my brief story

[Tenaciousdoc]

Background- I'm a medical student who used to be decent in academics. I used to excel in all academic activities. however I had Anxiety and obsessive ruminations. This had happened after recovering from covid . However I did have long covid diarrhea which persisted 4 months after the resolution . However I had not started SSRI for this symptom. I used to feel extremly anxious even before covid. As I had heard alot of good stories about lexapro I started it after consultation.I was prescribed Escitalopram in 2021 started at 5mg and went upto 15mg over a period of 4 months. However soon after going on 10mg I felt extreme lethargy and sleepiness. Initially I was told it would just go away but it did not. I also noticed my ruminations and anxierty had vanished also very surprisingly my long covid diarrhea resolved after the first dose itself. As I was happy with the benifits I persisted. However soon I noticed that my concentration , memory , motivation had turned to shit. I could not even get up from bed for work after 10 hours of sleep. There was a weird sensation/ tightness on my head. My eyes would always feel very tired and dry. I could not even feel much fear or cry.

I was then recommended to add WEllbutrin 150mg . To my utter surprise it worked like magic. All my side effects vanished. I did have some anxiety but the combo worked really well for me for 2-3 weeks. Then accidentaly i took 300mg one day and I got really bad anxiety . I had to stop. However after starting that again I never got the same effects only got the anxiety. I stopped it and the lexapro debilitating sides persisted. I had to let go of all my ambitions and tapered off over 2.5 months. To my utter shock my sides did not go away even after a few months

To correct these symptoms I started taking Methylphenidate or Ritalin 5mg BD after 3 months of stopping Lexapro. To my horror it lead to me developing complete sexual side effects including ED, PE and flaccid penis. After 3 days I stopped but the sexual sides have persisted since then. Its been almost 2 years. After this I came to know about PSSD.
Somehow I managed to get into a Psychiatry residency. it was getting difficult for me to cope. THen I got diarrhea again and took antibiotic ofloxacin and ornidazole 200+500mg combo for it BD. Shockingly my fatigue went away and I felt some emotional range back. It just felt activating but not the same as pre PSSD. Since then I have been cycling it to cope with work. It has worked for fatigue each and every time. Cycled it about 20 times in 1o months.

I have tried to do whatever is in my power to seek a cure. Explore theories on rddit and research articles. Improved a bit , crashed , been suicidal over the past 2 years. I also have been part of the recent activism on pssdnetwork and youtube videos . I can see that there is much more awareness being created since the past 1 year. My heart bleeds for all of us. The only way out according to me is to trial things in order to get atleast symptomatic improvement in terms of anhedonia and cognition. That is the only way we can create awareness and pushfor a cure as soon as possible,
i can see this forum has become very passive now. But we have to keep fighting till our very last breath. it is what being a human means.

[Gabrielcastejon]

I'd like to see how much overlap there is between cases of PSSD. Its eerie how similar our cases are. I've had it for 1 year and 2 months. I was also switched between Wellbutrin and SSRI (Prozac) a couple of time, and took them in conjunction as well and felt the same tightness in the head and discomfort in the eyes. I also accidentally took too much Wellbutrin a couple of times.
Cases of PSSD are varied but if we can find more events shared between cases that led up to the condition, maybe we can pinpoint what triggers it, preventing more cases and maybe getting closer to treating or curing it.

[Opressorzx]

Background- I'm a medical student who used to be decent in academics. I used to excel in all academic activities. however I had Anxiety and obsessive ruminations. This had happened after recovering from covid . However I did have long covid diarrhea which persisted 4 months after the resolution . However I had not started SSRI for this symptom. I used to feel extremly anxious even before covid. As I had heard alot of good stories about lexapro I started it after consultation.I was prescribed Escitalopram in 2021 started at 5mg and went upto 15mg over a period of 4 months. However soon after going on 10mg I felt extreme lethargy and sleepiness. Initially I was told it would just go away but it did not. I also noticed my ruminations and anxierty had vanished also very surprisingly my long covid diarrhea resolved after the first dose itself. As I was happy with the benifits I persisted. However soon I noticed that my concentration , memory , motivation had turned to shit. I could not even get up from bed for work after 10 hours of sleep. There was a weird sensation/ tightness on my head. My eyes would always feel very tired and dry. I could not even feel much fear or cry.

I was then recommended to add WEllbutrin 150mg . To my utter surprise it worked like magic. All my side effects vanished. I did have some anxiety but the combo worked really well for me for 2-3 weeks. Then accidentaly i took 300mg one day and I got really bad anxiety . I had to stop. However after starting that again I never got the same effects only got the anxiety. I stopped it and the lexapro debilitating sides persisted. I had to let go of all my ambitions and tapered off over 2.5 months. To my utter shock my sides did not go away even after a few months

To correct these symptoms I started taking Methylphenidate or Ritalin 5mg BD after 3 months of stopping Lexapro. To my horror it lead to me developing complete sexual side effects including ED, PE and flaccid penis. After 3 days I stopped but the sexual sides have persisted since then. Its been almost 2 years. After this I came to know about PSSD.
Somehow I managed to get into a Psychiatry residency. it was getting difficult for me to cope. THen I got diarrhea again and took antibiotic ofloxacin and ornidazole 200+500mg combo for it BD. Shockingly my fatigue went away and I felt some emotional range back. It just felt activating but not the same as pre PSSD. Since then I have been cycling it to cope with work. It has worked for fatigue each and every time. Cycled it about 20 times in 1o months.

I have tried to do whatever is in my power to seek a cure. Explore theories on rddit and research articles. Improved a bit , crashed , been suicidal over the past 2 years. I also have been part of the recent activism on pssdnetwork and youtube videos . I can see that there is much more awareness being created since the past 1 year. My heart bleeds for all of us. The only way out according to me is to trial things in order to get atleast symptomatic improvement in terms of anhedonia and cognition. That is the only way we can create awareness and pushfor a cure as soon as possible,
i can see this forum has become very passive now. But we have to keep fighting till our very last breath. it is what being a human means.

Hey Tenacious, first of all abusing antibiotics isn't very good for the long term since it will destroy your gut flora and if you're looking for theories there is that "SFN autoimmune" which makes a lot of sense knowing our symptoms, I've been diagnosed myself for it via biopsy, there's people out there receiving treatment already, if you're interested we have a closed discord server that you can join to learn how things works basically, or you can just search for key terms on PSSD reddit like "SFN".
Stay strong man

[heymartinn]

such antibiotic usage will leave you with irreversibly damaged microbiome and more chronic illnesses down the road. And I'm not trying to be condescending. I get the urge to get any relief you can, I felt better after antibiotics myself. You mow the grass of dysbiotic overgrowths that flourished in your gut and that brings relief. But subsequently you leave a vacuum which gets filled with more opportunistic and resistant strains which are close to impossible to clear out with our current methods.

[lookingformeaning]

taking ritalin/methylphenidate do you suppose that this has affected your pssd even more? do you think that if you hadn't taken it the symptoms of the syndrome would have been weaker?

[Tenaciousdoc]

such antibiotic usage will leave you with irreversibly damaged microbiome and more chronic illnesses down the road. And I'm not trying to be condescending. I get the urge to get any relief you can, I felt better after antibiotics myself. You mow the grass of dysbiotic overgrowths that flourished in your gut and that brings relief. But subsequently you leave a vacuum which gets filled with more opportunistic and resistant strains which are close to impossible to clear out with our current methods.

thanks for the advice I know this. I had to do it out of desperation

[Tenaciousdoc]

Hey Tenacious, first of all abusing antibiotics isn't very good for the long term since it will destroy your gut flora and if you're looking for theories there is that "SFN autoimmune" which makes a lot of sense knowing our symptoms, I've been diagnosed myself for it via biopsy, there's people out there receiving treatment already, if you're interested we have a closed discord server that you can join to learn how things works basically, or you can just search for key terms on PSSD reddit like "SFN".
Stay strong man

Hey I have really ran out of options man. I would be grateful if you could send me the link. I really need hope