Anhedonia...the WORST symptom

[Rkk71]

I've  been having some depression/anxiety issues for a little over a year now. This all seem to came about after I quit drinking cold turkey after several years. I'm 24, whether the depression is related to my drinking or not I don't know. It has changed forms on me so many times from panic attacks, to excessive crying, to feeling unreal, but all lately I feel like I completely lost ALL my feelings, and am afraid I will never be the same or have them back. I feel unreal and like I'm just going through the motions, and all my actions are just out of habit. It is so hard to explain to anyone how I feel Since I still can laugh and joke around, but there is no feeling behind it, if that makes sense? I have tried several anti depressants, and when I took them they made me feel emotionally numb like this among other side effects which is why I quit taking them. I have researched quite a bit about chemical dependency, depression, the whole works. There was a small stretch of time when I was feeling better (not normal, but better) but this inability to gain pleasure or joy is the worst feeling yet. Did I cause premanant irreversable damage from my 4-5 years of heavy drinking? Or is this just depression resulting from it. I have seen many Dr.s and a few psychs. and I just never can get a clear cut answer as to their best guess what is going on. They just throw me some new meds and send me on my way. Has anyone on here been seriously anhedonic and found the right med and had their life come back and feel like them old selves? Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!!

[TakeMySuffering]

I have this exact thing but it wasn't due to drinking, it was due to intense stress & a mild TBI due to a medical error. They refused to treat me at the hospital, exacerbating the stress and leaving me with severe PTSD on top of everything else. I can no longer feel emotions, not even 1%, although I express them at the right times. I am 100% anhedonic. I am so suicidal, there is literally no reason to live if you feel this way but no one is properly empathetic to how bad it can be because they haven't experienced losing all quality of life in an environment where medicine has not even begun studying this condition, much less come up with treatments for doctors to prescribe. Good luck finding a doctor who will admit his or her own ignorance though--that's what really galls me.

[Hensley258]

http://www.trans4mind.com/nutrition/depression.html

[Rkk71]

thanks for the replies so far....i would love that to see that link hensley!! thanks.

[Hensley258]

This is not unusual for people that used to be heavy drinkers for many years, then stop.

It is very much reversable. Many years of alcohol abuse can cause Bio-chemical changes in the brain. In most cases this Bio-chemical change is related to either Serotonin, or Neurephinepherine depletion in the brain.

With specific Amino acids, and specific vitamins it can be reversed.
If your interested, let me know and I can send you the link to the web sight that shows you step by step, how to reverse it. I am using this plan myself and have noticed remarkable improvement after just a couple weeks.

[el_dave]

I don't think it's irreversable. For me it was seven years, and I quit just like you, cold turkey. Went through a lot of changes but it went away.. my wife says it was a couple of years before I was myself again. Have hope, and do try to avoid medications if you can. What's the sense of trading one addiction for another? You'll be all right, give it more time, you'll see.