90% improvement with lithium carbonate 450 mg

[rengfreitas]

Hey guys.

I came to report on my significant improvement.
I stopped Lithium and the improvement remained, I haven't had sexual problems again and that's been 2 weeks.

Details of my problem:

3 years with PSSD after stopping Fluvoxamine. Fluvoxamine doses ranged from 100mg to 200mg. I took Fluvoxamine for 7 years.

Main symptoms:
- Penile shrinkage, severe erectile dysfunction. Normal libido and orgasm, but he did not have an erection to the point of being able to have sex.

What did I do during this time to not suffer so much? I started taking Fluvoxamine again and the erection returned after the first pill. I've never seen anyone explore in depth why reintegration improves so many of us, perhaps this is the path to healing.

Successful attempt with lithium carbonate:

A few months ago I researched a lot about lithium and decided to give it a try:
Note: I stopped fluvoxamine a long time ago.

- I started for a few months with a dose of 450mg once a day. Immediately my erection started working again and I remained on lithium for about 2 months. In the meantime I was taking turmeric and I even thought it was her but it wasn't. I was having a lot of burning sensation due to the lithium and decided to do a gradual reduction and stayed on 75mg for a while longer. Today I haven't taken it for 2 weeks, my sexual functions remain unchanged, with morning erections, libido ok, orgasm ok. It honestly seems that lithium contributes to the rebalancing of neurotransmitters. I'm not saying I'm 100% out of caution and excitement, but I've NEVER had such a huge improvement with any treatment other than lithium. In my opinion, forget about lithium orotate, go straight to lithium carbonate, test it and come back here to report the results.

Note:

When I went back on fluvoxamine it was more because the reintegration and I solved the problem but then I would have to take an expensive medicine for the rest of my life and that I was only taking because of the PSSD issue.
Whenever it stopped, 2 to 3 days later I could no longer have an erection and I already did tests after 2 months, 3 months, 4 months to see if it came back naturally but nothing. With lithium, I was finally able to wean off fluvoxamine and lithium itself without compromising my sexual function and this has continued to date (2 weeks). This never happened.

[Joao Paulo Brasil]

It is very rare to see any reports of someone improving with mood stabilizers. With so many stories of improvement with different random medications, sometimes I wonder if this really isn't a problem with depression that we worsened by using the wrong drug.

[rengfreitas]

I don't have depression, I have zero psychological problems. Lithium is a natural element, which is why I was already interested in studying it. The term mood stabilizer is just one of the indications for using this element. He is much more than that in my opinion. The studies I read indicate that little is known about how it actually acts in the body. It is also not uncommon for someone to improve with low dose lithium. It was precisely after reading the improvement of someone here on the forum that I decided to try. There are some very positive reports on the forum using off-label lithium.

[Determined-Mind]

"Lithium is effective in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Huntington's disease (Senatorov et al., 2004; Raja et al., 2015), Alzheimer's disease (Matsunaga et al., 2015) and Parkinson's disease (Moors et al., 2017), amyotrophic diseases. lateral sclerosis (van Eijk et al., 2017) and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (De Sarno et al., 2008)."

Extract from this very interesting article on lithium: Can lithium enhance the extent of axon regeneration and neurological recovery following peripheral nerve trauma?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34558506/

An other extract:

A good candidate for increasing the extent of functional neurological recovery must: (a) activate a complex cascade of coordinated neuronal gene expression, (b) promote translation of local proteins into axons and their anterograde transport along the axon, (c) trigger assembly of the cytoskeleton and membranes within the nerve growth cone, and (d) activate a cascade of Schwann cell events. One compound that meets these criteria is lithium.

I've also decided to try lithium orodate in a few months, after a cure of magnesium threonate.

[6-Eggs!]

It is very rare to see any reports of someone improving with mood stabilizers. With so many stories of improvement with different random medications, sometimes I wonder if this really isn't a problem with depression that we worsened by using the wrong drug.

That is what a lot of counselors and doctors think too, but I don't think it's entirely the case but more like a contributing factor.

I have been clean of meds for bit over 3 months after a 20 month taper of the AD and re-statment and taper of an AP which triggered all of this, that was 2.5 years ago and the retaper completed nearly 8 months ago.

I can tell you that the drugs made my mental health much worse and until I finally getting off them. My sexual function was ok at the start but got really bad way down the line during treatment, like years after starting.

My mood was all over the shop especially with the AD Moclobemide. When I finally got off 3ish months ago, my mood and happiness and anxiety have never been better! I stopped having the cyclic 4-6 week mood and symptom crashes that left me bed ridden for days to a week each time.

My partner was always questioning if I had a mood disorder or bipolar. I assured her not, never had this prior to drugs, even though I was in a bad place prior from severe work related burnout and breakdown and just the typical ASD type difficulties.

My point I was getting to is, that my moon and sexual desire are great and I have heaps of motivation and every compared to before I got unwell some 10 years ago. But I still suffer odd sexual symptoms, paresthesia (burning, odd phantom sensations and general nerve like pain) autonomic disturbances, visual noise and perception artifacts, ever changing tinnitus and whacky sleep issues such as central sleep apnea (mild and intermittent) and sleep paralysis/weird dreams. All this despite having normal psychological state.

My moods do still have a cyclic nature but the ups and down are very mild and not noticeable and this cycle is short now, like a 5-8 days. But that said, my moods in terms of ups and downs is only like 10% of my overall symptoms, the other 90% are physical symptoms and their ups and downs are far more extreme. Not to the point I can't do anything but still debilitating on the bad days.

As a side note just FYI, I was tried on at least 2-3 mood stabilizers during treatment (for what for, I don't know. My mood was a constant flat and didn't need stabilizing at all) and out of all these mood stabilizers, they did absolutely nothing other than make my hair fall out. No improvement and no side effects other than the hair thing. I quit them all CT each time with no ill effect.

But that said, when people are in a withdrawal syndrome which is what PSSD is part of, these drugs can indeed help and sometimes leave permanent positive results, even with those left with HPPD like myself. But since I am so hyper sensitive to drugs, including panadol now, I am not game to try. I just leave things as they are and left time and mind do it's thing. It's still early for me. I found much recovery from my start point to the end of the AP taper and final withdrawal, but symptoms rebound again when I got off the the moclobemide, which was wayyyyy harder to taper off than the well know to be addictive Rexulti, but I was on the Moclobemide for some 7-8 years, so makes sense the WD would be more acute during taper.

[Impermanence]

In my opinion, Lithium carbonate could be a cure, I will explain you why. We are about 10-15k PSSD suffers here and on Reddit. Among 10-15k PSSD suffers probably at least 500 or 1000 are suffering of bipolar disorder. Lithium is a very common treatment of Bipolar disorder.
What is so surprising is that among all people here, With consistent number with bipolar disorder I never met a guy here with PSSD and lithium carbonate.
What I mean, (sorry for my English), if no one with PSSD is taking Lithium for bipolar disorder probably it's because Lithium carbonate (high or middle dose) could be a cure.
Lithium is on my list since long time for this reason, and the report here is encouraging me

[fellow1]

Lithium made me permanently worse and I know another guy with same experience.
Plus plenty of reports on reddit lithium causing ED and supressing emotions/creativity.

[rengfreitas]

Lithium made me permanently worse and I know another guy with same experience.
Plus plenty of reports on reddit lithium causing ED and supressing emotions/creativity.

How many days did you use? What type of lithium and dosage?

In this field of experiences and uncertainties we must be more persistent. I felt some things but I kept it at low doses for 2 months and look at my experience. The usual doses for bipolar disorder that are capable of affecting cognition are 900mg to 1600mg. We are talking about low dose. I started with 450mg and stayed for 2 months and reduced. It needs to be tested. Even to base it on an opinion I have to ask if the person really tested it for a long time. 1x or 1 week for me is not a parameter.

[fellow1]

Lithium made me permanently worse and I know another guy with same experience.
Plus plenty of reports on reddit lithium causing ED and supressing emotions/creativity.

How many days did you use? What type of lithium and dosage?

In this field of experiences and uncertainties we must be more persistent. I felt some things but I kept it at low doses for 2 months and look at my experience. The usual doses for bipolar disorder that are capable of affecting cognition are 900mg to 1600mg. We are talking about low dose. I started with 450mg and stayed for 2 months and reduced. It needs to be tested. Even to base it on an opinion I have to ask if the person really tested it for a long time. 1x or 1 week for me is not a parameter.

I used orotate for 2 months, I got worse after 1 week, but I kept taking it and this new WORSE state didn't improve after stopping lithium. When I say worse, I mean ED, libido and anhedonia. Lithium is inhibitory towards dopamine, why do you think it's used for bipolar or hypomania and why do you think there are hundreds reports of people getting sexual dysfunction from lithium. It seems to me you are looking for lab rats on this forum as you are just newly registered here. and you start posts from lithium, probably some another ''guru'' from reddit who ''figured out theory''.

[rengfreitas]

Lithium made me permanently worse and I know another guy with same experience.
Plus plenty of reports on reddit lithium causing ED and supressing emotions/creativity.

How many days did you use? What type of lithium and dosage?

In this field of experiences and uncertainties we must be more persistent. I felt some things but I kept it at low doses for 2 months and look at my experience. The usual doses for bipolar disorder that are capable of affecting cognition are 900mg to 1600mg. We are talking about low dose. I started with 450mg and stayed for 2 months and reduced. It needs to be tested. Even to base it on an opinion I have to ask if the person really tested it for a long time. 1x or 1 week for me is not a parameter.

I used orotate for 2 months, I got worse after 1 week, but I kept taking it and this new WORSE state didn't improve after stopping lithium. When I say worse, I mean ED, libido and anhedonia. Lithium is inhibitory towards dopamine, why do you think it's used for bipolar or hypomania and why do you think there are hundreds reports of people getting sexual dysfunction from lithium. It seems to me you are looking for lab rats on this forum as you are just newly registered here. and you start posts from lithium, probably some another ''guru'' from reddit who ''figured out theory''.

Although I registered a few days ago, I have been following the forum for around 3 years. I didn't come from nowhere, I only registered after having this result and with the sole aim of helping you, or anyone else who might be interested. Do it if you want.

I have suffered from PSSD for 3 years and tried many things until I got the result I did.
You have every right to choose, to judge what is convenient for you.

In the past I took 5mg of lithium orotate and it was the same thing as drinking water. No effect whatsoever.

As I said in my report, from pure practical experience, it is lithium carbonate that brought me all the benefits I mentioned. It's real, there's no middle ground, that was my happy solution.

Classifying lithium definitively only causes harm to yourself, which ends up limiting you to a possible solution.

Anyway, good luck.