Anhedonia (and Anxiety and Depression and Tinnitus)

[VincentWinters]

These are my four horsemen.

Just wondering, who here has much experience with anhedonia?

I was on here last September with severe anxiety over my sudden onset of tinnitus. Now, the reverse has happened a sudden bout of anxiety has made my tinnitus so much more noticeable. The reasons for this onset aren't particularly obvious to me, though I have been worrying quite a lot about anhedonia (I'm a recovering stimulants addicts. Coming up to two years sober) recently and I've stupidly come off my setraline. I'm worried that I'm not enjoying things as I used to or should do and finding it all very confusing. Help :-(

 

[GregCA]

Just wondering, who here has much experience with anhedonia?

I think @Alue does.

 

[Alue]

Yes, I have anhedonia. It predates my tinnitus by about a year and a half and has not gone away. It is often thought of as a symptom of depression, but in some rare cases it can be a separate issue altogether. Mine seems to be the latter.

Is it all activities you have stopped getting enjoyment from or just certain activities? The stimulants and medications you have taken in the past could have something to do with it.

 

[butterfly75]

I had really strong anhedonia while taking sertaline. It got even stronger while I was trying to taper off it. I wasn't sure if it was because of the sertaline, so I thought I was going to be stuck like that for life. I'm not sure if it's because of an SSRI for you, though. I've had anhedonia before when I wasn't on an SSRI, but it was really strong with the SSRI. It didn't go away right after I stopped taking it either. But once a few weeks passed I felt better. Yours might be totally unrelated to the SSRI though. Hope you feel better.

 

[linearb]

@VincentWinters I don't think you're dumb for coming off Seratline. Not wanting to give personal medical advice, but in general, I think if a person feels functional and safe without medication, after long periods of using drugs of one kind or another, there can be advantages to giving the brain a chance to try to figure it out.

It sounds like your brain has been through a lot; it may take some time for things to normalize and some sense of 'happy' to return, but I'd try not to worry that it won't happen at all.

 

[VincentWinters]

Thanks guys I'm feeling much better today, and my tinnitus has floated right to the back of my consciousness again. There's definitely an anxiety link for me.

 

[Alex Prime]

I haven't experienced it really, the closest feeling was insomnia crisis in which I could not get a pleasant feeling even from eating. My mother always insist that I lose weight and with good reason, but back then she bought me super expensive chocolate cakes and they tasted like ash in my mouth. Later, seroquel fixed that, but for two years it kept me in dream-like state, the only bright memories from this period were the final Dark Knight movie and the F1 season... When I took off seroquel and replaced with benzo, thing became much better...
One of the greatest literary horror authors, Thomas Ligotti, suffers from it. I feel for people who experience it...