The Tudor Dixon Podcast: The Hidden Cost of SSRIs: Rosie Tilley EXPOSES the Reality of Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction

Summary

The Tudor Dixon Podcast: The Hidden Cost of SSRIs—Rosie Tilley Exposes the Reality of Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction

Date: October 17, 2025
Podcast: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show (Special: The Tudor Dixon Podcast)
Host: Tudor Dixon
Guest: Rosie Tilley (PSSD advocate, survivor, founder of PSSD network)

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Episode Overview

This emotionally powerful episode tackles a rarely discussed but increasingly critical topic: the long-term and often permanent sexual dysfunction that can occur after taking SSRI antidepressants, known as Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD). Tudor Dixon interviews Rosie Tilley, a young woman who developed PSSD after being prescribed Lexapro during a challenging period, and who now leads advocacy and support for others afflicted by the condition. Together, they expose how little is known—or disclosed—about these enduring side effects and call attention to the lack of research, regulation, and support for victims.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rosie’s Story and First-Hand Experience with PSSD

• Background: In 2020, during COVID lockdowns, Rosie experienced depression and anxiety and was prescribed Lexapro (an SSRI) by her psychiatrist (04:53).
• Immediate & Lasting Effects: Short-term side effects on the medication were severe, but the most devastating was permanent sexual dysfunction, which never resolved after stopping the drug ([04:53], [06:51], [08:48]).
  • “For the last five years, I have effectively been chemically castrated by this drug.” — Rosie ([04:53])
• Lack of Warning: Rosie was only provided with a vague, one-sentence warning about sexual side effects. She was told any problems would resolve upon stopping the medication, which proved untrue ([07:12], [08:36]).

2. Nature and Severity of PSSD

• Total Loss of Sexual Function:
  • Rosie describes it as a light switch that’s been unplugged: “Even if I try…I literally am unable to feel anything. You essentially become completely asexual.” ([08:48])
  • It’s much more than “low libido”; it’s physiological inability to feel arousal or sexual pleasure ([08:36]-[10:15]).
• Associated Symptoms: Emotional blunting, changes to perception and sensory experience, loss of happiness and excitement (“It’s like living with a chemical lobotomy.”) ([10:22], [55:26]).
• Familial & Social Impact: PSSD disrupts relationships, causing loss of intimacy, isolation, and emotional breakdown, sometimes leading to suicidal ideation ([18:18], [19:41]).

3. Failure of the Healthcare and Regulatory System

• Inadequate Warnings & Research:
  • Most SSRI studies were only 12 weeks long; no long-term follow-up or assessment of persistent effects ([11:09]).
  • No requirement for drug companies to monitor or report long-term side effects ([11:09]).
  • Quoted: "No study has ever followed the course of SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction after a patient has stopped taking the medication." ([11:09])
• Dismissal and Gaslighting by Medical Professionals:
  • Many doctors and psychiatrists deny the possibility of permanent effects; one even institutionalized Rosie for asserting her symptoms ([36:00]).
  • “He wrote that I have ‘firm, fixed, delusional beliefs that the medication is causing side effects.’ It’s like writing, ‘She has a firm, fixed, delusional belief that the Pope is Catholic.’” — Rosie ([36:00])

4. Societal and Cultural Concerns

• Mass Medication & Crisis:
  • America is the most medicated society in history, yet suicide rates remain high ([27:16]).
  • Overprescription to youth and children, with little understanding of the risk ([13:41], [29:55]).
• Possible Underestimation of Sexual Dysfunction:
  • Many who now identify as “asexual” or with abnormal sexual development may be suffering from undisclosed drug aftereffects ([29:55]).
  • Correlation between rise in SSRI prescriptions and declining sexual activity among Millennials and Gen Z ([29:55]).
• Discussion Taboos:
  • Talking about sexual dysfunction is rare and stigmatized, making advocacy and honest discussion challenging ([28:17], [45:50]).

5. Advocacy, Community, and Research

• The PSSD Network:
  • Rosie founded a self-funded advocacy network to collect research, connect sufferers, and push for recognition ([42:24]).
  • Lack of funding and institutional support; most efforts are grassroots ([42:24]).
• Barriers to Research and Awareness:
  • Pharmaceutical industry lobbying, financial ties to psychiatrists, and public ignorance act as powerful obstacles ([42:24]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Loss of Sexual Function:
  “If you consider your own libido and sexual arousal like a light switch going on, it’s almost like someone’s pulled the plug out of the wall and you turn the switch and nothing happens to the light.” — Rosie ([08:48])

• On the Systemic Failure:
  “The word ‘antidepressant’ is a really deceiving marketing tool… if these were called libido-blocking drugs, I don't think people would have the same response.” — Rosie ([27:32])

• On Emotional and Social Impact: “If you remove happiness and pleasure and sex and love and joy and excitement, what is left? These aren't trivial things. This is what we are alive for.” — Rosie ([19:41]) “I remember…a friend messaged me, ‘If I killed myself because of this, people are going to say he had mental health issues…’ And that’s exactly how it was written after his death.” — Rosie ([21:31])

• On Medical Gaslighting: “They made me feel like I was all alone for the longest time.” — Rosie ([36:00]) “He wrote that I have firm, fixed, delusional beliefs that the medication causes side effects…” — Rosie ([36:00])

• On Permanent Damage and Lack of Accountability: “Telling someone you’re going to have a temporary effect is very different to having this for the rest of your life…once it transitions into a permanent change, it’s completely life-changing.” — Rosie ([33:08])

• The Opioid Parallel and Call for Accountability: “I think this is as big as the opioid crisis. To say you have castrated people and you have taken away their ability to feel their sexual partner…that is criminal.” — Tudor Dixon ([33:08])

• On the Need to Speak Out:
  “If we don’t say anything, no one’s going to know about it.” — Rosie ([54:05])

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Major Timestamps

• 04:27 — Rosie begins telling her story
• 06:51 — Permanent sexual side effects; “chemically castrated by this drug”
• 08:36 — What “chemical castration” means; physiological inability to feel arousal
• 10:15 — Possible brain/neural damage; inability to explain the mechanism
• 11:09 — Lack of long-term studies and warnings; regulatory loopholes
• 13:41 — Phenomenon of overmedication of youth and children
• 16:16 — Physical damage in men documented by research (fibrosis)
• 18:18 — The “hell on earth” of the PSSD community
• 19:41 — Emotional blunting, suicidality, and misattributed mental health diagnoses
• 27:16 — Medicating society and the paradox of persistent high suicide rates
• 29:55 — Correlation between SSRIs, asexuality, and generational sexual decline
• 36:00 — Rosie's encounter with medical gaslighting and psychiatric institutionalization
• 42:24 — Explanation of the PSSD Network; fundraising and advocacy challenges
• 50:00 — Tudor Dixon questions the actual benefits of SSRIs versus their risks
• 51:14 — Rosie's fears and changed expectations for her future
• 54:05 — Rosie’s motivation for advocacy, despite personal cost
• 55:26 — “Chemical lobotomy”—non-sexual neurological effects and lack of long-term data

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Conclusion & Takeaways

This episode is a stirring exposé of both SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction and the systemic disregard for its victims. The conversation spotlights the gap between what pharmaceutical companies disclose and the reality experienced by patients—especially the young. Rosie’s testimony provides a raw, personal lens into a crisis affecting untold numbers who often suffer in silence.

Key Messages:

• PSSD is real, under-researched, and often permanent.
• The medical and regulatory communities have failed to warn, study, and support those affected.
• People must be empowered to ask questions, to demand long-term data, and to seek safer solutions for mental health challenges.

Resources & Advocacy:
Rosie's PSSD Network gathers research, survivor stories, and funds lobbying for change—offering hope and solidarity for sufferers.

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Listen to the Full Episode

Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Rumble. For support and more information, search for the PSSD Network.

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Note: This summary omits advertisement, intro, and outro content to focus on the episode’s key insights. All quotes and timestamps reflect the original tone and language.

Transcript

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[Tudor Dixon]

C mint mobile.com welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Today we are going to be talking about a really hard subject. I know we've had some conversations about SSRIs, and I think, you know, we've gotten a massive amount of feedback on that. I think that some people feel like they don't want to hear this. This story about medications, and then there's other group wanting to say, my goodness, this happened to me. It's really hard to talk about. And I. And I'm so glad I'm hearing it about someone else. So I know I'm not alone in this fight. And I've had a lot of people reach out to me and kind of say, I've experienced this, I've experienced this. And for me as a mom, I want to continue talking about this subject because I think so many people have made the decision to either be on these medications or put their children on these medications and not understanding the real outcome that it can have the side effects that we can be dealing with. I've actually had other parents reach out to me and say, I listened to what you said and what your guests were saying, and I've decided to either come off of these medications myself or take my children off of these medications. Our guest today approached me and we. We kind of. I think I told a story about her because I had heard her story through another doctor and so graciously she agreed to come on. I'm so glad today because we have Rosie Tilley with us. She is not only someone who has suffered some of these side effects, but she also formed her own network of PSSD survivors, I guess I would say, and sufferers. So thank you so much for coming on today to talk about this.

[Asma Khalid]

Oh, well, thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

[Tudor Dixon]

Absolutely, absolutely. So tell us a little bit about your experience, because if I remember correctly, it was Dr. Joseph who was talking about your story and saying, you know, there was. You were a young woman, you're obviously still a young woman when this happened. And it was kind of stunning to you. And there was. There was sort of this uprising around you of people that were like, this isn't happening.

[Asma Khalid]

Yeah, yeah, I. I'll try and keep my story as brief as I can, but basically, in 2020, when all the COVID lockdowns and everything were happening, I went through a really bad period. Just mentally, I went through what I would kind of describe as like a depression. Anxiety, just a really, really rough period mentally. And I did what everyone is encouraged to do, which is reach out, go see your doctor, all of that. And I ended up getting put on Lexapro. I was sent to a psychiatrist and then he prescribed me Lexapro. I took the drug for four and a half months. Horrible side effects on the drug. And to this day I have had permanent sexual dysfunction. Emotional blunting, just complete changes to, like my perception, sensory experiences I've had. Thankfully, my cognitive issues have improved a little bit over the years. But for the last five years, I have effectively been chemically castrated by this drug, which was something that I was told would happen while you're on the drug. But don't worry because once you stop taking it, everything will go away, everything will go back to normal. But that's not true. I stopped taking the drug on this. I remember the last pill I took was like half tiny tablet on December 7th of 2020. And it's. Yeah, now we're in October of 2025 and I almost feel as if I've taken the drug this morning. That's how strongly I'm still affected by these adverse effects. It was something I was never warned about. I would never have taken it if I knew that it would persist for half a decade, if not more. Or even, you know, if people say it takes that long to come back, yeah, I, I would never have gone down this route. But, yeah, here I am.

[Tudor Dixon]

So when you say they said it would happen only while you were on the medication, did you think when they said that, they actually said, you'll feel nothing, you'll have these terrible sexual side effects? Or was it like, you might have.

[Asma Khalid]

This, you might have this.

[Tudor Dixon]

Did they explain what that could be or did they just say sexual side effects?

[Asma Khalid]

I had to kind of. It was quite strange really. When I was first put on the medication, I was, I was given a very brief one sentence warning about it. So I guess it kind of like, you know, relieved any anxiety I had about taking the medication. But it was only after maybe a month of being on it. And I came back to the psychiatrist and I literally said to him, these side effects are out of control. Like, I can't. Like, this is not helping me, essentially. And that's when he was like, oh, no, you know, all of this, these effects is usually he tried to convince me that if I stay on the medication long enough, my body will adjust to the medication and the side effects will go away. And he even upped the dose and I just was completely you know, I was sitting there in his office. He had all his, like, academic accolades on his wall. So I was just like, this guy is the guru. Like, he obviously knows he's doing. But I. I later found out he clearly didn't because I'm here with all these side effects years later. But, yeah, I was. I was never really told how severe this could be. It's not just like a normal. It's not like a normal sexual dysfunction. It's like a complete chemical castration. And I was never warned in any capacity that that's what this would be. Another persist.

[Tudor Dixon]

When you say a chemical castration, what is that? What does that mean to us? Does that mean that you just. It's almost as if you have no desire at all. You cannot have a relationship?

[Asma Khalid]

It's so much more than that. It's. My body, physiologically, is no longer able to be sexually aroused in any form. Literally, the way I describe it is like, if you consider your own libido and sexual arousal, like a light switch going on, it's almost like someone's pulled the plug out of the wall and you turn the switch on at the wall and nothing happens to the light. So that's essentially what's happened to my body. It's like my entire nervous system has been. I don't know, like someone stuck a fork in a PowerPoint and it's just completely broken. I'm unable to feel anything like what I used to be able to feel prior to taking this medication. And obviously, like, this has had ongoing effects to me, like, mentally, physically, personally. But, yeah, it's. It's. It's so much more severe than not having a libido. But I know for some people with pssd, they might. Their most severe symptom is they might have a missing libido. But it's. It's not just like, oh, I don't feel like having sex right now. It's. It's. I am unable to feel like, even if I try, even if I don't feel like this and I'm trying to feel something, I literally am unable to feel anything. So it's. It's a lot more severe than just a lowered libido. I would almost argue that it would be no libido whatsoever. You essentially become completely asexual.

[Tudor Dixon]

I don't want to insult you, but it almost sounds like brain damage. Like, it's like your brain doesn't function in that area.

[Asma Khalid]

Yeah, well, I've thought long and hard about what this could be. I'm like, Is this, is this some form of brain damage? Is there something that, like, my neurons in my spine no longer connect to my brain? Like, what is going on? Yeah, they. They don't know, essentially.

[Tudor Dixon]

I can't even. I can't fathom that you have a drug like this that goes to so many people. And I would argue that SSRIs are probably some of the most prescribed medications out, that it could chemically castrate a person and a young person, I mean, any age person, that it could chemically castrate you. And they have no responsibility to even look into how it's happening or have an explanation.

[Asma Khalid]

I think that's one of my biggest learnings from this entire experience, is realizing that the studies for these drugs only ran for a maximum of up to 12 weeks, most of them. And once the study's finished, these companies are not required by law at all to evaluate what side effects did you experience during having the medication, during the treatment, and they're not required to follow you up. Six months later, 12 months later. Hey, Rosie, I saw during this clinical trial that you experienced sexual dysfunction. It's been six months since you've stopped it. Do you still have these effects? And I feel like, because there's all these little loopholes where they don't have to do this, they're not going to do it. So when you actually look at the research, the sexual side effects of SSRIs have not been studied in any capacity in the long term. The only people that have studied this, it seems kind of bizarre, right? Because you've got so many people that take these drugs for so long. We put children on them. You know, I was 20 when this happened to me. I was a. I was an adult. I essentially consented to this. It was uninformed consent, but I consented. Like, there are a lot of people putting their kids on these medications as young as. I've seen as young as 8 years old in the US I'm not sure about Australia, but they genuinely don't realize that we have no idea if these drugs are. Well, they are obviously affecting people long term sexually, like. Yeah, exactly. But we just. There's never. I remember Audrey Barrick is a. She's a longtime sufferer of PSSD. I think she got this in the 90s and she's. Yeah, she's now in a later stage of her life and it's just affected her for years. But she said this quote, and it was something to the effect of, you know, no study has ever followed the course of SSRI induced Sexual dysfunction after a patient has stopped taking the medication to evaluate when and to what degree the side effects actually resolve. So we know that people get the side effects whilst taking the drug, and the pharmaceutical companies list that, but they do not tell you how long it could last for how severe it could be. I mean, this is in the. This is in the dsm, like, this is in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It says that SSRI induced sexual dysfunction may persist after stopping the agent. They just don't tell you. That's it. Yeah.

[Tudor Dixon]

That's so insane to think that you could put your own child, you could castrate your own child and not know. And. And I don'. You know, when. When my daughter went into. We took her to a therapist and they immediately, well, I would say within a month, said that she has to be on one of these medications. And I said, absolutely not. No way. There's no way. And the pediatrician was like, oh, you've got to see a psychiatrist. There's. There's really no reason not to. And I. And there was no way. I was not, not gonna put my kid on a medication because she was anxious about washing her hands at school. I'm like, but that was it. I mean, that'. That's the crazy part about it. This was a temporary phase that she had to get through. But we put these. We just immediately say, we're going to medicate. We're going to medicate. We're going to medicate on so many things. And now, you know, as I've grown as a parent, as I've gotten older as a parent, and I've seen my four kids go through these different phases. I've seen that there are hills and valleys like anything else, and there are phases that we grow out of, and there are phases that last longer, others. But. And I've seen this with, you know, I have girls, but I've seen this with families that have boys. You know, boys are very rambunctious. They're different than my girls, I can tell you. They're different. And they don't pay attention in class. And it's like, we've got. I've even had friends that have had teachers beg the parents, please medicate your kid. This is like, too many people think this, this is normal today to just take a medication. Your situation was. You said during COVID Yeah, yeah. And I think that was just a dark period for so many people. And that was kind of a time when we heard that women in general were, I think, three times more likely than a man to be put on an antidepressant during that time. So I wonder how many of the people that were in high school and in college at that age. Those are hard ages for women in general. I think they're just, you know, we're very nasty to one another. It's hard times to get through. And I wonder how many women during that period were put on these. And I have to say that my, my little experience with it has been only for the doctor to say there could be a sexual side effect and, you know, no explanation of what a sexual side effect is.

[Asma Khalid]

I mean, I guess there's been a lot of research into PSSE the last. Well, not a lot of research at all. But there was a study that was done by Dr. Goldstein and his team, which is still yet to be published. We have a couple of clips on our Twitter of some of the. One of the doctors, one of the interventional radiologists who's done kind of high powered ultrasounds on like, penile tissue of men that have PSSD and have discovered severe fibrosis in their entire penis from taking these drugs. Yes. And they have, they have no other variable that could have possibly caused this. Like, these are young, healthy men under the age of. I think it was either 35 or under the age of 30. They have no past history of, you know, any kind of peripheral vascular disease, diabetes, smoking, nothing. They have nothing. They just all simultaneously reported having severe sexual symptoms. And also, as we're finding, as more research is discovering, there's actual damage that has been done to their physical body, to their physical structures, which is something that's quite alarming because I guess. No, the thing that irks me is that no one's being told this.

[Tudor Dixon]

Yes.

[Asma Khalid]

Like, that's what I just can't understand. You know, there might be some people that would still agree to take the medication if they were told. I don't know who would. To be honest with. Maybe there might be some. But I, I think it's really wrong when you have, like, young people and teenagers, like we have. I just want to say, like, in the PSSD community, it is literally hell on earth. Like, if you wanted to describe hell, you would see what some people go through on there. They lose everything. Like, people lose their family, they lose their marriage, they lose their jobs, and eventually a lot of people lose their lives and the family around them is also losing.

[Tudor Dixon]

I mean, this is, to me, I think this is the destruction of interpersonal relationships. And I think it has caused so much more damage than we even know. I mean, I'm so glad that you've. I'm not glad that you've gone through this. I'm so glad that you are fighting this and that you've created this site for people to go to, because it's. It's kind of like a suffer and shame kind of thing. Because we're not allowed. I think we're not allowed to ever question mental health help. If, if you come out and you say, I don't. I don't think these medications work. It's like, oh, you don't deal with this. You don't know. You don't get to say this. And I think that for those of us who've been on the outside and maybe seen relatives who have gone through this and you're, you're, you know, I can tell you, my experience is to look at someone and go, yeah, I don't. I don't even know who you are anymore. Because I think there is that emotional blunting that's. There's that inability to feel like, oh, they need a hug right now. I should hug them. There's like, there. It's like, there's a. Like you said, the switch is off. There's something missing. So when you talk about the sexual side effects, there are other side effects as well, where you feel like if you're on the. If you're the person who loves that person, you feel shut out. What is it like to be the person in that position? What are some of the stories you've heard of that emotional blunting and inability to connect?

[Asma Khalid]

Well, when I hear, like, I think a lot of people from the community try and also let people know that it's not just the sexual symptoms that maybe would drive them to a point of suicide. Like, it seems insane to me to even say this, but I actually have spoken with maybe six people over the course of the last couple of years in the community. Six people that I have spoken, like, messaged online and had multiple conversations with that I know that have gone on to commit suicide because of this. Like, they're gone now. And like, it's. It's insane to me that this problem is still so downplayed. Like, you're, you know, if you remove. If you remove, like, you know, happiness and pleasure and sex and love and joy and excitement, like, what. What is left? Like, what. Like, these are not trivial things. Like, this is what we are alive for. And I just feel like human experience. Exactly. And if it's. If it's completely ruined for someone permanently, well, they feel like, you know, that they've got nothing to live for. A lot of people feel like so betrayed by the healthcare system that also the fact that if this problem is not being taken seriously sends a message to all these people that your lives are really not of any value. And I think that's what kind of drives people over the edge in the end. And I've seen this happen like to people I know, a couple of people I was friends with multiple times. And I do want to say as well, I know this is like quite haunting but one of the guys that I was really good friends with, he was in living in Switzerland at the time. But I have messages on my phone from him of him messaging me saying if I killed myself because of this. Sorry, I know this is like really graphic but.

[Tudor Dixon]

No, this is what I need to hear.

[Asma Khalid]

Yeah, I, I think so too. He said if I killed myself because of this, people are going to say he had mental health issues, he was depressed, blah, blah, blah. I couldn't even kill myself because of this. And he has now committed suicide because of this. And I have all these messages from him. Like I could literally, I wouldn't show everyone but I could if I needed to. And you know, when I went on his like Instagram page and I saw his family and friends posting stuff like one of his friends said, oh, you know, he always struggled with his mental health. And I just want to say I really feel like a lot of these long term side effects from the drugs are being misattributed as mental health conditions when a lot of it might actually be long term harm that's come from the drug.

[Tudor Dixon]

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[Asma Khalid]

America is changing and so is the world.

[Tristan Redman]

But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.

[Asma Khalid]

I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm.

[Tristan Redman]

Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global story.

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[Tristan Redman]

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[Rodney Williams]

The US electric grid is approaching a breaking point. As demand soars from data centers and home energy use, our aging infrastructure can't keep up. And the Department of Energy warns the that without action, blackouts could surge 100 fold by 2030. The good news? One solution is already here. Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready. Powering homes and businesses with cleaner, reliable energy that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather. Learn [e-mail] I'm Rodney Williams.

[Travis Holloway]

And I'm Travis Holloway. Welcome to the Wealth Break.

[Rodney Williams]

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[Travis Holloway]

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[Travis Holloway]

And we're not stopping at success stories. We're breaking down the realities, like what it means to take risk, how to navigate failure, and why resilience matters. Because wealth isn't about money. It's about creating a life where you can thrive and help others to do the same.

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[Emily Maitlis]

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[Tudor Dixon]

These doctors that have come out and spoken against this, they've said, look, we have the highest number of antidepressants that we've ever prescribed described. We are the most medicated society that we have ever been and we still have one of the highest suicide rates. Why would that be if these are anti depressants?

[Asma Khalid]

Yeah, I think the word antidepressant is also, you know, like it's a really deceiving marketing tool to call this particular drug an antidepressant. I'm pretty sure the sexual, like actually erasing someone's sexuality or causing anti libidinal effects is the most, what's the word I'm looking for? Like common suppressant.

[Tudor Dixon]

I mean, it's a depressant.

[Asma Khalid]

Yeah, yeah, it's, it's like basically, yeah, the anti libido effects are the most common reaction to these medications. So I think if these weren't called antidepressants and they were called libido blocking drugs, I don't think people would have the same kind of response to them.

[Tudor Dixon]

No, definitely not. If that were because who I Mean, that to me is. So this is the crisis. And I talk about this because I really do believe that to have that human experience and to be able to have a partner that is a true partner, your partner needs that and you need that, that is a part of a healthy relationship is to be able to have sex. And it's, it is to me a absolute crisis that nobody wants because it's taboo. Right. We don't talk about sex. I mean, we don't talk about the fact that we think it's important in marriages. Too often it becomes, it goes by the wayside and you see the marriage break up and we don't talk about that either. It's like, this is a subject that is hard to talk about. It is hard to talk about the fact that people want to have sex, they should be able to have sex. And you question. So you've brought up so many good points because here where you're telling me, you know, you get to this point where you're completely asexual, and that is absolutely heartbreaking. And you were 20, you knew the difference between having a desire for sex and now what you are dealing with today, these horrible side effects. What about these young kids who are now getting to their teenage years where their friends are all hypersexual? You know, you're in the, you got your hormones going, you're interested in boys and girls and they don't feel anything. I mean, this could really be causing a massive collision in culture, in life, in. In the human experience.

[Asma Khalid]

Yeah, I'm, I'm fully of the assumption that. I really do believe that a lot of people that report being asexual or having sexuality that differs from the norm might actually just be suffering from a long term side effect from a drug and have no idea about it because they're not being told. Like, if you, if you. There's so many people that have reached out to us personally saying, oh my God, I have struggled with this for the most part of my life and I never realized that it came from the drug. And there's just been years worth of suffering. And I've only just pieced together that I never actually regained my sexuality after taking that ssri. I thought that it kind of just went away on its own during, you know, some random stage of puberty. So it is, it is really insane to me that this isn't being further investigated. And I, I see so many posts on Twitter of, you know, millennials and Gen Z having less sex than ever, but they're not realizing that, like the downfall in sexual behavior with Millennials and Gen Z basically mirrors the explosion of SSRI prescriptions. So, like, these drugs are literally used for chemical castration in some jurisdictions. They. They give them to pedophiles to block their libido. There are. There are articles everywhere about this. Like, this is. It's just that the public don't know. Actually know about it. And we give these drugs to children and in the same breath, like, you know, these are. All of these effects that I've just talked about are partly the reason why puberty blockers are banned in the uk. The exact same justification. And, you know, we just give it out with SSRIs, like, it's nothing. Yeah, it seems so.

[Tudor Dixon]

I mean, now there's. I feel like there's actually been serious research on that because there's been so much drama about it. And that's why I want to talk about this, because I. I think that the more you talk about it, the more you kind of force those pharmaceutical companies and what you were saying about them testing them for 12 weeks. They're testing while you're on the drug. Okay, this is what's happening in these 12 weeks. They're not following up afterward to say, wow, those side effects that they had during the 12 weeks, they stayed. These stayed. These went away. There's no. There doesn't seem to be any research on that. To me, that's devastating. I look at life as the experience of life. I have that from the standpoint of being a mom, being married, having kids, all of these things. And I think, you know, in. In life, we have some really critical needs. Obviously, we have to have food, we have to have water. But I think that. But you absolutely have to have affection. You have to have hugs, you know, as kids, you have to know that your mom and dad love you. There has to be affection there. And in a marriage, I know I just keep beating this drum, but I cannot accept the fact that you can as a pharmaceutical company. I think this is as big as the opioid crisis. To say that you have castrated people and you have taken away their ability to feel their sexual partner, to feel that amazing connection between you and another person, that is criminal.

[Asma Khalid]

But it's the. The thing that it is criminal because there was no warning. Like, telling someone that you're going to have a temporary effect is very different to having this for the rest of your life. You know, when women go to have a baby, you might have a spinal block if you have, like, a C section baby and they'll put an anesthetic into your spine and you'll be numb and you won't be able to walk for four hours. And you just be like, oh, that's fine. You know, I need this, this. But if they turned around and said, oh, by the way, you won't be able to walk ever again. That's very different to having like a temporary effect. Like, once it transitions into a permanent change, it's completely life changing. Like, this has been completely life changing for me. And I, you know, there's, there's people just not even being told. I mean, there's no warnings for this. The FDA have not released any warnings despite being asked. I remember we found a document, a random document in 2011 of Eli Lilly reaching out to the FDA, telling them that they need to update their warning leaflets, like the FDA warning leaflets for Prozac. Which is really a weird timing. Like, we, myself and the others, we've kind of said, why 2011? Like, the drugs were released almost 20 years prior to that. What, what. It's almost like they've known this and it's, have kept it under wraps and they're just like, hey, can you actually update the warning? Like, but they're not letting the public know any of this information, which is really wrong. We found, you know, there was testicular toxicity in rats when they first. On juvenile rats, when they first tested this in Europe, which was, there was a lot of ambivalence of whether or not they actually wanted to accept SSRIs, you know, in, as part of the EMA, the European Medicines Agency. They, they weren't sure if, you know, using SSRIs for children was ethical. Like, we have found internal emails and stuff like this, this. It's insane because now, like, there's, I'm pretty sure 20% of the female adult population is on these drugs. I don't know what the percentages of children, but I think if people knew that the side effects, I hate calling them side effects because that kind of almost makes people think that it's going to go away.

[Tudor Dixon]

But I know it's like the permanent effects.

[Asma Khalid]

Yeah, the adverse effects of these drugs could be permanent. I don't think people would touch them or I think people would be a lot more cautious.

[Tudor Dixon]

Yeah, I don't even think that a lot of doctors believe that that's the case. I've heard people who have gone to their, their doctor and said, I have these side effects. And they say, oh, that's. No, that's not, that's not from the drug yeah, that's not what. Well, that's the only change in my life. This is what I. I have these medications I'm taking, and this is happening on this medication. And they have been adamant. No, it's. No, you've got to stay on. And even your experience. No, you've got to increase it. If you increase it, that'll be better.

[Asma Khalid]

You.

[Tudor Dixon]

I mean, they almost treated you like you were nuts for saying this was a problem.

[Asma Khalid]

Yes. Yeah. At one point, I was having so many issues at home that. To the point that I couldn't even live with my own family because I was just so angry that this happened to me, and no one actually knew what I was going through. Like, everyone was just saying, like, you're. You need to get over this kind of. Because they didn't know that my. I love my family. Like, I just put that out there. But, like, they. They just literally did not know that it wasn't me. That was insane. It was. These companies were basically gaslighting me and saying, oh, no, our product doesn't do that. You know, so they made me feel like I was, like, all alone for the longest time. Anyway, I. I ended up having to go to this, like, youth mental health. It was like a youth mental health clinic organization. I don't even know what you call it. We had, like, a family intervention in 2021 after this happened. After, like, I had come off the job because it was so bad the side effects weren't going away. And I remember rationally presenting to him all this information, and the psychiatrist, like, it's. It's almost laughable to look back at now, but literally sectioned me, said that I was delusional, and basically put me involuntarily into mental health care. And on all of my documents, he wrote that I have firm. One of the quotes is one of my favorite ones. He said that I have firm, fixed, delusional beliefs that the medication causes side effects, is causing side effects. That's something like. It just. It's such an oxymoron because it's. It's like writing. She has a firm, fixed, delusional belief that the Pope is Catholic. Like, the drugs do cause the side effects. It's totally delusion. And who are these people to like to. To even say that? Like, it just became more and more obvious the more time I spent around this. Luckily, I didn't have to take anything in the end, and I actually managed to, you know, rationalize with a different doctor and explain to her, this might sound insane, but this is what I've been going through. It was partly because I asked at the time, I inquired about the possibility of taking what I was told would be a different drug called bupropion that supposedly reverses pssd. I never ended up taking it or anything, but I remember asking the psychiatrist about it and she had no idea. But I think they just thought I was insane because they were like, where is she getting this information from? In the end, I managed to just. I didn't have to take anything. And I said, you know, can I go home? And eventually they said, yeah, that's okay. But like, what they did was just so wrong. And you could just tell that the people that had no idea what they were doing, like, just. It completely undermined my confidence in the, in the system because I'm just like, if you're the experts and you don't know what you're doing, what.

[Tudor Dixon]

There's a radical defense of these pharmaceutical companies. That's the crazy thing. There's a radical defense of them.

[Asma Khalid]

Yeah.

[Tudor Dixon]

So you, you said that there was a drug that they said could reverse. Have you heard of anybody trying to work on something that could reverse these symptoms?

[Asma Khalid]

Unfortunately, we have no idea. I think this is another point I want to make is like, we actually have no idea what is causing this. Like, we don't even know why this change would even occur. I mean, with Allah kind of risks that people need to be more warned about. In medicine, at least we kind of know why they're happening and we could even find a way to avoid them or minimize the risk of certain things occurring. But with pssd, like you genuinely, we have absolutely no idea why this is occurring. And it's. I want to make a point as well. It's not just antidepressants that are doing this. There's another drug like a hair loss drug called finasteride or propecia that is causing virtually an identical syndrome in everyone. Not everyone, but in the people that are developing all of the long term adverse effects, like the clinical syndrome looks exactly the same.

[Tudor Dixon]

As I, as I got into this, I started to see that too, that propecia was having the same effect. And, and I, and people were pointing this out to me. Once we started talking about this on the podcast, I started getting messages saying, prope I, I don't have of the SSRI problem. This happened to me because I had hair loss. If I had had a doctor tell me you can have hair loss or you could never have sex again, what do you think I'd choose?

[Asma Khalid]

Yeah, and Even then it's. It's almost like there's, you know, those, There's a, There's a company that I can't stand called Hims and Hers that aggressively markets SSRIs and these kind of hair loss pills to young people using, like, you know, there's the. I have. My friends from the US have ads pop up on the Instagram and yeah.

[Tudor Dixon]

I see them all the time.

[Asma Khalid]

Yeah, that's insane to me because, you know, we're not in Australia. You're not allowed to advertise these drugs. But they advertise so much better. It's. I know, it's. It's. We just advertise the disease instead. So I just, I just find like, yeah, these, all of these, like aggressive marketing tools from these companies to try and get as many people onto these medications as possible without actually knowing that the effects can be permanent, let alone having to list it on their website at the very least is just. I think it's criminal. I think it should. This, this, this needs to be a criminalized, like, offense. It's so bad.

[Tudor Dixon]

It's so funny. We're so used to them and I think that as adults we've become so used to them because we hear the commercials constantly. And a few weeks ago, One of my 12 year olds was sitting in the kitchen and one of those commercials played and she looked at me, she goes, why would you ever take that.

[Asma Khalid]

That.

[Tudor Dixon]

And I said, and I was like, I mean, I've become desensitized to it. I said, what do you mean? And she was like, did you hear all of the horrible things? It could prevent you from having nosebleeds, but you're gonna have all these other horrible things. And I was like, I guess it's so obvious when you're a little kid and you hear it. We are. So I think what you said struck me. You walked in, he had all the credentials, so he should have been the expert. You, you felt comfortable. And I think too often we feel comfortable with doctors because of that. So you. PSSD Network, that's the post SSRI sexual dysfunction network. Tell us a little bit about that. Because I think there's got to be people out there that are looking for other people. Yeah.

[Asma Khalid]

So we, we just decided to create like a little, almost like a hub, like a network of every piece of academic literature that we could find on the subject and, you know, try and connect with clinicians and researchers and try. And basically this is another thing I want to mention. We are not supported in any capacity by like any external, you know, when there's certain diseases they receive a lot of funding and grant funding and support and things like that. It's been really hard for us. There are people like we're all self funding this research. Like people are putting money into, you know, like a small pool of money to try and get researchers to actually look into this because it costs an eye watering amount of money to have to, you know, fund these studies. The pharmaceutical companies have like, they just spend money on things like this. Like it's going out of fashion. But for us like, it just feels really wrong. You know, you've got people that can't even work that are giving like a hundred dollars a month. It's like a lot of money to those people where like it would literally be not even a drop in the ocean to these companies. It should be the ones paying for it essentially. But I think that what we've tried to do is yeah, work together to create a network so that we can get research into the condition and like, more, more. So we just want to get it officially recognized. I mean it's just been so gaslit for so long and it's just been too easy for these doctors to say that's not possible without actually having to do any further investigation. Like they've just been given some sort of authority to say no, that's not true. Well there's obviously a huge bias there because a lot of these doctors are paid by the pharmaceutical companies. They have every intention to promote the drug and downplay our stories, yet they're the ones given authority to do so. Like there's this woman, her name is Anita Clayton for example. And you know, she's taken so much money from these pharmaceutical companies. She's a psychiatry, she's a psychiatrist. But she, she has made so many comments about how this isn't possible and all of this stuff when she's simultaneously getting paid by the pharmaceutical company to promote her drug. And she, I remember once she even said it's not possible for this drug to cause pssd and in the same breath said oh, our drug actually could be really helpful for these conditions. So it's like her, her lies aren't even making sense because there's just holes in her story everywhere. But yeah, like there's so many people like that that it, you know, they hold. But that's what's so wrong is like they hold the position of authority and you know, they make these, you know, massive decisions that because they, they have all these letters next to their name and their accolades. We get ignored when we're the ones telling the truth. But yeah, so I guess our, our work has just kind of been to just raise awareness and get people noticing this issue because it's, and that's another thing. Like, it's so hard to raise awareness for this. I mean, coming on camera and like speaking about this issue is not easy because in the back of your head you're always like, are my colleagues gonna see this? Like, I really don't want anyone from my work to know about this. Like, I kind of, I'm a very quiet person usually. And there's so many people that feel like they just can't raise awareness. So we're just trying to.

[Tudor Dixon]

That's what I mean. It's a subject that has historically been so taboo to, about sex and sexual desire. And it's like you shouldn't talk about that. You know, you shouldn't ever acknowledge that. And yet you have doctors who are unwilling to acknowledge it. This is the problem that we have. Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on the Tudor Dixon Podcast.

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[Asma Khalid]

America is changing and so is the world.

[Tristan Redman]

But what's happening in America isn't just the cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.

[Asma Khalid]

I'm Asma Khalid in Washington D.C. i'm.

[Tristan Redman]

Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global story.

[Podcast Announcer]

Every weekday we'll bring you a story.

[Asma Khalid]

From this intersection where the world and America meet.

[Tristan Redman]

Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts take a deep dive into the stories making the news headlines across the world.

[Emily Maitlis]

The News Agents we're not just here to tell you what's happening, but why? From me, Emily Maitlis and me, John Sopel with Global's award winning podcast the News Agents dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and current affairs.

[Tristan Redman]

And The News Agents USA listening to.

[Emily Maitlis]

The News Age Agents on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search the News agents to start listening.

[Rodney Williams]

The US Electric grid is approaching a breaking point. As demand soars from data centers and home energy use, our aging infrastructure can't keep up. And the Department of Energy warns that without action, blackouts could surge 100 fold by 2030. The good news? One solution is already here. Propane. Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready. Powering homes and businesses with cleaner, reliable energy that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather. Learn [e-mail] I'm Rodney Williams.

[Travis Holloway]

And I'm Travis Holloway. Welcome to the Wealth Break.

[Rodney Williams]

Let's be honest, building wealth doesn't look the same for everyone. It's not just about saving. It's about investing. It's about navigating stuff systems that weren't built for you, embracing your hustle and relying on your community to create something bigger.

[Travis Holloway]

And that's exactly why we created the Wealth Break. We made something different, something more human. It's not just another financial podcast. It's a conversation about real life, real struggles and real wins.

[Rodney Williams]

We're here to talk about the journey. You'll hear from people who've broken barriers, found creative ways to succeed and learn to build wealth on their time. Whether it's the first time homeowner, a gig worker, or someone turning a side hustle into a six figure business, we're bringing you their stories.

[Travis Holloway]

And we're not stopping at success stories. We're breaking down the realities, like what it means to take risk, how to navigate failure, and why resilience matters. Because wealth isn't about money. It's about creating a life where you can thrive and help others to do the same.

[Rodney Williams]

So if you're ready for a podcast as much as as about people as it is about money, you're in the right place.

[Travis Holloway]

Listen to the Wealth Break podcast on the iHeartRadio app.

[Tudor Dixon]

I've talked to several experts now in the field and I would argue, is there really a benefit to these medications? Are they, I mean, we, you know, I've had some doctors who have been like, well, in certain situations when it's for a short period, I can see how it could be helpful if someone's going through something really hard. But then ultimately if they happen to be the, you know, get the bad lottery where they have these terrible side effects. Was it worth it to go through a six week hardship and take these meds and then find out that you've got a lifelong hardship? It's just a new hardship and a different type of hardship and one that is much longer lasting. This is, to me, I just think it's criminal. I just think it's, it's criminal. And that we've had this like mafia of pharmaceutical, pharmaceutical companies that have had, had the government covering for them. And that's why I talk about this, because I just can't believe the government hasn't had to come out and say we want answers, we want answers as to how these people's lives could be like this. So what is the future for you? Do you see? I. Do you see having relationships and, and children and what do you see for yourself?

[Asma Khalid]

Honestly, like, I think this has been the hardest part is like I wake up every day and I just, just feel like since the day I got this every day I'm like, I don't know what to do. I just genuinely don't know what to do. I don't know what is going to happen in the future. I try not to think about it. I just try and live each day and just focus on what I can control in the immediate term, but like long term. I know this has changed my life forever. I don't know where I'll be in five years. I don't know where I'll be in 10 years. I try not to think about it because it's just like I used to have kind of like a plan of what I would want for my life and now that's been completely changed. Not just because of my sexuality, but like the emotional blunting. Like I just feel completely different. I'm just a different person now. So I just try, I guess we just try and raise as much awareness and we just really want research to investigate this problem. I mean, I think one of the hardest things is like this is something that might be fixable but no one's allocating any resources to actually help us because people are too busy trying to suppress the problem and say that's not my fault, we didn't cause that. We're not, you know, they would rather defend themselves rather than just look at Us from like, a human standpoint and be like, okay, this is a problem. They need help. We just really need, like, yeah, yeah, sorry.

[Tudor Dixon]

That's why. No, that's why we're doing this is hopefully someone sees this and they. They say, this is enough is enough. We don't want our loved ones to go through this, and we don't want to go through this. I mean, this is. Is, like I said, I can think of nothing more cruel that you would know. But we. But it's not. It's not impossible because, I mean, we had the guy on here that. What he wrote the book about Johnson and Johnson. I'm looking at Sarah because she's got all of these. You know, she scheduled all of these, and she knows who these people are, and he exposed all these. I mean, they had. They knew for years that they were hurting women with the devices they were putting into them, with the medications, and yet they were suppressing that. So you're not crazy. I mean, this does happen, and that's why we want to get this out there so that people can hear this and there can be an uprising against this and say, like, we can't let this happen to our young people in this country, in this world. I mean, you talk about six people, you know, that have committed suicide. The suicide rate keeps climbing, especially for women, and it is climbing in the category of people who are on these medications. And that should be enough. That should be enough. Just the idea that people have said, I can't do it anymore. I can't live like this anymore. That should be enough, that the government or somebody should be stepping in and doing something. And so I commend you. I commend you for doing this, because I am like, I don't know how you do. I mean, you're amazing. I am so impressed with you.

[Asma Khalid]

Thank you. It's honestly been so hard. Like, I'm not just saying that, but it's just so. It's such a hard topic to talk about because. Because at the end of the day, this is. I can't think of a more deeply personal topic. So this is just not something that. Or even not just personal, but something that could be made fun of or you could be left feeling humiliated. This has just been, like, so difficult. But I also just feel like if. If we don't say anything, no one's going to know about it. It. And I also feel like sometimes it's. It. It doesn't. It's. You know, we've had amazing advocates speak up about this, like, Yosef Wood during. And, you know, a lot of others. But sometimes I feel like it really does have to come from the person that's experiencing it firsthand to actually tell people what this is like. Because, honestly, I remember hearing a PFS software suffer a person astride syndrome sufferer explain this as a complete biological paradigm shift. And that's how I feel. It's just like I've just gone through this tunnel and come out the other side, and now I'm just, like, living this weird existence.

[Tudor Dixon]

But I think today we. We look back at the years of lobotomies and we go, how could that have ever happened? And yet this feels like a chemical lobotomy.

[Asma Khalid]

It absolutely does. Like, even when I listen to music, it doesn't sound the same. I still have ringing in my ears. I still have, you know, visual snow. There's a lot of other things that I have on top of the sexual side effects and emotional blunting things. But, yeah, it's. I just want people to be aware that these drugs have not been studied in the long term. And we actually don't. Like, Joanna Moncrie Brief talks about this a lot, but we. This is basically a massive experiment. We don't know what the effects of these drugs are over the long term on, you know, children or even adults. And, yeah, it's. It's. It's. I don't even know what to say, to be honest. It's just been so difficult because people tell you that it's not real when I'm like, no, it's. I'm definitely experiencing this. Like, I don't have a choice.

[Tudor Dixon]

No, I'm so. I'm so impressed that you came on to share it. I mean, honestly, I just think you're so brave and keep going, Keep doing this. If there's anything that I know my audience would feel the same way. If there's anything that we can tell you is like, God has a plan for you. You are clearly doing. You are a voice that most people couldn't be. And I know, like, I feel all of those feelings for you. You know, that concern of should I feel embarrassed, should I feel like I can't discuss this? But I'm like, you are so brave, like, what an amazing woman you are.

[Asma Khalid]

That you can go out and do this. This. Yeah, I think it just came from a real. Oh, my dog's right here. But, yeah, it just came from a real point of, like, there was literally nothing else that we possibly could do than to just start telling everyone what they've done to us essentially, until so much is time that someone actually does something to try and help us. Because if we don't do this, nothing's going to change and they'll just be, yeah, yeah, we'll never kind of get out of that little hole that we were in. So thank you so much, though. That's so kind of you.

[Tudor Dixon]

No, thank you. Thank you for coming on today. Rosie Tilly, thank you. I appreciate you. I think you're amazing. Keep going. Thank you for coming on.

[Asma Khalid]

Thanks so much for having me. Thank you.

[Tudor Dixon]

Absolutely. And, and as always, thank you all for listening to the Tudor Dixon podcast. You can get this podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you you get your podcasts and you can watch it on YouTube or rumble uterdixon and join us next time. Have a blessed day.

[Asma Khalid]

America is changing and so is the world.

[Tristan Redman]

But what's happening in America isn't just the cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.

[Asma Khalid]

I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm.

[Tristan Redman]

Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global story.

[Podcast Announcer]

Every weekday we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet.

[Tristan Redman]

Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Take a deep dive into the stories making the news headlines across the world. The News agents.

[Emily Maitlis]

We're not just here to tell you what's happening, but why? From me, Emily Maitlis and me, John Sopel with Global's award winning running podcast, the News Agents Dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and current affairs.

[Tristan Redman]

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[Emily Maitlis]

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[Rodney Williams]

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[Travis Holloway]

And I'm Travis Holloway. Welcome to the Wealthbreak podcast, a real conversation about finance.

[Rodney Williams]

Let's be honest, building weft doesn't look the same for everyone.

[Tudor Dixon]

I feel like sometimes being broke is a cycle and that we might have.

[Travis Holloway]

To revisit that and we're not stopping at success stories.

[Podcast Announcer]

What happens when it doesn't go right? How do you cope with it?

[Rodney Williams]

Because wealth isn't just about money. It's about creating a life where you thrive and help others do the same.

[Travis Holloway]

Listen to the Wealth Break podcast on the iHeartRadio app.

[Tristan Redman]

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[Asma Khalid]

This is an iHeart podcast.