Anhedonia or absence of pleasure

Anhedonia or absence of pleasure

"I can't stand a lot of time in a movie theater ... I can barely read a newspaper ... I can't understand what pleasure or joy men look for in coffee shops, in sports, listening to music, traveling ..." "Yes, the world is right ... I am the Steppenwolf in a world that is strange to him ”

-Herman Hesse, The Steppenwolf -

The inability to enjoy pleasant things or experience pleasure is called anhedonia. In recent years, the importance of anhedonia has been proven, as a capital symptom in several psychiatric disorders, especially depression and schizophrenia. While some people who suffer from it, are in a mood block and suffer a decrease in their ability to appreciate pleasure (enjoy the appetite for food, sexual intercourse, leisure activities) others minimize their energy level and suffer a total disconnection from the world, certainly dangerous. Examples that show this symptom are phrases like »I don't enjoy anything» «I'm not interested in anything» «Nothing excites me».

When these phrases are established in our life, perhaps we are facing the beginning of a depression or anxiety disorder, in which the person remains emotionally frozen and experiences a lack of activity to enjoy activities that were previously fun and rewarding.

Situations of great difficulty, disgust, and stress are situations that favor the appearance of this symptom. Patients who suffer from severe anhedonia, carry a serious condition, feel socially isolated and withdrawn in themselves, generally maintain a certain detachment from life, and their psychic system is abandoned to grant self-destructive ideas, coinciding with the inability to offer, deliver, interact, and establish any personal project.

The family environment of the patient does not assimilate the inability of the patient to experience any kind of pleasant sensation, for this reason, the interpersonal relationships are damaged and distanced, until leaving the subject plunged into a situation of isolation. Conclude by saying that anhedonia is a common symptom in other disorders, such as personality, schizophrenia and drug abuse cases. That the therapeutic objective is to restore the desire of the patient to feel personal and enjoy their interest in life. Psychiatric support, drug use, and psychological therapies offer a great guarantee of improvement.