Gustavo

Age: 19 | Brazil

“My name is Gustavo Romero, I'm a 19-year old Brazilian male who developed PSSD symptoms after discontinuing Venlafaxine (Effexor) 75 mg. I previously used Accutane at 14, Escitalopram at 16-17 and Venlafaxine last for 15 months. I didn't experience any significant and noticeable side effects during the use of any of these drugs.

I changed to Venlafaxine because I had no therapeutic positive effects during the first treatment with an SSRI. This problem started strictly after coming off the last one. My doctor didn't understand anything about safe tapering methods. He advised me to taper off every other day for a whole week and stop, which caused me post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS) for months.

I eventually recovered from anhedonia and intestinal issues after reinstating the drug and reducing each dose 50% for 3 months (75 mg -> 37,5 mg -> 18,75 -> 0 mg). Don't recommend that if you're still on medication, look up hyperbolic tapering. I had two failed suicide attempts because of the psychological distress I've faced from all of this. My family and friends have been supportive and thankfully understood the situation, as they are actively trying to help me financially and emotionally.

I am still in the process of getting all tests done in order to understand how my whole body is responding after what happened. I believe that PSSD/PFS/PAS are most likely systemic syndromes similar to Long COVID and ME/CFS, which can be explained by observing epigenetic, nervous, gastrointestinal and endocrine symptoms in many patients. I hope for major breakthroughs regarding possible therapeutic approaches. It would be interesting to see how doctors and scientists manage to better understand these conditions.

Shoutout to Dr. Melcangi, Dr. Csoka, Dr. Healy and the whole team dedicated to studying PSSD. Thank you guys at the PSSD Network for allowing me to share my story as a young man who is struggling to stay alive with this condition.”