TheJay: Anhedonia/numbness/apathy

[TheJay]

This thread is dedicated to the specific symptom "Anhedonia" which is the medical term for loss of interest and pleasure, as well as numbness and apathy which go hand-in-hand with this symptom. I'd like to hear everyone's experience with anhedonia, numbness and/or apathy so we can gather information and try our best to find a solution. Please do share your experiences if you have some.

 

First off, i'd like to explain my experience with it and what i've found out about it through research. I was just diagnosed as Bipolar II recently. I have been depressed for a long time, but not anymore. I only have anhedonia now. Which I have had for 5 months. It is the persistant symptom that is still stuck with me since my depression. And I must say that this is much worse than being depressed. This has caused me to be hospitalized for the first time, too.  Many psychiatrists opinions is that anhedonia goes hand-in-hand with depression. This is half-true, when i was depressed i was overwhelmed by strong negative emotions such as guilt and fear. I was bedwritten with other heavy depressive symptoms such as crying which gave me intense emotional release, and i was still, to some extend, able to experience pleasure a little bit in activities. I was still playing video games, still listened to music and still watching entertainment media such as movies and cartoons/anime. They still gave me something. As of now, i am unable to feel any these emotions whatsoever. I no longer feel "depressed", i no longer feel much of anything. I get no real emotional response from any activity as of right now. I've lost the ability to feel anything for anyone else, including friends and family too and this scares me, I'm completely disconnected. Since this has lasted so long, and it has gotten worse over the months I think I am treatment resistant and I have no choice but to have to live like this for the rest of my life. If i don't kill myself, as I have very strong urges to do right now.

 

Through research i've found out these pharmaceuticals are effective in treating anhedonia:

 

Atypical antidepressants: Wellbutrin

Parkisons Drugs/Dopamine Agonists: Mirapex, Requip, etc.

MAOI's: Parnate, Emsam, etc.

5-HT2C antagonists: Remeron, Valdoxan, etc.

Tricyclics: Nortryptaline, Desipramine, Doxepin etc.

ADHD Stimulants: Ritalin, Adderall, etc.

SSRE's: Tianeptine

Serotonin Receptor Antagonists: Buspirone, Low dose Fluoexitine, etc

Antipsychotics: Abilify, Latuda, etc.

 

If i am missing anything, please let me know.

 

Medications i have been on: Abilify, Effexor, Lexapro, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Lamictal and Seroquel

Abilify was great in treating my obsessive compulsive thoughts, but also eliminated my creativity, I can not draw or write when I'm on this. No noticable effect on anhedonia. Effexor made me even worse, unable to get out of bed while I was on this because I became even more depressed. Lexapro sent me into a hypomanic episode, after that i crashed hard and I was severely depressed again. Zoloft made me emotionally numb, yes it took away sadness. But the took also away the good feelings. Wellbutrin lifted my anhedonic state and made me better for just one week, after that it went straight down again and felt no improvement after 8 weeks even on the highest recommended dose (450 mg). Seroquel made me very dull and apathetic

 

I've been put on Lamictal. Have been on it for a month, it has taken away the "deep sadness" feeling but I get still no pleasure out of activities. My next step is trying out a tricyclic like Nortryptaline because of it's effects on Norepinepherine and Dopamine. If i get no response from this, i consider adding a MAOI like Emsam to the mix. As several tricyclics go well hand-in-hand with MAOIs, their NE blocking effect stops tyramine from entering the synapse, which means you don't have to follow the MAOI diet as closely. 

 

(This thread is inspired by another thread i've been through on depressionforums)

[brassmonkey]

Hi TheJay--welcome to the group.  I'm sorry to hear that you are having trouble with anhedonia, it is a very disturbing condition, I had it for a long time, but it has been clearing itself up given time.

 

Thank you for your well intentioned post, but I must tell you from the start that this is a site for people trying to get off of many of the drugs that you have listed, and we do not condone trying to treat any withdrawal symptom, such as anhedonia, with additional drugs.  In many cases it would be very dangerous for our members to do so.

 

I can see that you are on Lamictal and have been of a variety of other drugs  Many of the symptoms you are feeling can be directly related to using these drugs and once the drug use has been stopped they "magically" disappear.  If you are interested in trying to discontinue these drugs we will be more than happy to help guide you.

[TheJay]

Hi TheJay--welcome to the group.  I'm sorry to hear that you are having trouble with anhedonia, it is a very disturbing condition, I had it for a long time, but it has been clearing itself up given time.

 

Thank you for your well intentioned post, but I must tell you from the start that this is a site for people trying to get off of many of the drugs that you have listed, and we do not condone trying to treat any withdrawal symptom, such as anhedonia, with additional drugs.  In many cases it would be very dangerous for our members to do so.

 

I can see that you are on Lamictal and have been of a variety of other drugs  Many of the symptoms you are feeling can be directly related to using these drugs and once the drug use has been stopped they "magically" disappear.  If you are interested in trying to discontinue these drugs we will be more than happy to help guide you.

 

Thanks for the reply. My intention was not to promote these drugs, but rather what research has told me what can be useful in treating anhedonia. Personally, my anhedonia started in a depressive episode when i wasn't on any medication. I understand that SSRI-induced anhedonia is a real thing, therefore i really do not want to bring them up here. My personal strategy in treating my anhedonia is trying out TCA, and if no success, then MAOI. If that doesn't work either, i will withdraw from medication for good and do the waiting game.

 

The most clean thing to do of course is to not take anything and wait for the anhedonia to resolve itself, that will be my strategy if TCA and MAOI fails. But the waiting game can be hard for many people, and it can take a really long time. (I see people having anhedonia for years and years)

[Petunia]

Welcome TheJay,

I moved your introductory post to a Journal thread of its own. This way more people will notice it, and you can maintain your own journal topic if you would like to.

 

As brassmonkey mentioned, we are a support site for people trying to come off some of the medications you wrote about and many of our members are suffering badly with withdrawal symptoms from taking them.  We don't allow discussions about which drug to try next and we don't advocate taking more drugs to relieve the withdrawal symptoms or side effects of previous drugs.

 

Having said that, you are welcome here if you would like to get some support and help for your current symptom. I know how difficult anhedonia is, I've been experiencing it for several years now, mine developed as part of withdrawal from stopping lexapro too fast.

 

My guess is that yours may be related to your past and/or current drugs, its a very common withdrawal symptom and if it started after you had taken and stopped a psyche drug, then it could be withdrawal.

 

Please would you provide a little more detail about your drug and withdrawal history, it sounds like you have been on a lot of medications. How long were you taking them? How did you stop taking them?

 

We already have a long discussion topic about anhedonia because its a very common symptom. Here is a link, you may find it interesting:  Anhedonia, apathy, demotivation - Surviving Antidepressants

 

Petunia.

[TheJay]

Welcome TheJay,

I moved your introductory post to a Journal thread of its own. This way more people will notice it, and you can maintain your own journal topic if you would like to.

 

As brassmonkey mentioned, we are a support site for people trying to come off some of the medications you wrote about and many of our members are suffering badly with withdrawal symptoms from taking them.  We don't allow discussions about which drug to try next and we don't advocate taking more drugs to relieve the withdrawal symptoms or side effects of previous drugs.

 

Having said that, you are welcome here if you would like to get some support and help for your current symptom. I know how difficult anhedonia is, I've been experiencing it for several years now, mine developed as part of withdrawal from stopping lexapro too fast.

 

My guess is that yours may be related to your past and/or current drugs, its a very common withdrawal symptom and if it started after you had taken and stopped a psyche drug, then it could be withdrawal.

 

Please would you provide a little more detail about your drug and withdrawal history, it sounds like you have been on a lot of medications. How long were you taking them? How did you stop taking them?

 

We already have a long discussion topic about anhedonia because its a very common symptom. Here is a link, you may find it interesting:  Anhedonia, apathy, demotivation - Surviving Antidepressants

 

Petunia.

 

I started Lexapro when i was 18, and i was on it till i was 20. I decided to taper off it because i felt confident, i went a half year without any medication and felt normal. Sometimes i was hypomanic during this period, but i was also hypomanic at times when i was on Lexapro. About a half year later after stopping the Lexapro, the depression came back and it was worse than ever. I was put on Lexapro again, and i felt much better. It was short lived though, because depression hit me hard again. We tried increasing the dose of Lexapro but it did nothing, i then tapered off it.

 

My next drug then was Effexor, i started at 37,5 mg and felt even worse. Increased the dose to 75 mg, then 150 mg. Felt no different, depression was still really bad. I then tapered down back to 75 mg and i felt better. This was also short lived, as depression crashed into me yet again. I then tapered off the Effexor completely.

 

Next was low dose Seroquel, which gave me short lived reliefs which only lasted a few hours. Days later i developed anhedonia.

 

I was then switched from Seroquel to Abilify 15 mg, at first i felt great. But i then got bad akathisia, so i tapered down to 10 mg. Still had akathisia, tapered down to 5 mg and it was no different. After that i stopped Abilify completely, a few days later, i felt completely normal. Depression and anhedonia was gone. Yet again, this was short lived. As depression hit me yet again over a week later.

 

I was then put on Zoloft 25 mg, it gave me a short lived hypomania and then depression came back again. Tried increasing the dose to 50 mg then 100 mg, did nothing for my depression. I became emotionally numb while at it, i tapered off Zoloft and added Wellbutrin.

 

About 3 weeks in on Wellbutrin i felt much better, yet AGAIN this was short lived. Because the next week i had a complete mental breakdown over something with intense emotions. After this, my emotions shut off completely. I felt detached. We increased the dose to 300 mg, did nothing. Then tried 450, did nothing. And now i'm at 150 mg again. I still don't feel any effects from it 13 weeks later.

 

I was then finally put on Lamictal, started at 25 and worked my way up to 100 mg. It got rid of the depression, but anhedonia is still present.

[ZombieMode]

I'm on a 400mg depot of abilify monthly and have found it to be the cause of my anhedonia.
Have not yet discovered a way to beat this state, ciggarettes & video games help to pass time though.

Best wishes to all

[Altostrata]

Welcome, TheJay.

 

Going on and off psychiatric drugs can cause what you're calling anhedonia, the psychiatric term that justifies treatment with more drugs. To distinguish it, we call the iatrogenic variety "emotional anesthesia."

 

There are many topics about drug-induced emotional anesthesia in the Symptoms and Self-care forum  http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/forum/8-symptoms-and-self-care/

 

Lamotrigine is well known for inducing emotional anesthesia.

 

From what I've seen, emotional anesthesia is the top adverse effect of long-term psychiatric drugs, followed by sexual dysfunction and sleep disruption.

 

There are plenty of journal articles on it, too, in From journals and scientific sources

 

As this is a site for going off psychiatric drugs, how may we help you?

[Henosis]

Has ANYONE recovered from Anhedonia that was brought on by re-instatement, theoretically by tapering their SSRI/SNRI down to a dose where there dopamine system started functioning? (or augmenting with anthing)? Or did feelings, passions, and excitement only return after getting to ZERO or beyond (I know some people don't get anhedonia until after withdrawal which is an entirely different beast altogether). I never felt it strongly when I was on Paxil for ten years, but during withdrawal everything was pleasurable and emotional again. Re-instatement brought out a fierce this fierce anhedonic/apathetic/zombie state despite a much lower dose than I was taking for a decade. It seems I've tried almost everything (save for nortriptline as an adjunct to me paxil taper - yes, I know dangerous, but I'm desperate).

 

It's at the point that I actively consider quick tapering just to feel alive again, and deal with the WD effects and likely loss of employment because it is so maddening. Maybe move to a foreign country and volunteer for a year until my neurotransmitters recover.