PSSD Forum

Hello everyone ill start with my situation. I took abilify for a month then stopped suddenly. I had no libido or sexual side effects while on it but didn't like the way it made me feel so I quit taking it. Overnight my libido disappeared, desire was gone it was like my genitals were numb and orgasms were also gone. Shortly after that I noticed my emotions were also gone completely flat. Joy, happiness, love and the feeling of connection were gone. Alcohol stopped giving any good feeling, whip its which I loved stopped working (nitrous oxide or laughing gas). It has been 6 months and I have had about a 20% return of orgasm and about 5% sensation. My emotions are still non existent unless it's anger or sadness. My doctor started me on buspirone and after the first day or two I experienced for a day libido/ attraction but it quickly went away again. I've been taking buspirone 10mg in the morning and 10mg at night for a month now. I just got citrulline and inositol and have been taking those for 4 or 5 days haven't noticed much change but I've only been taking 500mg inositol so I will up that to 18g like I see people saying to take. I also take st John's wart, b complex, fish oil, vitamin d and c, arrow root, chelated magnesium and nitric oxide boosters. I also just started taking elevated which is a natural testosterone booster with tang at Ali and ashwaghanda amongst other ingredients. Any advice woukd be much appreciated. I am hopeful and my initial recovery which wasn't much came on its own without any supplements so here's to trying!

I’m experiencing the same with Buspirone (10 mg a day).
The first 2 days I had high libido then the effect decreased.
The libido is still higher than baseline but nothing crazy.
I’ve been taking it since 10 days in total now and I don’t know if I should continue taking it.
Had the same reaction with Mianserin, high libido for 2/3 days then the improvements stopped.
Have you tried PDE5 inhibitors like Cialis or Viagra?

I haven't tried either of those yet. I saw someone posted that cialis brought back their orgasm but not their sensitivity so I was going to give it a try.

cosmo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 6:31 am The libido is still higher than baseline but nothing crazy.
I’ve been taking it since 10 days in total now and I don’t know if I should continue taking it.

That's exactly a reason I still take it. "Crazy high" libido is an unrealistic goal and having some libido, which fluctuates, is still better then ZERO.

Manicmedic wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 9:35 am I haven't tried either of those yet. I saw someone posted that cialis brought back their orgasm but not their sensitivity so I was going to give it a try.

If you have problem with erections Cialis is the best temporary fix. You can try to start at 5 mg and see what happens

arahant wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 11:29 am

cosmo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 6:31 am The libido is still higher than baseline but nothing crazy.
I’ve been taking it since 10 days in total now and I don’t know if I should continue taking it.

That's exactly a reason I still take it. "Crazy high" libido is an unrealistic goal and having some libido, which fluctuates, is still better then ZERO.

My goal isn’t “crazy high libido”. My goal is to have at least 70% of the libido and the erections I had before PSSD.

I’d like to ask you some questions about Buspirone, if it doesn’t bother you. Can I message you?

cosmo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 2:34 pm

arahant wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 11:29 am

cosmo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 6:31 am The libido is still higher than baseline but nothing crazy.
I’ve been taking it since 10 days in total now and I don’t know if I should continue taking it.

That's exactly a reason I still take it. "Crazy high" libido is an unrealistic goal and having some libido, which fluctuates, is still better then ZERO.

My goal isn’t “crazy high libido”. My goal is to have at least 70% of the libido and the erections I had before PSSD.

I’d like to ask you some questions about Buspirone, if it doesn’t bother you. Can I message you?

Ask away. Buspirone is the first thing my doctor has tried after I explained to him what happened. I found this forum and I see a lot of people say it helps. It helped for a few days but then I went right back to the pssd symptoms. We upped the dose after two weeks to 10mg in the mornimg and 10mg at night. Still nothing and it makes me feel more tired than usual. Other than that I havent noticed any other side effects.

Manicmedic wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 9:01 pm

cosmo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 2:34 pm

arahant wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 11:29 am

That's exactly a reason I still take it. "Crazy high" libido is an unrealistic goal and having some libido, which fluctuates, is still better then ZERO.

My goal isn’t “crazy high libido”. My goal is to have at least 70% of the libido and the erections I had before PSSD.

I’d like to ask you some questions about Buspirone, if it doesn’t bother you. Can I message you?

Ask away. Buspirone is the first thing my doctor has tried after I explained to him what happened. I found this forum and I see a lot of people say it helps. It helped for a few days but then I went right back to the pssd symptoms. We upped the dose after two weeks to 10mg in the mornimg and 10mg at night. Still nothing and it makes me feel more tired than usual. Other than that I havent noticed any other side effects.

I divide it 3x a day.
Smaller doses are better, 10 - 15 mg at a time alone is kinda rough in my experience.
Taking it with food kinda helped offset some sides.

Hi, So terrible what happened to you.

I am glad you posted here as I am sure I am the other only user on here that got numbness from an antiphychotic, I did not take any SSRIs. My symptoms go well beyond just the pssd symptoms, mostly physical neurological for me rather than mental symptoms. I was taking the sister drug to abilify, Rexulti which caused me the issues.

So odd you got all that after 1 month of use. For me, my issues didn't start until 18 month and I didn't get the physical neuro symptoms and numbness until 15 month after that (stopped at 12 month post side effect onset but took nearly 3 months for the pssd/neurological issues to set in).


I would advise against trying other meds, in my experience everything psychotropic had severe negative effects while I was and still in this state. Saying that, I had to start my taper again in Jan (withdrawal symptoms were so bad I was hospitalized 4 times over 6 weeks around xmas) but from a micro dose and very slowly decreasing currently and everything is working out great. I am 35 (34 when it happened), so that's a bit of a coincidence.


The good news is, time should help. I am 7 months in and have made massive progress. I have nearly complete sensation recovery in my genitals, but it does vary from 70-95%. Currently sitting at 90+ % all this week.

My most persistent symptoms is the tinnitus and the hands and face paresthesia. I had total loss of sensation in my penis and saddle area for 3 months and 70% of my body was numb and in nerve pain. I never had libido or desire issues post withdrawal, only when I was on the drug after that 18 month mark. As soon as I stopped, my sex drive went through the roof, my pssd symptoms were (sometimes still are) glans and some penis numbness and soft glans syndrome despite having a painfully hard shaft erection just like I did pre depression in my teens and early 20s. My libido and arousal did suffer once I restarted the drug to taper again, even at 1/8th of the original dose. Once I dropped it down to 1/16th, 4-6 weeks later my symptoms improved again and libido skyrocketed again.

I have been documenting my progress on this thread.

Interestingly, on wiki it does state numbness as one of the withdrawal symptoms for abilify but says they are short lived. I guess for some it can persist. Rexulti there is no mention of anything that I experienced on it or the horrific withdrawals.

https://www.pssdforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=4952

I took 8g of inositol yesterday spread out over morning and lunch and I noticed about a 10 percent increase in libido, sensation and orgasm so that's freaking awesome!
Another thing that I do is I pray because there is power in prayer. Some folks hit a rough patch and ask God why would you do this and others turn to him and pray for healing. I am of the second type. Life can be rough but we got this!

Edit: my mood is much better today as well. Actually wanted to go to the gym came home then wanted to go to the pool. It is great to want to do something when Ive had no drive to do anything at all for so long.