Sexual anhedonia

Hi,
Im a 26 year old female from wales . I have been hearing voices for the last 3 years .
I have also been suffering from physical anhedonia . I cant feel pleasure from touch like head massage or drinking a cup of tea or even having a bath. I just feel this horrible intense discomfort in my head underneath my scalp.
I also have sexual anhedonia . I cant feel pleasure from sex or orgasm. When I was younger I used to have intense orgasms and enjoy sex. Now it’s all gone .
Because of this I have a very low sex drive . I am not motivated to have sex or go out and find a boyfriend . I rarely have sexual fantasies or thoughts .
I think this is unfair . I am only 26 and already my sex life is over . I don’t want to have to live with this intense discomfort in my head for the rest of my life .
Has anyone got any advice on how to cure the anhedonia?

hello and welcome!

You mention voices and a feeling in your head- have you been seen by anyone for those things? Do you have any kind of diagnosis? Are you taking any medications?

I have been diagnosed with BPD and acute stress reaction. I used to take mirtazapine, clopixol and amitryptilline. However I stopped taking them as I thought they were numbing me and causing me to feel a lack of pleasure . It’s been a month and I still feel numb and have anhedonia . I find it very frustrating and it makes me irritable . I want to be able to enjoy sex and have orgasms but I can’t

Hi,
I take amitryptilline 10 mg.
It is not just sex . I had a head massage today and my scalp felt numb . I couldn’t feel pleasure from the head massage - I have physical anhedonia as well . I found it quite disappointing as I couldn’t quite feel pleasure- it was frustrating. I also can’t enjoy baths or drinking a cup of tea . I still do these things but they don’t quite give me pleasure anymore or relax me . I think if I could cure the physical anhedonia I might be able to have pleasure in sex again

I wondered. I've seen you also posted in Schizophrenia- I will admit that was my first thought when I read about your voices. Although I understand there's probably other conditions that could produce them.

I wonder about the drugs you were on, and sexual dysfunction. I took myself off Lexapro (escitalopram) for reasons unrelated to sex and it was a while before I returned to normal (for me) sexual function- while on the stuff I found myself unable to reach orgasm without really working at it (I'm male)- it wasn't an erectile issue, merely that achieving orgasm was quite difficult. I took myself off it for various reasons not to do with that side effect, and it was several weeks before I noticed I was able to orgasm in a normal (for me at my age) time frame again.

I wonder if it's taking a lot of time for your personal drug cocktail to wear off. Also, I do seem to recall seeing accounts of antidepressants/etc causing sexual issues that did not seem to abate after discontinuation.

As for the general anhedonia, I sure don't know, myself. I found where some of those drugs have been claimed to help with anhedonia, but I didn't see anhedonia as a common side-effect of any of them. I know I felt a little numbish of spirit when on the escitalopram, but at the time I was just glad to have my anxiety- the reason it was prescribed me- abated.

Note that we don't allow duplicate topics, but I was reluctant to disapprove your Schizophrenia post- I wanted it to be seen there- I've directed responses from that forum, to this thread. Since you don't mention a formal Dx of that I was equally reluctant to move the conversation to that forum.

Hi,
I just feel it is so unfair . I am only 26 and I have already lost my ability to feel pleasure, lost my sex drive and orgasm and lost my emotions. I also hear voices bullying me and sexually harassing me and calling me a slut! Even though I literally never have sex now - not consensually anyway. I haven’t chosen to have sex in over a year - not with my consent . And yet they carry on calling me a slut and a prostitute . I think they must be sexually abusing me and assaulting me when I’m unconscious. The voices talk about abusing me sexually . This is quite distressing
I have just woken up and the first thing I heard was this woman bullying me calling me a slag and a prostitute
What do I do?

What do your care professionals say about the voices? Are you taking anything right now to quell them?

I know some medicines have unpleasant flattening effects, but me personally, I'd rather shut voices like that up, if it were me.

I’m taking antipsychotics but to be honest the voices aren’t the problem. It’s the constant discomfort and anhedonia . It makes me binge eat binge drink anything to relieve the discomfort and pain and lack of pleasure . I would do anything to get my physical pleasure and comfort back . It is a hellish situation constantly in pain and discomfort . I don’t want to life if my life is boring and uncomfortable and painful

Have you mentioned this to your doctor and asked if it could be the antipsychotic? Maybe some other medication could be tried?