r/PSSD

r/PSSD has hit a milestone of 20,000 members yesterday, May 19, 2026 - which is about 6 weeks ahead of predicted schedule as shown in the PSSD Network 2025 End of Year Update (Where it was actually predicted to only be at 19,800 by the beginning of July.)

On Nov 15, 2023, r/PSSD hit 10,000 members.
By May 19, 2026, it hit 20,000 members.

That’s a span of 916 days.

Looking 916 days before Nov 15, 2023 brings us to May 13, 2021, when r/PSSD had only 2,105 members.

So:

May 2021 → Nov 2023: +7,895 members
Nov 2023 → May 2026: +10,000 members

That means r/PSSD grew 26.7% more in the second 916-day period than in the first.

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Now here's a fun fact to show how much our awareness efforts are truly working.

When the PSSD Network launched around Sept 1, 2022, r/PSSD had about 5,300 members.
Again, by May 19, 2026, it now has 20,000.

That’s a span of 1,356 days.

Looking 1,356 days before Sept 1, 2022 brings us to Dec 15, 2018, when r/PSSD had only 298 members.

So:

Dec 2018 → Sept 2022: +5,002 members
Sept 2022 → May 2026: +14,700 members

That means the subreddit gained about 194% more members after Sept 2022 than in the previous equivalent period, or nearly 3x as many new members.

Is it possible to get PSSD only after quitting the medicine, while not having any side effects while on it? Has anyone experienced that?

I'm considering trying it but barely found any comments from people with pssd. If you tried it, it would be great if you could share your experience

Hi, I'm new to this. If I don't write something correctly, I apologize, as I'm Spanish and I use Google Translate.

First of all, I know I shouldn't be writing here, since I'm still taking antidepressants, but I have many doubts and need help.

I was medicated for 6 months with sertraline and mirtazapine, then continued for another 18 months with sertraline alone. When the time came, I stopped taking it without further problems (initially).

At six months, I started experiencing terrible anxiety that escalated to the point where I wanted to escape. Since I had taken mirtazapine before, I thought it might help me sleep.

My doctor told me to start with 7.5 mg, and I did, except for one day when I took 15 by mistake and had the worst experience of my life.

From the fourth day onwards, I started noticing that I was losing my emotions, so on the fifth day I decided to stop taking it. It was a bad idea.

I saw that I couldn't sleep without her and that the terror was returning, although I could connect a little more with my emotions.

The current situation is that I've been taking it for a month and I can't stop. I don't enjoy anything anymore; I'm incapable of sleeping without it. I've lost a lot of weight because I've lost my appetite, my ability to imagine, EVERYTHING. I can't work; I'm in bed all day and can barely take care of myself, and I know it's because of the pill, because I wasn't like this before.

My question is, has anyone gone through the same thing and recovered afterward, even slightly, emotionally? I know I have to stop taking the pills first, and I'll do it slowly and gradually, but above all, I want to know if there's still a chance of getting out of this hell. Everything I've read so far is discouraging.

Thanks for reading.

Do you guys see a therapist?

I’m asking because I don’t really feel emotions anymore. I kind of just feel like an autonomous robot. I don’t feel even depressed since my emotions are so blunted. I’m at the point where I can’t even feel bothered by PSSD (brain basically can’t feel care for anything) I just know it’s not right and old me would be absolutely feeling every emotion possible but I’m just stuck in robot world.

to me there’s no point of therapy because i don’t think i really care to talk about anything. Probably would just be staring at the wall waiting to be done.

Anyone else or does it help some of you? genuinely asking because i have no idea if it could help. i’d give it a shot honestly

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some insights or similar experiences. I originally went to a psychiatrist for purely somatic symptoms of stress and anxiety. I had no depression, no sadness, and no anhedonia. I was prescribed Trittico (Trazodone) and took it for a month, including 3 weeks at a full antidepressant dose.

During treatment, something went completely wrong. I lost all internal signals of hunger and thirst. My brain sends 0% of these signals now. It has been 6 months since I completely stopped the drug, and nothing has improved.

On top of that, my sleep architecture is completely ruined. Before the med, I only had minor trouble falling asleep due to stress. Now, I sleep a maximum of 5 hours a night (often less). It feels like my brain completely forgot how to enter deep sleep stages. I haven’t had a good night's sleep in about a year and a half.

Unfortunately, I experienced massive medical gaslighting. When I told my top local psychiatrist that I don't feel hunger or thirst, he didn't believe me. He diagnosed me with "acute psychotic disorder" and schizophrenia, then put me on heavy antipsychotics. I was in complete shock. I changed doctors, and currently, I am taking the morning and Quetiapine at night just to get some miserable sleep, but it barely works.

The strange part is: my sexuality and emotions are completely intact. I feel emotions normally and have no sexual dysfunction. I live in constant fear because of all this.

Is this still considered a form of PSSD or Post-Antidepressant Syndrome (PAS)? Has anyone else lost their interoception (hunger/thirst) and sleep profile without losing their libido? Are these receptor changes or is there a chance my brain will remember how to sleep and feel hunger again?

Thank you for any replies. I live in constant fear because all od this. How life with this, how to live without sleep.

the 12 years I spent on Celexa I suffered from pretty severe bloating, indigestion/heart burn / BM issues, and nausea.. I then got diagnosed with celiac! I cheated with gluten a lot and figured that's why my symptoms persisted! ive been off for 18 months and since I've been off I've experience close to zero gut issues, besides the occasional constipation or diarrhea but that's short-lived maybe a day or so and then i retested for celiac and it's no longer present! I can eat anything and it causes zero reaction! im certainly not complaining as those issues impacted my life quite a bit... i guess I'm curious if anyone else reacted this way? I know ive read a decent amount of people who do suffer with pretty severe gut issues in withdrawal and wondering why mine stopped almost instantly? Is it due to anhedonia?

I could really do with some insight. So basically I had psychosis Jan to Feb last year 2025. I then got put on olanzapine and floxitine I remember been fine and then I missed 3 doses of both. I then had emotional numbness don’t know about sexual stuff as didn’t really take notice. Dermatitist of the scalp. This carried on for a futher 4 months. But I quit the floxitine at the missed doses. My phy ghen quit me cold turkey off aps. I then told them my smpyoms and saif it’s depression. I then took sertaline and started to wean it give me motivation but nothing else. I then got muted orgasm and numbness this then corrected. Then I added wellburtin 4 doses as panicked and this caused me to feel like I needed to urine like a uti. I got nerve pain in back like kidney infection loke symptoms whoch I didn’t have. My orgasm was then mute again, 4 days later. But then it come back but it’s really in the vigina area now. Also I’ve still got the nerve pain, it’s in legs lower bottom, shooting pains and in vagina. They vary come and go. My pelvic also feels really tight. I also have emotional numbness still and also noticed my hair has thinned massively. Any advice would be appreciated.

I personally know people who got ED from cocaine, ecstasy or meth. I’m not in contact with them anymore so I don’t know if it got better after they quit. But why is there no mention of it on Reddit, drug related ED is a massive thing in the medical community but virtually nonexistent online. Ik most people would not want to talk about it but it seems strange that the antidepressant community is so much more vocal?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and wanted to put it out there.

I feel like we really don’t have enough recovery stories here especially when it comes to anhedonia and emotional blunting.

Don’t get me wrong, the sexual side effects are bad. I’m not minimizing that at all. They can mess with your identity, relationships, confidence, all of it.

But when you combine that with not being able to feel anything, no motivation, no enjoyment, no emotional response to life… it becomes something else entirely. It’s like you’re not even in your own life anymore.

At least for me, the numbness/emotional blunting part is what makes everything feel unbearable.

And the thing is, most of what we see on here is people still deep in it (which makes sense), but it creates this constant loop of:
“Is this gonna be forever?'

I’m a 18 year old female and never felt pleasure or any of that. I started SSRIs early 13 after a bad suicide attempt. I was on Lexapro I think at 13 for a few months and then switched to fluoxetine which been on around 36-50 for remaining of the years. I completely stopped taking them early February, cold turkey which I know isn’t good but I see my physiatrist once a year as far out and my parents pretty controlling with that. I just don’t know if my sexual delay is apart of the SSRI or not as I just never felt it. I mean I started taking it on puberty, and I didn’t notice sexual tension before that as I was a kid. I’m almost 19, end of May, and it’s horrible as I had my first kiss in college and it didn’t feel like anything I dreamed of. Had guys try to finger me and I tried to but it just felt nothing. The clit is more like a feeling if someone tickles you and that’s very dull, it’s awkward. Never had an orgasm in my life.

I just don’t know really as never had time to process it. As I am very underweight, and short as I believe the SSRI stunted me physically too. As my parents are 6’5 and 5’10 and I’m 5’4, 90 pounds. And the SSRI never helped anything emotionally either as went back and forth with treatment centers and other bad s-attempts which is why I never questioned this as I thought it was just depression.

The only thing I take now is Concerta (54 mg mornings and 16 afternoons) and I hope that doesn’t effect anything as it’s the one thing I take for my chronic fatigue.

I talked to a doctor on campus and they don’t even believe SSRIs do this as it’s not studied enough. Told me to watch porn or read eroticas. Which obviously I’ve tried, just never physically got turned on.

I’m a very emotional person, even with SSRI (ironically as it’s supposed to suppress that but it suppressed everything except that). So I’m not one of the people here that can’t feel love and all that. Or have brain fog. I just feel like it stunted my growth, looking 13 at almost 19, underweight, short, no sexual experience, and just overall making me stay at my 13 year old body. For example I still have my growth plates even at my age though I’ve been 5’4 since age 12.

I just want to have sex, I feel so left out. And it’s not like I’m asexual or just someone who can accept it based on not having the feelings for it as I do. I have fantasies, I have the attraction, I have the love, I just physically can’t feel anything. And it makes me feel horrible as talking to a guy and always pulling his hands away and leaning out when making out as just feels awkward. I don’t know what I am to do. Wondering if anyone knows if SSRIs can affect other physical aspects as well as I know it does effect the Sexual but idk the others.

Edit: I also have a twin sister who is around 135 and 5’6. We don’t know if we are identical or not but pretty sure, as always looked alike and been similar., just some family members thought the doctor said we weren’t. Our mom and dad don’t remember if we are or not. So if that helps with the height and weight stunt. As she never was on any of these meds. And she is like a girl who goes to the gym all the time while I can’t as I chronic weakness in my bones.

I was in withdrawal for around 6 months. After that, things improved a lot. My libido came back fully and my anhedonia lifted by probably 80%. For about 3 months I genuinely felt like I was getting my life back. I started working again, seeing friends again, functioning normally, and honestly stopped thinking about PSSD/withdrawal most of the time because I thought the ordeal was finally ending.

Then around month 11, I started slipping back into anhedonia again. It wasn’t a sudden crash overnight, more like gradually feeling emotionally flatter and less like myself again.

What confuses me is that most of the other withdrawal symptoms didn’t come back. Libido is still here. The main thing has been the emotional numbness/anhedonia returning. I’ve also had some gastro issues come back a bit, but nowhere near the full intensity of early withdrawal.

Now I’ve been stuck in this state again for about 5 months and it’s honestly brutal mentally. It’s hard to describe how devastating it is to feel almost healed, start rebuilding your life, and then feel yourself fall backwards again after thinking you escaped it.

I keep wondering:
Was this caused by something?
Did I trigger it somehow without realizing?
Could stress/lifestyle/supplements/etc. have caused a setback?
Or do long natural waves/windows like this just happen during recovery?

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who had a similar pattern, especially if you had a long setback after months of feeling significantly better and then improved again later.

Asking because I'm trying to find out if I have PSSD. For me they make me really happy and carefree. I'm struggeling to not get addicted though, because of my PSSD like symptoms.

Do you feel them? Or do they have no effect on you?

They think. I have pots and autonomic dysfunction. And mcas. And cfs and pem.

Just wanted to share my experience. Maybe anyone can relate? I did not tell them about the ssri I took. Just told my symptoms.

Been on fluxotine 4+ years no side effcts. When i try and go up to 20mg a day it gave me temporary ED which went away when I went back down to 10m. I wonder if I'm safe FROM PSSD IF I ever decided to stop.

Additionally i have been on long term ssris for years on and off since 14 and never had an issue with PSSD weirdly.

?

Or at least on the same spectrum? Hear me out it’s worth looking into since im the only case I know like this.

Long story short I got classic PSSD almost two years ago from SSRIs and have been off since. October of last year I got full blown serotonin syndrome by taking dextromathorphan with my seroquel (yes it’s possible, was diagnosed) Ever since then I get mini mild episodes of serotonin toxicity (It’s the same symptoms and I don’t want to hear people arguing “that can’t happen” there’s a whole support group on Facebook who suffer from reoccurring SS even from the wrong food ) I have both and they both are triggered by the same thing including infection / illness. I either crash and feel nothing or I get hypo manic and end up in the ER.
The SS may not be life threatening every single time but it seems to be an injury like PSSD that acts up when anything serotonergic enters my system.

I wonder if my SERT is still inhibited even though the SSRIs are long out my system and that’s how I got serotonin syndrome so easily ?
I don’t know , thoughts ?