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

February 3, 2008

Here are two videos that talk about such things as evolution, genes,

amino acids, adrenal fatigue, stress, cell structure, etc. The second

video in particular seems to correlate with your recovery. The presenter

basically says that evolutionary mutations are not random, but are in

direct response to the environment. It backs up what you say, that

changing your environment will actually change your physiology and

rewrite your genes. Also deals with how stress and electro magnetic

fields affect us.

He also talks about how the drug companies are trying to f*ck us over by

disregarding common sense, specifically how energy healing actually does

work when you look at it from a quantum (energy) based perspective.

The videos are very informative, but if you want to skip ahead to a key

part, go to video 2 to minute 53.

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.

>

February 4, 2008

It's definitely correlation. Every time I left my socially dominant environment

my PSSD would

rebound. When I returned the PSSD would disappear again. Being in the presence

of a group

in which I was the socially dominant individual would make me feel like a horny

teenager

every time, like clockwork. Now I'm much more stable, and can perform in almost

any

situation, but I can definitely feel a difference if I leave my current social

groups for more

than a few weeks (as I did when I went traveling around California and the

west-coast

recently).

>

> 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.

>

February 4, 2008

Hi Shay,

I don't see any links to videos. I'd be careful though. It certainly isn't true

that mutations

are non-random. The idea that the effects of mutations can be somehow predicted

and

then our cells genetically engineered in response to these predictions is pretty

much

impossible. We'd see a ton of evidence for it, and would require some sort of

computational power far, far, far beyond that of our brains.

Changing our environment can change our gene expression, however, and this might

be

what the video was referring to. No matter how it is done, it is quite clear

that our

experiences effect the activity of our brains, and it should be quite obvious

that changing

our environment can change our brains.

As a scientifically literate individual, this talk of " energy " -anything just

creeps me out.

-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.

> >

>

February 5, 2008

Sorry, here are the videos:

http://www.stage6.com/user/imickysticky/video/1215828/where-mind-energy-and-matt\

er-meet

<http://www.stage6.com/user/imickysticky/video/1215828/where-mind-energy-and-mat\

ter-meet>

http://www.stage6.com/user/imickysticky/video/1222523/bruce-lipton,mind-meets-en\

ergy-and-matter-part-2

<http://www.stage6.com/user/imickysticky/video/1222523/bruce-lipton,mind-meets-e\

nergy-and-matter-part-2>

Energy anything is weird because no one tries to put it into a

scientific light, though the presenter does a pretty good job at trying.

Shay

biologic1981 wrote:

>

> Hi Shay,

>

> I don't see any links to videos. I'd be careful though. It certainly

> isn't true that mutations

> are non-random. The idea that the effects of mutations can be somehow

> predicted and

> then our cells genetically engineered in response to these predictions

> is pretty much

> impossible. We'd see a ton of evidence for it, and would require some

> sort of

> computational power far, far, far beyond that of our brains.

>

> Changing our environment can change our gene expression, however, and

> this might be

> what the video was referring to. No matter how it is done, it is quite

> clear that our

> experiences effect the activity of our brains, and it should be quite

> obvious that changing

> our environment can change our brains.

>

> As a scientifically literate individual, this talk of

> " energy " -anything just creeps me out.

>

> -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.

> > >

> >

>

September 4, 2008

It's been 9 months since I posted this message, and I'd just like to

report that I'm still going strong. Long-term recovery is possible.

Don't give up hope.

>

> 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.

>

September 4, 2008

I have had pssd for about 3 years. Your posts and recovery have given us all

hope. May

you spare a few minutes and try and help me if you can.

I have noticed within the last year that when i try and watch porn, my genitals

get some

kind of sensation and it feels like my penis wants to become erect but for some

reason it

cant. Is this some sign of some recovery, did u ever experience this? If so how

long after

this did u start getting erections from porn.

In the last 3-4 months i have started thinking about sex so much more, i look at

woman

and fantasise like i how i used to. Example: 'i wish i could kiss those lips',

or 'wow i wish i

could touch that'.

But still no ability to get a natural erection, which i think is the only thing

stopping me

from recovering.

Hope i am recovering what do u think?

many thanks

alan

> >

> > 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.

> >

>

September 5, 2008

just thought i would interject to tell you that when i first started

suffering from pssd i would yo-yo beween absolutely no reaction to

watching porn and the situation that you describe, i.e. a slight

feeling down there as if my brain was trying to tell my penis how to

react but the message wasn't fully getting through. i think that what

you are describing is a good sign. remember we are all different,

suffer from variations of symptoms and i think that our recovery is a

very personal thing too. however to let you know about my situation.

now i still sometimes feel nothing from watching porn, but more often

than not i experience what you describe and on the odd occasion i get

aroused/erect. it is nowhere near to normal (or pre pssd) but it

gives me hope. i think recovery is possible but it is a long long

processs and little differences that you notice should be seen as a

positive thing. the problem with my condition is this constant yo-yo

ing that i touched on earlier which seems to affect all of my

symptoms. for example i might go for some time with zero libido and

then have a few days where it is really high. same with the erection

and sensation problems. the problem with all of this is that it makes

it very hard to gauge whether there has been much progress in the

recovery department. i think, overall that there has been, but it is

slight and slow. i think that if you have gone from feeling

absolutely nothing from porn to the situation that you describe you

must see this as a positive sign of healing. also i am pretty sure

that i have been having more sexual thoughts recently and started to

look at women in a more similar way to what i used to, its not quite

the same, but i think there has been a bit of improvement there too.

> > >

> > > 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.

> > >

> >

>

September 5, 2008

Hi Alan,

It sounds like things might indeed be improving for you. I had a

feeling in my penis that was a lot like that. In my case, I believe it

was related to anxiety. Anxious penises don't like to get erect for

some reason. A big part of the recovery process was improving my

sexual confidence to match up with my real-world confidence. It went

something like this:

1) I was anxious, depressed and had PSSD

2) I worked through my anxiety and depression but still had PSSD

3) I gained some degree of social dominance/competency, which helped

greatly with the lack of interest in women. I would think thoughts

like the ones you described about a beautiful women at the mall, for

example. And I'd respond to porn partially, but often didn't get erect

without a lot of effort. Understandably I had some confidence issues

with my equipment because it hadn't worked for so long. It was also

still pretty numb.

4) I found a very caring, understanding girlfriend who helped me gain

confidence because I felt so comfortable around her. The anxiety

surrounding sexual acts disappeared (at least with her), and erections

came naturally as before, and allowed me to fully utilize my sex drive.

5) Eventually I had other relationships, and over time my sensations

improved immensely, as did my sex drive.

6) Now I've been doing great for more than a year.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. I'd be

happy to tell you what I know.

Cheers,

> > >

> > > 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.

> > >

> >

>

September 9, 2008

> >

> > 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.

> >

>

Hello, how long did u have PSSD for before your PSSD started to change? Thanks

for

sharing your story, theory, and good luck.

September 9, 2008

I had PSSD for 4 or 5 years before I started getting better.

> > >

> > > 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.

> > >

> >

> Hello, how long did u have PSSD for before your PSSD started to

change? Thanks for

> sharing your story, theory, and good luck.

>

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

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