Today I was reading about major depressive disorder. One of the major symptoms is a continual low mood marked by anhedonia. Anhedonia is when a person loses interest in things that they once found enjoyable.
I've found that this has happened in my own life during certain times. There are times when I have absolutely no interest to create or play music, which is something that I had always found to be extremely enjoyable in the past. However, that feeling tends to come and go lately. Over the past year I've had quite an enjoyable time creating music. Even so, there are times when I feel creatively blocked. I've heard it said that when you don't feel like writing you should read. I think that's a helpful idea in that absorbing creative sources can help with output.
Even though I've experienced anhedonia, I don't feel that I could be diagnosed with major depressive disorder due to a lack of the other symptoms. The other symptoms include weight loss or gain, insomnia or hypersomnia, experiencing a constant state of a depressed mood every day, lack of energy, feelings of worthlessness, lack of concentration, and possible suicidal ideation.
Actually, now that I look at this list I do have some of these symptoms lol, but I don't think they are severe enough to cause significant distress or dysfunction, which is necessary for a diagnosis.
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