What is the best medication for depression that has little or no sexual side effects from personal experience?

Question

About 5 years ago I was taking prozac because of my depression and it really helped me to feel good. I was only on it for about 6 months and even on a low dose. I was engaged to be married at the time and after being on this medication for two months I suddenly lost my sex drive. I mean (((0))) interest. I had to basically force myself to have sex with my fiance and it hurt me bad because I wanted to want to have sex but my body wouldn't feel that way. I ended up stopping the medication because no sex drive became more of a problem for me. It took almost four months to get it back again. Does anyone have personal expierence with anti-depressents that didn't effect their libido or sex drive? Please let me know your expierences. Thanks,

I wouldn't take this drug for the intention of it solving my problems it would just be a tool for me along with other things like therapy, meditation and working it out myself to get me though this hard time. Just as diet pills are not effective without diet and exersize.

Answer 1

I think that you have the right attitude, where the drugs alone won't solve your issues and to supliment your treatment with talk therapy. Great job!

I've taken a plethora of psychotropic drugs and the only drug I've had sexual side effects with was Straterra.

Prozac falls into the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) category, where there are many others available. Lexapro is the most selective antidepressant amongst the SSRI's because it works relatively quickly and has minimal side effects with simple titration.

I've taken it for a while last year and it had absolutely no effect on my sex drive. However, it's understood that people react differently to medications, where what may work for me, may not necesarrily work for you. Lexapro is FDA approved for major depressive disorder.

In another experience; I was dating a girl who was experiencing decreased sex drive while taking Cymbalta. Her Dr. prescribed her Wellbutrin to offset the sexual side effects. Needless to say, it worked, as Wellbutrin is often prescribed to counter side effects of other drugs and has a side effect of, well, making you very horney.

I hope this helps and good luck with your marriage and managing your depression.

Answer 2

Wellbutrin has a very low risk of sexual side effects. I have had no problem with it. I did, however, have problems on all the other antidepressants I've tried (Zoloft, Effexor, Celexa, Lexapro), which was eventually why I went off of each one, despite the fact that they helped ease the depression.
Wellbutrin is sometimes used to counteract that side effect of other meds...although for me it didn't work like that. And for most people, it doesn't actually increase the sex drive, I'm not sure where that rumor got started but I've read it in a few places on here. Maybe it's because it can greatly help with depression, one of the symptoms of which can be loss of interest in sex (and other once pleasurable activities.) In that situation, relieving the depression can make the sex drive return to normal.

Answer 3

Unfortunately, this is a 'trial and error' situation with antidepressants as each one has different effects with different people. From personal experience taking antidepressants as well as observing many others, I'd have to say that wellbutrin does seem to be one of the better ones re: weight and sexual deficiency, but I found its' effects on depression to be unpredictable. Effexor has also been regarded, by people I know who take it, to have less side effect that others. Paxil isn't an antidepressant so much as it is a benzodiazepine and all the benzos I ever took barely affected my sex drive, and I ate the stuff until I had to go into rehab to deal with benzo addiction. So be careful with that line of medication. I'm not sure what your diagnosis is so I can't tell you much more. There's a drug out there called olanzepine(benzo) and another called topomax of which I've heard a lot of good things about regarding side effects, but I was on topomax for a month and I remember very little about it except that had it not been for my girlfriend stopping me, I was going to kill my neighbour because I thought he was planting land mines in my neighbourhood.(The 'mines' turned out to be a bunch of brown plastic coffee cup lids that the local kids had been tossing around.) I also remember vaguely that it seemed as if I had severe cerebral palsy and I also turned in 15 mirrors to the cops that I had ripped off the sides of cars because I thought there were 'hidden cameras' in them with leprechauns who worked for the secret service watching me through them. I spent 8 weeks in a psychiatric hospital 'coming down' off that crap. So be careful with topomax....ok?

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Answer 4

Over the last five years I had begun to have increasingly withdraw into a downward spiral of depression..

But now with the method I can fully focus my energy and thoughts into a decisive line on how to make my life better constantly. And it works like magic! I'm beginning to attract people to me once again and things have just been looking up since then.

Helping you eliminate depression?

Answer 5

If you are experiencing sexual dysfunction and are taking an antidepressant, talk with your doctor. Be sure to have a physical in order to rule out other causes. If it is your antidepressant, discuss options with your doctor. If your doctor is not receptive to such discussion, consider seeking another opinion. As seen from this study, Wellbutrin and Serzone cause far fewer side effects than the other antidepressants. These and other antidepressants, as well as various combinations, offer numerous options for people experiencing sexual dysfunction. Also, Viagra currently is being used to treat this side effect. For more on this topic, please see Medication and Sexual Dysfunction.

Answer 6

Serzone

Answer 7

Learn to enjoy being depressed.

Its better than being bored... or as completely ambivalent as I am sometimes. I appreciate the times when I can feel sad about the world as it lets me know I'm still seeing things clearly. I know that happiness is just delusion... escape from reality... but I can be sure that when I feel at my supposed lowest that I am seeing the world for the way it really is... I can appreciate its bitter beauty so much more, and that tends to content me somewhat.

Depression is a beautiful thing... It has a deliciously sour taste to it... far superior to the sickly sweetness of deluded joy.

Answer 8

You think depression is affecting your libido.
I bet there is no such antidepressant out there which doesnt has any sexual side effects.....dream on

Answer 9

Depression? Depressed about what? Depression is only a mental state of mind. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get on with living your life. You have to make a decision: Are you going to sit around and feel sorry for yourself and let life pass you by or are you going to make the most out of what you have to work with and enjoy life to its fullest ?
Time pass's fast, you better decide quick cause after the time is gone you can never get it back................................... Tim Robbins said it best during his role as Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption.................... There comes a time in every mans life when he has to make a decision and that decision is to get busy living or get busy dying...............
Dont waste your time trying to decide which kind of drug you should take to make you feel better, Spend your time getting your mental state of mind in order and living your life to its fullest

Answer 10

Marijuana