Emotional blunting on SSRIs: can it last?
Is it the depression or the antidepressant? How emotional blunting feels, whether it can outlast the tablets, and what can be done about it.
Feelings gone flat on an antidepressant? Less sadness, but also less joy and less love. That is what emotional blunting means.
For some people it continues after they stop. Emotional numbing is listed as a symptom of post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD).
Flat feelings are easy to put down to depression, so many people don’t link them to the tablets. For some, that means years of thinking the problem is them.
Katie took Prozac for about three years, during a hard time in her life. Her feelings went flat, she says, and so did her attraction to other people. It took her a long time to link this to the tablets, and she has lived with it for about 14 years.
Her interview is worth watching for how slowly she put the pieces together.
So is it the depression or the tablets, and can it last?
What does emotional blunting feel like?
Most people describe all their feelings turned down, the good and the bad. When Oxford researchers interviewed people who had taken SSRIs, they used words like “flat”, “blank” and “robot”.
Some couldn’t cry when they felt they should. Many felt cut off from the people closest to them, even a partner or their children. Almost all said they’d stopped caring about things that used to matter.
Not everyone minds it. In the large survey, people with blunting were about as likely to call it a good thing as a bad thing.
Is it the depression or the antidepressant?
It can be both, but the medicine seems to play its own part. Depression can flatten feelings too, so the two are easy to mix up. In the Oxford interviews, most people felt they could tell them apart.
In the survey, blunting was stronger when the depression was worse, so the authors think it’s partly a symptom of depression. But people still on treatment, whose depression had largely lifted, felt more blunted than people who had recovered and stopped their tablets.
A study in Cambridge and Copenhagen gave healthy volunteers escitalopram (Lexapro) or a placebo for at least three weeks. On the drug, winning and losing in computer tasks swayed their choices less. The researchers think this may reflect the blunting patients describe.
Can emotional blunting last after stopping?
For some people it has lasted years after stopping. Nobody knows yet who will be affected, or whether it will ease.
PSSD is more than a sexual problem, even though the name says so. The 2022 criteria centre on a lasting change in genital feeling, often numbness, and also list emotional numbing, problems with cognition and changes in other senses.
The PSSD criteria, written by an international group of doctors and researchers, list emotional numbing and depersonalisation, a sense of being cut off from yourself. They say numbing often goes with the loss of genital feeling, and can be the main thing a person brings to their GP.
The NHS page says sexual problems “may carry on after stopping antidepressants”. It lists emotional numbness as a side effect and a withdrawal symptom, but doesn’t say it can last, and doesn’t name PSSD. Nobody has measured how often numbing lasts.
Nick’s interview is long, but it shows what losing pleasure, both emotional and sexual, does to an ordinary day.
What can I do about emotional blunting?
These medicines help many people. If you have side effects, that’s a decision for you and your prescriber. Don’t stop suddenly.
Raise the blunting at your next appointment, in your own words: “I can’t cry any more” or “I don’t feel close to my partner”. Add dates, for example “Prozac 20 mg from May 2022, last tablet March 2024”, and say when each change started.
Three questions for your GP
- Could my medicine be causing this flatness?
- How can we tell it apart from my depression?
- What's our next step if it continues?
You could start with: "My mood is better, but I feel nothing much at all. Can we talk about whether that's the tablets?"
Many people say it took time to be taken seriously. You can report it without a doctor agreeing.
Report it: it helps everyone
A doctor's note helps you. A report to the medicines regulator helps everyone else: it is how patterns get noticed.
- No proof needed. A suspicion is enough, even years after stopping.
- Where: the Yellow Card scheme in the UK, MedWatch in the US.
- Use the right words. If symptoms continued after stopping, write Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (MedDRA 10086208).
Frequently asked questions
Is emotional blunting the same as PSSD?
Not on its own. Feeling flat while you take an antidepressant is a known side effect. PSSD is about what continues after the last tablet, with changes in genital feeling at its centre. Emotional numbing that lasts can be part of it.
Does it happen with every antidepressant?
In the large survey, people reported it on every type of antidepressant they were taking. The NHS lists emotional numbness among the common side effects of antidepressants in general. Which medicine suits you is a question for you and your prescriber.
Can I report emotional blunting on its own?
Yes. You can report any side effect you suspect, and you don’t need proof. Describe the flatness in your own words, and say when it started. If sexual changes also continued after stopping, add the term Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction.
For years, Katie believed something was wrong with her. Read her full story, and what is known about PSSD.
Sources
- Goodwin GM, Price J, De Bodinat C, Laredo J. Emotional blunting with antidepressant treatments: a survey among depressed patients. Journal of Affective Disorders, 2017; 221: 31–35. An online survey of 669 people on treatment for depression and 150 recovered controls who had stopped antidepressants at least two months before. 46% reported blunting. Two of the four authors were from the research institute of Servier, a drug company. Respondents were recruited online, so they may not represent everyone on antidepressants.
- Price J, Cole V, Goodwin GM. Emotional side-effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors: qualitative study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 2009; 195(3): 211–217. Interviews with 38 people who had taken an SSRI, plus posts on patient websites. Funded by Servier.
- Langley C, Armand S, Luo Q, et al. Chronic escitalopram in healthy volunteers has specific effects on reinforcement sensitivity. Neuropsychopharmacology, 2023; 48(4): 664–670. 66 healthy volunteers, escitalopram 20 mg or placebo for at least 21 days.
- Healy D, Bahrick A, Bak M, et al. Diagnostic criteria for enduring sexual dysfunction after treatment with antidepressants, finasteride and isotretinoin. International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine, 2022; 33(1): 65–76. Emotional numbing and depersonalisation are listed as ancillary non-sexual symptoms (section 3), with cognitive impairment and other sensory problems. Proposed criteria developed through expert agreement.
- NHS. Antidepressants. Page last reviewed 12 June 2025. Side effects: “mood changes – like feeling more angry or emotionally numb”; sexual problems “may carry on after stopping antidepressants”. Withdrawal: “feeling low, suicidal, emotionally numb or like things are not real”. Does not name PSSD.
- MedDRA term Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction, code 10086208.
- Moral Medicine interviews on YouTube: Katie (26 May 2026) and Nick (30 May 2023).
Sources checked on 22 October 2026. AI-assisted writing and review, not clinical review.
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