– why do antidepressants make it more difficult to reach orgasm for some?
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Antidepressants affect how nerves send signals to each other. An orgasm occurs when nerves linked to the genitals send signals to the brain that the brain interprets as pleasureable, with sufficient strength and over a sufficient period of time for the brain to figure that sex is well under way and now would be a good time to finish up. The exact arrangement of communications here is very complicated, but the basic gist is that antidepressants, which affect how nerves communicate, makes it harder for this system to reach the brain’s predetermined level of sufficient stimulation.
Antidepressants are all about correcting the balance in your head to make you have a more normal head space free of depression and anxiety (I lack the scientific words for the exact details) and as every brain is unique, it can be difficult to find the right combination. Thing is, when you orgasm your brain is flooded with those same kinds of chemicals (hence why you feel good). Orgasms are a good portion mental as well as physical so if your brain is having the chemical levels corrected then the “switch” to trigger an orgasm is altered as well which means for some it’s difficult since every brain as mentioned before is unique.
There’s a great comment on signals from genitals to brain here, but I think I can clarify it just a TINY bit.
1. Seratonin in our Brain makes us feel at ease.
2. Many antidepressants stop our brain from “recycling” Seratonin.
(They “inhibit” Seratonin Re-uptake)
3. If they aren’t recycled, they stay in the brain, keeping us at ease.
4. While this makes us less anxious or depressed, it also makes us less excitable.(This is why many on anti-depressants, talk about how it lowers their joy as much as sadness)
5. If you don’t get as excitable, it takes longer for signals to build to reach an orgasm.
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