Talk:Anhedonia

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Isn't anhedonia considered one of the symptoms of opiate withdrawal? --FOo 21:18 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)

And what about dissociation? 24.205.46.249 02:09, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Can anyone relate of give a clear example of a case where someone now suffers from Anhedonia from the long term use of Crystal Meth, Amphetimine or related drugs?

I have used such for long periods and am questionable as to whether I suffer from this disease as the use of the above drugs can blur lines of reality...both physical and mental.

Any takers?

It is not a disease per se, but a symptom. Talk to your physician or pdoc about this. There are ways to combat this problem that do not involve potential damage to the systems involved. Zuiram 03:14, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

there have been experiements with chimpanzies that after dosing them twice a day with mdma they experienced complete anhedonia and starved them selves to death

MDMA is not purely dopaminergic. The majority of the damage done by MDMA is to the serotonergic system. Without a reference, or even stating how long this effect took to develop, your statement cannot be used to improve the article. Also, most amphetamines, including MDMA, will suppress the user's apetite. Zuiram 03:14, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] need to cite sources

There are none in this article. Especially the claim that addicts can have anhedonia for life, needs a source, research etc backing it up. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Merkinsmum (talk • contribs) 09:37, 7 January 2007 (UTC).

I will yank the suspicious statements on 20070301, unless sourced. Anhedonia is generally associated with a hypoactive dopaminergic system, whether it has been suppressed by SSRIs or neuroleptics, or desensitized. The mechanism of action of meth and cocaine in causing long-term anhedonia is different, and if I find the reference for that, I'll add it. Zuiram 03:10, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Romantic causes?

Has anhedonia been studied in relation to such things as, e.g., suicide as a result of failed romantic relationships?

If "feeling sad" and crying is a way to communicate emotional state, then anhedonia could be seen, in these cases, as the opposite of being in love and being loved (instead of feeling "sad" being the opposite), the same way that love and hate are the opposite of indifference. With the loss of the loved one, life could be seen as pointless and not worth living, and suicide is done not with any strong emotion, but because the subject simply does not care about their life anymore. 74.61.41.118 19:30, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Personal Experience with Anhedonia

I am a 34 year old schizophrenic who has anhedonia and is currently being treated for it with Wellbutrin, an antidepressant. I do not have depression, but I have anhedonia as a symptom of my schizophrenia. My doctor told me that it's possible that my anhedonia was worsened by an antipsychotic that I used in the past. I am currently on a different antipsychotic medicine.

Anhedonia has nothing directly to do with romance or lack of romance or love. It is lack or loss of feelings of pleasure/enjoyment/fun/satisfaction. This is exactly what I have experienced before being medicated with Wellbutrin and this is exactly what I still feel to some degree. Looking at artwork and women's bodies used to be pleasurable. Listening to good music used to be pleasurable. Talking with people used to be pleasurable. Now those things give me very very very very little pleasure. Even sex is not very pleasurable anymore for me. Anhedonia is also pronounced with respect to humour. Most jokes are no longer funny to me, and when I do laugh at something slightly funny, I don't have the accompanying good feeling that used to come from laughing. It is as if the laughing is merely a reflex, not anything enjoyable. I also noticed that with anhedonia, anything that touched my skin felt rough, and smooth fabrics no longer felt soft to the skin. This decreased a little bit with medication. Eating food became a mundane experience as well. Looking at nature stopped being a pleasant experience.

When my anhedonia was worse, before the medication, the lack of pleasure emotions was so unpleasant that it made me feel suicidal. I knew something was very wrong when I would see family members whom I love and feel no pleasure at seeing them. It is a very alienating experience to have no feelings of pleasure for anything. For me, life without pleasure is nearly a life not worth living. In order to remain content with living, medication was absolutely necessary. Luckily for me, the medication works somewhat and although I hardly ever feel "good", I am able to feel normal more of the time.

My anhedonia had nothing to do with the loss of a loved one or emotional rejection or depression or sadness. I have been clinically depressed in the past, and I know what real clinical depression feels like. Anhedonia can be a part of depression, but you can be depressed without anhedonia, as I was, and you can have anhedonia without depression if you are schizophrenic. I don't see anhedonia as the opposite of anything. It is the lack or loss of pleasure. The only partial opposite would be the gaining of pleasure. But emotions do not occur in opposites. There are many emotions that do not have an opposite. For example you can be happy and sad at the same time... like when people cry at weddings; it is the loss of childhood and the gaining of a relationship. Anhedonia is NOT an emotion, it is the lack of the pleasure sensation. Feelings of pleasure are part of a reaction. Anhedonia reflects a breakdown or blockage of that reaction.

The anhedonia affects socialising profoundly. A lot of conversation is based upon pleasing experiences and humour designed to make each other feel good. A lot of socialising takes place during meals which are intended to be a pleasurable experience. For the person with anhedonia, all of this without enjoyment is alienating and often annoying and anxiety-producing. Doing things without any pleasing reward can feel like work. As a result, I don't socialise very much at all even though I used to do it quite a lot before my schizophrenia became pronounced. Because I don't really get pleasure from sex, the connotations and innuendos of dating are very different for me now. There are lists and lists of recreational activities that no longer have any reward other than intellectual stimulation perhaps. But many recreations are not at all intellectually stimulating once you take away the pleasure.

I have the feeling it would be very difficult for me to fall in love. Because to fall in love you have to feel love. And to feel love, you have to feel some form of joy/enjoyment/pleasure. Without that I can feel gratitude, but not any of the emotional/sensual intensity of being in love. So there is some indirect connection to a lack of romance to anhedonia. For certain, there is no "Love at First Sight", because there is not much experience of beauty with anhedonia. For me I can know intellectually that something is probably beautiful, but there is no emotional impact and no feelings of pleasure from looking at it. Therefore, I cannot see someone beautiful and fall in love with their beauty.

I take refuge in science. Science doesn't give me pleasure, but it gives me insight and I am thankful for that. And even though I can't really be pleased much at all, I can still be thankful. It is lucky that I can be thankful, because truly having anhedonia can cause one to become sad. It is easy to confuse anhedonia with depression, but they are different from one another. Clinical depression is sometimes comprised partially of anhedonia and other symptoms. But a life with anhedonia is truly depressing. It is depressing because the human experience depends on feeling some feelings of pleasure even if they are minor.

Anhedonia is not dissociation and it's not psychosis. While experiencing anhedonia I am able to distinguish reality from non-reality so I am therefore not psychotic. While experiencing anhedonia my personality is intact as a whole, and my memories and experiences are still integrated into my personal experience, my personality. With anhedonia there is no amnesia or disrupted memory. I can still remember when I felt pleasure (or pain or anything else). To differentiate... People with dissociation may lose pleasure in some activities because of associated feelings related to trauma. However, with eating for example, a person with dissociation would still be able to experience the pleasure of sweet tastes even if their dissociation disrupted or overrode the pleasure with other emotions. A person with anhedonia would get little to no pleasure from sweet tastes regardless of the associated ideas with sweetness or eating or food. It may seem like a subtle distinction, but it is there.

I hope this helps to clarify for others what anhedonia is in reality. HopeMr 04:20, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Harry Potter

I've removed the statement "Harry Potter fans however, are aware that anhedonia is actually caused by dementors."

Harry Potter is a work of fiction. The statement doesn't seem to be relevant in any significant way to this article. --Tony Sidaway 19:57, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Damn Potter fans. Ornen (talk) 16:06, 31 December 2007 (UTC)