Posted by JohnL on April 29, 2000, at 3:23:48
In reply to Re: JohnL, posted by JohnB on April 28, 2000, at 13:32:37
> John- Congratulations on your breakthrough. I think like you put in the time and research to deserve it, too. Also, thanks for all the sharing of info on this board.
> Your "scale of 1-10" that you mention seems to indicate unipolar depression, but you always mention "anhedonia". I know what the dictionary definition of the term is, but how does it fit into the depressive scale. Is that a more specific form of clinical depression or is it something similar to dysthymia or . . . . ?Yikes. Tough questions JohnB.
I think to put it in perspective though it's worth mentioning that my primary core symptom is anhedonia. I have all the other symptoms of depression as well, but they were way down the intensity scale in comparison to anhedonia. I came to view myself as suffering more from a condition of anhedonia rather than a condition of depression. Clearly I fit all the criteria for Major Depression, but the big one is anhedonia.
On my overly simple 1 - 10 scale I usually think in terms of anhedonia. The other symptoms kind of go along with it, but in general I'm rating the anhedonia part of it more than anything else.
Though anhedonia is a core symptom of depression, I've read in some abstracts that it is also viewed as a stand-alone condition--a condition that is both a part of depression, but also sometimes a completely different beast. With some intricate complicated intermingling just to muddy the waters! So I tend to think anhedonia is very different from person to person. It may be just a core symptom of the depression. Or it may be a stand-alone beast with a life all its own. Or it may be a combination of both. But no matter how we look at it, it is a prominent component of both major depression and dysthymia. In general I tend to think of dysthymia as being the same as anhedonia, but that may or may not be accurate. I'm not sure. That's just how I see it.
JohnL
poster:JohnL
thread:31319
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000420/msgs/31648.html