Do these debilating words resonate with you?

[ms_beaverhousen]

(A little off-topic but I thought this crowd would know more.)

Are you familiar with the words anhedonia, avolition, and aboulomania???
Do you identify with them?
Has anything helped you with them?
They very much describe me, among many other things...But these are extreme versions of abilities (or lack of) and I'm surprised I've only learned of them a few years ago; and I've NEVER heard them uttered from a therapist or psychiatrist, which is effed up.

There are a lot more terms intertwined in these and others that stand alone (especially starting with "a") but I specifically chose these three as they best describe me the most amongst very clinical terms, the short version.

 

[iloverachel]

I am quite certain i have anhedonia. I have the inability to experience joy and pleasure. Hobbies I used to love are no longer enjoyable. I dread it actually. Nothing is ever exciting and I am bored out of my mind constantly

 

[DeIetedUser4739]

I have all three plus more conditions caused by taking psychiatric medication.

 

[Suicidebydeath]

(A little off-topic but I thought this crowd would know more.)

Are you familiar with the words anhedonia, avolition, and abhoulia???
Do you identify with them?
Has anything helped you with them?
They very much describe me, among other things. But these are extreme versions of abilities (or lack of) and I'm surprised I've only learned of them a few years ago; and I've NEVER heard them uttered from a therapist or psychiatrist, which is effed up.

What I have is more severe than anhedonia, it's incurable. Not much helps. From the same circumstances as DepressedDude, either early psych meds or early trauma or both. It's been brushed away and fobbed off by almost every doctor I've spoken to about it despite hundreds of thousands of fellow sufferers. Given that the cause can be iatrogenic, they are just covering their own skins. Which is also why you've probably never heard of them as well, despite you know, these conditions existing for at least decades and being wide-spread.

Avolition and Abulia are somewhat similar? I take anti-depressants, perhaps they help or something else did. Perhaps one of my abusers passing away. It's difficult to say, my motivation is still low.

 

[CouldaHvBeenARock]

I have anhedonia for sure due to depression. I have been on antidepressants for over a year and nothing has helped at all.

 

[ms_beaverhousen]

I have all three plus more conditions caused by taking psychiatric medication.

I've taken psychiatric medications for years to no avail trying to alleviate these conditions and more. Drugs are so poisonous and have such real side effects, and can just destroy the plasticity and transmission of your brain. So sad.

 

[EmptyHeaded]

You may have heard apathy being used instead of abulia. Some professionals use the terms interchangeably. I can imagine that those terms aren't used often because there doesn't seem to be a general consensus on the definitions. Additionally, avolition and abulia are rather severe conditions, so that decreases the likelihood of hearing them being used even more.

 

[breezer_a]

(A little off-topic but I thought this crowd would know more.)

Are you familiar with the words anhedonia, avolition, and abhoulia???
Do you identify with them?
Has anything helped you with them?
They very much describe me, among other things. But these are extreme versions of abilities (or lack of) and I'm surprised I've only learned of them a few years ago; and I've NEVER heard them uttered from a therapist or psychiatrist, which is effed up.

Go to a psychiatrist and see if you need talking therapy or medication, outside of these focus on baby steps, let sunlight into your room in the morning (dont close curtains at night or close them just enough so the street lights dont hit your face) try to sleep at regular times, learn to cook.
Take this course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being

Try to eat healthy and balanced diet, learn to cook shakshuka: https://basicswithbabish.co/basicsepisodes/shakshuka

Spend 1 hour a day trying to be outside in nature. When you wake up in the morning go for a 5 minute walk in the outdoors.

These are all little tricks ibe learned over the past couple months that have helped me, these will help, they wont fix you or the situation you are in, but they will put you in a better position to think about them properly and handle your situation.

One last thing is in the images i provide. Do that once in the morning, once at night. And whenever you feel your emotions becoming overwhelming. From a neuroscience perspective (fact check me) this targets your amygdala, your reptile brain. When you have overwhelming emotions its your amygdala going into fight or flight because you are imagining yourself either in a situation in the past or a situation in the future, your amygdala is making you sad or panicky because it thinks you need to be in fight or flight, put that son of a bitch in its place.

Hope this helps.

 

[ms_beaverhousen]

What I have is more severe than anhedonia, it's incurable. Not much helps. From the same circumstances as DepressedDude, either early psych meds or early trauma or both. It's been brushed away and fobbed off by almost every doctor I've spoken to about it despite hundreds of thousands of fellow sufferers. Given that the cause can be iatrogenic, they are just covering their own skins. Which is also why you've probably never heard of them as well, despite you know, these conditions existing for at least decades and being wide-spread.

Avolition and Abulia are somewhat similar? I take anti-depressants, perhaps they help or something else did. Perhaps one of my abusers passing away. It's difficult to say, my motivation is still low.

They do have similarities yet distinctions. I actually meant to put "aboulomania" not abhoulia.

(A little off-topic but I thought this crowd would know more.)

Are you familiar with the words anhedonia, avolition, and abhoulia???
Do you identify with them?
Has anything helped you with them?
They very much describe me, among other things. But these are extreme versions of abilities (or lack of) and I'm surprised I've only learned of them a few years ago; and I've NEVER heard them uttered from a therapist or psychiatrist, which is effed up.

Correction::: "aboulomania"

(Although abhoulia can go in there too. There are a lot of bad "a" qualities that are intertwined in these.)

 

[Suicidebydeath]

advice

I know you're trying to be helpful and I really hope this works for some people, but I'll preface before anyone else responds negatively, that for me at least it's unintentionally triggering for me at least. I was -given- my condition by psychs, only ever faced near-consistently abusive psychs, and the complete lack of being able to feel anything at all along with zero motivation is something I've been stuck with and had to deal with on my own, while being fobbed off continually and advocated all kinds of things that had zero benefit or made things even worse.

No amount of sunlight, psych, eating changes or exercise can cure PSSD, unfortunately :(

It's a touchy subject.

 

[cowboypants]

I can identify with all three of them.

One can simplify those terms into being hopeless, depressed etc, probably why docs don't use those terms.

 

[ms_beaverhousen]

Go to a psychiatrist and see if you need talking therapy or medication, outside of these focus on baby steps, let sunlight into your room in the morning (dont close curtains at night or close them just enough so the street lights dont hit your face) try to sleep at regular times, learn to cook.
Take this course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being

Try to eat healthy and balanced diet, learn to cook shakshuka: https://basicswithbabish.co/basicsepisodes/shakshuka

Spend 1 hour a day trying to be outside in nature. When you wake up in the morning go for a 5 minute walk in the outdoors.

These are all little tricks ibe learned over the past couple months that have helped me, these will help, they wont fix you or the situation you are in, but they will put you in a better position to think about them properly and handle your situation.

One last thing is in the images i provide. Do that once in the morning, once at night. And whenever you feel your emotions becoming overwhelming. From a neuroscience perspective (fact check me) this targets your amygdala, your reptile brain. When you have overwhelming emotions its your amygdala going into fight or flight because you are imagining yourself either in a situation in the past or a situation in the future, your amygdala is making you sad or panicky because it thinks you need to be in fight or flight, put that son of a bitch in its place.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for your effort, and no offense, but I'm well beyond the help/aid of these tips. There's nothing I've heard from a therapist that I didn't already know; and that isn't to say that I'm so well-read. Don't get me wrong, I've definitely read, but someone would need a few doctorates (maybe at least) to reach me. Sunlight mentally and physically hurts and grounding techniques etc are almost insulting to me. Again, no offense and I do appreciate the thought and effort. Thanks :)

Hopefully, they can help someone else.

I know you're trying to be helpful and I really hope this works for some people, but I'll preface before anyone else responds negatively, that for me at least it's unintentionally triggering for me at least. I was -given- my condition by psychs, only ever faced near-consistently abusive psychs, and the complete lack of being able to feel anything at all along with zero motivation is something I've been stuck with and had to deal with on my own, while being fobbed off continually and advocated all kinds of things that had zero benefit or made things even worse.

No amount of sunlight, psych, eating changes or exercise can cure PSSD, unfortunately :(

It's a touchy subject.

Lol you literally beat me to it

I can identify with all three of them.

One can simplify those terms into being hopeless, depressed etc, probably why docs don't use those terms.

Honestly no, I just think they generally do not know them at all in there general background vernacular whatever. Maybe they came across them ONCE in a class IF that... I think that's apart of the broken mental health system. They do not know all that much more than we do; and they've put in the thousands of hours of talking to "clients" (We're not even patients anymore.) and boom. They're "certified" to provide you guidance in your life, or to just sit there and get paid like any other job that isn't clinical.

I have anhedonia for sure due to depression. I have been on antidepressants for over a year and nothing has helped at all.

Only new developments for treatment that have gained traction are Spravato, ketamine, dextromethorphan, and stimulants for depression imo.

 

[cowboypants]

Honestly no, I just think they generally do not know them at all in there general background vernacular whatever. Maybe they came across them ONCE in a class IF that... I think that's apart of the broken mental health system. They do not know all that much more than we do; and they've put in the thousands of hours of talking to "clients" (We're not even patients anymore.) and boom. They're "certified" to provide you guidance in your life, or to just sit there and get paid like any other job that isn't clinical.

Lol I was like that and I would tell the fancy terms I read online or in books to my docs. It prolly plays a part.

And there isn't any direct medicine like for anhedonia, but we have anti-depressants which will treat it. These are just human made terms, I could call my depression "muchajabo" and so it will be. Sadly, I'm too late to name it now, rather depressing.

That said, I think psychiatry is a nascent field, until the 90s the meds had serious side effects

The last time, I did my research and saw the best doc I could. The meds although sorta worked 50-70% and made me kinda happy, but it didn't give me the purpose (in life) and the side effects were high. And the irony I became suicidal, apparently some can get on anti-depressants. Doc put me on antipsychotics after that. I felt caged.

I had read so many positive stories on Reddit of people taking the meds as I did. I was kinda hopeful in the beginning, maybe I am just cursed

 

[ms_beaverhousen]

Lol I was like that and I would tell the fancy terms I read online or in books to my docs. It prolly plays a part.

And there isn't any direct medicine like for anhedonia, but we have anti-depressants which will treat it. These are just human made terms, I could call my depression "muchajabo" and so it will be. Sadly, I'm too late to name it now, rather depressing.

That said, I think psychiatry is a nascent field, until the 90s the meds had serious side effects

The last time, I did my research and saw the best doc I could. The meds although sorta worked 50-70% and made me kinda happy, but it didn't give me the purpose (in life) and the side effects were high. And the irony I became suicidal, apparently some can get on anti-depressants. Doc put me on antipsychotics after that. I felt caged.

I had read so many positive stories on Reddit of people taking the meds as I did. I was kinda hopeful in the beginning, maybe I am just cursed

Well I pretty much have to play my own dr lol. Every drug I've wanted to try I made my case for it and tried it. Several dr's didn't even know what Auvelity was and when I said to one dr that it contained dextromethorphan she said, "That's a cough syrup." Well lady, not as of late '22. Keep up on your stats. Hate having to do my own research, be my own therapist, my own pharmacist, and even my own vet! I wouldn't even major in any of these fields if I went to school. Annoying and effed up.

To me, none of them really know why they work on some and not others, and can't say what will or won't. They're pushing the antipsychotics as augments and it's ridiculous. Major bad side effects and no added benefits. I think they're
so dangerous. But smile for the tv ad and squint and read the fine print, and black-box warnings. They're even taking them away from the elderly on Medicare because of the side-effects and they're just fine without them. To me there are only a handful or two of antidepressants worth trying and most are still old school. Trying off-label stuff is hard but possible. Like naltrexone is to help people come off of alcohol and drugs, but I read it being to control the same obsessive urges and am trying it for ocd. One dr was aware of the studies. However when had to tell a few others what I was one they thought I had an alcohol problem. I haven't drank in 7 years and even then I drank like once or twice a year. Never have done drugs with the exception of getting a weed license. That was bummer. Another dud. (Ha!)
I'm not a good candidate though for pills as I'm just immune to happy anything. But one thing that took me several years to learn was that going over the fda limit can drastically help, with the right psychiatrist. Valium can be the only thing that makes you not want to lie down on the freeway in black clothes at night if you can get someone to give it to you. Also generics matter.... They're not supposed to, hut they do.... Another thing is you can build a tolerance and plateau on the antidepressants. One dr actually say, "Yeah zoloft has been known to poop out on you." and he was old lol. Meaning they just stop working; however if you take a break and go back on them, they should still help again.

Hope any of this helps. Sorry for the book. :/

Lol I was like that and I would tell the fancy terms I read online or in books to my docs. It prolly plays a part.

And there isn't any direct medicine like for anhedonia, but we have anti-depressants which will treat it. These are just human made terms, I could call my depression "muchajabo" and so it will be. Sadly, I'm too late to name it now, rather depressing.

That said, I think psychiatry is a nascent field, until the 90s the meds had serious side effects

The last time, I did my research and saw the best doc I could. The meds although sorta worked 50-70% and made me kinda happy, but it didn't give me the purpose (in life) and the side effects were high. And the irony I became suicidal, apparently some can get on anti-depressants. Doc put me on antipsychotics after that. I felt caged.

I had read so many positive stories on Reddit of people taking the meds as I did. I was kinda hopeful in the beginning, maybe I am just cursed

Also I don't think there's enough tried-and-true experience with putting people on stimulants, even soft ones like provigil. I thought that was seriously going to change my life. Only helped like 25%. I think it would help more people tremendously though. Im just a hopeless exception. Dont mind me

 

[cowboypants]

Several dr's didn't even know what Auvelity was and when I said to one dr that it contained dextromethorphan she said, "That's a cough syrup."

Yeah, that's a little bad. I think most docs get used to the meds they prescribe. Also, there's a bit of ambiguity with newer formulas. Younger docs will be updated with the latest info on that part.

I am so done doing drugs or taking pysch meds, I used to do weed as well. I make my own beer and have fun now.

Another thing is you can build a tolerance and plateau on the antidepressants.

True, tolerance is a thing they are like any another drug ig prolly a mind related thing

 

[ms_beaverhousen]

Yeah I'm just doing NMDA antagonists now. Gonna give this lexapro a last shot and then Im done with antidepressants besides wellbutrin. It was a young dr who called it a cough syrup lol.
Lithium has been known to help with suicidal thoughts, but there's weight gain :/
Own beer? Shoo. Ferment life lol