuli.

> > > > • I get erections very quickly. It's even been mentioned that

I get

> > > them unusually quickly.

> > > > It doesn't take much more than 15-20 seconds to get 100%

> > > > • I orgasm as easily as I did pre-SSRI

> > > > • I can feel romantic feelings again

> > > > • The feeling of disconnectedness still crops up once in awhile,

> > > but it doesn't cause any

> > > > harm and is getting better and better as the months pass

> > > > • I fairly consistently have 100% of the feeling to my penis.

> > > >

> > > > By almost every measure I am cured.

> > > >

> > > > I don't know how applicable my methods are to other people, but I

> > > certainly think it's

> > > > worth exploring whether or not they can be of some use. I wrote

> > > about them extensively

> > > > in my other two threads, and I encourage you to read through

them.

> > > I will summarize

> > > > them here. I realize that this approach may seem strange, but it

> > > seems to have worked for

> > > > me. It's also not going to be easy. But if recovery was as

easy as

> > > popping a pill, we'd all be

> > > > cured by now...

> > > >

> > > > The first thing I did was take steps to eliminate my extremely

> > > severe anxiety and

> > > > depression. I started this process years before I recovered, and

> > > was finally fully successful

> > > > about a year ago. At this point many of you are probably thinking

> > > that this won't be

> > > > possible for you. You think that your depression or anxiety are

> > > just too strong and cannot

> > > > be dealt with by any method besides medications. Maybe you've

been

> > > depressed for years

> > > > or maybe you feel that there is something organically wrong with

> > > your brain, and it cannot

> > > > be reversed. You might be right. I don't know. But I can say

that I

> > > had very debilitating

> > > > anxiety and depression possible almost from birth, but I

recovered

> > > from in completely. I

> > > > can just barely remember a time in my life when I wasn't

constantly

> > > sick from anxiety and

> > > > in a lethargic, depressed daze. At it's worst I could barely

drive

> > > because I was so

> > > > depressed that I couldn't will myself to switch my foot from the

> > > brake to the gas pedal at a

> > > > stop sign. It was not good.

> > > >

> > > > I'll go over what I did to get over my problems in a minute. But

> > > I'm really not sure they are

> > > > applicable to the majority of people. I think the best bet for

most

> > > is to seek cognitive-

> > > > behavioral therapy. A good therapist can focus on eliminating

those

> > > maladaptive behaviors

> > > > and thought patterns that perpetuate the cycle of depression or

> > > anxiety. It takes a long

> > > > time to recover, but it is statistically at least as effective as

> > > medication, and has a lower

> > > > relapse rate. Plus it won't maim your personality or cause

lasting

> > > side-effects like drugs

> > > > can often can. In my case, I didn't see a therapist, but instead

> > > discovered the root causes

> > > > of my anxiety and depression on my own. This was very hard to do,

> > > because the anxiety

> > > > and depression would persist for a long time after I removed the

> > > causes. They had become

> > > > ingrained in my way of being. One of the factors that helped

> > > sustain my poor mental

> > > > health was dehydration. I was so depressed, that I lost my

ability

> > > to distinguish specific

> > > > human urges from general anxiety. I wouldn't feel thirsty, I

would

> > > feel anxious. I wouldn't

> > > > feel hungry, I would feel anxious (and somewhat hungry). I

wouldn't

> > > feel sleepy, I would

> > > > just feel very, very anxious (and groggy, but not truly tired). I

> > > think a root cause of the

> > > > anxiety was my poor eating and water drinking habits. When I

> > > decided to eat and drink

> > > > water more regularly, the effects weren't immediate. It would

take

> > > days to feel a

> > > > difference, and it was hard to tell cause and effect. In

effect, my

> > > anxiety+depression

> > > > button was stuck in the ON position out of habit or momentum. But

> > > eventually, improving

> > > > my sleeping, eating and drinking schedule relieved my anxiety a

> > > little. I still had a lot left

> > > > over. I think this is because my brain had come to associate

almost

> > > everything with

> > > > anxiety. Everywhere I had been, both publicly and privately, was

> > > associated with such

> > > > painful anxiety, that being anywhere triggered panic reactions.

> > > This was the hardest thing

> > > > for me to fix. I had to decondition my brain to react

negatively to

> > > these stimuli, but since I

> > > > was still having panic reactions to absolutely everything, the

> > > reinforcement continued, and

> > > > I was stuck in a very nasty cycle. Intellectually I knew there

was

> > > nothing anxiety provoking

> > > > about these situations, but my unconscious brain didn't agree.

> > > >

> > > > The trick to beating this was conceptually simple, but hard to

> > > implement. Fortunately there

> > > > were times when I was less anxious than at other times. I found

> > > running would relieve my

> > > > anxiety somewhat. So I would approach particularly anxiety

> > > provoking situations only

> > > > when I was more relaxed than average. The average person would

> > > still find the anxiety felt

> > > > in these situations to be agonizingly painful, but since it

was an

> > > improvement over what I

> > > > was used to, my anxiety began to slowly get extinguished. I would

> > > move to a new baseline

> > > > anxiety level and on my good days (or hours, really), I would

> > > expose myself to anxiety

> > > > provoking situations, find some success in dealing with them, and

> > > further extinguish my

> > > > anxiety. This took years to do fully, but I am now generally

almost

> > > anxiety free. I've been

> > > > told by several friends that I am one of the most confident

people

> > > they know. I should also

> > > > mention that dressing better helped improve my confidence. I wish

> > > it wasn't so, but

> > > > looking good is certainly a good morale booster.

> > > >

> > > > So that took care of the anxiety. Now what about the depression?

> > > That was a little easier

> > > > for me. The anxiety caused a good chunk of the depression. Being

> > > wracked by unbearably

> > > > painful anxiety was very depressing, needless to say. I did have

> > > some issues that weren't

> > > > related to the anxiety. The change in diet helped a lot. So did

> > > sleep and getting enough

> > > > water. Making really great friends helped too. I may be unique

> > > here, but the biggest

> > > > trigger for depression in me is laziness. I NEED to accomplish

> > > stuff every single day or my

> > > > mood goes down the drain. Accomplishing tasks and setting

ambitious

> > > goals for myself

> > > > helps me stay depression free. I am now probably one of the

> > > happiest people most people

> > > > have met. It is such a joy to be living my life for the first

time,

> > > without the disabilities that

> > > > dragged me down before. I travel the world, meet wonderful

people,

> > > climb mountains and

> > > > try new things all the time that would have been impossible to

> > > enjoy before I got better.

> > > >

> > > > But unfortunately for a long time I was doing these things under

> > > the burden of PSSD. I

> > > > could finally attract women, but now I was unable to enjoy that

> > > fact. In fact, I was tortured

> > > > by it. PSSD SUCKS. You all know what I'm talking about here...

Life

> > > was still great, but

> > > > obviously I was missing something very important.

> > > >

> > > > So I did my research. I went the drug route. Nothing helped. I

> > > lived with PSSD for years.

> > > >

> > > > At this point, I probably wasn't the coolest person on earth. In

> > > the past I could barely even

> > > > talk because the anxiety made me stammer so much. Needless to

say,

> > > my social skills

> > > > were sub-par. My social skills has been slowly improving over

the

> > > years of my recovery

> > > > from anxiety, but they weren't great. I had friends, some

good, but

> > > I was never the leader

> > > > of the group, I never walked in the middle of the pack, I was

> > > always on the outside, not

> > > > quite fully an equal...

> > > >

> > > > Then I met a new group of friends. One was neurotic, the other

> > > kinda boring and the other

> > > > a huge dork. But we were all interested in the same scientific

> > > topics. So we became friends

> > > > and got along well. But unlike my previous relationships, I

was the

> > > center of the group. I

> > > > brought them together. And since my anxiety was quickly getting

> > > better, I was getting

> > > > more and more confident. And BOOM. I was the ALPHA MALE! This was

> > > when I first started

> > > > to see some recovery. I had a short lived relationship with a

> > > member of the growing

> > > > group, and sexually, I started to regain a little pleasure.

Sex was

> > > alright, not impossible or completely unsatisfying. It still wasn't

> > > great, but there was some improvement. It was

> > > > almost worth having, but not much better than the joy experienced

> > > from eating a tasty

> > > > meal.

> > > >

> > > > Eventually the shit hit the fan with that group. Long story,

but it

> > > was done. Shortly after

> > > > that I started a new group of friends. I started to hang out

with a

> > > couple guys I hung out

> > > > with in the past before I moved away. Before they were a bit

> > > cooler, a bit more socially

> > > > dominant, but now the tables were turned. I was much more

socially

> > > adept and charming

> > > > at this point, and I became the center of a new group.

Quickly, it

> > > became quite large and

> > > > wonderful. I am still great friends with all these people now,

and

> > > they are amazing people.

> > > > Best of all I felt a sense of belonging...and a sense of power

and

> > > control. I was the hub of

> > > > the group, and was naturally well respected. Not because I was

> > > controlling or anything,

> > > > just because they respected me a lot. The same way I respected

the

> > > people in the groups

> > > > back when I had my anxiety issues. Shortly after that I met a

> > > beautiful girl. She was the

> > > > first attractive girl I was able to date, because my anxiety and

> > > depression didn't make me

> > > > very datable before. I did try and hook up with a few before, but

> > > the PSSD stopped me

> > > > from being able to get it up, and the numbness made it

unworkable.

> > > This new relationship

> > > > helped me recover more. She was understanding of my condition,

and

> > > very attractive. I

> > > > think it was the rise in dominance that I experienced that helped

> > > me regain some of my

> > > > ability to get aroused. I could start to feel emotional

attachment

> > > again. I started neglecting

> > > > my friends a bit because of the new girlfriend, and it wasn't

long

> > > before things started to

> > > > go downhill again. I wasn't getting my dominance fix. When I

threw

> > > a party and started

> > > > hanging out with them more, thing got much better again. This may

> > > sound weird, but they

> > > > were especially good right when I was hanging out with my

friends.

> > > My girlfriend and I

> > > > would constantly sneak away to have sex, because this is when

I was

> > > most arousable. The

> > > > progress of my recovery seemed to correlate directly with my

social

> > > status and success. I

> > > > moved to a different city for a time, and I regressed. When I

came

> > > back, I recovered more,

> > > > and now after being back for a few months and being a dominant

> > > member of my group, I

> > > > can say that I have fully recovered.

> > > >

> > > > In short, I think that biological feelings of social dominance

can

> > > help relieve and reverse

> > > > the symptoms of PSSD. I explained the theory for why this

might be

> > > in a previous thread.

> > > > Basically I think it caused my brain to reverse the " fall-from-

> > > dominance-like " impact that

> > > > the abrupt discontinuation of my SSRIs may have had on our brains.

> > > >

> > > > I apologize if my writing is hard to understand, as it is

almost 4

> > > in the morning now, and

> > > > I'm very tired. I hope this is of some use to somebody.

> > > >

> > >

> >

>

January 25, 2008

Hi ,

My recovery shows that physical symptoms don't necessarily imply physical

structural

damage. I had all the typical physical symptoms of PSSD including genital

anesthesia,

absent libido, extreme numbness and absent erections (including morning

erections). Now

I am fine. It is possible that the damage in some people may be physical, but I

think my

recovery indicates the possibility that the physical symptoms may be caused by

gene

expression changes or some other reversible switch in the brain. The trick was

to convince

my brain to undo these changes, and I believe that's what I've done by

increasing my

social dominance. Perhaps drugs may be able to accomplish the same thing, but I

doubt

it. The brain has mechanisms that evolved to set our dominance status to

appropriate

levels, micromanaging the activity of our brains in a way that a drug could

never do.

-b

>

> I agree completely. However, we should not discount the fact that the

> connection between the psychological and the physical is often very great. I

do

> however, firmly believe that the PRIMARY cause of pssd is physical damage done

> to the brain/central nervous system by poisonous drugs. Remember, as we all

> know, pssd is not simply impotence. it is also numbness, genital anesthesia,

> reduced or absent liibido, and orgasmic ahedonia. In my case it is also

> tingling, which the wikipedia article mentions as a symptom. impotence when

being

> intimate with a woman is often psychological. I used to have normal morning

> erections, now I never have them! That is physical damage! The problem is,

that

> we cannot put our finger on exactly what has been damaged, how it was

> damaged, and how it can be fixed. Unless there is a Big Pharma conspiracy

> surrounding this, I believe that pssd will come out one day into the media,

there will

> be class action lawsuits, and the FDA will lie to the public (all things we

> have seen with the breast implant case.) I (being something of a libertarian)

> don't mind if they keep selling ssri's. However, they should be REQUIRED to

> warn the public that these drugs may cause pssd. Pharma knows the truth, and

> they will keep lying so as to fill their coffers. A grevious judgement awaits

> them in the next world. That is my belief anyhow. Either way, they deserve to

> be brought to justice on this earth. Let us hope we are all compensated for

> our pain and suffering

>

> **************Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.

> (http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?

NCID=aolcmp003000000025

> 48)

>

January 26, 2008

That's a good point, biologic. And I hope it will give some people hope on here

that they

can take care of this thing without chemical intervention. Personally, I think

all of the

searches for a " magic cure " in pill form are mostly an exercise in futility. The

people on

this board who have been " cured, " from what I have seen, did it without a

reliance on pills.

And some people, it just happened without much reason at all.

I really only have one of the PSSD symptoms, absent libido, and also decreased

erection

strength and frequency. I am lucky, my orgasms seem unaffected. I happen to

think that I

can get back to where I was 2.5 years ago via a similar path as you, biologic.

So thank you

for sharing your experiences with us.

- Joe

> >

> > I agree completely. However, we should not discount the fact that the

> > connection between the psychological and the physical is often very great. I

do

> > however, firmly believe that the PRIMARY cause of pssd is physical damage

done

> > to the brain/central nervous system by poisonous drugs. Remember, as we all

> > know, pssd is not simply impotence. it is also numbness, genital anesthesia,

> > reduced or absent liibido, and orgasmic ahedonia. In my case it is also

> > tingling, which the wikipedia article mentions as a symptom. impotence when

being

> > intimate with a woman is often psychological. I used to have normal morning

> > erections, now I never have them! That is physical damage! The problem is,

that

> > we cannot put our finger on exactly what has been damaged, how it was

> > damaged, and how it can be fixed. Unless there is a Big Pharma conspiracy

> > surrounding this, I believe that pssd will come out one day into the media,

there will

> > be class action lawsuits, and the FDA will lie to the public (all things we

> > have seen with the breast implant case.) I (being something of a

libertarian)

> > don't mind if they keep selling ssri's. However, they should be REQUIRED to

> > warn the public that these drugs may cause pssd. Pharma knows the truth,

and

> > they will keep lying so as to fill their coffers. A grevious judgement

awaits

> > them in the next world. That is my belief anyhow. Either way, they deserve

to

> > be brought to justice on this earth. Let us hope we are all compensated for

> > our pain and suffering

> >

> > **************Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.

> > (http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?

> NCID=aolcmp003000000025

> > 48)

> >

>

January 27, 2008

Hey, i have been reading about your recovery. If you check out the new

theory I have posted, i believe that one of the reasons the

neurological system doesn't recover during PSSD, is that things like

cortisol (the stress hormone) does not normalise. This is based on what

lots of other people have also said.

I believe that PSSD involves a number of processes that are very

difficult to break out of. It becomes a downward spiral. Its a very

rough theory at the moment, but maybe you could have a look and see

what you think?

January 28, 2008

This simply is not the case for me and I believe your experience to be

correlation not causation. Three years ago I had healthy social relationships

and took care of my body, I trained for triathlons, and my PSSD was still bad

ie: genital anesthesia, inability to achieve/maintain erections, decreased

sensation during orgasm. Over the past year or so I have had far fewer social

interactions, I don't take care of my body like I used to, and I'm much less

happy and productive and my PSSD has gotten quite a bit better in terms of

sensation and erections. I just think that it's something that improves over

time in some people and becoming 'well-adjusted' has little or nothing to do

with it.

January 28, 2008

you know what ive been thinking this myself, its like im stuck in a

happy state of mind permanently.

i have to make myself depressed, i do this about thinking about pssd

constantly and still there's a slight smile on my face it makes me

feel like a psychopath because i could be thinking about anything

really dark like suicide and still it feels good, its fucking with my

head.

i can get myself to the point of tears and i have to really force

myself to react emotionally, i have to keep bombarding my mind with

images from the past and days gone by that get me upset because those

days are over.

i do this intensely and it has the same effect as the sexuall

problems, i have an emotion that only lasts a split second and it

sort of makes me cry i throw more thoughts at it to worsen it, i can

shed tears doing this just like i can become ever so slightly aroused

when i do the same thing with erotic thoughts.

its like being locked into an emotional state that can not be broken.

i think depression is the minds way of storing neurotransmitters, i

literally try to make myself depressed for as long as i can, when i

do this sexuall thoughts seem to have more of a response!

im considering long term sedation, this would be depressive.

>

> This simply is not the case for me and I believe your experience to

be correlation not causation. Three years ago I had healthy social

relationships and took care of my body, I trained for triathlons, and

my PSSD was still bad ie: genital anesthesia, inability to

achieve/maintain erections, decreased sensation during orgasm. Over

the past year or so I have had far fewer social interactions, I don't

take care of my body like I used to, and I'm much less happy and

productive and my PSSD has gotten quite a bit better in terms of

sensation and erections. I just think that it's something that

improves over time in some people and becoming 'well-adjusted' has

little or nothing to do with it.

>

January 29, 2008

It's possible that this is caused by a lack of nitric oxide, dopamine

and adrenaline.

This has a very calming effect on you. However, don't mistake it for a

happy feeling, really it is not.

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Re: I've recovered (it's long-term and complete)

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