Anhedonia during withdrawal
 

I am in withdrawal and there is a specific symptom that is really bothering me.

I feel like everything else is boring compared to drinking. Like no other activity I could possibly do could be as much fun as drinking.

I am hoping this is normal and will go away over time. I've seen this mentioned on some sites discussing withdrawal.

Is this a normal withdrawal symptom?

I don't think it's a withdrawal symptom, I think it's a normal alcoholism symptom Jack.

How long have you been sober?

D

1 month.

Thanks Jack - yeah it took me at least 3 months to stop thinking like an alcoholic - I was sitting around, doing nothing which was fine if you're a drinker but really hard to take as a sober person.

I had to re-learn the definition of fun that did not need a bottle.

I found there were many things I could do - but I had to get off the couch first :)

Likewise the friends I had were great as a drinker...but sitting around watching everyone getting drunk left a lot to be desired when I got sober. I found new friends , mostly through doing new things, and I re-connected with old friends where the bond was not alcoholic in nature.

I guess for me the problem wasn't adhedonia but an inability to know how to have fun and have friends without drinking?

D

Jack, I looked at your previous posts. You don't really say why you decided to get sober, or what stage your drinking was at. But if you are like most who find there way to Sober Recovery, I doubt your drinking, at the end, was anything close to being "fun."

So quit romanticizing alcohol and remember what brought you here.

Lots of good advice here already Jack. It's certainly normal to feel different for a while after you quit drinking, and yes - things can definitely change moving forward. Having said that, I'd ask what you are actively doing to work on living sober. Are you following any kind of formal program/plan or participating in therapy/treatment/rehab of any kind? If you are just "not drinking", then it's not surprising that you feel the way you do. One of the hardest parts of true sobriety is learning new ways to face life on it's own terms and enjoy it without using alcohol.

Id say for some people it is pretty normal. I was experiencing it pretty bad for the first few months into sobriety. I had to find new things to do to stay busy and slowly things became fun again, sober fun, and I agree I really did a whole lot of nothing while drinking haha.
Congrats on a month and keep at it!

Jack, as others have said, that's quite normal. Have you made other changes in your life besides stopping drinking? This was so important to me because I was depressed and trying generate some motivation to love my life. Is there something new that you wanted to try, take a course, sports, anything that you think you might enjoy.

You don't realize how long 1 day is until your sober, or how long 1 year is for that matter. But that is good news too, once your past the initial boredom. You realize that life is about time, and when sober time is a great thing to cherish. Introspectator

If you are one month sober, you are no longer in withdrawal. More likely you just need to develop new interests and hobbies. :)

Initial withdrawal symptoms are typically over within a week or so, but in certain cases, a variety of symptoms — including anhedonia — can persist and recur long after the acute withdrawal period is past. These symptoms are often loosely grouped as PAWS — Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome.

In the case of anhedonia, some brains don’t bounce back as quickly as others from having their pleasure centers repeatedly bombarded with alcohol over a period of years. It took time for your brain to get into this condition, and it may take time to get out of it, too.

Whether the cause of your anhedonia can be ascribed to PAWS or not, the solution is the same. As others have suggested, get out and explore new interests and activities, even if you don’t feel particularly inspired to. The inspiration should come with time. Right thinking follows right action, as they say.

Yes, there's some scientific medical stuff going on too, like Andante says. I'm not going to google it right now so I'll preface by saying this is what I remember reading, so of course it may be slightly addled between now and then. But as I recall, an addict's brain reforms to have many more receptors for the specific endorphins released by their drug... a big one for alcohol being GABA... and less for the others. So you kind of have to starve it out for a while before it starts opening up receptors to match more accurately the balance of endorphins you can get naturally.

In my mind I picture a house built to gather rainwater for its pipes going through a drought... takes the homeowner a few months before they give in that this is going to last for a while, so I better go dig a well.

I'm at six months and last night I took an ice skating lesson in a community ice rink and it made me as happy as anything. That would not have been the case a year ago. Sobriety brought back simple pleasures for me.

Ok, maybe that wasn't the best choice of word. I still find it fun because of the way it makes me feel (the relaxation and mood boosting effects), but at the same time I feel extremely guilty because I know how much of a negative impact it is having on my life.

I'm not in any treatment program. I tried to quit on my own because I was too embarrassed to go and get help, because I feel like this is a problem I could have prevented.

However, I am certainly open to the idea.

Thanks - I was hoping there would be some kind of scientific explanation for this. It makes sense that some kind of damage may have been done to the brain. I never had trouble enjoying other activities before I started drinking.

This paragraph!! When our brains recover it gets so beautiful to be alive again!!

Introspectator

When I look back now, my life was so boring as a drunk. There was no growth, no challenge, no achievement. I was confined to my house for twenty hours a day, couldn't drive, couldn't be seen in public. Day after day after dreary miserable day, nothing but shame and guilt and depression and anxiety.

Once I understood that was all behind me, forever, my life opened up again. I quit drinking, so that meant I could achieve pretty much anything I might set my mind to. The first thing I did was begin to say yes to all the opportunities that seemed to present themselves when I decided I was ready. Many of them were things I had simply abandoned, hobbies, skills, things that allowed me to make changes, and create new stuff.

For me, this is where happiness lies, where true freedom, peace and joy are found. Try saying yes as a default, and see what happens. I bet you will like it!

It was after the first month doing things alone that I finally went along to some AA meetings. At least that meant that I had a place to be a couple of times over weekends, which pushed me to look after myself better. It also broke an increasing pattern of isolating which was starting up.

It might also be worth looking into what opportunities there are for volunteering. For example, if you enjoy theatre maybe one near you uses volunteers as ushers or backstage. You'd get to see performances for free and meet some new people. Obv that's just an example - it's worth looking into though. Sometimes we have to think a bit outside of our usual box to get things moving socially in sobriety.

Well done on your month. That's a great start :)