So, I was depressed and anxious. I started taking cipralex and I am not so much depressed (yea!) and my anxiety has reduced somewhat (yea!).
Before I started on the pills I had zero sex drive. Now, it’s really weird. One of the side effects can be a decreased drive and I have not had that. Instead, I have periods where I have no drive (which is the same as before) and times when I must have sex NOW.
Anyone else’s experiences?
It may be that the depression was affecting your sex drive and now isn’t. Enjoy it at those times you can. 
I like Silver Tyger’s hypothesis. One of the sympoms of depression is not enjoying the things you used to like. They usually mean things like hobbies or collecting artwork or what have you, but I think sex can fall squarely in that category!
FWIW, I went on citalopram about a half a year ago. I haven’t had any issues with a decreased drive. I have, however, noticed …
sighs, spoilers in case someone didn’t pay attention to the TMI warning in the thread title
… my clit is a lot less sensitive than it used to be, and requires more time and attention to respond. It does, however, still respond. Eventually.
Considering it’s helped with my insomnia a great deal and Mr. Horseshoe reports that I am much [del]less of a psychotic bitch[/del] more pleasant to be around, I’ll take something that relatively minor.
That’s about how my husband puts it.
I am on citalopram - I have had to learn a new word. Anorgasmia 
Horseshoe, I’ve been on that medication for a while now, and the same exact thing has happened to me. Sigh.
On one hand, at least my body is like “Meh, we’re so stable in emotions now we don’t need to get off twice a day just to feel good.” but the downside is, y’know…not getting off!
THIS. They put me on Celexa after my surgeries and my sex drive was still very high, but I couldn’t have an orgasm to save my life. I could have sex for hours on end, but no “pop”. Went off the med and went back to normal.
Sadly I had a similar experience recently with the morphine I have to take everyday. It was causing anorgasmia, but thankfully I discovered that if I take it AFTER sex instead of before it isn’t a problem. Stupid medications, messing with the one thing that I am good at!
Ah, yes. I had that side effect when I was on Luvox. An interesting effect, in the perceived impact on a man’s life & happiness.
Day 1: Hey, baby, come play! I can go all night! Woo-hoo!
Day 3: Ok, maybe this isn’t such a boon after all …
Day 7: Somebody, please kill me.
Citalopram/Celexa is kind of notorious for that, and other SSRIs tend to be not much better. Just because there’s probably someone reading who doesn’t know this, there are a variety of ways of treating that particular side effect, though effectiveness varies for everyone and it’s usually not a quick fix.
Go ahead, ask me how I know.
Yep, I was on Prozac for a bit and the same thing happened. You know it’s bad when a person like me notices the side effects before even reading about what they may be.
The word combination I learned during my adventures with Seroxat was “Drug Holliday”, one weekend each month of ridiculous amounts of ….well you know……
Lexapro appears to have done the same thing to me. The irony is, it increased my libido. So now I have an active sex life for the first time in years but can never… quite… get there.
Oh, well, I’ll take it.
Details on the part I bolded, pretty please?
A couple options I’m aware of: The most obvious is to try a different antidepressant. Just because one SSRI kills some aspect of your sex life doesn’t mean they all will. Of course other SSRIs may end up having other side effects or just not doing much for the depression. Finding the right SSRI for your body chemistry is a total shot in the dark. There’s also an atypical antidepressant called Citalopram (bupropion) that can sometimes counteract the sexual side effects of SSRIs, as well as being a good add-on if the SSRI isn’t doing everything you need as an antidepressant. This is VERY much a YMMV and ‘go talk to your doctor’ kind of thing. There may also be other things I’m missing here, hopefully someone with more medical knowledge can chime in if this is misleading.
Not TMI, but not everyone would want to read about a stranger’s sex life, lol:
Put on SSRI before puberty. Never had a sex drive, don’t know if it’s me or the drugs. The socially anxious introvert I am, I don’t really mind, otherwise some poor dude would be sticking it in the crazy!
I was on Effexor for over two years (and have recently started taking Sertraline), and during that time my experiences included a general slight lessening of desire, but more noticeably a difficulty achieving orgasm. That’s kind of annoying. I agree with the notion that the depression itself may have been inhibiting your drive.
I stopped taking citalopram when I was experiencing anorgasmia (and frankly am relieved it wasn’t just me). The desire was still there, but the completion became either unsatisfying (anticlimactic, if I may) or just totally impossible.
I quickly regained that ability after I quit the pill. Thank GOD. That really sucked
I take an SSRI (sertraline), in part, because of it’s orgasm-delaying effects. I suffer from nerve-damage related P.E. and the SSRI helps in treating this.
Did you take any other medication after quitting the citalopram?
I took fluoxetine for a couple years a long time ago and developed ejaculatory anhedonia. I haven’t taken any SSRI’s since, and while the problem has mostly subsided, I will say my orgasms have never been quite the same as before