Sexual dysfunction from benzos.

32, male. I am off benzos since a year. No libido at all since a year. No sexual thought stays in mind. No morning or nocturnal erections. Altered/less sensation in private parts. Weak/No erections. Low ejaculatory volume. Pleasure-less orgasms.

 

I was normal before these pills.

Hormones results are normal.

 

Has anyone had the same symptoms and have recovered from this?

 

Do I have any hope? Do you know any doctor who can help me?

 

PLEASE HELP ME. HELP ME.

Hi Maytas

 

Please don’t panic!

 

What you are experiencing is not unusual. You are still within the recovery phase/phases and your libido will absolutely return.

 

You basically c/t’d from a high dose and full recovery can take some time. Please be patient. You will rise again…!

Hi Maytas, I'm sorry this has happened to you. I am not feeling very sexual either. My guess is that our body is more in "fight or flight" mode then in "rest and digest" mode, which is necessary for sexual activities.

 

That being said, Dr. Joseph Witt-Doering has a lot of videos about Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD).

But many psychiatric drugs have this side effect, not only SSRI's so you might find something useful in his content.

 

https://www.youtube.com/@witt-doerringpsychiatry/videos

 

Wish you all the best, and try not to beat yourself down for it. 

Thank you Winters sun and new0girl for your replies. Yes I will watch the videos, new0girl.

 

Winters sun, have you experienced this or do you know anyone who has experienced this and have recovered?

Maytas -

I experienced everything you mentioned for the first two years post.  These experiences will get back to normal.  I can attest to it.

 

Hingie

Thank you very much Hingie, for your reply. It is giving me hope.

 

Can you explain your symptoms in detail if its comfortable to you? Did you took any medicine to treat it? I feel so dead/numb/switched off in my private parts, that it makes me feel that it might be permanent. Which scares me. Did you have such a feeling during that time?

 

(you have mentioned effexor (venalafaxine) in your singnature. Are you sure that your symptoms were related to benzos and not to effexor, as it can bring exactly same symptoms. Are you still taking effexor? )

Thank you Winters sun and new0girl for your replies. Yes I will watch the videos, new0girl.

 

Winters sun, have you experienced this or do you know anyone who has experienced this and have recovered?

 

Hi Maytas

 

It’s very difficult to know whether to attribute my decline in libido to SSRI or benzodiazepine withdrawal, but I can tell you that I’ve never heard of anyone with these symptoms that hasn’t eventually regained their libido.

 

Just keep in mind that your inability to visualise and hold those visualisations is actually across the board…  not just confined to sexual type visualisation.

 

You will recover!

 

 

I see this come up on Twitter within the #prescribedharm community. I hear it mostly with SSRI's causing PSSD, but it definitely happens with benzos. My observation is that most do recover normal function. Remember, benzo w/d messes up nerve signaling, our symptoms are a result of this as ab effect of that lovely glutamate toxicity. When you consider how many nerves you have down there, it all makes sense. Some people tapering actually have the opposite problem, they are easily stimulated. So, it can go either way. It may come and go, literally, as your brain recovers. Eventually, it'll stay.

I know that people recover from this. I just read another member's story about this. It just took some time for him to recover but he did. I am so sorry you are going through this.

Thank you friends for your replies and thanks for giving me hope. Please do msg me if you have recovered from it or if you know anybody who has.

HELP ME PLEASE.

 

32, male. I am off benzos since a year. No libido at all since a year. No sexual thought comes or stays in my mind. No morning or nocturnal erections. Altered/less sensation in private parts, a kind of numbness down there. Weak/No erections, if I try hard. Low ejaculatory volume. Pleasure-less orgasms.

 

I was normal before these pills.

Hormones results are normal. Life has become really difficult.

 

Has anyone had the same symptoms and have recovered from this?

 

Do I have any hope? Do you know any doctor who can help me?

 

PLEASE HELP ME. HELP ME.

Have you tried contacting the PSSD Network via its online forum?  Although its focus is post-SSRI sexual dysfunction, the PSSD community may know physicians who recognize that medication-induced sexual dysfunction is real and whether or not there are treatments for it.  Here’s the link:

 

https://www.pssdnetwork.org/

 

I’ve also included a link to a recent (2021) literature review on the topic of benzodiazepine-related sexual dysfunction.  Although it has not received the same level of attention as PSSD, it is a known phenomenon.

 

Link:

Benzodiazepines related sexual dysfunctions: A critical review on pharmacology and mechanism of action

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32063496/

On Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring's YouTube there is a video of a woman named Kelli who found relief from this. You might want to reach out to her. In the recent video on Angela Peacock's channel with Dr. Doerring they also discuss the success of her treatments. I have faith for you.

Thank you so much Libertas.

You are most welcome, Maytas.  I hope you are able to find help.

friends.. Honestly.. I feel its not just libido loss/ erectile dysfunction. Frankly speaking, I have become completely asexual. Like there is no more a sexual system in me. I feel numb down there.

 

I feel lost and hopeless. What kind of life is this at the age of 32??

Thank you Rebecca29. I shall watch the videos.

friends.. Honestly.. I feel its not just libido loss/ erectile dysfunction. Frankly speaking, I have become completely asexual. Like there is no more a sexual system in me. I feel numb down there.

 

I feel lost and hopeless. What kind of life is this at the age of 32??

Hi Maytas

 

I realise this experience/symptom must be very distressing for you, however, it seems that the distress you are experiencing is based on your fear of never recovering from this… never regaining your sexual drive/desires… but, it really is just another example of the many benzo lies we often tell ourselves.

 

Benzo lies that have been busted

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=87594.msg1132880#msg1132880

 

If someone could actually convince you that in six months time you will have completely recovered from this symptom, you would no longer experience panic over this symptom, you would simply allow the healing process to take its course. Obviously we can’t give you that exact timeline…, but, we can tell you that this symptom will resolve in time.

 

Just do your best to trust in the healing process.

Hey.. thank you so much Winters Sun. I really appreciate your words of support. I really hope it recovers. But sometimes the physical feeling of it being permanent is so convincing, real and overwhelming, that it becomes hard to keep any hope.

I hope you understand.

BTW the link you have given is not opening.

Anyway. Thank you so much for supporting. If you know anyone who has gone through this specific symptom and have recovered, please ask him to contact me. It will be a great help.

 

Thanks again.

If anybody has gone through this and have recovered, please contact me.

Hi Maytas

 

You’re welcome… and I understand…

 

The link should open… I just clicked on it myself and it opened.

Here you go, Maytas.

 

 

 

Benzo Lies That Have Been Busted

« on: August 08, 2013, 07:32:17 am »

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Benzo Lies

 

I was talking with a friend about the lies that benzos tell us and thought it would be a good idea to start a thread on the topic.

 

Here are some benzo lies that I previously posted on my blog and thought it would be good to start this thread off with.

 

Please add some of the lies that you used to believe and now know to be untrue.

 

This will be very valuable for those who are still under the spell of the lies that benzos tell us. My experience is that our thinking is fundamentally altered by benzo action during tolerance withdrawal and during tapering, and that we are not actually thinking – we are at the effect of chemical storms in our brains. And we think that these are our thoughts. And worse yet, we BELIEVE these thoughts. But what we are experiencing is chemical and electrical processes that occur during the body’s attempt to adjust these chemicals and processes on the fly.

 

 

Now that I am feeling better, it’s easy to see some of the lies the benzos tell us. They are plain to see in hindsight. But for those of you who are having troubles with taper symptoms, or pre or post-taper symptoms, I wanted to help you to see  some of the lies that the benzos have told me, and may be telling you too.  Hopefully, you will be able to use this to understand more about your experience and maybe you could use this post as a template for reality.

 

Benzo Lie # 1. There is no hope.  This one is nasty. Do not believe this lie. It can take you down fast. It is not true, even though it feels very true. For me, this hopelessness was a result of benzo created chemical imbalances coloring my thinking into a perceived end of time. I could not imagine time extending for more than 3 months into the future. There was no way I could think of any possible outcome at all – not even a negative one, and all of my imagined outcomes of less than 3 months were negative. If you cannot imagine a positive future for yourself, know you are under the trance of lie # 1.

 

Benzo Lie # 2. My Life is ruined.  Do not believe this lie. You are in a temporary state of withdrawal. It is an awful state, but it is temporary and you will move out of it and have a life that you can mold into what you had before or one that is better than before. When you can think clearly, you are able to fashion a life that is better than what happened to you when you were tranquilized and your life fell apart as a result of being drugged. When you are out of withdrawals and free from the effects of their symptoms, you will be in a better position to solve problems instead of having them take you down.

 

Benzo Lie # 3. These benzo effects will last forever.  I see this lie as being conditional.  The lie part is that if you are making decisions that will move yourself toward health and away from benzos, it will not last forever. There WILL be an end to the benzo-related troubles. As you get further away from benzos and their effects, the less the benzos will act on you.  If you make benzo related decisions that move yourself away from natural health and into benzo use, you may end up in a never ending loop of having side effects being confused as diseases, and having benzo symptoms being medicated with more benzos, and in turn, more and more drug and symptom interactions and more and more suffering.

 

Benzo Lie # 4. I will never be happy again  This lie broke my heart. I let this lie rob me of my dreams. I am living proof that you can totally believe this lie and live to prove it wrong. I never thought I could ever be happy ever again. I’m not only happy now, but happier than I was before I started on benzos. I feel like I have just vanquished a dragon, and there is a great deal of satisfaction in that. Now, I am happy. I am happy just because I exist and because life is available to me. There is such joy in coming back from the edge and being able to function again.

 

I felt like there was no way happiness could ever be attained by someone who is going through all of this suffering and torture and ineptitude, and now I’m happy.  I am the guy that was scared to death of my cat for 2 years. I was freaked out because the gardener was going to come on Wednesday and scare me with the noise of his equipment and today it’s Monday and I’m worried about it already. I couldn't drive for over a year. . . and on and on.

 

If you are feeling that your happiness is behind you, do not despair. You cannot absolutely know that your best days are behind you. The effects of benzo action will make you believe you cannot be happy. It is not true. After your body begins making the feel good chemicals and you are out of wd, your life can get wonderful again.

 

 

These are just a few of the benzo lies that have I have busted for myself. And there are many, many more.

 

Try this on - If it makes you sad, it's probably a benzo lie.

 

You CAN be happy again. It will feel great, and you’ll love it more than ever. 

 

 

Please post the benzo lies that you have busted so others can learn from your experience.

 

 

 

River 

Thank you friend, Winters sun.

The genital numbness is especially discouraging.