Lack of pleasure

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Lack of pleasure

The inability to feel joy

Hedonism, a word taken from the ancient Greek (hedonia), means pleasure, and anhedonia means lack of pleasure.

Anhedonia is present in many mental disorders, and is pronounced in schizophrenics.

Anhedonia may also occur in schizoid types, where it manifests as an inability to experience pleasure in life.

This may be general, or pleasure may be experienced in certain limited situations.

If you're at a party, you'll notice how people become childish, and all do the same things: compete, dance, eat, play, parade ....

They are enjoying themselves.

They laugh, and you can see that they are happy. To you, though, all of this seems ridiculous and, of course,

it does not make you happy, neither can you find any charm in it. You neither enjoy it, nor do you feel any pleasure.

The same experience is repeated at weddings, business meals ....

Encounters with friends or family and Christmas celebrations deserve special mention. While the people enjoy the company ....

you not only do not enjoy it but these encounters become a problem for you.

There are other harmless things - routine activities like eating, painting, wearing brand-new shoes for the first time,

cooking, buying something, going for a walk .... about which many people say : "What a great time I had!"

But we do not find pleasure in them. Or, if we do, it is minimal, and restricted to specific activities.

Anhedonia and me

L. asked me to be his friend, and I accepted. Soon he told me about his hobbies: music, cinema, dance, art, literature…
Since we are both graduates, these could have been common hobbies for us. I replied, ‘do you know something? ‘I’m anhedonic’.

The place I enjoy most is my room, and being there on my own. There I can read, relax, learn…

These are intellectual pleasures and, at least, I feel these.

I seldom enjoy any dealings with people. Though I enjoy dealing with you. I also enjoy walking in the forest,

the country, or the mountains.

I don’t enjoy music. I have never considered going to a concert. I don’t buy music. I don’t listen to music.

I don’t read novels, or any particular author, I don’t have a preferred genre or narrative. And I find no reason to read novels

invented by someone. I don’t know how to dance. I never learnt. I have never danced.

I don’t enjoy parties - whether popular, official, or private. I never attended any youth meetings. I don’t value

public shows. As an exception, from time to time,
I may follow a sporting event on TV. Chatting, even with relatives, gives me no pleasure. In fact,

it does exactly the opposite.

Going to pubs or cafes is truly torture for me. I flee as soon as I can. Going on ‘a jaunt’ with friends…:

I don’t enjoy at all, and I really feel uncomfortable. Besides, I don’t have any friends. Alcohol neither perks me up,

nor cheers me up. It merely makes me groggy. My libido was low and my sexual life minimal.

No-one has ever seen my teeth… I’m never in the mood for laughing. I avoid attending family celebrations because

I feel uncomfortable there. I don’t know which was the happiest day of my life.. To be honest,

there have been no happy days in my life.

QUOTATIONS

Anhedonia quotations (translated into English) taken from "Steppenwolf"

by Hermann Hesse.

I cannot spend a lot of time in the cinema…

I can barely tolerate reading a newspaper…

I cannot understand the kind of joy and pleasure that people seek in hotels, trains, cafes,

bars, sport events, at the races ….. or listening to annoying music…

If the world is right… I am the steppenwolf in a world that I find completely strange.

(See Treatment)

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