Have you tried excercising ?
Have you tried a clean diet?
Have you tried CBT ?
Have you tried supplaments?
Yes mf i tried everything , my brain is physically broken at a molecular level there is no fixing this shit .
I was just thinking about this. I feel like my anhedonia through the years has become so meta in itself that I don’t feel like doing anything because I know I won’t feel anything in the end then I don’t feel anything because I don’t do anything.
Personally I’m radically stoic, not in a doomer way but more like hopeful nihilist type. Today I’ve been thinking more rationally about my supposed anhedonia situation and I’ve come to this conclusion: I have to suck it up and force myself to be in difficult situations till it short circuits something in my brain or I just get used to it. I know it’s gonna be hard and humiliating. But for me it’s necessary. I’ve tried so many things but I feel like I haven’t been brave enough. I should try harder. Yes it’s easier for other people and it’s unfair cause we didn’t choose to be like this but so what? No one asks to be born blind or deaf. I have this problem and I have to try as hard as I can to sort it out.
I think the human brain is really complicated and there are so many factors and so many unknowns. I have this defect and I have to learn to live with it even though I can’t completely eliminate it, there must be a way to channel it into something good.
There seems to be such a downplaying/minimizing of anhedonia in the medical community. I have had anhedonia for ages. IT constitutes lack of interest in about everything. Often when I used to "feel" something I now just feel blocked, blunted or numb.
So how many of you have a formal depression diagnosis? How many of you are schizoid? I don't feel depressed but anhedonia makes me feel really down and seriously distressed.
I cannot show emotions like crying or rage anymore as well.
I really don't think I'm even living life at this point
I’ve wondered if there’s a connection. I’m diagnosed ADHD and depression.
I found oxycodone which im prescribed helps a little
I am just so TIRED all the time. I am a major night owl and go to bed about 4.30am, then wake up at about 4.30pm, when my "day starts". I'm awake and either laying on the couch or out to dinner and then laying on the couch until about 9.30pm when I start to get really sleepy. I can't keep my eyes open beyond 10pm so let myself fall asleep on the couch.
I usually wake up at about 11.30am, get my snack, watch a movie or TV show, and then by 2.30am, I'm falling asleep again.
I then wake up about 4am and eventually go to bed.
So basically, I'm awake for 8 hours out of 24. WTF!?
I don’t but can anyone tell me I am losing interest in everything from good thing to bad thing means I don’t want to do anything from scrolling Instagram or doing any good work means losing all interest can anyone explain what is happening to me and how can I fixed it
Ever since I lost my interests i also seem to be unable to feel a wide array of euphoria. When I watched, listen, read, or played something I would get a unique feeling of enjoyment of it like each sensation would have a different flavor to it. Now though I don't get any different read on new things I interact with no new gut feeling or unique tinge of feeling to come across. Has this every happen to anyone else with Anhedonia and if you have how do you deal with it?
My caregiver aka my husband doesnt want me on meds...What can I do to help feeling nothing? No connection to others or Even myself. It's like im a stranger to even me..nothing seems familiar anymore , no connection even to my belongings.i have a blank mind and things look weird to me..bright and kinda zoomed in and super realistic its almost fake..I've tried nac and it gives me energy but makes me angry.. is there any supplements that might help? I've taken multi vitamins and vit d but it doesn't change...
I'd like to understand what is going on.
I'm diagnosed with MDD and OCD and have been getting treated since June 2023.
I have tried everything available except TMS and psychosurgery: antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, ECT and Esketamine.
Nothing has made any difference. I only get side effects.
The thing is that I'm literally unable to describe what I am going through.
No matter how much I read about mental issues including anhedonia, I never something that is highly relevant.
My psychiatrist said this week that there is no point in prescribing antidepressants, antipsychotics and other classes as they simply don't work for me, so I'm now on only Lithium, Lamotrigine and Modafinil.
I used to be one of the top students among my class. I really liked studying and gaining information. I had the energy. Something was giving life a meaning.
One day, I woke up and completetly lost all of this. I can't read a book, I can't watch a movie, I bought an expensive gaming PC in hope to feel something, but I literally couldn't even get myself to sit in front of it. I used to be a computer nerd. I decided that I should change something in my life, so I learned a language and travelled abroad in order to study physics. However, nothing got better. I couldn't get out of bed and attend my lectures. I couldn't take a shower, brush my teeth and cook. I couldn't hold a job. I lost all my money and returned back to my homeland and I'm currently a computer science student. However, I'm simply unable to study. I'm unable to read a book. I'm unable to use my laptop. I'm unable to do anything. I'm now 23, unemployed and live with my mom. She is my only source of income. I have to study hard and hold a job in order to survive, but I am just unable. Something is wrong. Everybody keeps suggesting things like doing sports and praying to God. However, I basically feel nothing at all when I do these activites. In fact, I stopped praying because that is the period in which my OCD symptoms intensifies.
I never ask for help because I don't want others to feel bad. All the people I know are the ones who approached me. I have never approched someone. When I go out, I feel nothing at all. Nothing is interesting. Everything feel so colorless and boring.
I don't even know what I would do if I get money. Everything feels so valueless.
Friend showed me pictures from her vacation yesterday. I said all the right things. Wow that's gorgeous, you look so happy, I'm so jealous. Felt none of it. Not sad, not happy, just nothing. Like watching a movie with the sound off.
She asked if I wanted to plan a trip together and I heard myself say "yeah that sounds amazing" with the exact right amount of excitement in my voice. Meanwhile inside it was just flat. Complete silence where a feeling should be.
I do this all day every day. Perform the expected emotion because the alternative is trying to explain that I don't really feel anything right now and watching someone's face go through confusion and then concern and then that awkward silence where they don't know what to say. It's easier to just fake it. Less exhausting than the conversation that follows being honest.
I couldn't say any of this to an actual person so I started putting it somewhere else. I was working through it on a reflection app Rae Chat and it surfaced when the numbness actually started. That answer surprised me.
The loneliest part is that nobody knows. I've gotten so good at the performance that everyone thinks I'm fine. Sometimes I wonder if I even remember what genuine enthusiasm felt like or if I've been faking it so long the original feeling is just gone.
I really don't understand where people derive the motivation for them to be working and doing repeated stuff everyday non stop, or watching things or playing games or taking a walk that gets them nowhere.
There is simply and inherently no joy in life by default, no euphoria, no pleasure but only pain and struggle, and those who seem to be enjoying themselves are either young and never experienced life long enough, are in denial or are chasing after illusions. It's not like there is something wrong with anhedonic people. We are just mature people who understand the reality of existence.
Besides in childhood when everything is new to us the only thing that makes people enjoy something is when they are convinced that it will take them somewhere, but never for the act itself. No one takes pride in the process and everyone wants only the results and even those results are processes to get more results and it goes on and on. Basically just illusions that save them pain, even what we used to think is entertaining when we were young and enjoying things. We only thought that life will carry more but we've realized the package is too small and fun is limited.
It's not that life is joyful and people with anhedonia miss that part of it but rather life is joyless and people with anhedonia have just become completely conscious of it and no longer fooled by the illusions of nature.
Sigmund Freud said this: Life as we find it is too hard for us, it brings us so many pains and impossible tasks. We cannot do without palliative measures or auxiliary constructions. There are three of these methods, powerful deflections which helps us make light of our misery, substitutive satisfactions which diminish it, and intoxicating substances which make us insensitive to it.
Wherever I go, whether to a clinic, doctors, or therapists, everyone seems to have such a hard time understanding this issue. I mean, after all this is a primary symptom of depression, but for most people it seems completely inconceivable.
When you talk to them about other symptoms, like fatigue, depressed mood, etc. it's no problem. They know what you're talking about and try to find a solution. But when it comes to anhedonia, it's always completely different. It's as if they assume that one is still healthy in this specific regard and that this symptom simply doesn't exist, or at most is very mild and no big deal.
When I try to explain it, they just see it as part of those typical negative thoughts that some people with depression have (that I don't experience by the way) where one might think that things are no longer nice and enjoyable, and that in reality, it's actually completely different, and I just need to do these things, and then I would realize that only my perception is wrong and I am still able to enjoy everything.
I really don't understand this. What are your experiences?
I have been with my psychiatrist since summer 2024 and I'm not saying anhedonia is an easy fix with medication but so far he refused to give me stimulants, MAOIs , dopamenergic drugs , benzos literally anything. Only thing he agrees to is antipsychotics or SSRIs which I refuse to take long term term. He even refused ketamine in my last appointment and his reasoning for refusing all these meds is because I had one incident of marijuana induced psychosis 3 years ago , no schizophrenia or anything diagnosis other than MDD. What would you do in my position?
Thanks
If you want to could you share how this affects your ability to drive a car or to work? Any idea on what working a job is like with anhodonia?
23M, sport science graduate, finishing a Masters in sport psychology.
On paper, my life is highly optimised. I train a lot, lift 3 times a week, get my steps in, eat well, sleep well, use sauna, and run my life with structure and discipline. I function well by external standards.
But internally I feel flat all the time.
This has been there since childhood. My default mental state is an empty mind. Not anxiety, not racing thoughts, just blank. No spontaneous internal monologue. If I want to think about something, I have to actively pull it up. Thoughts do not seem to arise on their own.
Emotionally, I feel stuck around a constant 5 out of 10. Not miserable, not deeply depressed, but never genuinely excited, driven, fulfilled, or rewarded either. Achievements do almost nothing for me. I got my degree and felt nothing. I train consistently and feel nothing. I complete things because I've decided to, not because I feel any natural pull toward them.
I also have low libido for my age.
Something else that feels significant is that my emotional connection to other people is also blunted. People in my life who I know genuinely love me do not feel emotionally close to me in the way I think they should. It is not that I do not care about them. It is more like the feeling of connection and warmth just is not fully there. It is another thing that has always been present. When I used cannabis, that changed too. I felt genuinely connected to people, present in conversations, and relationships actually meant something emotionally rather than just intellectually. When it wore off, I returned to the same emotional distance. That is probably the saddest part of this whole thing.
So my whole life basically runs on structure rather than genuine motivation or desire.
People have suggested ADHD, but I've never been assessed because I'm high functioning and outwardly disciplined.
The part that confuses me most is cannabis.
A few years ago I used it daily for about a year. I now only use it occasionally, maybe once every 2 to 3 months. But every single time I use it, something changes in a way that feels extremely revealing.
I do not just feel high. I feel how I imagine normal people are supposed to feel.
I suddenly feel motivated. Goals feel real and worth pursuing. I want to train, improve, socialise, put myself out there, and actually go after life. I feel more present in conversations. Libido comes back. I feel genuinely connected to the people around me. Life feels emotionally connected and meaningful.
Then it wears off, and I return to the same flat baseline.
That is why this feels important. It does not feel like cannabis is creating some fake euphoric state. It feels more like it temporarily switches on something that is usually missing.
Over the last year I've tried to move the needle naturally by optimising everything I can: sleep, diet, training, sunlight, meditation, cold exposure, routine. It improves function, but not baseline motivation, emotional range, or sense of reward.
I'm getting a full hormonal panel done, including total and free testosterone, SHBG, LH, FSH, prolactin, and thyroid markers. I know high training volume can affect hormones, but because this blank mind and emotional flatness have been there since childhood, I doubt hormones are the full explanation.
Has anyone experienced this specific pattern?
If so, what was the actual cause in your case? ADHD, hormones, burnout, trauma, depression, something neurological, or something else?
And more importantly, what actually helped?
Does anything bring you comfort..not peace or joy but comfort like a warm blanket or a puppy would...it seems like I've lost that too and it's disturbing. Not being around my person, not a voice I used to find comforting , not my favorite movie, being outside, being in bed, not even tea or water brings me comfort.
I have a question, what do you guys do when well, you dont enjoy anything. LOL. like is there one thing though that you get even a little pleasure from? I need like something because I get no "recharge" on my battery after doing anything thats supposed to rejuvenate you. thank you to everyone who takes the time to reply to this post.
You lose at everything in life with this condition. Their is no winning. I'm so fucked man, I can't believe this is my reality. And the number of cure stories are so fucking low. Its so fucking hopeless in this sub. I'm going to die with this ain't I ? I'm never recovering I know it man 💔. Years and years just add up 💔