I'm in the US. My understanding of the way depression is diagnosed here is that a person could still be diagnosed with major depression without experiencing severe anhedonia. Different areas of the world use different diagnostic criteria, though, so keep that in mind.
I know that in my own depressive episodes, anhedonia has ranged from mild to severe.
From the "
All About Depression" website:
Quote:
Different people are affected in different ways by major depression. Some people have trouble sleeping, they lose weight, and they generally feel agitated and irritable.
Others may sleep and eat too much and continuously feel worthless and guilty. Still others can function reasonably well at work and put on a "happy face" in front of others, while deep down they feel quite depressed and disinterested in life.
There is no one way that people look and behave when they have major depression. However, most people will either have depressed mood or a general loss of interest in activities they once enjoyed, or a combination of both.
In addition they will have other physical and mental symptoms that may include fatigue, difficulty with concentration and memory, feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, headaches, body aches, and thoughts of suicide.
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There's also the case of still being depressed while taking antidepressant medication. When I've experienced that, the anhedonia is usually not as severe.
So I'm not 100% sure. I'll just say that it's difficult to imagine a case of depression where someone has dysfunction in their eating, sleeping, feeling, and thinking and it doesn't affect their ability to enjoy things.