Posted by fuzz54 on August 13, 2007, at 15:11:01
In reply to Re: Help! Severe anhedonia - nick, posted by Cheryl-Lynn on August 11, 2007, at 18:08:54
> > Does anyone feel this anhedonia was caused by ssri's or other meds? Or have you experienced this lack of joy before the meds? I think this is important to figure out. SSRI's numb emotions, thus they can cause this lack of joy and emotion. For me it was permanent.
>
>
> This is a great question. I'd tend to think the problem is pre existing and the SSRI's exacerbate it.
>I had moderate to severe Anhedonia for 2 to 3 years before I went for individual therapy, and then SSRI's a year later combined with therapy. I also had several severe depressions, social anxiety, and some s******* ideation during the years of Anhedonia. The SSRI's did numb me a bit, but they allowed me to get over the anxiety that was keeping me from changing my life and getting to a better place. This helped the depression lift, which in turn relieved %70 of my Anhedonia. For me, the more relevant question is whether depression came before anhedonia? I think I've concluded it was the depression after looking back at everything. I'm now at the point where I'm lowering my meds to hopefully get on a minimal dose of SSRI, or even none. Even if there are some permanent effects from the SSRI's, I'm okay with them since they allowed me to get my life back on track. I don't mean to invalidate other people's experiences with SSRI's though. Everyone is different.
poster:fuzz54
thread:774887
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070808/msgs/776037.html