Posted by bleauberry on September 6, 2018, at 6:24:35
In reply to Re: MMJ and anhedonia, posted by sigismund on September 5, 2018, at 0:28:34
I would just like to add an additional comment that I think it is wrong when our medical community lumps depression and anhedonia into the same category. If you have depression you most likely have anhedonia too. But you can have anhedonia without having depression. Anhedonia can be part of a larger complex but it can also be a stand-alone thing.
In my case I think doctors misdiagnosed me the whole time. They said I had Major Depressive Disorder. But much of the time I wasn't really blue, slept good, ate good, no pain, not really depressed - but the anhedonia itself was majorly crippling. The last thing you want to do with that is give it more serotonin. But that's exactly what the doctors did, one after another after another. It wasn't until a freaking nurse said try Ritalin for anhedonia that I realized the doctors had been lost the whole time.
So I just wanted to offer a caution about thinking of anhedonia and depression as the same thing because they are not the same thing.
This post lends a good example to how Depression Tests go awry. Ok assume you just took one of those questionnaires and your total points puts you in the category of depression. That's because you answer the questions to poor sleep, poor eating, pain, low energy, etc, all that stuff that can go with depression, you did bad on all that and you also have no interest in hobbies (that's the anhedonia part of it). Ok so you take an antidepressant. A couple months later your sleep is improved, eating is normal, energy improved, and because of all that you aren't in depression category anymore. Your doctor says you are doing good. But you still have no more interest in hobbies or activities than you did in full depression mode. Anhedonia is stronger than ever. You are still basically as useless as you were with depression, despite the doctor says you aren't depressed anymore, because the anhedonia is a separate monster not treated by the antidepressant. You are not better. But the test says you are. Your total points came down. But you are still sick and crippled despite the doctor's assurance.
And that is how a whole lot of the scientific studies we all put so much trust into go awry and give us improper assumptions and conclusions.
in my opinion. difficult to explain.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1100647
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20180728/msgs/1100824.html