Posted by blueberry1 on January 15, 2007, at 5:35:22
In reply to SSRIS AND ANHEDONIA, can anyone relate?? (long), posted by crabwalk on January 14, 2007, at 10:52:50
Your complaints are popping up more and more. I think they are under recognized effects of longterm antidepressants. Even wellbutrin is guilty from what I've heard, given enough time on it. No idea, but somehow the extra pool of neurotransmitters must somehow shut down the sensitivity of receptors, or decrease their numbers, or something.
How to fix it? That's a tough one. I can only think of a few choices. They all have to do with giving dopamine a boost.
The supplement tyrosine in 100mg to 500mg prn can boost your sex drive in a couple hours. Ritalin or Adderall prn have the potential. In the natural arena there are lots of herbs for boosting sexual desire and pleasure, but the one spoken of most highly is tonquat ali. Other herbs are more popular than it is, but from actual users who have tried them all, it is their gold standard for sex. The only herbs I've tried are Maca (I definitely notice an increase in desire in 2 days). Maca is actually a food and is healthy for you in many ways. And it does increase sexual desire. And yohimbe...yikes, now that is a powerful scary substance...stay away unless you want anxiety out the roof and insomnia all night...you'll be too nervous and keyed up to have any desire in sex. And of course viagra, which doesn't boost sex drive directly, can boost sex drive indirectly by seeing an erection pop up and going 'wow look at that, gotta do something with that'.
For the overall anhedonia thing, I can relate. I have that too. Bigtime. I have heard that dopamine or stimulant stragegies are the ways to treat it. Candidates are Provigil, Adderall, Ritalin, and dopamine agonists such as Requip, Pramipexole, or Cabergoline. It has been mentioned here a couple times in the last few months where people added Requip or Cabergoline or Bromocriptine to their SSRI to beat the numbness thing. Provigil or its parent in Europe Adrafinil are marketed there as vigilance enhancers. They can increase the pleasure of ordinary life things.
Anhedonia is a tough one. I think it is a longterm and maybe permanent side effect of SSRIs that has not been recognized due to lack of longterm studies. You'll only see it here at pbabble where real world longterm users keep a track record.
poster:blueberry1
thread:722168
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070113/msgs/722439.html