A 21-year-old college student struggles to sleep during finals month. On a friend’s recommendation, she decides to seek out a sleep aid. She books a telehealth appointment through an app she saw advertised on Instagram. It’s covered by her insurance and only takes about 3 minutes to set up a therapy session via an AI chatbot. By the end of a 10-minute conversation, a psychiatrist prescribes a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), capable of undermining her sexual function for life without so much as a fine-print warning.  This is the scenario that the psychiatric and pharmaceutical worlds have made so readily accessible to Americans for easy profit and with little concern over an ignored side effect: Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD).   SSRIs make up about 70% of antidepressant prescriptions and are consumed by tens of millions of Americans every day. From 2006 to 2023, the number of U.S. children and adolescents ages 3-17 receiving SSRIs has more than doubled.   The increasingly popular drugs block the process of the chemical messenger serotonin being taken back into brain cells, increasing the amount of serotonin available for communication between cells. Most SSRIs come with an FDA black-box warning that the drug may cause suicidal thoughts and behavior in children and young adults. Still, some psychiatrists feel comfortable prescribing these powerful drugs through casual mediums after brief patient interactions—and one heinous side effect is still a mystery to most patients.   PSSD is a condition that includes loss of libido, pleasureless orgasms, reduced tactile sensitivity, emotional blunting, and genital numbness similar to that produced by a local anesthetic. These symptoms can begin after only a couple of doses, and they can persist after medication is stopped.   There is currently no federal requirement for psychiatrists to calculate the risk of sexual side effects known to patients before prescribing SSRIs, and the FDA does not currently require a warning for PSSD to be printed on any antidepressants.  While PSSD is severely understudied, it is not rare. In a study of 1,473 patients treated with the SSRI called Citalopram, 54% reported decreased libido, 36% reported difficulty achieving orgasm, and 37% of men reported erectile dysfunction. Overall, nearly two-thirds of participants reported at least one significant sexual side effect.   PSSD is understood to be more common in men but more severe for women. Children and teenagers are increasingly aware of SSRIs as an option thanks to pop psychology, advertising on social media, and mental healthcare apps, but how many of them understand the dangers?  Lauren Friedman, a 23-year-old Vanderbilt student, said that the SSRI she was prescribed as an adolescent resulted in her losing all sexual function. She also claimed that emotional blunting from SSRIs has destroyed her ability to feel affection, even for her own mother. She described her present state at a MAHA Institute conference as “sexually defunct and emotionally lobotomized.”  While PSSD is an acknowledged diagnosis, many doctors still dismiss worries before and after patients experience symptoms. This growing concern ought to be a subject of serious study, especially when SSRIs are handed out like candy. But interest from the psychiatric community has been muted.   After years of eradicating the stigma around psychiatric medication, is it possible we have gone too far? Perhaps it is right to stigmatize casual drug shopping and challenge the psychiatrists who choose to handle their influence carelessly. It has fallen to victims like Friedman to shed light where some seem to prefer darkness.   PSSD belongs front and center in the SSRI conversation, not lost in the fine print or hidden from view altogether.