Posted by Pfinstegg on November 1, 2002, at 22:01:02
In reply to Re: love, validation, etc » Eddie Sylvano, posted by Ç®ëëþý Tabitha on November 1, 2002, at 13:39:33
This is such an honest discussion- it's hard to find one like this, and I think everyone can relate to it. Depressed or not, I think it is very difficult to find a relationship which feels really right, in terms of having the sexual and the interpersonal aspects united and satisfying- to have it feel really loving AND sexy. Maybe it just doesn't happen very often for many people. Then, if you are depressed and fearful, AND have to take medications which make it much more difficult to feel as sexy as you used to, it gets so difficult and starts to bring out all the most intense feelings of inadequacy, loneliness and separateness. I'm speaking as a woman, but from what I know and have read here, I think men struggle with exactly the same things.
I am looking forward to the time when we will have ADs which really correct the anxiety, depression and social phobia, but will not give us anhedonia or loss of desire- sometimes it seems like the depression plus the ADs result not just in loss of sexual desire, but also in a loss of strong desire for, or interest in ANYTHING.
Having taken every known SSRI, plus Zyprexa and Wellbutrin, in various combinations over the past eight years, I've experienced all these things to an extreme degree. But after four years of psychotherapy,which seems to have really been the right kind, I have gotten better enough to go off all of those, and am taking just tianeptine, SAM-e, Cytomel and Omega-3's; the wonderful thing about these medications is that there aren't any side-effects, sexual or otherwise. However, a few years ago, they probably would not have been effective against the amount of depression I had then.
Where else could we speak this honestly, and know we will have understanding listeners - it really means a lot.
Pfinstegg
poster:Pfinstegg
thread:31790
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20021022/msgs/31920.html