For anyone who has experienced or is currently experiencing anhedonia after cleaning up, how do you deal with it, or how did you deal with it? How long did it take you to get through?
Each time I’ve tried to get clean I’ve reached this point a little after a month in where I get to this point where any of the activities I normally love give me the same satisfaction as looking at a blank wall. I’m 51 days in and I keep telling myself this a hump I just need to push through, but it feels really bleak. There seems to be no point in anything.
Anhedonia is a common component of depression (here I mean depression the symptom or feeling, not the disorder featuring said feeling as its primary symptom). Even if depression isn’t something you had hiding underneath substance abuse, a lot of strategies for fighting depression will help with the anhedonia. If it persists or really gets in the way of your ability to live your life, it’s worth seeing a doctor about.
I’ve mainly experienced anhedonia in the context of a depressive disorder, as a component of PAWS (Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome [from alcohol]), and as part of my mood fluctuations with BPD.
With major depressive disorder, it became manageable with the meds my doctor prescribed, and then for me it went away after a year or two.
With PAWS, understanding what it was helped, as well as knowing PAWS is a temporary thing. I felt like it was something I could live with, plus I was so oriented around improving myself in recovery I guess that kept me from staying down for too long.
With BPD, in my case, it passes without too much time, it’s more a mood fluctuation than a real phase of depression. I use mindfulness, routine, consistent eating and sleeping schedules, getting outside once per day (even if just to walk around the block or buy groceries), keeping in touch with my support network instead of withdrawing, and temporarily reduce my expectations of myself to match what I can realistically expect to be able to do.
I appreciate your reply and thank you. I tend to have pretty bad PAWS–which in the end has always been why I’ve relapsed. I’m trying to tough it out and do things like exercise and listen to good music, which can be helpful sometimes, but it weighs on me heavily. Unfortunately, I can’t take a lot of depression medications. SSRIs and SNRIs have a paradoxical effect on me, and there are others that the side effects are worse than what I’m being treated for. It’s kind of a bum rap, but it is what it is. I think you have a point with the routine, going outside once a day, sleeping schedules, etc., and definitely to reduce expectations of myself. That last one is pretty hard for me, but maybe that will help.
Thanks again for your reply. I really appreciate you taking the time.