Anhedonia definition : the Greek word hedone means pleasure, and therefore an-hedonia is a lack of pleasure. In psychology, anhedonia is defined as a person's inability to derive pleasure from normally pleasurable life events such as walking, listening to music, looking, eating, exercise, social encounters and /sexual interactions. Almost everyone experiences a mild degree of anhedonia at sometime in their life. Anhedonia may occur partly starting in middle age when our senses of vision, hearing and touch become less with age. For instance, older individuals do not derive as much pleasure from listening to music as teenagers do.

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Anhedonia medication
I personally have experienced anhedonia at times in my life, particularly when I have been out of balance, for instance working too many months or years at a time with little travel or social interaction. I find yoga and physical activity, along with deep sleep, restore the ability to experience pleasure. To reverse sexual anhedonia, I find the use of certain sex herbs to be quite potent. For mood elevation, SAM-e supplement and Mind-Power-Rx are quite helpful. To reverse visual anhedonia, Eyesight-Rx is excellent. For overall vitality, yoga is an excellent choice. For a book on how to increase happiness, see Be Happier Starting Now.

Anhedonia questions
Q. Hello dr. Sahelian, I must say that I really like your website, its a great source of information. Here is my question. I actually suffer of anhedonia and I have a lot of trouble to experiment pleasure/emotions in what im doing. I also suffer of anxiety/depression but its not that bad. So my main concern would be the anhedonia. My guess would be to boost my dopamine level which is in my opinion the cause of my reward system dysfunction. So I tried with L-tyrosine without success, it worsened my anxiety and did nothing to the anhedonia. Im now willing to try maybe Nadh or Alcar but my question is : Can those nutrients cause anxiety as a side effect like l-tyrosine? Do you think it may help with anhedonia?
   A. Anhedonia can be due to many reasons, and focusing on one brain chemical is not necessary the best approach. A comprehensive approach with diet, exercise, yoga, purpose in life, closer ties with others, travel, career goals, etc are the first to try. Afterwards one can explore other options such as supplements. SAM-e, ALC and nadh which do not cause as much anxiety as tyrosine.

Q. Is there a way to break the anhedonia (from antidepressants) with tyrosine". I have another question: while the antidepressants caused anhedonia, they also caused emotional numbness. I am just wondering if this is reversable or not. Is there a possible chance that supplements could bring back some emotion? Because I am really, really empty. Or do you think this lingering anhedoni might be too late to reverse?
   A. Yoga and SAM-e are good options to treat anhedonia.