u/Fast-Development-888

I got to wondering, just now...where are you all? I'm in the UK, myself!

Over the past 30 minutes, I've had many occasions when I've clicked on the usual link I use, in the Firefox browser, to get here, and a notice has come up saying that the site cannot be loaded. Instead, I click on the bell, top-right, click on somebody's post, find the "r/anhedonia" link at the top of their post, click that and I get here. But, that shouldn't be happening. I've changed nothing about the link I've been clicking on for many weeks. ANYBODY ELSE HAVING TROUBLE?

Click To Read This Story!

You'll be glad you did!

I asked ChatGPT why many countries' scientists have begun to add formal relaxation techniques to their treatment of the anhedonic patient, and how it is that there has been, in many cases, a shocking degree of improvement in the results since it was added. ChatGPT gave me this reply...

"A simple way to picture the process is:

"1. CHRONIC TENSION KEEPS THE BRAIN IN A "THREAT-MONITORING" MODE.

When the body is continually tense, the brain receives constant signals of activation: stay alert, scan, prepare, watch for problems. That can create the "mental noise" you described."

"2. THAT NOISE COMPETES WITH REWARD AND INTEREST SYSTEMS.

The brain has limited attention and energy. If a lot of it is being used for worry, vigilance, apprehension and internal monitoring, subtle positive signals—curiosity, enjoyment, interest, connection—can become harder to notice."

"3. RELAXATION REDUCES THAT BACKGROUND LOAD.

When the body repeatedly experiences calmer states, the brain receives a different message: there is less immediate threat; you can lower the level of monitoring. That can create the quieter, clearer state you have been noticing after your Rmins."

"4. A CALMER STATE MAY MAKE OTHER TREATMENTS WORK BETTER.

Whether the other treatment is medication, therapy, behavioural activation, exercise, social contact or lifestyle change, those approaches generally need the person’s brain to be able to engage with them. If the "alarm system" is constantly loud, the benefits may be harder to access."

I suggested to ChatGPT that relaxation seems to make the entire orchestra play much, much quieter than they were and then you can hear the quiet little instrument being played right at the back...the pleasure centre's signals trying to get through to us, and ChatGPT said, basically, yes...that is what is happening when successful relaxation is introduced alongside the other treatments. The quiet reward centre signals begin to finally get through, because the brain noise formerly blocking it is turned much further down!

I'd give anything to suffer from only depression, again, like I did, on and off for 55 years!
Acute Anhedonia has stolen my life while forcing me to go on living!
They wouldn't let a dog live through this, but they leave us to live with it!

Yeah! My Faith was one of the 17 casualties of anhedonia, last year! I'd like to get that one back, because I have memories of how bolstered and supported I felt, back in 2024, when my Faith was still intact, because the medical profession hadn't destroyed my life, just yet! When I pray, I feel dead inside! When I see my crosses in this bedroom, I feel dead inside! What a ghastly condition anhedonia truly is! Death, in life!

After 8 hours of talking to ChatGPT about Anhedonia, I managed to spot a very nice chunk of text that I wanted you guys to read.

Behavioural Activation (BA)
(Do Things, Even When You've No Interest In Them And/Or Don't Care About Them!)

"What this can realistically lead to (GOOD-CASE outcome)............

"If BA is working for you over time, your life shifts like this:"

"You start doing small activities even when you don’t feel like it. At first they feel emotionally flat. But as weeks and months pass, a few of those activities begin to occasionally “land” differently — not full pleasure at first, but moments where something feels a bit more present: a scene in a film catches you slightly, a walk feels a bit less grey, a memory or hobby sparks a brief flicker of interest."

"Those flickers don’t stay rare forever in a good outcome. They begin to show up more often, and certain activities start to feel mildly engaging again rather than completely empty. You don’t suddenly return to your old level of enjoyment all at once, but your hobbies stop being “emotionally dead zones” and start becoming uneven — some parts still flat, some parts slightly alive."

"Over time, a few activities begin to stand out as reliably better than others. You start choosing them more. And eventually, interest stops being something you have to wait for and starts becoming something that occasionally returns during doing, not before it."

"IN ONE LINE: It can lead to interest gradually reappearing in patches, inside real activities, so that some parts of your old life begin to feel alive again instead of permanently flat."

BASICS: My name is Ian. I am 69. I live, alone, in the UK.

Last year, in a medical hospital, a really stupid doctor decided to put an end to my 75mg Amitriptyline - DEAD STOP! No tapering or gradual reduction of the dose!

AFTER FORTY YEARS ON IT!

My brain went into neurological shock! The tremors, twitches, vision disturbances, the hallucinations...the hospital ignored those - I was given no covering drug and nobody tried to treat anything from which I was suffering. My muscle twitches were so bad, at one point, they couldn't even insert a needle into my arm to take blood.

The withdrawal and the breakdown were too horrific to properly describe. I could stand in the middle of my living room floor, stare ahead at the daylight beyond the curtains and my sickening depression was so heavy, I felt that my actual body weight was burdened by it, like thick black treacle in my bloodstream, and my mind just wanted to do anything I had to, to escape such a disgraceful feeling...like nothing I'd ever known. Nothing got through to me, nothing mattered to me, all 16 pastimes/hobbies/reward areas meant ZERO to me and it was, quite frankly, the most brutally and sickeningly miserable period of my entire life! I didn't even realise that any human could ever feel so vile, inside!

BUT, THEN, CAME THE ANHEDONIA!

LET ME EXPLAIN IT THE WAY I USUALLY DO...

LAST YEAR, IAN DIED!

I'm just Ian's ghost. All I do is haunt the house in which Ian lived, before the medical profession destroyed him!

I'm a spectral detective, aimlessly haunting the house Ian lived in, just using what I see as clues to what being Ian might have been like, back then. I wonder what it was like to be Ian, while he was alive. The only escape that I can ever get is the only escape that I do get...sleep. Y'SEE...WHEN YOU'RE ASLEEP, YOU'RE NOT MENTALLY ILL. The only catch is: you're not awake to be anything mentally well, then, either.

The detective work...

- I see Ian watched movies because there are hundreds of them around, downstairs.

- I see that Ian listened to music, according to some music CDs lying around.

- Ian read books, because they're still around, one with a bookmark in.

- I know Ian smoked cigarettes because there is a pack somewhere and there are two lighters in this bedroom.

- I know Ian did some weight training, because his bench is in the downstairs front living room.

- I know Ian collected edged/bladed weapons because there are hundreds of them around, upstairs.

- I know that, when he was alive, Ian ate Aero chocolate because when I got back to his home, there were boxloads of Aero chocolate bars lying around. I couldn't bear the sight of them, so I threw all the chocolate out.

- I know Ian was a practising Christian, because I found a small wooden "holding" cross in his bed. (That is the saddest one of all of them.)

Now? Now, I don't know! It seems that nobody has a clue how to cure this anhedonia condition, so I get up, I sit in this chair at this computer, for 12 hours a day. I have no interest in anything that I used to, including those interests I was passionate about. Nobody is trying to do anything - and, I've run out of professionals to tell my story to, now. So, I don't know if my anhedonia will ever clear away and let me live a life of any kind.

As I said, I'm not Ian...I'm just Ian's ghost, with nothing left to do!

Is anybody, anywhere on Earth, trying to find a fix for anhedonia? Are were really alone?