Cael's story: mild anxiety, then 6 drugs
Cael was prescribed antidepressants for mild anxiety as a teenager. Moral Medicine says he now lives with PSSD.
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Antidepressants for mild anxiety
Moral Medicine describes Cael as a healthy, sociable teenager when he was prescribed antidepressants for mild anxiety. What followed, Moral Medicine says, were years of being moved from one drug to the next: Lexapro, Effexor, Zoloft, Pristiq, Seroquel and Cymbalta. Moral Medicine says the risks were not explained to him.
What Cael lives with now
Moral Medicine says Cael now lives with Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD). It describes the condition as marked by emotional numbness, genital anaesthesia (a loss of feeling in the genitals), and changes to a person’s life that remain long after the drugs are stopped.
Thank you to Cael for telling this story. This interview was recorded by Moral Medicine, who have filmed more than ninety of these conversations.
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