I was suffering from anhedonia?
There's any easy fix to cure anhedonia and we are covering it all here. Grab a cupa of your favourite brew and get reading, or listen while getting ready for the day. Recipe Roasted Brussel sprouts.
This week we are exploring anhedonia (pronounced an-HE-donia), what it is, look at some of the symptoms and how it can happen. We are also going to look at one simple over-looked treatment for anhedonia that is more than likely one of the biggest underlying causes.
The above picture was last week on a nice warm day on the Hipcamp property we were on. There was a bunch of little mushrooms and some moss and a little imagination! If you are thinking about upgrading to paid to support my work, I would love to send you your very own desktop calendar which you can get for free if you subscribe for the yearly Or if you just want to get the calendar or more info and do not want to scroll here ya go 👉more deets and order here 👈. Either way, thank you for supporting my work.
What does a calendar have to do with anhedonia?
Some of you might be over me talking about my calendar, others might be thinking, why would she waste her time doing something like that? Others might be thinking, Why? What does this have to do with gut health and anhedonia?
Well, my friends everything!
When you look at the current events, your career, family, extended family and lifestyle, and pack on the holiday’s I bet there is a wee bit of stress. In fact, I bet there is a ton of stress.
If you do not have a way to release the stress, over time the accumulation can make you sick. Chronic stress is a major problem in North America. In fact, stress has both a physical and a psychological effect. Studies have shown chronic stress is linked to macroscopic changes in certain brain areas including physical modifications of neuronal networks.
Psychological stress can induce the acute phase response commonly associated with infections and tissue damage, turning on various biomarkers of inflammation. The chronic activation of the stress response system and associated hormones disrupts almost all of your body's processes. This leads to a lowered immunes system, which is why so many end up sick during the holidays or shortly after when their body can take a breather.
It has been proven numerous times chronic stress affects the immune system. Ninety percent of your immune system is your gut microbiota working closely with your white blood cells to keep you healthy. Evidence shows that our resident microbes orchestrate the adaptive immune system, influence the brain, and contribute more gene functions than our own genome.
Your body relies on your brain and what you are perceiving in order to be able to react accordingly. When there is chronic stress, your hormones pump out compounds that causes the gut to react. If we do not go into a stage of rest and relaxation over time, the chronic output causes all sorts of bacterial and fungal toxins to build up in the system causing leaky gut. Leaky gut allows those toxins to enter into circulation and eventually lodging in organs, tissues and the brain. Once in the brain, this leads to brain inflammation, negatively impacting our mood and behaviour pathways. It’s all connected!
(a) The traditional view: humans are set apart from nature. (b) View in the era of the microbiome: interactions with microorganisms define the individual human self. PLoS Biol. 2018 Feb; 16(2): e2005358.Published online 2018 Feb 9. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2005358
Our gut consciousness and holobionts
To further complicate our gut- brain connection, how about adding in the fact our gut microbes are also a driver in consciousness. The brain isn't the sole driver shaping our consciousness; instead, our consciousness emerges from the intricate interplay of the brain, gut, and microbiome. Researchers are delving into the holobionts on symbiotic bacteria and it’s relevance to understanding our consciousness. Holobiont is a concept founded by Lynn Margulis in 1998 as a way to describe the basic unit of the living world. It questions whether the brain alone is the essential factor for consciousness to exist. Ultimately, it concludes that our consciousness is a result of the dynamic communication between the brain and the gut microbiota, forming an emergent symbiotic quality within us.
The microbiome is heavily involved in three core aspects long thought to shape the human self:
the precise immune system that distinguishes what's part of us from what's not,
the brain's functions driving our personality and thinking abilities,
and the sequence within each person's genome that influences our individual characteristics.
If we do get the chance to have a breather from stress and experience “down time,” the release of stored cellular toxins overwhelms your stressed immune system and BAM! Cold, flu or just feeling low energy and run down is the result. When your body is run down this leads to mental health issues including symptoms of depression, lack of motivation, and feeling blah. Which then affects your gut with symptoms of gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea or a combination of. Some people can literally feel the anxiety in their gut.
This is exactly what was happening to me. I was dealing with some family health issues, critically ill clients, trying to keep up with my weekly posts, and just day-to-day duties. On top of this, I gained a ton of weight adventuring in North Carolina eating my way through the most robust, delicious, gluten free foods I have ever witnessed. Everything I could not typically eat was available in gluten free. This is the first time EVER, I could walk into a grocery store and purchase one gluten free doughnut, cake, or cookie and I took full advantage. Restaurants were filled with yummy gluten free options including deserts. I felt like a kid in a candy store. I went crazy! Even though it was gluten free, it did not mean it was healthy.
Food or the lack of good wholesome food is also a stress on our body. When we are under long term or Chronic stress, we use up our B vitamins, chromium, zinc, magnesium, vitamin D and A, all of which are needed by our stress system to help us appropriately respond to stress. If our food choices are devoid of the nutrients we are lacking, we go down pretty fast.
I started to crash and burn, felt absolutely no desire to leave my motorcoach. I stopped hiking, and sat on my rump pretty much 10 hours a day working. My thighs atrophied, my hips seized and it has taken two months of therapy to get me knees working again (hips are coming along a little slower). Just while on the subject, I will talk about what it actually means when your hips and knees are giving you troubles next week. I think it would be a great Segway into the new year.
Stress has a tendency to sneak up on you and shut you down. It did a pretty good sneaky job on me. Overtime, nothing was bringing me joy, I was cranky, I couldn’t focus, I had no emotion, I was not feeling, I was not happy and did not want to talk to anyone other than clients and just felt blah, lethargic, and cynicism was creeping in. I was suffering with anhedonia.
What is anhedonia
Anhedonia is the lack of pleasure or of the capacity to experience it: severely depressed people often exhibit decreased interest in social interaction, disturbed concentration, and anhedonia. At least that is how Dictionary.com describes it.
There were tons of activities I had ready to go to on my list while adventuring in North Carolina, I seriously, lacked the desire to just get up and go. And, then I would beat myself up for being lazy. It was quite interesting. According to Cleveland Clinic;
Anhedonia is the lack of interest, enjoyment or pleasure from life’s experiences. You may not want to spend time with others or do activities that previously made you happy.
I believe anhedonia is a symptom of a rundown, nutrient-deprived chronically stressed mind and body. Or, should I say, the underlying cause. And, I just needed some kind of shift.
When my cat Zazu took off into the forest and I saw the most beautiful mushroom ever, I honestly believe it was the Universe stepping in and saying, Girl, you gotta shift. Indeed. Shift, I did.
I became intrigued with Mushrooms. It got me off of my rump, hiking again and looking forward to Mushroom adventures. Guess what this did, besides putting out a calendar? It helped me regain focus, still my mind and pause for perspective and recalibration. My energy started to return (its been slow), and I was able to say “no” once again to all the beautiful gluten free options. I am back to my daily yoga practice, and making sure I get a daily walk in, my knees are almost 100% and my hips are happily agreeing with me again.
A new found adventure, or hobby, is something we all need. OK, so you do not need to go mushroom hunting, but you do need to evaluate what you are doing to destress.
Do you have a hobby?
If you are suffering from the symptoms of anhedonia have you tried adding in a hobby, new or old?
One hobby, or leisure activity, whatever it is, affects our reward and pleasure center of the brain. Our brain releases chemicals that make us feel good, like dopamine and serotonin, made in the gut. This makes us enjoy the hobby even more and want to keep doing it because of the rewarding feeling.
One observational study using diaries have found, when people spend time being creative during a day, they tend to feel more positive and have a better mood on that same day. But, how would this affect the day after?
In this observational study from the The Journal of Positive Psychology, researchers asked young adults participants o keep a diary for 13 days, noting how much time they spent being creative, how they felt each day, and how well things were going for them. The results showed that on days when they were more creative than usual, they tended to feel happier and do better overall the next day. However, feeling good on one day didn't necessarily mean they'd be more creative the next day. This suggests that being creative might have a special link to making us feel better, supporting the idea that being creative in small ways every day can help us feel better overall.
Even if you just get out of your home and sit on a park bench in a park, or maybe eat your lunch in the park can be beneficial in reducing both physical and psychological stress levels.
Whoa, I was super lucky, because I was now doubling up on feel good endorphins with my hobby engaging in the outdoors. Using your creativeness can have an incredible reward. A 2016 Drexel University study out of the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association indicated art making resulted in statistically significant lowering of cortisol levels.
A Japanese study aimed to investigate longitudinal relations between leisure and social activities and mental health status among middle-aged adults. The six-year panel survey conducted by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare focused on 16,642 middle-aged adults, age 50–59 years. The idea was to associate the relations between two leisure activities (‘hobbies or cultural activities’ and ‘exercise or sports’) and four social activities (‘community events’, ‘support for children’, ‘support for elderly individuals’ and ‘other social activities’) at baseline and mental health status at follow-up, multiple logistic regression analysis was use.
The survey found being involved in hobbies and physical activities seems to have a positive impact on mental health for both men and women. However, when it comes to social activities, they don't seem to have the same effect.
Interestingly, for men, doing hobbies or sports with others was linked to better mental health. The same wasn't exactly true for women regarding hobbies, but for exercise or sports, it had a similar effect as it did for men. In summary, doing leisure activities seems to be good for mental health in this age group, especially if done with other people.
The moral of the story, get a hobby
I have asked clients if they have a hobby, and the most chronically ill do not. But, when we explored what they liked to do as either a child or young adult, a flood of items were listed with a joyous expression on their face. Just the mere thought brought about a positive change in their demeanor.
What about you? Do you have a hobby?
If there were things in your past that you liked to do, what would it take for you to reengage and breathe new life into just one?
Make a list of the hobbies or even social and leisure activities or sports that you used to like doing.
Evaluate why you stopped
Which one could you start back up and commit to even if it is once a week?
I did not realize how much I had shut down the creative side of me. I almost forgot that I used to paint, photograph weddings, and dance.
I know personally I can not commit to every day mushroom hunting, however, I did reorganize my calendar to take a day to myself to hike, finish a course I am doing, write, adventure into town or a sightseeing adventure.
A long time ago, when I used to coach business clients in the mind-body effects, I used to tell them; when you are constantly on the go and not taking time to just do nothing, you are telling the Universe you are too busy for new creations, opportunities and better finances.
When we take some down time we disconnect and let the Universe know yes, we are ready for new creations, opportunities and better finances. Guess what? It worked.
What is considered a hobby?
A hobby is anything you want that brings your mind into the present moment and brings joy. It is intense enough that you do not think about your worries, or the time that has passed. That is the perfect hobby!
I would love to hear from you,
What hobbies are you doing currently?
Did you take some time and write out all the things you liked to do but stopped doing? What did you find?
What hobby are you reengaging in
Or, are you starting a new adventure?
Comment here with this very special orange button just for you!
If you want better health, explore the balance your mind and body are craving.
Class A Side dish recipe
When I was growing up I absolutely despised Brussel sprouts. I close my eyes and I am transported to yesterday, sitting at the supper table, head on the table closing my eyes, opening them after a prayer in the hopes it was answered and they were gone. Nope! Darn! Typically I would fall asleep at the dinner table and then the horror was over! Today, I absolutely love Brussel sprouts; baked, broiled, deep fried, raw in salads. I can not get enough of them. What the heck changed, I have no idea!
This is my second favourite way to serve Brussel sprouts. Being in North Carolina and experiencing an almost winter I have had my oven going day and night cooking up veggies. I hope you like these. No, I did not use the HotLogic, (use checkout discount code GIFTGIVING30) however, these freeze really well and heat up from frozen really nicely. Get a HotLogic already!
Cheesy Bacon roasted Brussel sprouts
Prep time; 15 minutes
Cook time 40-50 minutes
Servings 8
Freezes well
4 slices bacon, cooked
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp Celtic sea salt
3 teaspoons, black pepper, freshly cracked
2 lbs Brussel sprouts, trimmed and halved
1 medium red onion, sliced into wedges
1/4 - 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 400F
*If your oven-proof skillet or frying pan is large enough to accommodate the ingredients without being crowded go ahead and use the skillet and skip the pan.
*If the skilled is not large enough, add non-bleached parchment paper to a pan for an easy clean up.
To a really large skillet add the bacon and cook over low heat until the bacon is meaty but not crispy. You want the slow cooking method so that it will produce lots of bacon grease. Once done, turn off the heat. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, set the bacon on the side of the roasting pan, when cool, cut into small pieces.
Add the 2 teaspoons thyme, 1 teaspoon Celstic sea salt and 3 teaspoons of freshly cracked black pepper to the bacon grease, stir to mix the herbs.
While the bacon is cooking, trim the 2 pounds of Brussel sprouts by cutting lenghtwise down the middle, remove the outter layer of leaves if necessary, add to bacon grease.
Cut the small to medium onion into small wedges by cutting the onion in quarters, add to the Brussel sprouts.
Stir to evenly coat the ingredients in the pan, Pour the ingredients onto the parchment paper covered pan. Spread out evenly across the pan to endure even baking.
Cook for about 20-25 minutes, check to see if the Brussel sprouts are golden or browned on the pan-face, side down, if so, take out of the oven and flip the sprouts and onions to allow for the other side to brown. Bake for another 20 minutes or so, until they are nice and golden brown and fork easily goes through a larger sprout. Sprinkle the shredded parmesan cheese over the sprouts and bake for another 5 minutes. Take out of the oven and sprinkle the bacon over top. Serve immediately.
Sooo good to warm the soul! Enjoy!
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After all that hard work, I have a great giggle for you this week. You deserve it
Do zobaczenia w przyszłym tygodniu (See you next week)
~Karen