Woman woke to find she had ‘no emotions’

A woman who took a popular anti-depressant for many years claimed she woke up one morning with “no emotions” and was left damaged long term.

The drug was one of a category of anti-depressants known as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

“I took this drug for 15 years, and for most of the time it worked and I could function but, one morning in 2009, I woke up and suddenly I had no emotions.”

According to Dr Terry Lynch, who helps people withdraw from medication when they are ready, SSRI drugs work to numb feelings.

“In a way, that is how they work because if a person is going through great distress then numbing those feelings will ease what they are going through,” he said. “So it makes sense that if you numb people’s feelings, you could also numb their ability to feel pleasure.”

Anhedonia is a condition in which the capacity of experiencing pleasure is totally or partially lost, and Mary (not her full name) from Cork is convinced that 15 years of taking a drug which numbs the senses has left her permanently damaged.

Mary describes waking up one morning and knowing that something “different” had happened.

She had experienced depression for many years, but this was something else.

She had no feelings of anger, love or joy and things she had previously enjoyed she no longer did.

“I knew it wasn’t just depression. I went to my doctor and told him I wanted to come off the drug. He suggested putting me on another anti-depressant and completely dismissed what I was saying.

“I had to leave my job and my boyfriend and moved to another country. Couldn’t function, couldn’t carry on. I do believe I am brain damaged but no one seems to believe me and no doctor can confirm this for me either. ”

Mary recalls when she tried to come off the anti-depressants she was taking. “I tried to come off them but I would get very bad withdrawal symptoms like vomiting, extreme anxiety, sensation in brain like ‘electric slaps’.”

Mary is trying to find a doctor who will help her.

“I have researched this and from what I can tell, the dopamine going to my brain has been damaged due to long-term use of these pills. Unfortunately my family don’t believe me as this is not recognised by many doctors as a side-effect. It’s so uncommon that little is known about it.”