Loss of Life's Pleasures

senglish510 said:


I have been taking Reta for a few months. I am on 5mg. These past few weeks, I am finding that I don't want to do anything I normally like to do. I don't find joy in any of my hobbies, food (expected), sex, socialization, spending time with my family, or anything else. I never want to leave my house, or even my couch.

My husband took my kids out of town last weekend and I had the house to myself. I stayed in my bedroom until 5pm, doing nothing but looking on my phone. I originally thought that my depression was just bad right now, even though this feels a bit different. After reading about anhedonia on Reta, I think that is exactly what is going on.

For anyone who has experienced this, did Wellbutrin or Auvelity help with the Anhedonia? Did anything else help to relieve it? Did going down in your dose help? I am desperate for this feeling to go away. I really don't want to live this way, but I also don't want to be fat anymore. Please help!

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I don't know what you were doing before you started taking Reta, because I'm noticing the same things in myself. However, I make sure to hit my daily goals and set aside extra time for things even when I don't feel like it—like going to the gym five times a week, doing cardio, going out with friends, or talking to someone about it. Sometimes it just helps to do it and get moving; once it becomes a habit, nothing can stop you.
 
It actually helped me in a way. I used to play games on my phone all the time but now I havent even opened my games in 6 weeks. I also used to gamble a lot but that has gone down.

Luckily for me I still enjoy working out and spending time with family and friends and definitely no change in my sex life. Honestly, if that happened to me I'm stopping cold turkey fk that.
 
SoCalGirl said:


It definitely comes in waves. Not sure the phone scrolling helps, but I get it. Can you set one or two small goals for each day, the night before, so you have something, a little bit to work towards? I keep a running list, and I NEVER want to do any of them. This week is 2 pantry shelves a day. I MADE myself, so hard to do, get at it last night and lo and behold my mood lifted and I actually already got a good start to my morning, today. Good luck. The struggle is real.

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Lord, some weekends it’s like, “I brushed my teeth! Yay me!”
 
Yeah, the ol anhedonia monster, cursed beast from the pits of Hades.

You have to do something to raise your dopamine levels. Semax maybe, a diet low enough in carbs and high enough in fat that you start burning ketones, hard on a GLP-1 for sure. Lots of exercise, Yoga, fasting, meditation (so I have heard). Several psychedelic substances (not recommending you try this at home).

But it seems the GLP-1s are somehow affecting your dopamine in a not positive manner. Seems like a fairly common side effect. I had it slightly when I first started Tirz. I used Semax to counter it with some degree of efficacy.
 
I have found Semax to have helped a lot. I felt more like I had apathy though. I could enjoy things, but finding the motivation to do anything was next to impossible.
 
I was feeling pretty guilty about being unproductive, that is the worst part of anhedonia but then I realised while I am lacking motivation I am still actually doing things.

It reminds me of when the food noise is gone and you can't be bothered eating so you have to kind of force yourself. As a couple of you mentioned above, I think they key is making yourself start doing the things you normally would anyway and starting is the hardest part.

My dogs are old now and they were overweight because we still fed them the same even though they were much less active in their older years. I moved them to one meal a day which is perfect (now both maintaining healthy weight) but you could see the reduction in satiety affected them psychologically, they got more of a spring in their step, more enthusiasm and keenness.

Satiety really has a massive difference on us, it also reminds me how everyone feels lazy and sluggish after christmas dinner, we are getting some of that feeling all the time when on these peps.
 
The anhedonia struggle is real. I bought some fun new self-stick white boards this week to help me focus and get the satisfaction of ticking tasks off and it's working, in that I'm doing the stuff I need to do (even if I really can't be arsed most of the time!).
 
My reta journey started at 2mg and over time went as high as 10mg. That feeling didn't really hit me below 8mg, felt it hard at 10mg but also felt great otherwise and the results driven mind accepted the short term sacrifice knowing it wasn't permanent. Hit my goal and then slowly reduced dosage over the course of a few months to where I started to "Feel the music". Once my workout playlist started to get me amped again, I knew all the pieces were back in balance and I've left it there (5mg) since. Hunger is just strong enough, vibes just intense enough, etc. Everyone's going to be different. We all have our own body chemistry. You'll find yours.
 
I feel focused instead of losing desire. Like the things i knew were bad or distractions i just have zero interest. Fried foods? Gone. Regular soda? Gone. Ive been in the gym and focused on living instead of getting through another day.
 
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