today i'm going to be talking about the concept of anhedonia
and how this symptom of depression actually makes depression
worse hi everyone in today's video i'm going to be talking about the concept of anhedonia
which is a symptom of depression that a lot of people experience but for a lot of people
they don't quite understand or or are aware of what's actually going on but before i get into
that just a couple of disclaimers to go over i'm a registered psychologist in the province
of british columbia canada and this video is for informational purposes only it is not intended as
a substitute or replacement for advice from your doctor or mental health professional
now with those things out of the way let's start talking about anhedonia so i want you to imagine
i want you to think about what are the things in life that you most enjoy doing so it could be
playing with your children it could be going for a hike it could be painting or having
a really fun night out with your friends we all have these things in life that we really enjoy and
and give and they give us a sense of vibrancy and enthusiasm uh and put energy and fuel into
our lives but now imagine if those things that you enjoy doing that you find really fun and rewarding
imagine one day that those things just lose all of their sense of
enjoyment or reward it's almost like this color picture of life or all the color of life gets
drained from it and everything becomes black and white or monochrome imagine if
you engage in these activities and you feel nothing no sense of enjoyment no sense of reward
so you're playing with your children and you know that you should really enjoy it
or you should be having fun but it feels like you're just going through the motions
you're going on a hike and you used to really enjoy hiking and loved it but now you're
just feels like you're walking through spider webs and swatting aside bugs he loved going out
with friends and having a a good night out but now the the food at the restaurant just doesn't really
taste like anything and the music's just too loud and and what's the point of it all
and so uh this is what these are all examples of anhedonia and anhedonia is a symptom of depression
um characterized by a loss of interest or pleasure in almost all of your usual activities so things
that you used to enjoy doing things that you used to look forward to doing you just don't enjoy
anymore and you just have no sort of motivation or interest or drive to do these things anymore
so there's there's kind of two parts to anhedonia there's the loss of pleasure in the activity
itself so like i said i'm on a hike and i love hiking but i just feel nothing i don't get any
enjoyment or reward or happiness being on a hike like i said it's just more of a chore and spider
webs and bugs and insects and muddy shoes and there's no enjoyment in it what what's the point
um i'm painting and i feel no sense of engagement or no sense of creativity it's
just paint on a canvas so the enjoyment or the pleasure gets sapped out of the activity itself
but the other component of anhedonia is a loss of interest and motivation and actually
doing the activity so i don't look forward to getting together with my friends
on the weekend i have no sense of kind of motivation or drive or enthusiasm to do it so
it's not even like i'm not enjoying it while i'm doing it i have no interest in doing it i have no
desire to do it and that would make sense because if i'm not really enjoying it if i'm not having
any fun or reward out of doing it what's the point in doing it why would i feel any interest
or motivation to do it and so the less motivated i am to do it well of course i'm not going to do it
and again why would i do it if i don't enjoy doing it so what this anhedonia can do
is it can really sap any motivation or interest or drive out of your life
now think of that in the context of depression so if uh i have depression
and that's characterized by kind of low mood and low desire so i'm feeling kind of down and because
i'm feeling kind of down one of the symptoms that's associated with it is this anhedonia
i don't get any pleasure or enjoyment out of doing things well so i stop engaging in those activities
because what's the point i don't enjoy doing it and i have no motivation or interest
in doing it so i'm no longer doing these activities that used to build enjoyment or
pleasure or reward into my life what impact do you think that's going to have on the depression
well anhedonia actually feeds back into the depression and it makes the depression
worse it makes me feel more down and the more depressed i get the worse the anhedonia gets
even less interested in doing things
no motivation at all no pleasure or reward i don't look forward to anything and so i do even less
what that what does that do to the depression it makes the depression worse
so the thing with anhedonia is it's actually kind of like this quicksand this depression quicksand
the more you lose interest or pleasure in these activities the worse the depression gets
which means the anhedonia gets worse so it's important to understand this
because for a lot of my clients that i'm working with they don't really understand
what anhedonia is they just they think there's something really wrong with them
that they can't enjoy anything there's something really wrong with me that i'm sitting down with my
children and i'm and i'm playing with them and and i can see how much they're enjoying it or how much
fun they're having and i know i should be feeling happy i know i should be engaged and enjoying it
but i feel nothing what kind of parent am i and so that just is it's confusing
it's scary it's really quite distressing and so this anhedonia this symptom of depression
is actually one of the maintaining factors that keeps the depression going and so it's really
important to understand that there's actually nothing wrong with you if you don't have any
sense of enjoyment or reward or motivation in doing things if you're experiencing depression
because that's part of the depression right that's that's something that results from the depression
and it's not like a personal feeling or sort of a limitation in you it's part of the
depression condition so anhedonia it's a really distressing symptom it's a symptom that really
um really negatively impacts people because it just strips enjoyment and reward out of life
and if i'm getting no enjoyment or reward out of life it's easy to start thinking what's the point
and so um you can think of this as kind of part one of a two-part series
on anhedonia in the next video i'll talk about uh okay you recognize that you have anhedonia
what is it that you can actually do about it how can you actually overcome this anhedonia as a
way of coming out of the depression so i hope you'll you'll keep an eye out for that video
so i'd love to hear any questions or thoughts that you might have
about anhedonia so please leave me some comments in the comments section
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