Depression Affects Sex Life Terribly, i believe depression destroys sex life

just was curious to know if this is the case with me only or with everyone who suffers from severe depression as because my sexual life from last 1 year has been nil due to severe depression.

Hi sincereheart

I too suffer from zero sex drive. It has had its dips during my depression though and I believe the biggest culprit right now is the drugs.

It is so frustrating for me because I feel so guilty. My husband has been sufferingly patient. I am very lucky to have him.

I'm sorry that I can't offer you something postive.

Take care

Hi, Sincereheart (love your name!) Welcome to 'here' and what is, for me, a brave first post - the sex / depression stuff is a big thing for me, you are not alone there. But its still horrible, eh ?

I can remember my dr telling me that lack of interest in sex is one of the first signs of depression and one of the last symptoms to disappear once you get better !

Add to that, the known side effect of anti-depressants such as prozac and the other SSRIs of loss of libido - not good is it ?
Are you on any of these ?

I have been on them for 3 years, before that I was interested in and enjoyed sex but almost as soon as I began them, I lost interest. It has caused a lot of difficult moments and a lot of compromise between me and my wonderful partner. I feel for him so much and on good days try and be creative around what we can do.

I hope you can come to some kind of terms with this issue - its bad enough being depressed without this and then, if you have one, coping with the communication, feelings and stuff that it brings up in your partner !

Wishing you luck and you can always share your feelings here, ppl will understand ..............look after yourself ........ Poppet

Hi Sincere Heart -- Welcome to the forums. I hope you'll decide to visit us often so we can get to know you better.

I noticed with the ssri's im on no effects with regards to sex drive. I admit tho i can be a tad oversexed. I dont know if im just one of the lucky ones whos immune or my over abundance of want cancelled the negative out without much notice. Sometimes ill be so depressed ill want to sleep instead but with a lil encouragement the monster overpowers the sleepyness. I read somewhere online tho that if its possible you should keep having sex as it does help. Ive noticed for me that is true. Even a few hours afterwards im still glowing and much happier. Its like a self esteem bubble for me that eventually pops but i figure even a short reprieve is a very welcome break to the ugly feelings of depression.

I've never been depressed, but my husband has dealt with depression for many years. Face it, when you feel like crap about yourself, why WOULD you feel like having sex? I completely understood why our sex life was almost nonexistent for a while when he was at rock bottom. I was grateful that he would let me hold him. It killed me to see him alienate himself to the extent he did, but I could still understand it and never dreamed of pushing the sex issue. Now that he's better and on SSRIs (Lexapro), his libido is just like it was when I first met him, so I can say that I have noticed NO side effects in that area. He's 30, for some perspective. I started on Lexapro myself and I think my libido has actually improved somewhat, but for different reasons. One, I feel much better about myself in terms of my body image -- I haven't lost any weight, but I don't see myself as being as fat as I had thought I was. Two, I used to not make time for sex because I was always overbooking myself and running around like a maniac trying to cram as much into one day as possible. Having sex felt like it was taking away from my productive time. The Lexapro has slowed me down quite a bit, in a GOOD way, and I'm doing a much better job at prioritizing what's important in my life.

Hi

I had the same thing happen to me - 2 years 5 months - nothing, nada, nil, zilch...

Fortunately for me, meds sorted that out that, but I know lots whose meds have the opposite effect.

P x

Sincereheart,
Welcome to the forums! In my life as well I have noticed that my sex drive is all over the place. Sometimes I have a huge sex drive and then it will just stop for weeks at a time and I do not want to do anything. My boyfriend definately feels screwed up sometimes....like it is his fault.
I wish I had better advice.

Jessica