Numbness, lack of feeling or pleasure in things, low motivation. These can all be referred to as Anhedonia and are some negative symptoms of schizophrenia
I dunno if i still have it? I can’t tell anymore i had it for years but meds are wearing off
I might not have anhedonia as much
I cannot feel love much but i feel warmth towards family and people on tv
Can anyone relate to anything ive wrote here?
I guess if i was a dimmer switch i would be on the lowest dial
I can relate. I love my family and friends but have no desire to do anything. No desire to plan a fun vacation or start a hobby or even read, or excercise most days, and it is usually in the winter for me. The only way I have dealt with this over the years is to force and I mean really force myself to do fun things even though I don’t feel pleasure from them. I think it helps my relationships with my family to try and act like I am having a good time. And sometimes I end up actually having a good time despite my lack of interest in things. Force a hobby or go for a walk or do something. It is not perfect but it helps.
Thanks so much for replying i relate to what your saying i find it forced too but want to be as normal as possible to keep others happy. Sometimes the more you fake happy the more natural it feels i get ya
My uncle told me am lazy and spoiled for having low motivation and being unable to look after myself. Some people are just so ignorant of mental illness, I told him it’s the negative symptoms but he said am bullshitting him.
I would feel this when I got off my meds. I felt a deeper warmer connection to people and myself. I could never hack it though and always ended up back on my meds. It’s a trade off I guess.
My dad says something similar. I am low in motivation, but i had a workout today and that gave me a sense of satisfaction. I also watched a wildlife doco which bought tears to my eyes. As for motivation, i think i want to make art of wildlife, but i have no motivation to do anything other than daydream about making the art. I’m unsure what to do about it, except i think @Vinegar is right, you kind of have to force yourself and sometimes its a suprise and you enjoy it.
Hey, i found this really great inspiration video about overcoming lack of motivation and apathy
Yeah anhedonia was extremely bad for me for a long time. Ive improved a fair bit but still have to endure it at times. I feel so lucky and blessed to be able to feel some emotions and interest etc again. Numb and apathetic passive nihilism is absolute hell to me.
Life is to feel, both the good and the bad.
Yes it is hell a bit as i can’t feel much good
But on the other hand when i came off meds all i felt was extremely angry irritated with everything. I can’t deal with emotions anymore so i just carry on
Fifteen words.
@Ducky
[quote="Ozzyskits, post:10, topic:330131”]
Life is to feel, both the good and the bad.
[/quote]
That is exactly how I feel and why I want to get off my meds. I’d rather feel the bad things in order to feel joy again. I feel bad now anyway only because I find it hard to feel anything. There is no joy. I might just up my anti depressant just to see if it helps. I have a year before I get off my meds.
Why a year and your coming off meds ? Aps?
I relate to what you said too. But like you I think it’s getting a little better.
Thats good yours is getting better @AKendrick
when i started topic i was wondering if i still had it? Anhedonia, now i know i do theres no question
It will get better ducky…
It’s just the estimated period of time that my doc gave me. He wants me to stay on the antipsychotics for at least one more year, maybe two. So in the meantime I might up/change my antidepressant.
@Mountain
I actually went off my meds not too long ago. I was completely off them for months. I thought for so long that i would feel again while off them. But i was wrong. I felt worse, actually. Didn’t go psychotic or get any sza symptoms as far as i could tell (although eventually, i probably would have sooner or later). I always remembered back to when i went off meds a couple times and felt great and clear. Turns out i was most likely a little manic (is it called hypomania or hypermania? Forgot…) and a little bit unstable during those times. I think after all ive suffered through in life, this is just the way i am now, wether meds or no meds. So for me, the anhedonia is from environmental causes (i dont like to use the word as its used too often, but ‘Trauma’), not meds or genes. I actually feel way better mood-wise on antipsychotics. At least at low doses anyway.
Thought I’d just say that in case it might help in anyway.
All the best mountain! 
Thats exactly what my psychiatrist says ‘it may be caused by trauma’ or negative symptoms. One or the other. Im sorry that you two have it too, its very difficult but i believe APs helps mood
Thanks man. I guess I wouldn’t be so adamant to take myself off the meds if it wasn’t for my experience of getting on them at the hospital.
I just felt really horrible when they first injected me with paliperidone (invega) and that bad feeling had been with me since it first got in me.
Interesting that you mention trauma. I think trauma might play a role in my emotional numbness too. A sort of shut down of my nervous system from my harrowing experience walking around London for four nights being guided and tormented by nightmarish visions and delusions.
I just want this bad feeling to stop. Thats all. And i hope getting off the meds for me will help in some way. But thanks for telling me about your experience, it was really insightful.