Orgasmic Meditation & Wellbeing
Millions of people on antidepressants experience sexual, emotional, and physical numbness as a side effect. Here's what emerging science — and people who found their way back — want you to know.
In Your Body
SSRIs — selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors — are among the most prescribed medications in the world, used for depression, anxiety, OCD, PMS, and more. They work by blocking the reabsorption of serotonin in your brain, initially increasing its availability. But over time, the brain compensates by producing less serotonin of its own, leading to a depletion effect that many people feel as a general flattening of experience.
One of the most common — and least discussed — side effects is a kind of numbness: difficulty feeling sexual pleasure, emotional distance from people you love, a sense of living behind glass. A growing number of clinicians now recognize a condition called Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), where these symptoms can persist even after stopping the medication.
Dr. Teresa Diaz, OB/GYN
Functional Medicine Physician
"Most people are never informed about the possible side effects to libido, orgasm, genital sensation, emotional connection or the nervous system… I see a medical world that dissects our symptoms into separate diseases when every single symptom is usually connected to the same things."
"It's a depletion. Initially it's a flooding of serotonin, which gives us this feel good, but ultimately it becomes a depletion of the serotonin… There needs to be an awareness of what's going on."
Feeling Better vs. Less Bad
Emotions can broadly be thought of in two categories: negative affect — sadness, anxiety, fear, numbness — and positive affect — joy, aliveness, pleasure, connection.
Researchers Nicole Prause, PhD (UCLA) and Dr. Greg Siegle (University of Pittsburgh) studied both SSRIs and OM using the same emotional measurement tools, and found a striking difference:
Orgasmic Meditation
SSRIs
In plain terms: SSRIs can help turn down the volume on sadness, anxiety, and low mood. But they don't appear to turn up the volume on joy, aliveness, or pleasure. OM, in the same research framework, appeared to do both.
"People who are depressed have trouble experiencing intense emotional feelings, and especially sticking with them. It's that sustained positive emotional response that people who are depressed really struggle with. If OM can help people get to where they can sustain that pleasure longer, that can be a huge win."
— Nicole Prause, PhD · Int J Psychophysiology, 2022 →
The Science on OM
There are now nine peer-reviewed studies on Orgasmic Meditation by independent scientists. Here are the findings most relevant to emotional and physical numbness.
Finding No. 01
In a multi-site psychophysiological study of 250 practitioners, OM was found to significantly increase positive affect and decrease negative affect in a single session. Researchers noted this pattern as directly relevant to treating depression.
Prause N, Siegle GJ. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 2022.
View Study →Finding No. 02
An fMRI study found significant changes in resting-state brain functional connectivity following OM, comparable to patterns seen in established meditation practices, alongside changes in heart rate variability suggesting autonomic nervous system activation.
Newberg A et al. Frontiers in Psychology, 2021.
View Study →Finding No. 03
Contrary to expectations, practitioners with adverse childhood experiences and trauma histories reported greater physiological arousal during OM than those without. Researchers interpreted this as evidence that the structured safety container of OM allows the body to re-engage with pleasure in a way trauma otherwise prevents.
Prause N, Cohen J, Siegle GJ. PLOS ONE, 2021.
View Study →Finding No. 04
The first clinical trial of OM for PTSD found the protocol to be feasible and safe, with clinically meaningful symptom improvements warranting larger trials. Participants reported high satisfaction and no serious adverse events.
Griggs S, Pelletier KR et al. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 2025.
View Study →Lived Experience
From the panel "The Unspoken Epidemic: Healing the Body After SSRIs."
"It was like I wasn't quite happy, I wasn't sad — but I felt very unmotivated. Sexually it felt like there was a film, a numbness of everything. And then when I found this practice, it was like sunshine came back in… like the movie Pleasantville — from black and white to color."
Rachael
OM practitioner for 20 years; previously on SSRIs for most of her 20s
"I had two choices: take the antidepressants and lose access to the one thing that ever had me feel alive — or not take them and never feel alive. One morning I woke up and thought, 'Something feels different.' I realized: I don't have a desire to not be alive. That was the constant thing in my life. Forever. And it was gone."
Courtenay
On and off antidepressants from age 16 to 28
"I know that I am attracted to you — I knew that — but I don't feel it anymore. It was like a dream stage. I started to reorient and re-understand what was happening in my body as something positive and as a lot of power and creativity that wanted to be used and go out into the world."
Chelsea
Social worker and OM practitioner; started SSRIs in high school for anxiety
"They're not broken. When we learn to put a safety valve right here, when the energy starts to come up, it meets a wall — and that's anxiety. If we notice it and open it… I just remember coming into this practice with very little ability to interact with people, and all of a sudden all the humans around me had color."
Dr. Teresa Diaz, OB/GYN
Functional Medicine Physician; 14-year OM practitioner
Next Steps
If you'd like to explore Orgasmic Meditation, here are some ways to get started.
Notes & Citations
