Hello
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Bipolar depression is the illness that you are suffering right now and the problem of emotional numbness or say anhedonia is the symptom that you are experiencing right now. I agree with you that it is very troublesome and distressing. The presence of this symptom suggests that your depression has not completely recovered. What is required is an adequate dosing of medicines like lamotrigine can be used uptil 200mg , effexor can be used uptil 225 mg and abilify can also be used uptil 15mg. If still there is no response then other medicines like lithium, valproate or quetiapine should be attempted.
Further cognitive behavioural therapy can be useful us some cases of resistant bipolar depression. Its a type of psychotherapy carried on by a clinical psychologist and is undertaken by weekly sessions.
Hope this helps
In case if you have any further queries, do let me know.
Kind regards
Dr. Srikanth Reddy MD
Patient replied :
The doses of the medicines you wrote in your first response are less than what I am on. I take 300mg Effexor XR, 15mg abilify, & 200mg lamictal. Am I on too much of any of those doses? I'm seeing my doctor in a week, I've just been overly tired & detached from relationships & other things. I've lost interest in different things. How does CBT help? I think a part is physical symptoms
Hello
Its good that you are on good doses. However it would be wise to consider other mood stabilizers like lithium, valproate or carbamazepine to help with the mood disorder. CBT is a systematic counselling technique, where in the thoughts are modified with the help of specialized counselling technique. Ones the thoughts are modified, the mood gets modified and finally the behavior changes. It does help and CBT is a scientific technique.