Natalie

Follow @PSSDNetwork and @PSSDInstitute to learn more about and stay updated on PSSD. If you’re interested in my UARS and ME/CFS content, follow me @nataliezzz3 (and I somehow accidentally “left” my UARS 🧵 on this account so I won’t receive any notifications related to it, btw)

We a new sound defined And we'll get you addicted for life On a wave so refined And here's a reason to find it It gives me early-mid 2000 vibes (minus the high waist pants) and I totally would have loved this song in high school back then (I still like it at 37 though)

10/ Nomyn & Veela - Deep End No need to get lost like your mind did Way past the season to find it I'm in the deep end how You gonna see me On the surface how you gonna reach me No need to get lost like your mind did I see no reason to find it youtube.com/watch?v=IYzs2W…

Might as well make a @veelamusic appreciation 🧵 with some of my other favorites. 1/

11/ Kooma & Veela - Edge of the World Where are we from Wondering where do we go when we're gone I'm around now, but I'm lost There's somethin' about it Bout the way the wind blows That I Feel a part of in soul youtube.com/watch?v=wamwCX…

@hanna_pssd @KevinRo90321458 I think there can be different degrees of it just like the genital numbing. I felt pretty “zombie”-like when I started ⬇️ but it went down to a more typical level when I lowered the dose. Things like loss of psychoactive fx of drugs/alcohol I’ve only heard from ppl with PSSD tho.

@PSSD_Info @KevinRo90321458 The drugs (not be PSSD), I think it would be more discussed and we would see accounts from people telling what they had experiences. Now it is just ”I was a zombie”.

PSSD is said to be sexual dysfunction and also a form of apathy. I've always found this definition questionable. Sexual activity is a result not a cause. Given SSRI make you blind to depression by making you blind to your emotions. The drug also removes your ability to feel pleasure. What is then the emotional precursor to romance? To Sexual activity? Its Enthusiasm. Physical sexual dysfunction emotional component is enthusiasm. Physical health is representative of emotional health and the opposite is also true. The worse your emotional withdrawal from a drug is related to worsening of your physical health. Hence why in phychriatric drug withdrawal you also develop exercise intolerance. The emotional and physical are married as they are both manifestations of the nervous system. Therefore if you have sexual dysfunction from a drug. You will also have enthusiasm dysfunction.

@hanna_pssd @KevinRo90321458 I started a thread on SRIs and emotional blunting - there's still more to add to it though. x.com/PSSD_Info/stat…

@hanna_pssd @KevinRo90321458 😢 It's so messed up. I'm not gonna pretend like I understand every aspect of your experience but I experienced some of this for a short time and it was super unsettling & hard to imagine living like that for any extended period of time. I'll keep trying to raise awareness of it.

Being critical of SSRIs does not equal disbelief of mental health conditions, and people need to stop conflating the two. Depression is viscerally painful, but SSRIs can irreversibly harm a human being. Two things can be true.

I know the immune system takes a central role in many people's imagination for the pathophysiology of #MECFS and related conditions but few people are asking why the immune system is acting that way. (And at least according to current data, the answer isn't pathogen persistence.)

@KevinRo90321458 @hanna_pssd Also I think it's important to consider that there are drugs that can cause sign. emotional blunting that don't cause genital numbing (this was pointed out in the PSSD diagnostic criteria article) & as I said, even wrt SSRI takers that's a pretty commonly reported experience. 3/

@KevinRo90321458 But I'm more of a "protracted withdrawal" than PSSD case (I'm not yet convinced they're truly separate tho--it may just be about the degree to which the dysf. is reversed in some cases). @hanna_pssd may have some insights as she crashed from shrooms that ➡️ emotional blunting. 2/

@KevinRo90321458 Ofc damage to sexual function can cause ⬇️ enthusiasm for life when you feel cut off from that dimension, but I don’t believe the genital numbness/orgasmic anhedonia is inherently tied to emotional blunting even tho they commonly co-occur since some ppl report only 1 or the other

@KevinRo90321458 They often go together, but plenty of ppl w/ persistent post-treatment sexual dysf. don’t report emotional blunting (whether you want to call that PSSD…well, ppl seem to have different definitions of what qualifies in terms of severity/duration of/presence of specific symptoms).

@NumbNotDumb99 @MikhailaFuller Yes, thank you for raising awareness of akathisia @MikhailaFuller and please take a look at the evidence on PSSD - and please consider retweeting or quote tweeting the 🧵 to help raise awareness.

@MikhailaFuller Have you also heard about PSSD? It’s caused by antidepressants. They can permanently take away your sexual function and emotions even when off the medication. It’s torture. Thankyou for speaking on this topic!

Akathisia is caused by psych med withdrawal but is also a side effect from a number of pharmaceuticals, not just withdrawal. Hell. The fact this fairly common reaction is hidden by pharmaceutical companies and renamed things like “restlessness” is criminal.

The psychiatrist (who I have never even met) is now saying the damage and withdrawal I am experiencing from Sertraline is “perceived” and they are “not convinced that the observed affect is from discontinuation of Sertraline”… 😒 This drug has taken everything from me and they won’t even acknowledge the harm it has caused. I never consented to this kind of risk and now they’re gaslighting me. Also, note how they try and blame my ARVs instead for all the symptoms associated with SSRIs. Since when were psychiatrists experts on HIV medication? My HIV Dr has never mentioned any of these symptoms could be caused by Truvada or Raltegravir. And it’s not commonly reported by pwHIV. What an absolute joke. #medicalgaslighting #PSSD #Sertraline #brainInjury #HIV

@VoiceStephen @KSchnickelfritz @Yrrepmot I'm not doubting that doxycycline can cause a PSSD-like syndrome, but is there any source for it being an SRI besides Dr. Healy? He's the only one I've ever heard saying that (he even put it in the PSSD diagnostic criteria article) but I can't find any scientific reference for it

@KSchnickelfritz @Yrrepmot Doxy can act like serotonin reuptake inhibiting drug. I find this article useful explaining the similarities: davidhealy.org/doxycycline-an…

💬 PSSD after doxycycline A member of the wider prescribed harm awareness community is reaching out to anyone who has experienced post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) after taking doxycycline. They’re hoping to connect with others who have gone through this, share experiences, and offer support. If this applies to you, please PM this page to get in touch 💜

Also, whether you like it or not, understanding ME is biologically relevant for long COVID, because that’s what every single test shows objectively and empirically: “ME/CFS and LC share symptomatic, reduced aerobic capacity at peak exercise, which is driven by preload insufficiency and impaired systemic O2 extraction, the latter compatible with peripheral left-to-right shunting and/or limb skeletal muscle dysfunction” atsjournals.org/doi/abs/10.116… “Results revealed significantly impaired endothelial function in both long COVID and ME/CFS groups compared with healthy age-matched controls as determined by maximum % brachial artery diameter post-occlusion compared with pre-occlusion resting diameter. Notably, there was no difference in flow-mediated dilation between long COVID and ME/CFS groups” amjmed.com/article/S0002-… “people with long COVID and people with ME/CFS have similarly impaired dexterity and bimanual coordination.” pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38403179/ “We did not find significant differences in the brainstem volumes of ME/CFS and long COVID patients which is consistent with the overlapping presentation of both cohorts” pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10… “Importantly, no significant difference was reported in ME/CFS patients compared with post COVID-19 condition as PregS-induced TRPM3 currents of post COVID-19 condition patients were similar of ME/CFS patients currents” pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC93… “Postural sway was worse (ie, greater) in people with long COVID and ME/CFS than controls, but not different between long COVID and ME/CFS.” amjmed.com/article/S0002-… “A test of orthostatic stress easily performed in an office setting reveals different symptomatic, hemodynamic and cognitive abnormalities in people with Long COVID and ME/CFS, compared to healthy control subjects” pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC92…

Side note: 🧵 on what PSSD is not: a functional neurological disorder (FND - formerly conversion disorder). And a correction: this was not the first PSSD case report in the lit. 3 case reports were published earlier that year (a letter to the editor): 45/n researchgate.net/publication/71…

More on emotional blunting & how it may relate to therapeutic effects ⬇️ Btw, the idea that SSRIs take weeks to work is a myth: a meta-analysis of RCTs found greatest improvement in depression in 1st week w/ diminishing improvement cont. over 6 weeks: 44/n jamanetwork.com/journals/jamap…

POST-SSRI SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION (PSSD) is a condition where genital numbness/⬇️ sensation (& other sexual side effects) persist after treatment w/ a serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI/SNRI/etc.) Non-sexual symptoms like emotional blunting, anhedonia, & 🧵 1/n pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC89…