ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5
Do you demand a simple and concise explanation of complicated and complex topics?
Fret not, dear voater, for ELI5 is here! Ask a complex question, and get a simple answer!
General guidelines:
Your explanation should be friendly and straightforward, but not condescending.
- 1.1. Above all, you're here to answer questions concisely. Don't get needlessly hostile or complicated in your response.
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- 1.3. If specified by the asker, responses to particular levels of expertise are encouraged.
/v/ELI5 is a place to get simple explanations of complex topics.
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[–] HelloPanda26 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
Sure, I think I can answer that for you. First, I want to address that not all antidepressants cause sexual problems but many of them do. The ones that do usually affect how much serotonin there is in your body. You can think of serotonin as one of the keys that can help turn on some positive moods.
*** DISCLAIMER: these are just hypotheses for why things are the way they are. Here is the source of my information ***
First, let's address the sex drive. To start off, most of us have some understanding that a hormone called testosterone affects sex drive. More testosterone, more horniness. However, for our bodies to make testosterone, it partly depends on how much prolactin we have in our body. Essentially, too much prolactin --> less testosterone --> less horny. The reason that many antidepressants kill your sex drive is because it increases serotonin, which although a key to increase your mood, also turns on more prolactin release in your body. In a round about way, antidepressants hurt your sex drive by lowering the amount of testosterone in your body.
On to erection! To get an erection, your blood vessels basically get bigger so that more blood can go to your penis when you're horny. Antidepressants may make it harder to get an erection because serotonin can make it difficult for your blood vessels to enlarge. No enlargement --> not enough blood in your penis --> hard time getting an erection.
Last but not least, orgasm. Orgasms are helped along by a wide array of different chemicals, hormones, etc. One of the helpers is called dopamine. More dopamine --> easier to orgasm. Unfortunately, serotonin puts a hamper on dopamine so that it's harder to orgasm.
All in all, serotonin is like a master key that affects much more than your mood. There are locks for it in many places inside your body besides your brain. It's not to say drugs that affect serotonin are bad. It just means that you might experience some unwanted side effects. That being said, some side effects will get less over time so this isn't to scare anyone away from taking their antidepressants. :) As a reminder, if you're experiencing these sexual problems and it might be due to your medications, absolutely talk to your doctor! At the very least, talk to your pharmacist.
Please let me know if I explained things okay. It's something I really want to work on.
[–] LegendaryAsshole [S] ago (edited ago)
You explained it great. I haven't checked your sources but some of the things you mention were my sneaking suspicions. Serotonin...it all just seems so counter productive. Young person is having trouble dealing with life in general, let's give them a medication that will give them erectile dysfunction! I know it's not technically erectile dysfunction but to a young person any one of those could be ED.
I was put on these medsas a 16 year old, turns out my parents just hit me too much and there wasn't actually anything wrong with me, until I took these and my dick stopped working. Took me a long time to figure out what was going on.
Recently I battled alcoholism, docs wanted to put me on antidepressants, I tried to talk about what they did to me and they treated me like I was an idiot and tried really hard to push them on me. 3 years sober and still wondering what those fuckos were thinking.
Anyways, thanks!
[–] HelloPanda26 ago (edited ago)
You're welcome! I'm actually trying to get an article published on ED in SSRIs so getting the chance to explain it helps me out too. It's my belief that not enough doctors and pharmacists talk about this side effect. As such, we have people thinking there's something wrong with them when it's actually the medications. I was talking to a pharmacist just a week ago about this situation and she told me not counseling on the side effect of ED for one of her patients almost caused a divorce. When it was finally discussed, the patient broke down crying saying that his wife had been accusing him or cheating and not loving her anymore due to the lack of physical intimacy when it was really the side effect that no one told him about.
I'm so sorry all of these things happened to you. I know how you feel about the abusive parents and doctors just wanting to fix it with drugs. It happened to me too. It's unprofessional for doctors to not listen or to be completely dismissive. I think any time you have a case like that, it's time to find another doctor because the current one has become jaded. I'm glad you're doing better now! Keep up the sobriety!