In the spring of 2016, the sufferer pete took a big risk by reinstating a low dose of SSRI. While this seems like it could only make matters worse, there have been anecdotal reports from researchers noting that low doses of SSRIs have reversed persistent sexual dysfunction in adult rodents previously treated with SSRIs at a young age. Pete first posted his trial here on the PSSD Forum.
pete has been a member on both the old and new PSSD Forums, joining the new forum in early 2015.
In January 2015 he described his medication history as:
“on paxil for 5 months. 1,5 years ago [mid 2013] i quit it (no cold turkey but fast taper) and got pssd.”
pete was a dedicated forum member, and often posted possible treatments aimed at helping others. His recovery meant quite a bit to the PSSD community as a result, and many are glad that he has moved on with enjoying his life.
pete also had a temporary reversal of PSSD that he attributed to vitamin k in the spring of 2015.
pete claims:
March 2016
“[March 27] Some experiment i want to share.
First i tried to go back on paxil – bad idea. That ended in serotonin syndrome very fast. (5mg for 10 days)
But i noticed that if i take such a single low dose of 2.5mg i will get enormous improvements of sexual function in the next 2 days.
Everything above that dose or even 2 days in a row made things worse.
So i decided to take 2.5mg just 2-3 times a week for some time. Later i switched to 1-2 times.
Here is what happened.
week 1:
weird little zaps all over the body (even in the eye, wtf) like fast changing feeling of hot and cold (hard to describe)
spantanous hard rock erection all day
higher libido
week 2:
feeling of hormonal change: whole muscles are deeply relaxed, but feeling aggressive.
sexual improvements subsiding
intensive dreaming
week 3:
feeling like chewing gum
first giant emotional, tsunami like wave hit me: i was crying for hours, learned again how enjoyable music can be, what horripilation is, that my pssd state is much more fucked than i thought, ….
next day another huge wave. the other day also and so on.
sexual function almost normal
week4:
things are fading away.
to do not more damage, i decided to stop. no more intake since then
week5:
pssd again
week6:
like week 3, but more stable
week7:
almost normal
week8:
getting slowly worse
week9:
pssd again, but baseline is still improved
I got the feeling it’s all about these little zaps. what is this? acetylcholine? ion channels?
Maybe its like this: ion channel dysregulation -> hormanal imbalance -> 5-ht1a downregulation? just a thougth.
Just in case someone wants to try this, keep in mind paxil got lower halftime than most ssri.
Of course it sucks that it flipped back but also I’m pretty optimstic now, I don’t believe there is much damage in my case. I think there is just something stucked in disadventegous homoestasis.
I will do another trail in the near future with just 1x per week over longer period.”
“[March 30] Numbness was gone and semen amount was more and less transparent.”
“Here comes a quick update.
May 2016
“[May 25] I got permanent improvement from this experiment like +20% to baseline.
I also found out now that such a single dose of 2.5mg is enough to induce an huge 4 days window of feeling normal – emotional and sexual.
On the day of intake i get little worse and feeling of serotonin but the next days will just be awesome”
August 2016
“[August 10] Since this low dosing i’m recovering pretty fast. Waves are coming more often, lasting longer and getting more intensive from week to week. Something got activated back again. The cycle is broken.”
“[August 12] I have pssd for 3 or 4 years from paxil. No more waves in the last half year before starting to experiment. And no more intake besides that what i have written here (first post + like 5 single 2.5mg doses. Last one was over a month ago) I will do some more if necessary. But just 1-2 mg then. I think these 2.5mg were still too much.
But at the moment i’m just waiting it out. If it continue like this i could be cured in some weeks.”
“[August 22] Hell yea. Things are going crazy. Since two Days it’s all so warm and colored.
Waves are coming all day now. Interesting Detail – when the wave is very strong, it feels like an electric shock. One of those almost knocked me out. I couldn’t control my muscles anymore.”
“[August 29] Baseline is improving further and further. Not completely cured yet…Actually i’m feeling high. Pupils are big, i am sweeting a lot. Like on opiates. Old memories and emotions are coming up. Heart beat is faster and feels different. Brain fog is leaving. I wasn’t even aware of being still depersonalized that much all this time…I haven’t taken anything at all for more than a month now.”
“[August 30] [I] got no other explanation for this fast [recovering]…Before it was like 7/10. Now it’s a 3 on bad days and 2 on good.”
September 2016
“[September 11] I am still in recocery. Every day is better than the one before. It is like an magnet that is attracting me to pssd free state. Hard to say how much more time will be needed. Maybe some days. Maybe some weeks. Always building up through out the day. While being in the evening 90 percent pssd free, things are still not that great after waking up.”
October 2016
“[October 1] I am mostly cured. Maybe 1-2 bad days per week are left. One last thing. In the late phase of recovery i got tingling on the body. But at first it started in the thyroid.”
“[October 14] There’s one more thing. I had this for long time under suspicion. After the last months i can tell for sure. Spicy food – Just don’t do it. Everytime i did, i got some serious setback. Nevertheless i am cured now.
All the best
Pete”
“[October 29] absolutly 100% back to pre ssri state.”
