OCD about libido (18+)

Im not sure if this makes sense or is very common as i have never read or heard about anyone experiencing this. Ill try to give brief summary about whats going on. About 2 months ago i began to be super anxious about a medication i may start thats unrelated to mental health but has the possibility to cause sexual side effects such as low libido and ED. I have not actually started the medication, am 20 years old, have high testosterone, high muscle mass, lift weights 5x a week, sleep decently (besides anxiety), eat well, and have always had a HIGH libido, sometimes too high in my opinion. After beginning to worry so much about sexual side effects i think i actually gave myself a bit of psych ED even though i didnt switch a single thing in my life, thats thankfully gone away and ive told myself its psychological and because im worrying, but now i find myself having lower libido. Im constantly analyzing my sexual feelings and and still terrified of ED and libido stuff and i think its been making me want to be avoidant of anything related to sex. This mixed with ROCD and other anxieties has not been amazing. I think me worrying about libido and ED has caused damage to this area of my life and i dont really know how to get out of it. Please let me know if anyone has had any similar experiences.

TexasOCD41

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

I did something very similar when i was starting an SSRI. I read about a possible side effect ( it was 1% likelihood) but bet your butt I "manifested" that side effect in about 5 minutes and struggled for over a month with it EVERY DAY before the medication actually started working, and my anxiety reduced... and the "side effect" ( that was anxiety all along) went away. This is a psychosomatic response that your anxiety is feeding for sure. And when ANYONE is stressed or anxious, the LAST thing they are going to think about is sex, it's programmed into our biology that if we are experiencing distress signaled( which your body is producing) that blood flow is going to be directed to lungs, heart, limbs, to keep us alive. Your sending false fight or flight signals with your anxiety and its causing a biological response. I also did the same with my SSRI as they are know for sexual side effects. i gave myself basically the same thing but with achieving an orgasm. I worried soooo much that I would lose the ability... that when the time came, I literally cried during sex because " its not working!" when in reality I was SOOO worried about not climaxing.. that I couldn't... because I was in my head. i now have almost no issue. Yes my SSRI has lower my libido a tad but its nothing to write home about and the relief I experience form my anxiety symptoms is SOOO WORTH IT!

ihateocd

Date posted: 1y

@TexasOCD41 Thank you very much for your response i appreciate it. Its a cruel cycle how worrying about it makes it worse which in turn makes the worrying worse. Thinking it may be time to go back go back to therapy and change meds, they seemed to have lost some of their efficacy which is really unfortunate and these and other topics of worry are new and have not been dealt with alongside a therapist before.

TexasOCD41

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

@ihateocd - Make sure its an OCD Specalist. Normal talk therapy can actually be detrmiental to OCD recovery.

ihateocd

Date posted: 1y

@TexasOCD41 Yea, resources are scarce and wait lists are long unfortunately but i agree with that, ive had specialists and then normal counseling and the counsellors have sometimes worsened things.

TexasOCD41

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

@ihateocd Have you tried NOCD? That’s who my therapist is with

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