[winter loneliness]

I am bipolar. Very low drive due to meds. And when i have the drive, can't reach orgasm.

Tonight I had an orgasm! Might be due to hypomania. Does your bipolar cycle effect your ability to orgasm?

[Patagonia]

I hope you find an answer to this. Sorry I don't have one for you; I am not bipolar. But I remember being on meds that made orgasms just impossible & when I finally did reach them....they were small. At the time I didn't put 2&2 together that it was related to meds, but looking back it was a major factor.

I hope you keep trying, even if you don't climax...it's a nice feeling!

[emgreen]

Bipolar orgasms??? I'd like to order three, please. Seriously, though, Patagonia pretty much hit it on the head. Many psych meds affect one's ability to achieve orgasm. That might be the problem. I'm bipolar, so can't be on ADs all the time, but found that when I took them they impeded my ability to achieve orgasm. I'm a guy, so my penis would get hard, but there was no way I could achieve orgasm. I can empathize; I know how frustrating it is. Talk to your pdoc if you haven't already.

Originally Posted by winter loneliness

I am bipolar. Very low drive due to meds. And when i have the drive, can't reach orgasm.

Tonight I had an orgasm! Might be due to hypomania. Does your bipolar cycle effect your ability to orgasm?

Well, yeah, sort of, kind of... See, I went from mid-1999 to mid-2011 without having an orgasm. During these times, save for 2003-2004, I was institutionalized. When I gained my freedom almost 6 years ago, I was equipped to handle orgasms. A dozen a day, almost! But the best orgasms, now, are those with friends. My semen is merely adequate and the trajectory is not as great. We all, all of us between 53 and 59, are slower but never clumsy or apologetic.

There are all manners of ‘cycling’ with bipolar I - you may stay in a dangerous manic mode (such as me) for years or go into a full-blown Bipolar I depressive mode for over a decade (as I did). I don’t believe that there is any circadian rhythm, or clock, if you will, that can adequately predict a ‘cycle’ of Bipolar I manifestations.

Only Isis knows why I stopped speaking, why I stopped caring for myself. I had a plan, though: equipped with the very latest backpacking gear, and food for seven days, I would travel to the nearest National Park and die of starvation, maybe dehydration, in the weeks to come. I got close - registering at a park office for campsites, but I was betrayed by friends (and, annoyingly, my ex-wife) from fulfilling my goal.

And thus began my three years in a large mental hospital, one for really crazy f**kers, and the myriad drugs and the ECT that helped me.

Cycles? Mine are long-lived, usually; but I have experienced rapid cycling in which I’m up and down.

Now you ask if your ability to achieve orgasm might be due to hypomania and I have to say that, unless you’re experiencing very rapid cycling, probably not. We must always remember that sexuality is not a symptom of Bipolar Disorders: hypo/hyper mania incites one to engage in risky behavior and having an orgasm (under your own strength, I assume?) is not risky behavior. So, no, an orgasm is not caused by manic episodes... and damn those who believe that an enhanced libido is sex addiction (or a symptom of the Bipolar Disorders).

My take is that you just got lucky. I can remember the 2nd night in my apartment when I felt brave enough to sleep naked, as I had since I was 10 years-old (removing the institutionalized years). I had one of the most powerful orgasms of my life and I shook and pulsed and quivered and spasmed and cursed every god in the Pantheon and wondered if I should clean myself or the headboard and wall first.

There was no mania, there. It was my feeling of freedom that allowed the release.

Putting mania aside, is there anything in your life that... pushed you... into wanting and achieving an orgasm? Something small, even? A compliment (those always embarrass me but make me horny), maybe. Some feeling of ‘goodness’?

If I were you I would not look to mania as a cause. There was, I think, some stimuli that allowed you to reach orgasm. Can you think of what it might be?

Originally Posted by Patagonia

I hope you find an answer to this. Sorry I don't have one for you; I am not bipolar. But I remember being on meds that made orgasms just impossible & when I finally did reach them....they were small. At the time I didn't put 2&2 together that it was related to meds, but looking back it was a major factor.

I hope you keep trying, even if you don't climax...it's a nice feeling!

You know, at my age, most of my orgasms are ‘small’... and it takes me far longer to become excited again.

I’m off all AD’s, now, just on the antipsychotics. But I take so many heart meds and some help with/some hurt my chances of having an erection.

I say ‘hurrah’ for small orgasms! Even the small ones make me shudder.

[Patagonia]

Originally Posted by ciderguy

You know, at my age, most of my orgasms are ‘small’... and it takes me far longer to become excited again.


I’m off all AD’s, now, just on the antipsychotics. But I take so many heart meds and some help with/some hurt my chances of having an erection.


I say ‘hurrah’ for small orgasms! Even the small ones make me shudder.

Yes hurrah for the small ones too!
But I do remember being so foggy & out of touch with my body due to circumstances & a ton of meds that a small orgasm was really nice. It just felt like sexually I was being smothered by a massive blanket.
But now, being more mature in my sexuality & personally I think bec I'm off meds, I'm more in tune with my body & definitely more comfortable which has led me to more powerful orgasms.
But I can't say, for sure, it was all due to meds. I don't think that would be fair of me to say.
And I do agree with your comment about "risky sexual behavior" as reading more about being bipolar.
As a side note, when I was first diagnosed at 19yrs I was labeled bipolar, but it was due to the fact that I was really into adrenaline related activities, which was not the case at all being related to my MH. I think I was trying to enjoy my youth. That came to a quick stop tho.

Originally Posted by Patagonia

Yes hurrah for the small ones too!
But I do remember being so foggy & out of touch with my body due to circumstances & a ton of meds that a small orgasm was really nice. It just felt like sexually I was being smothered by a massive blanket.
But now, being more mature in my sexuality & personally I think bec I'm off meds, I'm more in tune with my body & definitely more comfortable which has led me to more powerful orgasms.
But I can't say, for sure, it was all due to meds. I don't think that would be fair of me to say.
And I do agree with your comment about "risky sexual behavior" as reading more about being bipolar.
As a side note, when I was first diagnosed at 19yrs I was labeled bipolar, but it was due to the fact that I was really into adrenaline related activities, which was not the case at all being related to my MH. I think I was trying to enjoy my youth. That came to a quick stop tho.

Yes, I do recall having a couple of maybe-orgasms when lethargically hospitalized. I only remember them now - at this moment - because I believed (wrongly, tragically) that I was ‘getting better.’ I was on Nardil at that time - the finest and most deadly AD ever produced. I didn’t begin talking or interacting with others but I felt a kind of temporary lift from the fog.

My 50-something female partners tell me that their orgasms are much different than they were when they were younger. Nancy, my primary partner, calls them ‘body shattering.’ For me, though, they are satisfying and that’s all that I can ask!

Gawd, I was sowing wild oats among continents at 19! I made the DSM-III cut from ‘manic depressive’ to ‘bipolar’ in 1985. I didn’t tell anyone, of course, of that or my other diagnoses. Not even my wife-to-be.

I’m not sure that sex is better now for having time to savour every moment; the frantic copulations of youth had an appeal! But it’s good. It is good.

[Travelinglady]

I doubt mania makes organisms in themselves better but I have not been "active" when manic. Anyone?

[winter loneliness]

When I am manic, I "try" much harder to achieve orgasm. When I am not manic, I will masturbate for a while, and then stop because it takes too much effort. When I am manic, I will masturbate until I cum.

I may be changing meds soon, so hope that will help.