Rebooting and SSRIs (anti-depressants, e.g. Citalopram)

Hi all,

Infrequent poster here, but frequent failer at reboots...been meaning to post something for about a month or so, so here goes.

Originally discovered porn was the cause of my ED back in 2014. First reboot was easy. I did around 90 days, totally empowered by my new found knowledge, and my first attempts at sexual interaction post reboot were great. No issues at all. I think I went in fairly ignorant, I just laid off porn for 90 odd days, and started dating, and just told the girls I was dating that I might have issues...was just up front.

No issues until within the year I started using porn on and off again, and by around teh November some issues started again, and I began dating a girl in the December, and we only ever managed penetrative sex again twice, both whenI had morning wood.

Have had issues ever since. Have had sex, but none of it has been totally without issue, bar the odd occasion with my lat girlfriend, around 3 years ago.

I DID mostly successfully reboot around 15 months ago. Erections seemed to come back when I was doing normal fantasy (e.g. over ex girlfriends etc), and that lasted for around 4-6 months, then I could not do it that way either.

I am currently  on day 253 of no porn. Around 105 days in I did get a couple of erections just by touching myself, but no fantasy, but that went away within 10 days or so.
After that, more or less complete flat line. Was getting really frustrated by around day 180 or so.

Then I started talking with a girl, and we were exchanging messages, and after a couple of weeks I just came out with my PIED issues, and she was accepting and fine, and we just carried on chatting.

Naturally things progressed to having SOME sexual conversation, though def no sexual pictures, as we'd discussed this. We also had some video calls, but again, all PG-13. But what I found through these interactions is that I was becoming aroused, and just thinking about her in general (nothing necessarily sexual) was also arousing.
Not really full erections unless I "gave a hand", but def more than I'd felt naturally for a very long time.
YOU know when you are in the actual company of someone you like, in person, where the atmosphere is arousing for the both of you, even if you are not doing anything sexual ...at times it felt like that.

So what I wondered is ...DOES this mean I can successfully have sex (don't know at this point), and was the fact that I was for so long unable to get a reaction by touch alone, a side effect of the SSRIs I have been on for 10 years...because they lower your sensitivity, meaning that touch alone might not be enough, even after reboot?

Have masturbated a few times in teh past 40 days, maybe 5 times, but am reluctant to continue to do so due to the issues I had before of doing so based on my imagination alone.
 

TheNorman

Active Member
The only (non-alcohol related) performance issues I have experienced have been psychological so everything you're describing sounds very much related to how porn has affected your thoughts. That being said, you should seek some medical advice as well to make sure that there is nothing physical going on because if there is and you're feeling shitty because you feel like it's something in your head that you should be able to fix, it will just create a vicious loop of frustration. Glad to have you on the forum and I hope you can use it to free yourself from porn and experience a healthy sexual relationship.
 
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