Yea, I really feel like we are kind of fucked. There is no cure for anhedonia. Even the guys doing CDnuts protocol still reporting having it. With how quickly Fin has screwed me physically and mentally I don’t really see a way out. I will have fucking PTSD anhedonia for the rest of my life. Even If I was totally cured tomorrow.
Give it time mcibofh… It will get better. It took me over a year but, slowly, the anhedonia started weining, as did many other symptoms. It’s not gone entirely, but I can enjoy life again. Hope the same is true for you.
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It takes at least a year before mental side-effects begin to recover.
I was completely flat emotionally for a good 12-14 months after stopping, but feel much better now at 18 months. This is common for a lot of people.
As for Ketamine, the post-happiness only lasts for one or two days. Feels quite dopaminergic. It can create all sorts of delusions as well so wouldn’t advise it. Remember thinking I was able to understand so many puzzles and patterns I things, which is scary as that’s a symptom of psychosis.
This is quite promissing but stiñl very experimental.
They havent quite figured the dosages yet and the drug is still illegal too…
In the meantime i try to get my hands on tianeptine but it seems impossible, i havent met anyone who wants to prescribe it.
For anhedonia go to lobgecity and search for uurodine dha choline thread, it prob helps
There are clinics you can attend to have ketamine administered by DRs for anxiety and depression. I wonder if this would be of any lasting benefit to us?
I thought I’d bump this thread.
I came across this article which I thought described anhedonia pretty well, one of the descriptions from someone was this.
“Essentially, I gain nothing from my daily life; my world is cold and, as such, it makes life seem the same way. Everything I look at, everything I do, looks and feels the same.”
I know that feeling all too well, the article also mentions depressed people having reduced opioid activity experiencing less pleasure. I’m using LDN right now which is an opioid antagonist so I’m hoping to see some improvement as I up the dose.
The feeling of joy I can get a hint of but in the end everything feels the same, playing games they all feel the same, looking at cars they all look like 4 wheel boxes, women look the same, they all have the same features, everything feels and looks the same and it drive’s me insane at time’s, anhedonia make’s life bland and utterly pointless which is why I’m looking forward to sage because it could potentially help a lot of us in that area.
But getting more to the point, I’m curious could eating oral or powdered ketamine fix anhedonia like symthoms? I’ve read a few studies on IV ketamine and am curious if the “party drug” is the same thing? I’m not into drugs, never was but if this is something that could potentially let me see the old me again, I’d try anything in that respect. I need to know what my normal is as i simply cannot remember anymore. I forget what pure joy feels like, what motivation feels like etc. I’m all up for drugs that help people and not harm them.
Has anyone tried Ketamine with anhedonia and noticed any kind of improvement? Obviously this is not a viable long term option, but I’d be curious to try it once to see what happens with my head, will things stay the same or improve? I’m interested to see if it’s safe i guess 
From what ive seen of Ketamine it would be madness to play with it as any part of a cure its a power drug that I can’t imagine anyone benefiting from long term my opinion is it would only lead to more problems long term.
It’s illegal for a reason.
It’s legal in Canada for treatment resistant depression but it hasn’t been followed up long term yet as far as im aware, it’s also legal as a sedative, I’m not familiar with its effects so just asking around i guess.
This conclusion is what got me interested in looking into it.
“Several notable findings emerged from this study investigating the effects of the rapid-acting antidepressant ketamine on anhedonia in currently depressed treatment-resistant BD patients. Foremost among these findings is that ketamine, compared with placebo, rapidly reduced the levels of anhedonia in these patients; this reduction occurred within 40 min of a single ketamine infusion and lasted up to 14 days. Furthermore, we found that anti-anhedonic effects of ketamine remained significant even when controlling for level of depressive symptoms, suggesting that ketamine has a unique role in ameliorating anhedonia levels independent of other depressive symptoms.”
Marijuana is also illegal and look at the benefits of that yet finasteride, SSRI’S and accutane are legal and look where they got us 
I have no trust in regularities, if something could potentially help, I’m up for anything, just my personal opinion.
I know exactly where your coming from mate I’m on the cautious side of things these days as I’ve tried a few things but for me it usually ended up making things worse or being of no benefit at all.
I use to smoke alot of cannabis for pain management it was brilliant and really helped me to sleep but ended up being a disaster for me long term the THC plays with your mind making you more depressed than ever and paranoid.
It’s all just my opinion each to their own
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Yeah that’s completely understandable, I get you.
At the end of the day i guess the best thing would be no drugs at all ever again, hopefully once we do find the underlying cause of this disease we can target it and reset our bodies back to the way they where or near it for good. Just so frustrating in the mean time 
A few weeks ago I read up on finasteride reviews on a hairloss forum alot if them were negative as you can imagine most of them saying about the sexual physical and mental issues whilst taking finasteride and post finastetide one of the guys mentioned a time machine sometimes I think he’s about right it would be great to jump in and turn back the clock.
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I tried IV ketamine. Cool experience, but it didn’t do anything for my anhedonia (or depression for that matter).
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I’ve tried ketamine IV several times and it helped like nothing else.
It helped against anxiety, depression, anhedonia, made my fatigue a lot better.
I’d go as far as to say that it saved my life because there were times when I was so depressed and exhausted that I thought if it continues like this for a few more months, I’ll have to end it.
So yes, ketamine helps. Sorry for bumping up an old thread but I felt the need to express how much it helped me.
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Didn’t do too much for libido etc. But in terms of depression, anhedonia, anxiety etc, it is the only thing I’ve found so far that really helps.
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What dosis? How long does it last?
I tried ketamine for the first time in January 2017 when I was severely depressed, anxious, anhedonic and basically couldn’t handle my life anymore.
I got the treatment that is pretty common in treating depression with ketamine:
6 infusions over two weeks. I don’t recall the exact dosage, but it started around 25mg I think and the dosage was slowly increased with every infusion.
It worked incredibly well. During the first week I noticed some functioning coming back. I suddenly had more impulses to interact with other people, to talk or even joke around a little. After the second week I felt the anxiety and depression lift. I felt cured in terms of depression and anxiety. After that I continued to get a “booster” infusion every 3 months. That’s a pretty long interval for booster infusions. I read that it is common to get a booster every 4-8 weeks.
In 2019 I stopped getting the booster infusions because I was feeling so good that I thought I might not need them anymore. This year, when I was heavily depressed and anhedonic again, I tried a single infusion (55mg ketamine) which didn’t help. That was distressing and a shock for me, because I thought the only thing that really helped with depression didn’t work on me anymore.
But now, I guess I was too deeply in the depression again for one infusion to help. I received 5 infusions over two weeks this July/August and it worked as well as it did in 2017. Depression, anxiety, anhedonia lifted. I feel normal. I feel pretty good.
But I still have to repeat that ketamine infusions didn’t do a lot for my ED and libido. I guess I’ll have to find a different cure for that.
Concerning the dosage: There are two different types of ketamine.
There is ketamine and S-ketamine. The latter is twice as potent as the “normal” ketamine. I used to receive 55mg ketamine (NOT S-ketamine) as a booster.
If depression, anxiety and anhedonia are your main PFS-issues, I’d recommend trying ketamine infusions. It’s expensive. But for me it worked when nothing else did.
You can also check the academic literature. For a few years, there has been a big hype because lots of researchers were baffled by how well ketamine works even in so called “treatment resistant” patients.
Hope my anecdotal evidence is of any help for anyone.
And while I’m here: Did anyone find a cure for low to non-existent libido by now, lol?
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I forgot to answer how long it lasts:
That seems to vary a lot from patient to patient.
For some it lasts only two weeks. For some it lasts three months (like for me).
But to be honest: If I’ll continue to receive ketamine infusions for the rest of my life and will be freed from depression - I’ll go for it. My main concern is to reboot my libido right now. I think I’ll try Buspirone for that. Read some interesting things about it here.
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Can you do the survey please?
Do you mean this one?
Nope, check this topic for more information: Post-Drug Syndrome Survey FAQ. Survey NOW LIVE - Please Participate
If you filled out this survey, that would be really helpful and one step closer to fixing this problem.