People with anhedonia can still feel love and even care for other people.
While people with anhedonia may struggle to experience the warmth, pleasure or emotional high that is often associated with love they can still feel the love and care about others.
Anhedonia mainly disrupts a person's brain's reward system, which lead to emotional numbness, although it doesn't erase the cognitive or deep seated value that a person places on relationships.
Love is also a decision and while the feeling of love or excitement euphoria may be absent in people with anhedonia, people with anhedonia often retain the capacity for love as a conscious decision and maintain commitments to partners, family and friends.
Anhedonia can also cause a feeling of being broken or even emotionally distant, where one might not feel the joy of being with loved ones, although still care deeply about their well being.
And as a result of the lack of reward from social interaction, people that have anhedonia may withdraw or even feel like they're going through the motions, which can also be mistaken for them not caring.
And people that have anhedonia may also lose the capacity for physical pleasure which is physical anhedonia, while they still possess a desire for emotional connection which is social anhedonia and vice versa.
To know if you have anhedonia a clinician can do tests for anhedonia which includes the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) or the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) tools for testing for anhedonia.
These tests for anhedonia are questionnaires that focus on measuring your interest in hobbies, social interaction, food and sensory experiences.
The SHAPS Questionnaire for anhedonia is a commonly 14 item scale which rates agreement with statements that regard pleasure in various situations.
Clinicians when testing for anhedonia may also use interviews to distinguish between social anhedonia and physical anhedonia.
Anhedonia is also often a symptom of major depression, schizophrenia or even other mental health conditions, which prompts a broader diagnostic evaluation.
Anhedonia is also closely linked to bipolar disorder, trauma, substance use and depression.
Anhedonia is also often tied to disruptions in brain reward systems that involve neurotransmitters like dopamine.
Anhedonia is the reduced ability to experience pleasure and the common signs of anhedonia include.
Loss of interest in activities, hobbies or social events that you once enjoyed but with anhedonia these things no longer bring you pleasure like they used to.
Emotional numbness, which is a feeling of being gray or disconnected from emotions, reduced motivation and a lack of drive to engage in social, sexual or physical activities and faking emotions like pretending to be happy or pretending to be excited in social situations are also common symptoms in people with anhedonia.
Apathy is also sometimes mistaken for anhedonia as anhedonia and apathy are two emotions that are often confused with depression.
Although both apathy and anhedonia, have similarities to depression and come with feelings of sadness and negativity, there are differences between these emotional states and major depressive disorder.
In people with anhedonia, activities such as holding hands, hugging, or sexual intimacy may no longer elicit positive feelings.
Instead of feeling comforted or loved through physical touch, the individual may feel detached or emotionally numb.