SRI induced emotional blunting & broken reward system

Hello,

I'm suffering from depressions and social anxiety. Unfortunately it looks like I have very unpleasant side effects from SRIs: I can't feel anymore, my emotions are numbed. My motivation is non-existent and I am indifferent to everything. When I watch some emotional video I used to cry before, now I can't feel that emotion any more. I'm also not sure if I can fall in love any more. I had 1.5 year "sort of a relationship" and I really liked that girl, now I feel nothing for her. I also have that feeling like I can't really enjoy good moments anymore. I just never feel truly happy or sad. I can't laugh, I can't cry, it looks like I can't experience intense feelings. I also have problems to reach orgasm and I don't enjoy sex, masturbation and erotic sensations like I used to.

And they have all caused me to lose my appetite almost completely + weight loss. My doctor said it's unlikely the SSRIs causing my weight & appetite loss. I am currently considered "underweight", I was a "healthy normal weight". I can go 24 hours without food and still won’t be hungry or have appetite…

Now I don't know what to do. I need some meds cause it seems like I'm not able to live without it but I also don't want to go back to emotional emptiness & Zombieland. I haven't tried any combination of medications yet. All of them separately.

I tried:
Venlafaxine - emotional blunting + severe weight loss.
Fluoxetine - this was actually quite good. Gave me some emotional blunting, but only modest. I had to discontinue it due to suicidal ideation.
Paroxetine - emotional blunting + horrible physical side effects.
Citalopram - emotional blunting + absence of motivation.
Sertraline - emotional blunting + absence of motivation.

I'm starting to be really desperate and my doctor told me she don't want to treat me any more due to I'm not good patient and I'm not trying. I found a new psychiatrist and I will have a first appointment in 2 weeks but I don't know what to suggest to her. I was thinking about Wellbutrin but what I read it doesn't help with anxiety and weight gain. Has anybody some experience with a similar situation? Which antidepressant would be suitable for me? I don't know which one and I have the feeling that I'm starting to go out of options.

If there is someone who had the same problem and found some solution: please write me

Wellbutrin is not a good drug to take if you need to gain weight. It is an upper and the drug companies are even trying to get it approved as a weight loss drug (to improve profits). Have you thought about therapy rather than drugs? There is no magic pill out there. Some of the pysch drugs make us "feel good" for a while but at what cost? I am glad you are asking questions. Never take a drug blindly. Some of them are hard to come off once you start (withdrawal).

I've taken all those and know what you mean. I'm looking for alternatives to ssris but until I find something I will continue.

So I am not alone with this problem. I've been doing some reading & research and there is the hypothesis that SSRI-induced-agonism of 5HT2C & 5HT2A receptors dampens the dopaminergic transmission in the prefrontal cortex thus causing the specific SSRI side effects. Antagonism / Inverse Agonism of these receptors should theoretically resolve the problem. What medications do antagonize / inverse agonize these receptors? Well, according to my sources: Nortriptyline, Mirtazapine, Agomelatine, Trazodone, Nefazodone... so far.

Buspirone might be worth a try: I have it on my to-do-list. I definitely want to try Mirtazapine, but first have to find a doctor who will prescribe it to me.

Are there any other reliable theories on what is causing this? And what could help?

i dont understand the brain systems involved, but ssri drugs, in particular, are basically emotional novocaine. Some of them...I want to say zoloft...have a particularly profound impact on the frontal lobes. Read: sufficient doses of many SSRI drugs can induce "hypofrontality," which is apparently the new term for a chemical lobotomy. Not surprisingly, these drugs are used at high doses in OCD (lobotomies were once regarded as very effective for OCD).

Mirtazapine helps some people. I think the available data shows it being about as effective as anything else, with a different adverse effect profile. Some people complain about mirtazapine helping and then suddenly doing absolutely nothing. This happens with many psych drugs, of course.

now and then some doctors use stimulants with ssri drugs, to help with the anhedonia and lethargy, and also to improve overall response. modafanil, nuvigil, ritalin, focalin, some sort of amphetamine....there are several options.

wellbutrin is more closely related to stimulants than many other options. i took a high dose for a while, then dropped it once my mood picked up because of psychosocial factors. in my experience, it can cause numbing and such, but its not nearly as pronounced as what one gets from the ssri drugs.

there's now contrave...its a mix of naltrexone and wellbutrin, for long term drug treatment of obesity. its new, so the available data is of course heavily influenced by Big Pharma.

when my own mood got very, very bad, i found that a tricyclic--in my case, Tofranil--did what I needed with far less apathy than an ssri or ssnri. unfortunately...tricyclics are not the most pleasant drugs for most people, so I dropped it. Some people swear by tricyclics for more severe depressions, though.

I have it too. It's called ssri induced ANEHDONIA.. I'm so sorry for us all.
maydaymayday