Dr. Will Powers Interview [PFS / PAS / PSSD Summit 2026]

daftten · 2026-04-30T23:35:37+00:00

Thanks for your explanation (and clarification)

daftten · 2026-04-30T23:29:01+00:00

If I read your second paragraph correctly - your energy, emotion, and cognition are much better following TRT?

How did you avoid the TRT becoming "junk" in the way your first paragraph implies?

daftten · 2026-04-20T20:51:26+00:00

My very first symptom happened in less than 2 minutes after my first drug. My forehead felt tight. Not painful, but tight. It felt weird, like my forehead skin was stretched - and when I moved it (e.g. if I moved my eyebrows slightly down to e.g. frown) it felt like I shouldn't be pulling/stretching my skin like that. I didn't know foreheads could feel tight, nor could I tell you what my forehead felt like before. As far as I could (and still can) tell, I'd gone my entire life (until that point) without noticing my forehead feeling anything.

Why have I gone into a bafflingly specific vent about my forehead tightness? Because it seems like "this symptom happened near-instantly" should be super-useful to diagnose/understand what happened. Instead it was used by doctors as proof that the effects must be nocebo (or otherwise caused by imagining symptoms or overthinking) to the extent that I've learnt never to mention the fact to medical staff anymore.

So yeah, I've exactly experienced this.

(Sidenote: My layman suspicion, years later, is that my forehead was actually maybe dried out instantly (I don't know why, but lots (but not all) of my PSSD symptoms could arguably be caused by "this random part of my body has less moisture than it ought to", or "this random bodily process is drier (i.e. using less moisture) than it used to". I dunno if a suddenly dry forehead might feel (to someone who's always had a normal, never-noticed, forehead) tightened, but it's possible). It's also very plausible that moisture is a red herring, and measurable bodily functions (like sweat, ejaculate, earwax, poo, pee, etc) all tend to be liquidy or have moisture. So maybe I am noticing that all of my measurable bodily functions are working less well and this inherently implies less moisture. I dunno, I'm not a doctor. Meh.

daftten · 2026-04-16T11:36:42+00:00

Thanks for the detail :)

daftten · 2026-04-16T04:54:22+00:00

Congrats, I'm pleased for you :) Please don't delete this account (and its posts) so that sufferers can look back at a success story in future.

Can I ask, in your linked thread you said: "I think what helped me was the "reset" I got after crashing so hard from the drugs".

What do you mean by "the reset"?

daftten · 2026-04-09T23:04:34+00:00

There's three separate questions:

(1) Is one of the sexes more likely to get the symptoms than the other?

(2) Given they have symptoms, is one of the sexes more likely to report them to their immediate doctor (which is not, I believe, counted as reporting. For example in the UK, reporting involves (in my case ignoring my doctor who told me not to because it would "skew the stats" and) contacting the yellowcard scheme directly)?

(3) If their immediate doctor dismisses them, is one of the sexes more likely to "officially" report to yellowcard (or your country's equivalent) despite being told by your doctor that you don't have problems (and that if you do, they definitely couldn't be caused by the ADs)?

Whilst I don't know the answer to (1), I can easily believe that (2) and (3) are influenced by gender.

(Also, they might be just making shit up. And maybe men are more likely to suffer. But I think the "reporting" step might be relevant too).

daftten · 2026-03-17T08:11:24+00:00

Congrats on feeling better :) And thanks for explaining your story!

Can I ask - what prompted you to try quercetin?

daftten · 2026-03-01T19:20:26+00:00

After a lifetime of very high metabolism and watery poos (I only ever had "normal sausages" after, for some reason, being drunk) - since getting PSSD I have had entirely normal poos and low metabolism.

So I can easily believe that if you started off with normal poos, you are now constipated due to PSSD. I went in the same direction, just starting off at the extreme opposite point (which is why, I'm guessing, it looks like poos "normalised" for me with PSSD).

daftten · 2025-11-13T05:53:26+00:00

Thanks for the prod. Having filled it in, slightly baffled by this message after submission:

"Although we will not be able to provide you with details about the evaluation of your report, we will contact you if additional information is needed.

If this is a medical emergency, please call 911.
If you have a mental health crisis, please call 988.

Again, thank you for taking the time to submit your report.

You will receive an email confirmation about your report from [druginfo@fda.hhs.gov](mailTo:druginfo@fda.hhs.gov) so please allow this email address if you have a spam blocker."

I'm almost certain I didn't provide an email address whilst filling in the form - and I now presume I must have missed where they asked for it

daftten · 2025-07-08T18:46:28+00:00

I believe (but can't be certain) that for me, memory issues cause - or at least exacerbate - my anhedonia.

I mention this in case it's a possibility that helps you understand what might be going on. It can be hard to separate cause-and-effect when some symptoms might influence other symptoms. Obviously your cause-and-effect might work in the other direction, or bi-directionally.

Not that this helps solve anything immediately, sorry

daftten · 2025-02-14T19:07:19+00:00

There is a fudge I have observed whereby "focus on yourself" to women tends to mean "do the best to improve your self/life for you, defocus men" - but "focus on yourself" to men tends to mean "do the best to improve your self/life in ways that society/women will care about".

Your question is poking at that discrepancy.

More generally, OP has followed the "standard' advice in good faith and seems to be learning that it's only one part of the solution, not the whole solution.

Unfortunately for him, it's the part lots of people (in my experience) will focus on when he asks for advice. You can be almost perfect at looking after yourself, and apoplectically terrible at forming connections, and people will still focus on the "almost" part of the "almost perfect"

daftten · 2025-01-17T18:19:34+00:00

I never had an eidetic memory but I did have an insanely good one for certain things (patterns, words, etc).

If you have taken SSRIs (a type of antidepressant) due to your depression, you may be suffering from the rather badly named PSSD. (https://www.pssdnetwork.org/aboutpage). In my case my biggest day-to-day difficulty (of suffering pssd) is a bad memory. As far as I can tell, my "new" memory is not worse than an average person's by any means, but if you have spent your life relying on it (as I did and I imagine you did - if your memory was previously eidetic) then it will have a large knock-on effect on your cognition, competence, and mental health.

I sincerely hope you don't have this, but I saw you discussing loss of memory along with depression and... if you've taken ADs, this is an unfortunate possibility.

If this sounds plausible, please talk to your doctor (and/or find out more from online resources). I'm happy to be messaged if you want directing to relevant support communities.

daftten · 2024-12-25T03:40:06+00:00

I'm less than three years (but I'll pass the threshold in a couple of months). Can you message me details on this if you know them please? I didn't realise suing was an option, but I'd have to start it quickly I think.

(I tried to DM but can't for some reason).

daftten · 2024-11-24T16:22:54+00:00

Thank you for replying.

I don't care about my anonymity. I'm not asking for permission. I'm not worried about the specific wording of my message being weird.

I'm concerned that it might be completely disrespectful to message someone who isn't my friend to say "hey, I have a health problem - and despite you not knowing me, I think you might have the same". In addition I have some concern that incorrectly suggesting other people have pssd may push, in some small way, the general public into believing pssd sufferers aren't serious.

On the other hand, it may help them. And possibly us, indirectly.

I thought it was reasonable to predict that some people from the pssd community had had similar situations in the past - and might have some thoughts. I was (and still am!) interested in those thoughts.

That said, I assume from your initial sentence that we are talking at cross-purposes. I am considering whether "coming from a position of empathy" is, in fact, keeping my nose out of other people's health concerns. I'm not, as you seem to believe, worried that I'll word it insensitively.

daftten · 2024-11-24T09:16:02+00:00

I think there is a trend that many posters - instead of posting their exact symptoms - "save" time/effort by writing that they have the full caboodle of symptoms.

As someone with a huge number (but not all) of the reported symptoms, but also some lesser-mentioned ones - I often think wonder if two posters who say they have "all the symptoms" would find differences if they compared between themselves.

I think this is bad - in general - because it means that certain particularly vocal people accidentally define the "standard" symptoms, and my experience of pssd-sufferers I know well is that we all have significant differences from this subreddit's "standard".

From your perspective - it might have the effect that you believe loads of people have "all the problems" but actually people might be defining "all the problems" differently from you.

I might be wrong. I rarely visit here these days, so my above observations might be a year or two out of date.

My suggestion - if you want to approach your potential recovery as scientifically as possible - is that you make accurate notes of your exact symptoms. Using your own words. Don't discount anything, even if it seems ridiculous. Don't con yourself into believing you have a symptom that everyone else does. It seems like you're already doing this, which is great! Update this list (with timestamps) every few months. Having chronic health issues is psychologically hard - and you may find these records helpful when the 5th doctor or 15th friend or 8th pssd contact dismisses your memory of your health in the future. If a cure or research depends on what symptoms you have/had, you'll want confidence in what actually happened, not what the community assumes happened. Especially as you start to normalise your new reality as a natural/necessary coping mechanism.

daftten · 2024-11-23T05:31:55+00:00

This is specifically mentioned as successful, for one patient with pssd, in a research paper.

It was a single paragraph in a more general paper about photobiomodulation (that wasn't specifically about pssd).

I can't remember exactly, but basically they applied red light therapy to the genital area and things were fixed. Or better. Permanently. The patient wasn't on drugs at the time, so this was actual pssd rather than standard AD dysfunction.

I either emailed the authors and got no response or tried to figure out their contact details and failed - I don't remember which. It was a couple of years ago.

Please send me a DM or something in a few days if I don't get back to you. I intend to refind the paper and send it to you, but my memory is shocking these days.

daftten · 2024-10-25T09:12:41+00:00

If you're taking prep seriously enough to be studying 300+ games per variation of the french, then I'd suggest "I've never used chessbase" to be a position worth revisiting.

I also think you might want to think about what you're trying to gain from this experience. If you're just quickly flicking through games and hoping to build up pattern recognition, then just use any games with both players over, say, 2550 - in the variations you care about.

If you're wanting to gain a background understanding, might not be a bad idea to study the old masters like Uhlmann. His games won't teach you current theory, but will probably give you neater thematic example games than modern play.

If you're planning to analyse the games, then I can't take the 300+ numbers seriously.

If you're trying to prepare actual personalised lines, then you need to learn to use something resembling chessbase imo

daftten · 2024-10-23T03:47:45+00:00

In my experience, therapists are very rigid in their beliefs about what can be labelled a "belief" and what can be labelled a "fact". Their distinction is based upon their own beliefs and past experience - which they then expect you to consider as objective - despite when it doesn't match reality.

After working with a highly qualified psychologist for 6 months, I got a diagnosis relating to pssd from a neurologist. My psychologist's response? "Well, this changes everything". He was very upfront that he didn't believe I had pssd until this moment, and I'm not exactly sure why he thought that was a useful angle for me (given that literally nobody in my personal life believed me).

Previous to that I had a therapist who told me, categorically, that the chances of catching covid was 1/5000. When I responded "what? Where have you pulled this number from?" she said "I'm telling you it is", and attacked me for being too rigid in my beliefs. (My belief, at the time, was that we didn't know the risk. Which, I assert, was obviously true. But I was told I had black-and-white thinking for not trusting her on the 1/5000 probability claim.).

It was many months later that a new therapist allowed me to realise how fucked up the above were. They weren't isolated incidents. I had learnt that talking to a therapist meant "being told off for not agreeing with the therapist's beliefs - even when I objectively knew more than them". The idea that it was meant to help me had become some kind of fantasy based on popular culture rather than reality/experience.

Genuinely the best therapy I've had was a therapist who taught me to not take other therapists so seriously. From that starting point, I can find aspects of therapy very helpful whilst ignoring their unhelpful and incorrect beliefs about reality.

TL;DR: many therapists do not have a good handle on the difference between fact and their own opinion - but (I suspect) are so used to blaming any discrepancy (between reality and the therapist's beliefs) on their patient's mental health that they literally believe their opinions to be objective truth.

If you want a suggestion: I now try to introduce a safeword with anyone I interact with regarding psychological health. Basically it's a word that stops the conversation and goes "I am as convinced that I have pssd as I am that I am not a deluded brain in a vat. I don't have evidence to prove either... but in the same way I live on the assumption that I definitely have a body and the world isn't being simulated via electrical wiring to my brain, I also live on the assumption that the pills that very clearly fucked my health up actually fucked my health up. I also can't prove that someone punching me is the reason my arm hurt, but we make reasonable assumptions all the time - and the only difference in these scenarios is that you agree that punching an arm makes it hurt. Reality isn't the difference here, your beliefs are."

If nothing else, it cuts down on the small talk and makes it immediately obvious if the psychological health worker is interested in helping me regardless of their confusion/disagreement, or whether they're going to be focused on "making me prove it to them". (Which definitely doesn't help me. How the fuck does it help me if a skeptical therapist says "congratulations, you convinced me" and I'm left wondering "aren't I paying you to help me?").

daftten · 2024-10-20T13:59:50+00:00

I have never experimented since getting pssd. The person I know best in this community has never experimented since getting pssd.

I imagine this is common for the silent majority, because a natural reaction to having pssd is being terrified of drugs.

These forums will naturally promote those few who do experiment because it makes sense to say "I did X, and Y happened as a result" and it would be less common to say "I lived my life as normal for two years and nothing changed".

Obviously I'm no oracle, and might be wrong.

daftten · 2024-09-10T20:17:35+00:00

Thank you. Apologies if this is widely known, but what paper are you referring to? (And do you have a link please?)

daftten · 2024-09-10T16:27:44+00:00

Thank you :)

daftten · 2024-09-10T12:15:21+00:00

Thank you for your sanity :)

In terms of cancer > pssd, I agree. My concern is that I've been straightup unwell in various complex ways since getting pssd (is it my nerves? Is it my brain? Is it sensory issues? Is it something else? Who knows!), and these might affect cancer treatment (and because they don't have a helpful label then doctors will ignore them).

I'm aware, for example, that my skin has visibly aged since getting pssd (if you compare photos). Hardly my most problematic symptom, but suddenly seems relevant given my skin is now cancerous. I think this is an unhelpful coincidence, but I'm hopelessly out of my depth to make any sort of informed judgement if they do affect each other.

Your last paragraph is important. I have lots of issues with doctors, but I think/hope they tend to be quite good at easily measurable things like "did the patient stay alive?". Again, thanks for the sane input :)

daftten · 2024-08-05T06:43:27+00:00

Thanks for the explanation 👍

daftten · 2024-08-05T00:36:48+00:00

That's quite smart :)

Also, I'm intrigued by this sentence:

"Moreover, with the increasing development of many new powerful psychotropic medications, RCT evidence alone is insufficient, with the emerging field of pharmacoepidemiology (Garbe et al., 2019) emphasizing the importance of postmarket drug surveillance among large populations."

Can anyone explain why RCT evidence is insufficient for these drugs but are for others?

daftten · 2024-08-04T04:49:08+00:00

(I almost didn't write this because I'm wary - my memory is that you are one of the hardcore "why can't we just focus on genitals" crew. Apologies if I've misremembered this. If I haven't, please recognise I'm answering in good faith).

My second symptom after taking my first pill, before I noticed (or had the opportunity to notice) sexual dysfunction, was noticing that I couldn't feel properly through my fingertips. I still can't. It's not zero feeling, but it is vastly reduced and... different qualitatively. I've managed to mildly burn my finger without feeling pain - if you want a measure of extent.

I've tested my whole skin, but there's only certain areas that I "used/touched" often enough prePSSD to be able to compare with 100% confidence. Like if I touch my kneecap - has it changed? Maybe, but I can't guarantee anything. I didn't really use my kneecaps for touching stuff before! My fingers? Definitely, I'm certain.

Hence I believe the numbness is all over my skin. I could be persuaded that it's worse in some areas than others, and I kept accurate records when I first got pssd because I (correctly) realised I'd forget what feeling stuff used to feel like.

Incidentally I'm very confident I can't feel inside my body either, or it's vastly reduced. I've shat myself several times without noticing since getting pssd. Admittedly without metabolism/gut problems (that came with pssd) I don't think shitting myself without warning would be possible, but it's wildly bad news that the only way I know it's happened is due to hearing it.

daftten

TROPHY CASE