WEBVTT - How Does Anhedonia Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff Lauren bog Obam here. Even as the general

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<v Speaker 1>public has gained a better understanding of mental health issues

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<v Speaker 1>like depression and anxiety over recent years, some psychological symptoms

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<v Speaker 1>remain a mystery to many. For today's example, and hadonia.

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<v Speaker 1>This is a condition in which a person finds themselves

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<v Speaker 1>unable to experience pleasure from acts that are generally pleasurable

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<v Speaker 1>or that they once enjoyed. That can include the absence

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<v Speaker 1>of good feelings someone might expect from things and activities

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<v Speaker 1>like friendship, food, sex, or music. The term was originally

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<v Speaker 1>coined in by a French psychologist, stemming from the Greek

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<v Speaker 1>words and meaning without an heat own, meaning pleasure. We

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<v Speaker 1>spoke via email with Los Angeles based psychotherapist Alyssa Mass

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<v Speaker 1>m f T. She said, an adonia is the lack

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<v Speaker 1>of experiencing joy or pleasure. It's typically thought of as

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<v Speaker 1>a symptom of depression, though it can also exist separately.

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<v Speaker 1>In addition to depression, antadonia can accompany other mental health

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<v Speaker 1>issues like schizophrenia and orexia nervosa and substance use disorders.

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<v Speaker 1>You can also signal issues like Parkinson's disease. For some people,

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<v Speaker 1>antadonia can be social or emotional, meaning that they no

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<v Speaker 1>longer feel joy being around people, or it can be physical,

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<v Speaker 1>meaning sensations like touch can feel empty or food can

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<v Speaker 1>taste bland. The causes of antidonia can vary, and while

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<v Speaker 1>it's associated with depression, a person doesn't necessarily have to

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<v Speaker 1>have depression to have antadonia. Experts believed antadonia may be

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<v Speaker 1>linked to changes in brain activity and an inability to

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<v Speaker 1>produce or respond to the feel good hormone dopamine. Some

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<v Speaker 1>preliminary research that's been performed on rats indicates that antadonia

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<v Speaker 1>may be tied to an overactive prefrontal cortex, impacting the

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<v Speaker 1>dopamine neurons and interfering with the path is the control

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<v Speaker 1>how and why we seek out and experience desire and rewards.

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<v Speaker 1>Other research indicates that other brain areas and structures could

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<v Speaker 1>also be involved, like the amygdala, which processes emotion, the

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<v Speaker 1>striatum associated with the reward system, and the insula, connected

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<v Speaker 1>to self awareness and consciousness. While there's no single way

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<v Speaker 1>to treat antadonia, many mental health experts lean on strategies

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<v Speaker 1>prescribed for depression, including talk therapy, and in some cases,

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<v Speaker 1>medications like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSR eyes. There is, however,

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<v Speaker 1>evidence to suggest that while s SR eyes can work

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<v Speaker 1>great with some symptoms of depression, they may not help

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<v Speaker 1>much with the lack of motivation and deficits and reward

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<v Speaker 1>processing that often accompany depression, which means they may not

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<v Speaker 1>help much with antadonia. For now, mental health experts are

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<v Speaker 1>continuing to incorporate antidonia assessment into their work with clients

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<v Speaker 1>and working with them to help find coping strategies. Mass said,

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<v Speaker 1>in cases of depression long or short term, I always

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<v Speaker 1>screen for antadonia. If a client screens positive for it,

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<v Speaker 1>then it's really about looking at everything that's going on

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<v Speaker 1>and treating the depression as a whole until there's relief

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<v Speaker 1>from that. It's impossible to tell if the antidonia is

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<v Speaker 1>part of the depression or something that exists on its own.

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<v Speaker 1>If someone's case history tells me they never had antidonia

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<v Speaker 1>until the depression hit, in that case, it's likely more

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<v Speaker 1>treatable than if it had always existed and is more

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<v Speaker 1>of a baseline. Today's episode was written by Michelle Constant

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<v Speaker 1>Anoski and produced by Tyler Klang. For more on this

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<v Speaker 1>and lots of other curious topics, visit how stuffworks dot com.

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