pssd, im in hell!

Hi! I'm a third-year pharmacy student (not licensed yet!!! this is just for informational purposes!). How long have you been taking these medications, and what are the doses? What dose of Trazodone are you taking, and what is it prescribed for? When starting these meds it does sadly get worse before it gets better, so it could possibly be your body just trying to adjust. So take your meds everyday!! therapeutic benefit will not be seen until around 6-8 weeks! While Sertraline and Trazodone both affect serotonin, low-dose Trazodone mainly targets histamine and alpha-1 receptors, making it act primarily as a sleep aid rather than an antidepressant. Because of this, pairing low-dose Trazodone for insomnia with an SSRI like Zoloft is very common.Additionally, Trazodone generally carries a significantly lower risk of sexual side effects compared to standard SSRIs because it blocks specific serotonin (5-HT2a) receptors, which helps alleviate some of the typical serotonergic sexual dysfunction. I also did some research myself, as I did not go over this in class, as I will tell you what I know so far. PSSD is a disorder that occurs LONG AFTER discontinuation of ALL drugs that are involved with the serotonin in the brain, typicially for at least 3 OR MORE MONTHS. to get this diagnosis, the doctor would have to rule out current medication use! Meaning, PSSD cannot be diagnosed while you are still actively taking your medications. What you might be experiencing are the side effects of the antidepressants, which do overlap a little, but the overall criteria is very distinct! if you are genuinely concerned, i would consult your psychiatrist/doctor to see about maybe taking wellbutrin (but will possibly cause seizures,especially at high doses, so if you have epilepsy, a seizure disorder, head traumas, any CNS lesions, or eating disorders, DO NOT TAKE!!!)/viagra/mirtazepine (but I dont you specifically as I am a stranger so I dont know the specific medication you should take— PLEASE TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR/PSYCHIATRIST!), adjust the timing you take the medications, possibly reducing the dose, or switching the antidepressant(s)! I am reiterating!! I am an UNLICENSED PHARMACY STUDENT, and a COMPLETE AND TOTAL STRANGER, so I am just giving you general information from classes and the DSM-5. SO I BEG PLEASE TALK TO A LICENSED HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL!! I hope this somewhat helps!!

so i am going to make an effort to try and lay things out the way i do for my anhedonia, i developed anhedonia from chronic stress + trauma and i am very familiar with different reddit subs having to do with people who have what i have. i also see a lot of people experience what you are experiencing. its very similar except mines not medication induced, but i see a lot of individuals who say theirs is. i wouldn't be surprised if you've stumbled upon the same resources or posts that i have. lots of people recover in different amounts of time for different reasons, whether it be from time itself or different medication; a hopeful thing i always think about is the concept of "neuroplasticity" and the idea that our brains can recover and reshape itself from damage it's received. some people end up recovering in 2 months. sometimes six months. sometimes 2 years. sometimes 10 years. it's a really harrowing and difficult experience when it feels like your life is taken from you. and its especially hard not to have answers or control on getting it back, or not knowing how to. i'm not sure how to comfort you through not having answers other than i kind of see it as a saving grace that there is so little research on things like anhedonia, PSSD, and emotional blunting because it leaves us being able to imagine and hope that it could get better eventually instead of having concrete data that there's only a 10% remission rate or something. i don't know what to say after this but just wanted to throw my 2¢ in. i don't know all of your EXACT symptoms from the paxil pills but just from what i read from your other comment i can kind of relate... i smile but i fake it, and very RARELY ever truly find anything funny and laugh, and yeah its just... it sucks. what im saying is "i'm there with you", and i know that doesn't do anything but i really resonate with your feelings of confusion and fear

by the way i know it's hard but tbh looking at others posts about dealing with anhedonia/emotional blunting, especially on reddit, is something i would not recommend, at least frequently... i know the feeling of being so isolated because no one else understands what it's like not to have joy or emotions anymore and that it can be helpful to read posts where people can actually relate to you, but tbh it made my hopelessness worse and just made me obsess and worry more and i would go on really long rabbit holes seeing how long people were dealing with what i was to see how long i might have it and in the end it didnt lead me to anymore certainty about my own timeline, just made me more scared :( of course that's just me but if it helps you then im really glad (well not actually, but if i could be, i would XD). it can be draining though. i'm not faulting anyone for posting about the struggles because anhedonia is LITERALLY the worst thing to ever happen to me in my entire life, it took my life away from me, so i get that it's of course painful to deal with, but it can kind of turn into an echo chamber of reading peoples painful experiences over and over again