- Hi, everyone. In today's video,
we are going to be talking about what anhedonia is.
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Hi, and welcome back to the channel.
My name is Lauren and I make videos about what it's like
to live with schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia.
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All right, so what is anhedonia and who experiences it?
Anhedonia is essentially an inability to feel pleasure.
It is when you are doing something or experiencing something
that you used to enjoy, but are no longer able
to feel that joy or pleasure while doing or experiencing it.
Anhedonia is a common symptom of depression,
but you don't necessarily have to be depressed
or feel sad to experience it.
It also affects people living with other mental illnesses,
such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Ironically, prescription medications,
particularly medications like antidepressants
and anti-psychotics used to treat these mental illnesses
can also cause anhedonia.
Every time I have experienced anhedonia,
it has felt distressing, because it's like
happiness feels kind of just out of reach.
Things you used to enjoy kind of lose their appeal
because you no longer experience that joy
while doing or experiencing them.
During these periods, it has felt very difficult
to engage with the world and with other people.
So there are two main types of anhedonia.
The first being social anhedonia, where you don't want
to spend time with other people and you lack interest
in engaging in social activities with friends or family.
As I mentioned, this can make relationships
quite a struggle.
It can be hard to get motivated to spend time with others.
You may find yourself turning down invitations
and skipping events or get togethers because
you no longer see any benefit in taking part in them.
This type of anhedonia may be confused with social anxiety
because the outcome of avoiding social situations
is the same. However, the impetus behind it is different.
The second one being physical anhedonia,
where you don't enjoy physical sensations,
be they touch, tastes, smells, etc.
The various symptoms of anhedonia can include,
as mentioned, social withdrawal, having fewer relationships,
negative feelings toward yourself or others,
feeling less emotional range,
which can also present in having less verbal
or non-verbal expressions,
having a more difficult time adjusting to social situations,
tending to kind of fake emotions in social situations
where you may feel pressure to display some sort of emotion,
less interest in physical intimacy and sex,
and it can even lead to persistent physical problems
such as being sick more frequently.
Many scientists believe that anhedonia is not necessarily
black and white in terms of completely
getting rid of emotion. You may feel no happiness at all,
but you may also just find that your positive emotions,
such as happiness, are dulled.
You may still like the things you used to enjoy,
but just derive less pleasure out of them than previously,
for seemingly no reason. I have experienced this as well,
and it can make life feel kind of less rich and full.
You are able to get a glimpse or a taste of pleasure
or happiness, but you can't quite reach the full extent
of what you know you have been able to feel in the past.
It's unclear why exactly anhedonia exists, but scientists
believe that it may be linked to changes in brain activity.
A problem may exist with the way your brain produces
or responds to dopamine, which is a "feel good"
mood chemical in the brain.
Early research is suggesting that dopamine neurons may be
overactive in the prefrontal cortex region of the brain.
So some risk factors for developing anhedonia include
having a family history of major depression
or schizophrenia, a recent traumatic or stressful event,
a history of abuse or neglect,
an illness that impacts your quality of life,
an eating disorder, and also females are also
at a greater risk of experiencing anhedonia.
Anhedonia can be difficult to treat.
Typically your physician will try to treat the issue
causing the anhedonia, be it depression, schizophrenia,
or some other illness.
Hopefully if this treatment is successful,
the anhedonia will get better as a result too.
But that's not always the case. And as I mentioned earlier,
sometimes the medications used to treat these illnesses
can also result in blunting emotions,
which can make anhedonia even worse.
There is a lot of research being done
around how to treat these illnesses and anhedonia
when medications and talk therapy aren't successful.
Some success has been shown with treatments such as
ketamine therapy, electroconvulsive therapy or ECT,
transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS,
or vagus nerve stimulation or VNS.
I've experienced anhedonia and I know
how difficult it can be.
If you are having these types of problems,
please bring it up with your doctor
in order to work towards helping you to feel better again.
So I hope this video has been helpful in explaining
what anhedonia is and the various facets of it.
If you have any experience with anhedonia
that you'd like to share, we would love to hear from you
in the comments below.
If you found this video helpful, please give it a thumbs up.
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Thanks so much for watching and as always,
wishing you and your loved ones good health.
We'll see you in the next video. Bye.