Posted by Tomatheus on July 14, 2012, at 0:46:15
In reply to Re: What helps with social anhedonia., posted by DK79 on July 13, 2012, at 17:43:35
DK79,
I can relate to a lot of what you wrote pertaining to social interactions, especially not knowing what to say in conversations and having a tendency to zone out when in conversations. I would say that I too would like socializing to be something that I look forward to more so than I do now and that I'd certainly like to have more to say to others when I do get involved in conversations. I think that some of being a good conversationalist might come with practice, which is something that I admit that I haven't had a whole lot of in recent years (although I've had some). But I also think that there's probably an anhedonic aspect to it, which might have a biological basis of sorts to it.
In my case, I think that the best that I can probably do as far as treating what we would call the anhedonic aspect of socializing is concerned is to get myself back to the level that I was at before the onset of my anergic/vegetative depression. Even though I was still probably one of the quietest people that most people I knew had ever met back then and generally preferred solitary activities to social ones, I at least had the energy to follow what others were saying in conversations and to participate in conversations at some level. That's not to say that I wouldn't like to be even more sociable and an even better conversationalist than I ever have been. Ideally, I would prefer to be socially outgoing and extroverted over being quiet and introverted. And I think that striving to socialize more and to socialize better are things that introverts like me should strive to do -- at least to an extent -- because socializing is what I'd consider to be an adaptive behavior. At the same time, I realize that I can only change myself so much, and I think that I've taken enough medications to realize that if a medication or supplement is going to make me as sociable as I'd like to be, it's probably not going to do so in the long run. That's not to say that medications and supplements can never help with anhedonia, social anxiety, and/or other symptoms. I just don't think that the medications that are currently available have the power to transform our personalities to be exactly how we'd like them to be (and I'm not saying that you think that medications can do that -- instead, I was just sharing my thoughts on that topic).
If you don't mind answering this, could you tell me if you're currently taking any medications? It sounds like selegiline might be worth keeping as part of your medication regimen, although I can understand if you'd want to discontinue it to try something else that you can't take with it. Effexor might be worth trying. Even though it doesn't sound like you responded favorably to the SSRI that you tried (Lexapro), and it doesn't sound like you had much of a response to Wellbutrin, it doesn't sound like your responses to either serotonin reuptake inhibition or norepinephrine reuptake inhibition were so awful that Effexor wouldn't be worth trying. I don't know for sure if Effexor could be combined with low-dose selegiline, but that might be something worth looking into, assuming that the combo is safe. I personally think that medications can help with things such as anhedonia (social or otherwise) -- especially if it's associated with a depressive illness, which you do have -- but I think that they're less likely to help reverse a lifelong tendency to be socially inhibited.
Tomatheus
Dx: schizoaffective disorder
Taking Abilify and 6 supplements
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