Posted by Alexanderfromdenmark on July 27, 2009, at 11:10:52
In reply to Lack of pleasure: the cause of all mental illness?, posted by linkadge on July 25, 2009, at 15:59:48
> I was thinking about it and I have a hypothesis, that a lack of pleasure is the cause of all/most mental afflictions. When I say pleasure, I don't mean that selfish crack like hedonic overdrive, I mean the good pleasure (opiates?), where you just want to settle down and enjoy the moment.
>
> For instance,
>
> depression -
> obvious
>
> dysphoric mania -
> too much drive not enough settle down and feel ok in the moment
>
> anxiety -
> too much pain, not enough pleasure (opiates have antianxiety properties)
>
>
> OCD -
> fueled by anxiety
>
> PTSD -
> inability to turn off bad memories
> increasing pleasure would either diminsh bad memories or put a positive spin on them
>
> euphoric mania -
> this one may be the exception. I think this is cause by simultanious high motivation and high pleasure. But, I think if you increased pleasure further, you would counterballance hypermotivation and end the mania (opiates actually have anitmanic effects)
>
> schizophrenia -
> another possible exception, opiates do have antischiozphrenic effects in some case studies.
> but this may be due to their effects on glumamte metabolism
>
> Note: all the SSRI's and TCA's have opioid like effects. Not that I am necessarily condoning opiates for mental illness.
>
>
> Linkadge
>
I would say no. But Anhedonia plays a large in depression and assoctiated disorders. Other things that play a part in mental ilness can be too much attachtion to pleasure(addiction). I know before I was treated with SSRI's, I could feel pleasure from some things, but that I was also overly attachted to those pleasures. Now I have pretty bad anhedonia and it sucks big time. But I wouldn't say that's the sole cause of my depression.I would say trying to treat depression without treating anhedonia will never create real remession.
poster:Alexanderfromdenmark
thread:908530
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090721/msgs/908814.html