Anhedonia

This is commonly discussed in depression and mental illness forums etc, but although it affects substance abuse withdrawals, it hardly gets a mention.

Anybody who has ever given up alcohol and then found that they have no enthusiasm for life or any activies that they previously enjoyed, hold no interest anymore. In fact, lacking in enthusiasm for just about anything, will know this feeling, this is anhedonia.

I'll try to keep the copied items short, obviously I can't provide links, but I'm sure we all know how to use Google.

Much of the battle of recovery is a hidden, quiet affair.  After the shakes subside and a person is considered stable enough to have survived acute withdrawal symptoms, the recovering addict has a hard slog ahead.PAWS affects people recovering from different substance addictions.  Symptoms of PAWS can include depression, anhedonia, loss of concentration, craving, sleep disturbances, stress sensitivity, anxiety, and guilt.

Anhedonia refers to a physical loss of one’s ability to experience pleasure.  Though drug cues continue to elicit craving and the promise of that elusive pleasure, natural sources of pleasure will feel as if they’ve utterly lost their charms. We know that anhedonia occurs upon abstinence from the addictive substance.

 Anhedonia is the result of changes in the dopaminergic mesolimbic and mesocortical reward circuit, involving the ventral tegmental area, the ventral striatum, and part of the prefrontal cortex. The inactivation of dopamine in these areas is proposed to lead to anhedonia, though more research is needed to be certain

The evidence of anhedonia’s link to addiction is well documented.  One study (2009) presented pleasant pictures to a control group and to a group of heroin addicts and found that heroin users had reduced responsiveness to these natural reinforcers, “across a range of psychophysiological measures.”  They found that, furthermore, their subjective ratings of the pleasant pictures predicted future heroin use.

Other studies have also documented that anhedonia occurs and persists in recovering addicts, and several of them emphasize that anhedonia is a significant indicator of relapse.

I'm always a great believer in understanding why you have these symptoms and it is always easier to deal with them if you know what and why, rather than just feeling out of sorts, with no guide to dealing with it.

I didn't want to put any more in one post, if the thread develops then perhaps look at ways of dealing with it, but it is still not understood 100%. Anyone going to an ARC and has a sense of humour (not me, I don't do things like this), ask your counsellor about it and enjoy the blank stare.

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