Posted by Racer on March 24, 2007, at 17:00:32
In reply to Re: Who among you know a lot about neurotransmitters ?, posted by Marc Boucher on March 24, 2007, at 14:59:04
Marc, it doesn't sound to me as though any neurotransmitter is at the root of your problem. It sounds to me as though what's happening is psychological, and not physical.
First of all, you've said that you have low sex drive, but you're masturbating more than once a day, on average? Those two things really don't go together. I think what you're saying is that you have low interest in sex with your girlfriend, or with sex with a partner. That's different from low sex drive. "Low sex drive" would usually mean low interest in any form of sexual activity, alone or with a partner.
Secondly, you say pretty clearly that the problem began with your fear -- which I think you've described as "obsessive" -- that your girlfriend will be unfaithful to you. That's a good starting place for a psychological cause of your low interest in sex with her. Not only directly, but because you're so worried about your lack of desire, you're probably putting a lot of pressure on yourself about it, which just increases the block against it. Like performance anxiety of any sort.
While the actual treatment for what I think is going on would be psychotherapy, taking a prescription anti-depressant -- especially an SSRI -- would probably be very helpful as well. No, SSRIs do not directly increase sex drive, but that might not be your problem in the first place. What they will do, if they work, is treat the dysthymia/anxiety, which would likely improve your ability to work on the underlying issues. I suggest SSRIs because they are often most helpful for OCD, and it sounds as though there's some obsessiveness going on, as well as possibly some compulsiveness as well. I'm not a big fan of Paxil, but it's still a pretty good direction to explore.
The bottom line as far as neurochemistry is concerned is this: no one knows definitively what causes or cures what. There seems to be a rational relationship between the major neurotransmitters, so increasing one or another probably isn't the answer to much of anything. Normalizing the ratios between them is the goal. The best anyone can really do right now is say, "There's a strong correlation between these symptoms and getting relief from drugs that do this." A doctor can say, "Hm... A lot of my patients who have reported these symptoms have responded well to Drug X, so let's start there." That's about it, though.
I hope that helps. Good luck to you.
poster:Racer
thread:743613
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070320/msgs/743772.html