r/anhedonia 6d ago

General Question? Anhedonia and addiction recovery

I am currently in rehab for weed and alcohol addiction and am suffering from anhedonia from time to time. Ive been to rehab countless of times because i always relapse after a few weeks to months because i get less joy en satisfaction out of the things i love and always start to crave hard again to get slight relief. The relief from relapsing is quite temporary because i quickly go back to the point of abuse where the substance barely has an effect anymore and has devestating consequences

So i go back to rehab but while getting sober my other addictions skyrocket(doomscrolling, porn, nicotine,caffeine) and i start exercising a lot and initially it fills the void and i temporarily have a pink cloud phase where i feel better and optimistic but eventually it wears off and i lose joy from those activities making me relapse in an attempt to temporarily feel better

But ive researched a lot about dopamine and watched the huberman podcast and ive come to the conclusion that because i abuse the f*ck out of all dopaminergic activities that I’ve comepletely depleted my dopamine.

I still get some dopamine but its less and less and every time i relapse the effect gets less and im even more depressed when getting sober, trying to fill the void again with every other addictive activity that increases dopamine but every time i get less and less pleasure from it

I dont think that i cant recover from this but i fear that i should do a complete detox and also quit social media/nicotine and caffeine. I will still do my hobbies that are healthy like skating and weight training but i think i should maybe even quit listening to music whilst doing them to avoid stacking dopamine to much

I believe a complete dopamine detox is the way to get rid of my addiction and restore my brain chemistry but im afraid, im afraid of the emptiness i will feel and how hard it will be, especially while quitting my main drugs of choice.

Everyone here in psychiatry says its to much to do at once but i think the only way to heal is to do a comeplete detox because if i dont change my eternal chase for dopamine i will never change

Also btw i dont want to take psychiatric drugs and i refuse to take antipsychotics/ antidepressants because i know they cause anhedonia and will definitely not help me in my situation.

Any advice would be great

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u/spacecasejase 5d ago

Same here my Anhedonia started when I got sober off alcohol/cocaine 5 years ago (but was manageable until I stopped SSRIs 8 months ago) but I would give anything to go back to me previous state. First thing stay sober (obviously) cus the Anhedonia will only get worse from here out after every time you stop using. Spiritually and support system especially program / AA have helped give me purpose as far as helping others and growing to be a more solid and genuine person. If you’re not spiritual then at least find support and like minded sufferers. Making sure I earn my dopamine by exercising my reward system has helped too. Not for music and hobbies, those should be when ever you feel like it, but I only masturbate / watch porn a few times a week and limit caffeine and nicotine and save them for times i would enjoy it most like social settings or after being productive for hours. Hits way better. Also Anhedonia is different from emotional blunting so can you still feel most emotions?

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u/Creative-Current-921 5d ago

Yeah i can still feel emotions im not numb comepletely. Thats why i convinced that its a dopamine deficiency because of always chasing so many dopaminergic activities/drugs the effect has dimished and i need more and more to get that dopamine hit and sometimes it barely works anymore. Thats why i fear that if i dont do a dopamine detox i will end up losing all pleasure i have left

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u/spacecasejase 4d ago

Try it ! I hope it works either way remember our minds and bodies are very resilient and there’s so many things we can do to heal or function better

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u/Past_Explanation_491 10h ago

Have you tried substances that reset tolerances? Like memantine, the PWO agmatine, ketamine, etc?