Anhedonia and side effects while dosing tirzepatide or retatrutide

The past two days have felt good. I am hopeful.

Doing well, thanks for checking in. Just passed the thirty-pound mark and spent the morning trying on pants I had outgrown. Reclaimed three pairs and set others aside because they are now too big. Non-scale victories really lift the mood. Also noticing muscle definition starting to show on my arms. How about you?

What are you looking into at the moment? I understand the importance of staying effective at work and some people get fatigue on Tirz, though that seems unlikely at a micro dose, yet I see why you would hesitate. Reta feels like riding something already moving and it does raise heart rate. Weight loss is quicker though, which I like. I split doses every three days. Benadryl cream helps with any injection-site itch and a cold pack eased the one bad time. I also deal with hypothyroidism. I thought it was under control but these meds seem to shift things. For ADHD and focus I use Alpha GPC and a blend containing it plus lion's mane, bacopa and others. It helps. The GPC is key for brain fuel. I am also exploring Semax, which I like but it can be too stimulating at times. Finding the right balance is the aim.

I was micro-dosing Tirz. I am going to join the 1 a.m. club after all. Are you using the N-Acetyl version of Semax? I do not know if the regular form is even available but that is what my current source carries. I will need to look up the GPC.

You were not asking for suggestions but I will mention something in case it interests you. Adderall contains two amphetamine isomers, levoamphetamine and dextroamphetamine. There is research on combining dextroamphetamine with modafinil for certain conditions including cocaine addiction. Modafinil acts on a different brain pathway than d-amphetamine and that pathway does not experience the same kind of burnout. Modafinil carries its own risks that should be weighed carefully. It is not a common approach but if you are curious about avoiding an increase in a C-II medication it might be worth discussing with your doctor. Hope things move in a good direction.

It is a little tricky for me because Denmark uses different units for FT4, though TSH is the same. You could aim a bit lower. Are you taking 50 mcg levothyroxine daily?

It is working well. There is an increase in heart rate with Reta but I think that contributes to burning more fat. I really miss the other compounds and Semax; do I truly have to wait eight weeks? I want to try the adamax version and see if it is noticeably better. My thyroid numbers were off recently; T3 was very low while T4 was normal so conversion was not happening. I added T3 to the T4 and have been surprised by the energy and not oversleeping. It must be the Reta.

Sorry, I did not label the doses clearly. Started 50 mcg on 25 Aug, labs on 20 Oct, began 75 mcg on 21 Oct and that is the current dose, labs on 1 Dec. The doctor did not order the other tests such as T3, which I am not happy about, but I have never had conversion problems. Just the nodule that decided blood was not really needed to the brain, leading to the partial removal. I have heard that if T3 is needed adding it can help with energy; hope it provides lasting benefit. That matches my theory too. All two weekly doses I tried this summer. The burn has to occur somewhere. I saw a rise of ten beats per minute even on half a starting dose.

You are on a lower dose so I think you should increase the levo. Your FT4 will improve. Regarding T3 we no longer do that in Denmark and I am not sure why. When I request hypothyroid tests only TSH and FT4 are performed. I know some patients receive T3 from an endocrinologist. My resting heart rate also moves around with Reta; it rose by ten at first, then dropped for a month and is up again now. I do not feel it though.

I think it comes down to brain chemistry and some brains may be more sensitive to this side effect. I feel much better on Reta but not completely back to normal. It still comes and goes.

That may be it. I felt somewhat flat on generic Concerta that was compounded with Tirz. Once I stopped the Concerta I found I no longer needed it while on Tirz.

For me it feels a bit different from depression but still familiar. Attention gets pulled in because of dopamine and the prefrontal cortex. Executive function covers seven different areas so ADHD can show up in many combinations. If you have ovaries estrogen also feeds into dopamine and therefore attention. For me depression tends to spiral downward. Anhedonia is more like being grey-rock; it just does not do much and does not spiral. That can be part of the risk because it is harder to notice when there is no inner voice saying I am terrible for some reason. This makes me pay more attention to self-care. Anhedonia is sneakier because it is less active. I am saying for me a lot because everyone is different and I do not want to dismiss other experiences. It is very similar in that many things become muted, emotions included. I am trying to notice whether anhedonia affects color vision; when my depression is low the range of colors I see gets muted. I am soup.

Limited color perception would probably give me depression. Love the new kitty avatar.

It is the gut-brain axis through the vagus nerve to the brain. Gut-derived serotonin is mainly behind the blah effect, or serotonin promotes calm; the gut is central to the emotional center.

My guess is this connects to dopamine receptor activity somehow.

Come join the cat thread. It has been a while so I thought I would share a before-and-after of my cat, from when we found her to about six months later. Also a little treat for anyone with a foot-fetish interest.

Try music; it really helps. Exercise too. I have been too busy for two weeks and felt blah, so I think I will put on some dance music now.

I might be crossing posts since I quoted you elsewhere recently, but could you share how your dosing went over time? Up to what level did you go without anhedonia? Tirz gives me terrible anhedonia even at 2.5 mg so I'm deciding between stopping or trying reta instead.

Sure. High doses of tirz like 10 or 11 mg brought it on for me. With reta it showed up at 8 mg after two months on it. Dropping to 6 mg made it mostly okay again, and I'll go lower if needed. If 2.5 mg tirz already triggers it then reta might do the same, so maybe try something like cagri that works differently.

Thanks a lot. I'll begin reta next week and will update if it helps anyone else.

Great, start low.

You could try dropping to 7.5 mg tirz.

I think I read this earlier but didn't really take it in. This is pretty great. It's been a few weeks now, how is the CJC/Ipa working for you? I'm still into NAD+ but it gives more of an energy boost than a bright feeling.

I'm almost done with the mitochondria protocol. My energy seems up and tiredness is down, yet pinning it on this alone feels uncertain since other routines were happening too, including a cycle, a stack, and more workouts lately.

Sounds about typical for this group. Glad you're feeling good.

Hey guys I found the perfect combo, no idea what it actually is but I hit it at some point. This is why I'm not a scientist, my colleagues would never invite me to dinner parties.

Yeah.

Sorry you got hit with the anhedonia thing, it's really draining and blah. Mine seems better lately. I went back up to 8 mg reta per week even though I had dropped to 6 because of it, and for now it's working okay. I still take the NAC and use nasal semax and selank. Hoping it just passes with time. By the way are you F or M?

Hi there, I'm puzzled by the F or M reference. Should that relate to gender, I am a guy.

Upon seeing the words my mind twisted them into an apology about developing anhedonia plus an insult and my immediate reaction was surprise at the tagged user.

Omg haha, that would be so rude.

Anyone seeing reduced enjoyment lately when using Reta? On another note, I'm curious about peptide delivery success rates to Denmark. I recently bought some from overseas and fear the Spanish border control might intercept the package.