I wrote an
article a couple of weeks ago about how antidepressants are destroying
marriages by creating a plague of sexual inability. It was one of my longer articles.
Every so often I decide to put a decent size piece on my page, so that people
can have a deeper look at a certain topic, though I usually like to keep my writing
down to a few pages.
Because that last article was so long, I thought I would simply highlight some of the main points of
that article in a shorter piece. Essentially, many people do not realize that
they are being effectively chemically castrated by anti-depressant medication,
or to put it another way, they are being chemically lobotomized. Not everyone
of course, some people take these medications, feel fine and then stop taking them
and life is pretty normal. I personally know people who have this story. However,
there is a massive proportion of people in the category where these medications
are causing harm, and I think it is important for people to know this.
Part of what
inspired me to write this article is because I am becoming personally aware of
a plague of sexless marriages in society. And it is not simply through
anecdotal evidence, others are writing about this, researching this, and
seeking to find the causes. I even just found out yesterday that a reasonably
prominent Christian teacher whom I had followed a bit when I was younger identified this as the cause of his marriage breakdown. So, this is a massive issue, and
it is one I intend to come back to from time to time, because it has powerful
implications for the church and for society in general.
So let me
just touch on three important points from my previous piece which you can read here.
Firstly,
young people are being harmed by over exposure to drugs like antidepressants,
and this is effecting their ability to function in adulthood,
“And
yet people are having less sex, in fact some are calling this a sex recession,
because of how many people are not having sex or are having little sex:
“The
sex recession, also known as the sexual recession, refers to a decline in
sexual activity among adults, particularly among young adults. This phenomenon
has been observed in various studies and research papers, and its causes and
implications are still being debated.
Several
studies have investigated the sex recession, including a 2021 study in the
Journal of Sex and a 2019 study published by The Atlantic that found young
adults in the United States are having less sex than previous generations. This
trend has been observed in various countries, including Australia, Japan,
France, and the United Kingdom.”1[1]
One of the
causes of this, identified in the article, is of course antidepressants,
And
to bring us back to the start of the article where we noted that kids are being
raised on these things,
“Only
over the past few years has Ruth learned, from her daughter, about the sexual
side effects she still lives with and about her grief. “Her erogenous zones
don’t work,” “I have huge, terrible regret” about allowing her child to be
medicated. “I can’t believe I so easily said yes.”24[2]
There are of
course other factors that are leading to this situation as well, like the
always online nature of our lives, and the death of communal spaces. But this
is a much larger factor than many people realize.
This is a
serious problem. My nation has a replacement birth rate of 1.481. It is a dying
country. This is no joke, and in a dying country we should be very focused on identifying what is killing
society. And raising kids with an inability to have relationships as adults as a side effect of this medication is
tragic. It truly is a form of chemical castration, that is not even an
exaggeration.
Secondly, these
negative side effects are far more common than people realize,
“You
may be surprised, and I hope a little horrified, at just how common sexual
disfunction is from anti-depressants,
“Sexual
side effects from psychiatric drugs, especially SSRIs, SNRIs, and
antipsychotics, are not “rare” inconveniences. They’re well-documented, common,
and in many cases, long-lasting.
Research
shows:
SSRIs
cause sexual dysfunction in 50–70% of users (we bet even more) (Montejo et al.,
2001; Serretti & Chiesa, 2009).
Effects
include loss of desire, arousal difficulties, genital numbness, and inability
to orgasm and a basic loss of disconnection.
Post-SSRI
Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD)—a condition where sexual function never fully returns
even after stopping the medication has been documented in peer-reviewed
journals and acknowledged by the European Medicines Agency (EMA, 2019).
Yet
despite this, patients’ concerns are routinely minimized or dismissed.”[5]
50-70%
of users!! Think about that. 50-70% of users. I am becoming increasingly aware
of a plague of sexless marriages in our society. There could be many
contributing factors causing this. For instance, regular porn use is known to
decrease libido and affect sexual function. Relational issues are also known to
decrease libido. Work-life balance is also a contributing factor. The fact that
both men and women work so much today that many couples have little time for
connection and are often too tired for physical connection, is a serious issue.
But another underlying problem, that many people are not aware, of is that
their spouse might not be interested in sex because their sexual organs have
been numbed or damaged by antidepressants.”[3]
One major reason
for depression for someone in a marriage can be the lack of physical intimacy and
sexual fulfilment. Imagine a situation where a man or a woman is depressed
about this in their relationship, and then they are prescribed drugs which take
away their ability for intimacy completely, or at least in a large capacity. Imagine
what that does to people.
This takes
normal, healthy people, who were upset about something, and further breaks
them, with the very medication that was given to them to help them cope, and by
the very people who were supposed to be helping them. This again is a literal
form of chemical castration, especially for those who experience the more
extreme side effects.
And lastly, I
just want to highlight this point: it can be permanent, “And in some cases this
function NEVER FULLY RETURNS!!”[4] If more people knew that
they could be permanently sexually damaged by this medication, do you think
they would be so keen to take it? I have personally had people tell me that
they had no idea that lack of sexual desire and possible permanent sexual dysfunction
could be a result of these medications. Again, they can cause a form of
permanent chemical castration. A cruel fate, a cruel fate.
What also
concerns me is how many young people in difficult situations, who have genuine
reasons for being depressed, are given these medications. This is a serious problem
because as your brain is developing you are creating the neural pathways you
will lean on for life that will help you deal with a wide variety of situations
and contexts you find yourself in. If you face hard times in your youth, you need
good people around you to help you identify what is going on to cause the
depression and how to bring about change. But also you need to learn to cope with difficult
situations so that you can learn to maintain your own mental health.
Some people
get into sport, writing, art, marshal arts, running, reading, or some other
hobby as a way to help themselves emotionally regulate. Whereas today, many
people are just given a chemical solution upon which they become dependent.
This creates people with an inability to handle many difficulties in life, a skill
everyone needs. When I was young I loved to roam far and wide on my mountain
bike. If I was feeling down about something I could get on my bike and ride to a
friends house, ride to a bush track, or ride to the movies. I learnt through
this how to regulate myself emotionally, while doing exercise at the same time,
and I did not even realize I was doing something that would lead to great
benefits both then and still now. To this day there are times of severe stress
in my life, where I find myself just getting on my bike and going for a ride,
and it helps, it helps massively.
How many
young people are not learning healthy skills like this, because they are told
to just take a pill?
How many
young people are not being taught how to change their situation, because they
are told to just take a pill?
This is why I
speak of both chemical castration and chemical lobotomisation.
People are
being ruined sexually, and this is devastating for them, their development,
their marriages, and for society. But people are also being damaged mentally,
because they are not learning from a young age how to cope with their
environment, experiences, difficulties and more.
It is very
common in our day and age for people, especially older people, to mock younger Millennials
and Zoomers who they see absolutely losing it online, because they have had an
emotional breakdown over some minor thing, or perceived wrong. But how many of
these older people take drugs for their ailments and are not factoring in that
this is exactly how we should expect young people who were not taught how to
cope, and were drugged since they were 13, to act? How many of these older people stop to ponder this?
Some might
not think a pastor should write about these things. But I how can any of us who
see this cruelty happening not address it?
List of
References
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