u/anticentristfujo

Hi y’all. I’ve been on Caplyta 21mg for a little over 10 weeks. To me it’s been a miracle drug. I take it alongside Lamotrigine 200mg. I was diagnosed TRD for a long time but it got recently changed to bipolar type 2.

I’m not looking for medical advice. I can ask my psychiatrist. But I just wanted to ask if what I’m experiencing is worth suggesting a dose increase to my psychiatrist.

My life is good now with the addition of Caplyta. I’m not an 8 on the 0-10 depression scale anymore. I’d say now I’m maybe a 0-2 on an average daily basis. However, there’s an issue I have where if something triggers it, my pain/depression jumps up to an 8 again, maybe a 9. Sometimes a 10. But Caplyta helps me there too. Instead of outwardly breaking down I just sit quietly and my chest hurts.

I’m wondering if I should consider increasing my dosage to 42mg. Because other than my triggers, I feel fine on my current dosage. But on my triggers, things get really bad.

I don’t want to do therapy. I’ve tried it. I’ve had a lot of people including my psychiatrist push me to do therapy. But I’ve done years of therapy with little benefit and I’ve grown strongly averse to it.

What should my move be?

Hi, I’m bi F26 cis. I’m married to bi FtM26 trans man.

Long story short, before him I had a couple of relationships that were very, very detrimental to me, both with cis women, one of whom I lost my virginity to.

Since then, I’ve neither wanted nor enjoyed sex. I still slept with my husband (which was mostly me giving him oral because I did not enjoy him touching me, despite my best efforts to enjoy it). We don’t do penetrative sex because he has no penis to penetrate me with, and strap-ons are difficult because of our height difference (I’m 5’10”, he’s 5’5”), and he complains that because he can’t feel what he’s doing, he’s self-conscious about doing it wrong, and it’s overall not an enjoyable experience for either of us. I don’t particularly enjoy giving sex acts (like oral) either, I do it more out of love and to give him attention rather than actually enjoying the act.

Recently I told him I just don’t want sex, period, because it’s just something I don’t really want to do because I’ve failed to enjoy it time and again. As in, I tried my best but I just can’t do it. It was very difficult on him but he was very kind to me and didn’t push back on it, he just said he understands and that he hopes it’ll eventually change, but that he’ll love me all the same.

Things I’ve tried that failed:

• Talk therapy/psychotherapy. I’ve gone to many over the past several years and nothing helped. Not EMDR, CBT, DBT, schema, person-centered therapy, sex therapy, group therapy, IOP (intensive outpatient program), and likely more I’ve forgotten to mention.

• Pharmacotherapy/medical treatment. Things like Vyleesi didn’t help. I also went through a lot of antidepressants, antipsychotics, anticonvulsants, benzodiazepines, etc. This includes interventional treatment like electroconvulsive therapy and ketamine. I’ve finally landed on a cocktail that’s greatly improved my quality of life, but did nothing for the psychological sexual issues. I previously had physical sexual dysfunction (anorgasmia, lack of libido) on certain antidepressants but it’s since resolved on new meds, so physically and privately (solo masturbation) I’m perfectly functional.

• Lifestyle changes like improving diet, exercise, and quality of sleep.

I do not have vaginismus, dryness, numbness, or other genital health problems. My recent woman’s wellness exam was normal. I have a healthy relationship with my private sexuality. I enjoy explicit written erotica and pornography of all sorts (video, audio-only, pictures, my own imagination, and so on). I enjoy touching myself and I can satisfy myself easily. I am multiorgasmic. I have no issues based on religious or cultural shame.

My relationship with my husband is excellent. We get on very well and he’s been incredibly supportive of me for years throughout my mental health issues. We’ve got no relationship issues whatsoever outside the sexual side of things. I am his first ever partner for what it’s worth. Him being transgender is no factor in any of this. I’d likely feel the same if he were cis, though for context I have never been with a cis male partner. I’ve had a lot of sex with him for the past several years and I’ve consistently failed to enjoy it or want it. He never pressures me for sex, hardly even asks for it because he knows I struggle with it.

My husband has been going to sex therapy (individual, just him) for the past 6 months upon my request for him to address his own sexual issues concerning his identity as a trans man. It’s been helping him. But his growing confidence and competence has not changed my feelings towards sex.

Whenever I voice these issues, the #1 answer I get is “go to therapy.” But I’ve exhausted that avenue and after a lot of time and money sunk into it, I’m no longer interested in pursuing that treatment option. I am also not interested in pursuing other partners, because I only love my husband, and even if I did pursue other people, I imagine the issue would persist.

I would like to make it known that I am not asexual. I still feel strong sexual attraction to people, and I was intensely, fervently interested in sex until things turned hurtful with my exes.

TL;DR: I used to be intensely interested in having sex. I had bad experiences with it in past relationships. Now presently unable to have sex with my current loving partner. Exhausted all other avenues, especially therapy. Last resort is this Reddit post.

I recently bought the Milani make it last matte setting spray. It worked fine for a couple of applications. I use it today and I look in the mirror and my face is covered in black specs. I spray the spray into a tissue and the tissue turns black. What the hell?! Has anyone heard of this?!

EDIT: sorry for the panic. I’m not currently home so I can’t check it again, but I’ll make sure the next time I use it to shake the life out of it and see if it happens again.

EDIT EDIT: I shook it with both hands as hard as I could, and the spray came out gray onto a clean tissue. Idk man.

So I spent Oct 2025-March 2026-ish getting ECT. First three times a week, then slowly tapering off into nothing. I haven’t had a session in months.

I genuinely miss getting ECT. Don’t get me wrong, the memory issues were real. And the post-appointment aches were murder (painful jaw, painful head, body fatigued to oblivion, etc). But… the staff at my hospital were so nice. So caring. I went into this hospital one foot away from despair, and they treated me so kindly.

I’m tearing up thinking about it. They even sent me a card for my birthday with all their signatures. And I miss seeing them. I miss seeing the people who were there for me at my absolute worst.

Also the 2 seconds of me going under felt euphoric.

Though I’m sure nobody would permit “recreational ECT”. I’m doing a lot better now, so barring any extraneous developments, I likely don’t need ECT anymore.

It’s just so hard not seeing the staff. I miss them.

Hi I’m F26 and I’ve been on caplyta 21mg for a little over two weeks. My first week I’ve had pains and headaches, but that’s subsided. I’m doing relatively well when it comes to side effects.

But I do have one question. I do feel like I experience some sexual dysfunction. It takes longer to get aroused, and I need more stimulus to get aroused. As in, stuff that got me off before needs to be a little more hardcore or a little more persistent to get me going. And orgasm is harder to achieve. Not impossible, but harder.

For context, I’m normally multi-orgasmic and I come very easily. Less than 5 minutes. So taking longer and only being able to come once, maybe twice if I’m really putting in the effort, is a new development for me.

Has this side effect gone away for anyone? Has any sort of sexual dysfunction gone away?

For what it’s worth, I almost don’t mind my current state. When I was on Zoloft last year, it made climaxing EXTREMELY difficult. Like 30+ minutes. So I was prescribed Wellbutrin XL to help with that. Well, Wellbutrin XL made me completely anorgasmic. Completely. To the point that when I was taken off Wellbutrin but remained on Zoloft, I still remained anorgasmic. I was on Zoloft (200mg) for 8 months, then I tapered over the course of about 2 months and I only returned to my previously normal state (easily multi-orgasmic) after I tapered off.

So my current state with Caplyta is a blessing compared to how I was on Zoloft and Wellbutrin.

If it helps, I was diagnosed with treatment resistant major depressive disorder for most of my course of illness. However, about a month ago my diagnosis was changed to Bipolar Disorder Type 2 after I kept failing one antidepressant after another. I’m only on one other medication along with Caplyta 21mg, and it’s Lamictal 200mg, which I’ve been on for a year now.

So basically yeah. Has anyone else’s sexual dysfunction eased, no matter how mild?

Hi. I have a water softener at home and I cannot for the life of me get any suds to show up at all. They show up in the first minute then all of them disappear, not even one bubble. I use Ariel 2x powder and 365 sport liquid, and neither can produce suds and keep them for longer than a minute. I know 365 isn’t very sudsy but this looks like I’m just washing with water, even with Ariel.

I was wondering if adding a small bit of very sudsy detergent can help rather than dump a ton of my current detergent that still won’t create suds.

EDIT: as of the time of this edit, I had done two loads, both bedding, both same settings, dosages, and so on. First one produced no suds. Second one did, a big amount too! I couldn’t believe it, how could the same amount of detergent in two loads produce such different results? The only difference was the second load had oxiclean. Is this related???? I’m so confused

EDIT 2: I feel like Charlie from Always Sunny.

F26. Preemptively saying I’m not suicidal right now, and it’s not what I mean by my post title.

I just don’t feel like living a life. For a good few years of my life I could hardly fulfill the first rung of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (breathing, food, water, sleep, excretion). Now it’s fulfilled. It’s fulfilled greatly! I get to eat, I get to sleep. And apparently that’s all I want.

Things higher up on the hierarchy like safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualization, I don’t care for. Eh, I just feel like it’s not for me. Like having dessert after a meal when you’re already full; like it tastes sweet, but I’m too full and actually this is liable to make me sick.

I could decide tomorrow to go get a job, become involved in the community, self-improve, and I can picture exactly how I could do that. But I just don’t want to. If you told me I could live in a box with a bed and a fridge provided til the end of my natural life, shoot, I’d take it.

Hi, third post within the past week here. I’m really, really appreciative of how helpful this subreddit has been to me, everyone here is very kind and informative.

So, again, F26. Diagnosed with “severe recurrent major depression without psychotic features”. As of right now though, my mood is actually good. It’s been good for a few days now, but I’ve had this before and it’s never lasted so that’s why I’m still looking into MAOIs for whenever I inevitably crash.

I’ve been entertaining this thought in my head now for the past few days. I’m basically house-bound. It’s not that I never leave the house, I do (groceries for example). It’s not that I’m afraid of the outside, I’m not, no agoraphobia. But I just feel no desire to do anything. When I’m really depressed, that’s evident. But when I’m happy/in a persistently good mood, I still don’t want to do anything. I don’t want a career. I don’t want friends. I don’t want to go to places. Not because I feel an aversion, but I just feel no desire. I mean if my husband takes me to a museum, I very well could enjoy it, it’s not a problem of anhedonia. But I’d likely never ever go by myself. I just don’t feel like it.

I always thought of it as a skill issue. Like just get out there and do it. It wouldn’t be difficult to do. Drive my car there, park it, buy an entry pass, look at art. But I just don’t feel like it. Or join a club, volunteer, make peers, whatever. I could do that, I very well could. But eh, I don’t feel like it.

I’ve spent the past two years at home, and my husband’s starting to get worried I’ll become a hermit. If you count the time before I got married too, then I’ve been house-bound for about 6 years now.

This “aspect” of me hasn’t gotten better no matter what drug I’m on or what my mood is. Is this just a skill issue I’ll have to overcome (like just going out there doing things I don’t care for until I might eventually learn to want again) or is it an actual symptom of something that could/should be medicated?

Thank you.

Hi. I’m a 26 year old cis female. I posted on this subreddit recently, which you can find here.

I spoke with my psychiatrist today and presented her with the Dear Doctor letter I found on this subreddit. I sent it to her a day prior so that she’d have ample time to read it.

She said she CAN prescribe MAOIs, she’s got nothing entirely against them. She said she’s just fearful of the side effects, like weight gain and sexual dysfunction (both which are my most feared side effects), and of course the high blood pressure risk. She said MAOIs tend to have more side effects and more severe side effects than SSRIs. She’s also worried about my taking Armodafinil at the same time (I have dx idiopathic hypersomnia), fearing high blood pressure. But she’s says if I do a low dose of Armo and a low dose of an MAOI then it might just work. She also said that if she were to prescribe a MAOI, it would either be Emsam or Parnate, because she says Parnate tends to wake people up. Nardil tends to make people sleepy and I don’t need that considering my IH.

I asked her about water-based activities (swimming, hot tubs, baths, saunas, etc) and how it would affect the patch if we went the Emsam route. And she says it’s really not recommended to engage in water activities. I asked if it would be possible to like… peel off the patch, do the activity, then stick it back on again. And she said she has no idea, she’s never encountered anyone who does it like that or read papers about people doing that. She said if I were to do that, maybe the patch won’t adhere properly to me and/or the release of the medication would be disrupted (e.g. I’d get a lower dose than I should be getting). So for anyone here who uses Emsam, could you tell me please how it affects water-based activities for you?

In the end, she said that if I really do want to do a MAOI, she’s ready to prescribe it (either Parnate or Emsam).

Imma be real I’m scared bros. The reputation MAOIs have talk about them like they’re the boogeyman.

Last week I had my ketamine infusion, and right now I’m doing great. But I know it’s not going to last. And when I inevitably crash, I’m considering MAOIs to be the one to pick me up again. Ketamine is also intensely unreliable for me, after every administration I can’t guarantee if it’ll make me feel better or worse. This time I lucked out and it made me feel better, but again it won’t last.