sex and depression

Loss of sex drive is a classic symptom of depression according to depression.com. About 75% of depressed individuals report it.

Of the other 25%, most report no change in libido, and some experience unusually intense sex drive. But typically, people who are depressed lose their libido.

However, depressed individuals generally regret their loss of libido and miss sex. Researchers have asked depressed and nondepressed people: How important is a good sex life to you? About 70% of both groups reply: very. In other words, people who are depressed value sex, but the disease prevents them from enjoying it.

Yes, the survey reported above is probably accurate. Depression ate my libido.

Often, you're too bloody depressed to have sex, particularly if you're not actually in a relationship and so having sex would mean leaving the house to find someone to fuck. Sex also requires things like basic personal hygiene and some kind of motivation, often completely incompatible with the depressive mindset.

Alternatively, sex is a fantastic experience, fills the void, gives you something to feel besides depression and makes lying in bed all day that much more rewarding. Also, depression is an extremely isolating illness, whereas sex is about as close as you can get.

Other issues can include the following:

• The SSRI anti-depressants (sertraline, fluoxetine, citalopram and paroxetine) have a fairly common side-effect of interfering with desire, arousal, orgasm or all three. In short, it's going to be bloody frustrating.
• Many depressives self-injure (self-mutilation, whatever you wanna call it). Lotsa parallel red scabs are few people's idea of attractive. Even without that, depression tends to create a low self-esteem, often self-loathing, which makes being all naked, sexual and vulnerable with somebody else a fairly scary prospect. This is if you can actually have the confidence to get someone into bed in the first place.
• Other problems may arise if the depression is not the primary problem, or has an external cause. If an individual has an eating disorder, for instance, or PTSD caused by rape, of which the depression is merely a symptom, things could get really interesting. Depression caused by death of previous lover? Eek. Tread carefully.