Anti Depressants and Sex!

[Purple]

What are people’s experiences with anti depressants and sexy times? I recently started taking them for anxiety and whilst they’re definitely helping (and obviously mental health is the biggest priority) I’ve noticed they’ve completely killed my libido. At the moment it’s fine as I’m single but wow, it’s such a weird feeling to not want to use any sex toys and just go straight to sleep at night.

[kitkat]

Heya Purple!

I’m super curious to know people’s experiences too – I’ve been on a couple of different anti-depressants since 2014 – SSRIs and now an SNRI. I think they decreased my libido (and actually, the SSRI made it wayyyy harder to come – one of the not-uncommon side effects listed is ‘delayed orgasm’). The tricky thing for me is though is that before I started them, I was so ragingly depressed I was struggling with stuff like getting out of bed, showering, going to work etc – so my libido (along with any positive/intense emotion, motivation, whatever!) was pretty much non-existent, which makes it hard to compare. At least now I like seeing people, and enjoy sex, which I couldn’t do at all before. But I guess what I’m saying is I don’t have much of a ‘normal’ baseline to compare to. And for me, the antidepressants make life liveable – I wake up in the AM and am feel like a person, and a pretty optimistic, happy one at that, so that itself is obviously such a tremendous upside that I’m kinda like ‘meh’ about any libido side-effects for myself. I asked my ex about it and he reckons our sex life got better/more frequent/more engaged once I was on the meds, but personally, it’s kinda hard to say.

Does anyone else have any experience?

[curiousss]

I’ve had an experience with this also!
When i first started my anti-depressants I also around the same time started on the pill and i was so shocked when i had sex with someone that i couldn’t get wet at all! i was so upset! it was so confusing at the time and i was finding sex very painful without lots of lube. I eventually went and changed my medication types and the problem was solved. I was very embarrassed at the time and when i think back to it i wish i had more confidence in myself to know it was okay i was feeling like that and there was nothing wrong with me.

[tea]

I think it’s totally normal to experience these kinds of things when taking anti-depressants! I have had some loss of libido temporarily – it does come back though, I think realising what’s stemming from the symptoms is important too. Maybe try meditation and see if that helps you at all?

Having confidence in yourself definitely makes a massive difference! Which takes a huge amount of time, but once you get to a comfortable space with yourself it will make everything smoother and easier to manage.

Don’t worry there’s nothing wrong with you and things will get better. Thank you so much for opening up to us!

Here are some other threads with similar discussions:

Mental Health and Sexy Times | Anxiety and Sex | Mental Health and Sex

[kitkat]

@tea thanks for those forum links! Some great reads there with people’s experiences.

[arethamorce]

I was just looking around and went across this thread. I was diagnosed to have severe depression 4 years ago and tried almost everything out there that “could” help. The only medication that worked best for me is medical cannabis. At first, I was doubtful so I started doing my own research and read articles about marijuana and I found out that each marijuana strain has different uses for different diseases. But I perfectly understand that it’s not legal everywhere!

[Nurse_Nettie]

Hi @arethamorce & thanks for sharing your experience. Medicinal cannabis (marijuana) is not widely available in NSW. There is only one cannabis medicine approved in Australia (for treatment in multiple sclerosis). Any other use is considered experimental & a doctor would have to apply to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to prescribe it in every case.

That said, there is good evidence for the use of cannabis in palliative care, nausea & vomiting, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis & pain. Unfortunately, there is NOT good evidence to say that cannabis improves depression. In fact, regular marijuana use may have the opposite effect: causing or worsening depression & other mental health problems. I’d encourage anyone who feels depressed to talk to their doctor about what’s going on. There are a lot of treatments & medicines that can help.

[tea]

Very interesting @arethamorce! It makes me wonder what alternative pathways to care for mental health exist, I feel like a mindfulness retreat is what I need right now.

I’ve been taking my antidepressants for quite a few years now but recently I’ve noticed a drop in my libido? Just the past two weeks or so, it’s been a rough week so I’m not sure if it’s the meds or the situation hmm..

[Author]

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