“The pharmaceutical companies have done nothing about it.”
“People that prescribe these medications, do they know what they’re capable of? Do they know that they’re capable of removing your sexuality forever?”
PSSD is the horror you’ve never heard of.
The letters stand for Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction, a host of severe sexual side effects that afflict many after they stop taking antidepressants. These symptoms include complete loss of libido, genital numbness and erectile dysfunction—a list that only hints at the devastation wrought on the lives of those who dare to come off these dangerous drugs.
In May 2018, 22 health experts submitted a petition to the FDA urging mandatory labels on antidepressants that warn of the potential for severe sexual side effects after discontinuation.
“I’m sorry, but it’s disgraceful. This is affecting young people’s lives.”
Backed by hundreds of case histories, the petition even included an entry from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the bible of psychiatry—a tome notoriously filled with invented and voted-into-existence “disorders” with no scientific basis, devised solely to justify the sale of dangerous drugs touted to “treat” the disorders. Yes, even the DSM weighed in, saying, “In some cases, serotonin reuptake inhibitor-induced sexual dysfunction may persist after the agent is discontinued.” Or in plain English: “Don’t take this stuff if you want any kind of sex life.”
So where is the firestorm of outrage the petition should have prompted? Where is the demand for immediate action?
That well-researched and meticulously documented plea to give the otherwise unsuspecting public a chance to say no before being chemically altered into shadows of themselves has been met by … crickets.
The FDA must, by law, respond to citizen petitions within 180 days. Instead, they let the petition rot in the pending file for six years, while the lives of PSSD sufferers continued to be sucked dry of the joy and sensation that make life worth living. Many—if not most—of the victims also endure cognitive impairment, inability to experience joy or pleasure, and overall emotional blunting.
Listen to them:
“I feel nothing.”
“No interest in anything.”
“Totally dehumanized.”
“No joy no more, no happiness, all the good things are gone.”
“The magic of my life has been taken away from me.”
“Can no longer feel emotions.”
“No longer feel attracted, in love.”
“I could stick a knife in my vagina and not feel it.”
The PSSD Network, a nonprofit led by PSSD sufferers and their loved ones, has one mission: “to speed up research and find treatments or a cure for PSSD. To achieve this, we need to raise awareness about this condition.”
At this writing, there are no required warnings about PSSD in the US and not a single nation officially recognizes the term “PSSD”—leaving countless patients in the dark, unable to even Google the condition that is ruining their lives.
PSSD Network Board Member Daniel Demers regards the situation as an ethics scandal where psychiatrists have been violating the trust of their patients for decades. “Most psychiatrists around the world fail to report this harm (PSSD) to the relevant national medication regulators when their patients inform them about it. As a result, other psychiatrists claim they don’t believe PSSD exists because the medication regulators haven’t added prominent warnings to the drug labels. It’s a Catch-22 situation for patients, because psychiatrists hold nearly all the power and often choose to gaslight patients by attributing their symptoms to an underlying mental illness rather than to the drug the psychiatrists prescribed. With a symptom like genital anesthesia, it makes no logical sense to attribute it to any known mental illness, yet psychiatrists around the world seem to employ the same patient-blaming defense mechanism when the alternative is admitting they played a role in ruining their patient’s life.”
Retired Scottish psychiatrist Peter Scott-Gordon was asked in an interview if he thought the UK’s Royal College of Psychiatrists would ultimately recognize PSSD. His answer was an emphatic no. “There’s a bit more awareness because of people speaking up—and well done to them because this is a very difficult subject to talk about,” he said, “but the fact that psychiatry is not recognizing this, and I would say being willfully blind about it, I think it’s disgraceful. I’m sorry, but it’s disgraceful. This is affecting young people’s lives.”
Affecting young people’s lives permanently. At present, there is no cure for PSSD.
“Over a year now.”
“These last four years have been hellish.”
“Almost 16 years.”
“Permanently chemically castrated.”
“My sexuality has been permanently f—d.”
“No medical assistance.”
“We weren’t warned.”
“I trusted that I’d get help and I ended up very, very sad.”
With symptoms so intimate and so shattering, it takes immense courage for PSSD sufferers to speak out.
But, despite the pain, they’ve told their stories—to warn, to inform and to protect others.
Have they been heard? After six years of criminal silence on the part of the FDA, one of the petition’s signatories, PSSD Network’s scientific advisor, Professor Antonei Csoka, filed a lawsuit against the FDA for failing to respond in a timely manner, as per its legal obligation.
The suit was thrown out on a technicality within 10 months.
Mary Koback, a PSSD sufferer, posted this comment on the FDA’s public website in 2018:
“PSSD is the worst thing that can happen to a person. After taking Zoloft, my genitals felt completely numb and my emotions completely disappeared. I went from being a sexual, outgoing, cheerful person to having 0 emotions and 0 sexuality. In addition to all of the terrible withdrawal symptoms I experienced (and am still experiencing at over 2 years off Zoloft), PSSD has ruined every aspect of my life.”
Mary killed herself soon after.
