Posted by Mr. Scott on January 31, 2002, at 20:49:22
In reply to Re: Sex All the Time..., posted by OldSchool on January 31, 2002, at 20:10:18
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> > I didn't want to mess up Dinah's thread above which is about hypomania and sex. I'm not sure that my situation is the same, so I've started my own thread. But Dinah got me thinking...
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> > Before SSRI's were invented and Tricyclics were my only resolve, and long before I was even clearly depressed and on meds (although beginning to get anxious), I remember having a need for constant sex! Then as I got on SSRI's/Effexor/ and also with Nardil I have found my sex drive is normal to subpar depending on what I take with it. But I used to be an absolute fiend for it! It was like crack! Everytime I go off my AD (which these days for me is always highly serotonergic) I begin to feel that way again. It doesn't really sound like hypomania does it?
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> > Can anyone relate to this experience?
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> Nope. Not even a little bit. The normal experience for someone with unipolar major depression is to have less of a sex drive off antidepressants. The more severe the depression, the more severe the erosion of your sex drive tends to be. In severe melancholic type major depression, this can get to the point where sex drive totally dissolves and you cannot become aroused. And have major difficulties attaining an erection, orgasming, having "dry" ejaculations where no semen comes out, etc. Im sorry to be so graphic about it, just trying to explain what sometimes happens in REALLY severe clinical depression.
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> When I go off my antidepressants, what little tiny bit of a sex drive I have on ADs further evaporates. Leaving me more or less totally sexless and unmotivated in that department. I feel like a worn out, dried up, dirty dish rag off antidepressants. Having an increased sex drive OFF antidepressants makes me wonder. Either you dont have that severe of depression (dysthymia maybe?). Or something else is going on.
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> I have heard of many people with these mild dysthymia type depressions who complain about "sexual desire decreasing" when they take SSRIs and it returns when they discontinue the SSRI. Makes me wonder if these people REALLY do need an antidepressant?
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> But for folks like moi, who have it bad...the real deal melancholia subtype of major depression sex drive pretty much evaporates off meds...when you crash into severe depression.
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> When you are having problems of the opposite nature, having hypersexuality and that sort of thing that can point to bipolar disorder. Hypersexuality and sexual promiscuity is one of the symptoms of the manic phase of bipolar disorder. Very few to none unipolar major depressives have a good sex drive. If you go off SSRIs and become a "sex fiend" off antidepressants, I find it VERY hard to believe you suffer from major depression.
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> Old SchoolI make no claims, and in fact look to the people here for answers I cannot yet provide.
Major Depression is another one of those words that describes populations well enough to get billion dollar drugs approved by the FDA. As for individuals it hardly describes the millions who suffer from it. Call it what you will, I am actually looking for a name, cause nothin they got so far is "sophisticated" enough to offer much in the ways of a diagnosis that will lead eventually to a treatment plan that works. I don't think dysthymics regularly contemplate suicide or attempt it, and while my depression may be secondary to living with something else, that something else is clearly neurologic in origin and exremely distracting from the life I'd like to lead and once lead. The only other reason I can think of that would possibly explain my motivation for being here and asking questions is that I always wanted to be a psychiatrist, but couldn't handle chemistry (or abstract math at all BTW). I wish I had what Lilly, Pfizer, and Wyeth and their professional pill peddler brigade refer to as major depression. My life would be easy. I could take any of virtually 20 plus chemicals and expect a 70% response rate (defined as a 50% reduction in symptoms)on the first trial. Fat Chance! And if I do get some help from meds, the price of paying for it with weight gain, sedation or impotence aren't chips I will bargain with. No I don't pretend to know what I have, but I can say that it sucks.
Scott
poster:Mr. Scott
thread:92301
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020131/msgs/92444.html