Overview

Define Anhedonia??

The experience of life is lacking without entertainment, attentiveness, and pleasure. You are not willing to spend quality time with colleagues or even friends and family members. They didn’t perform any activities that made him happy in the past. Anhedonia may also indicate the presence of psychological problems.

Changing your lifestyle, thinking abilities, and interests is fine. However, if patients present with this condition, they become less happy when performing all the activities that they want to do.

A person experience’s life is lacking without entertainment, attentiveness, and pleasure.

 

Types of anhedonia:

• Social: when you don’t feel pleasant and happy around people, it occurs
• Physical: holding hands, touching, adoring, and speaking like music doesn’t bring you joy, and then it happens. For example, drinking milk, eating fast food, singing a song, and listening to music.

What does the sensation of anhedonia??

The experience of life is lacking without entertainment, attentiveness, and pleasure. The feeling is that you feel nothing. As an example, imagine that you’re walking on a dark road and the cloud blocks the light. It can take the form of:

• Lack of sensation
• Lack of concern
• Insensibility
• Detachment
• Unwillingness

In advancement, the person experiences difficulty sleeping which affects behavior and the capability of daily activities. It also affects sexual appetite or lust.

The person may also experience difficulty spending time with others. The person feels that they never have the attention, love, passion, or devotion to give. This is associated with psychological health problems.

Is anhedonia similar to Apathy??

Anhedonia and Apathy are not the same, and you cannot experience both at the same time. Apathy is the absence of inspiration, stimulus, and energy while an anhedonia person’s life is without entertainment, attentiveness, and pleasure.

Common causes:

What diseases cause anhedonia as a sign and symptoms??

• continuously feeling unhappy and losing interest (Depression)
• It affects people’s thoughts, and attitudes ( Schizophrenia)
• Manic depression( Bipolar disorders)
• Disorders that include substances.
• Abnormal body balance, movement, and coordination (Parkinson’s disease).
• Shell shock
• Combat fatigue
• Acquired a brain injury

Anhedonia causes:

Nowadays, there are no recognized causes. Much research explains that it may be the absence of brain ventral striatum activity. This brain part is present behind and above the ears. It contains the nucleus accumbens also called the pleasure center and also generates dopamine. Dopamine is a delightful hormone.

Anhedonia Diagnoses:

The doctor first identified anhedonia by asking questions about feeling, pleasure, and entertainment. They must perform a physical examination to differentiate it from other symptoms. They must ask for a past medical history

Loss of motivation can sometimes be the cause (Depression). The doctor referred the patient for a laboratory test to identify the underlying conditions. Such as

• An imbalance of hormones, such as hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism.
• Deficiency of vitamins (Vitamin D and C)

Care and treatment:

Anhedonia treatment:

It has no special treatment. The doctor controls the signs and symptoms by identifying the causes, risk factors, and underlying pathological conditions. Some practical treatments are:

• Cognitive therapy ( Change the thinking behavior)
• Neuroleptics and major tranquilizers (Antipsychotic medications)
• Fluoxetine and Paroxetine (Antidepressant medications)
• Prozac and Paxil( SSRI)
• Injection of ketamine
• Electroshock or seizure therapy

The patient uses a combination of treatments to treat anhedonia so that it doesn’t return. The doctor also monitors the patient’s condition to see if it improves or worsens the patient’s thinking.

Treat Anhedonia at home

The doctor or psychologist helps the patient manage their symptoms at home. For example, the doctor advises the patient to do yoga daily because when your body is busy with physical activities, more amount of dopamine is released, to initiate the nucleus accumbens

Possible alarming situation not treated anhedonia

Uncurable anhedonia damages the physical and psychological health.

• Clinical depression (constant sadness and unhappiness)
• Loneliness (No social connection)
• Nervousness and fearfulness.
• Aggravating thoughts.
• Poor appetite
• Loss of energy or weakness
• Mood swings.

Prevention:

Does anhedonia reverse invisibly and permanently?

The patient improves mental health by following the doctor’s instructions. It doesn’t return on its own. The patient saw signs of improvement as the treatment session started. It is possible chances that anhedonia will return after treatment. Following the doctor’s instructions, the patient overcomes the alarming signs of anhedonia.

Treat the Anhedonia by the Doctor

If the patient does not feel happiness or entertainment, they should perform the activity once and then contact the doctor. Anhedonia impacts both psychological and physical health, so doctors and psychologists can help alleviate the symptoms.