When Nothing Is A Pleasure

By ALICE O’BRIEN Alice O’Brien Counselling, Newmarket

Have you ever suffered from anhedonia? Sounds like something you might need an ointment for, but anhedonia refers to our mood, or more specifically, the ability to enjoy life. Anhedonia can feel like you’re not sad, but you are also not getting any enjoyment out of life, it can feel like there is no pleasure from previously enjoyed activities. It occurs when your mental health is languishing in a low place when we would like our mental health to be flourishing from enjoyable activities, connections and achievements. Changes in the brains rewards system is the main reason why

we might experience anhedonia. Some causes for this might be going through a prolonged period of stress, hormonal changes, experiencing illness or going through a grief or loss. These experiences can also lead to negative thoughts or feeling of over-whelm, which will have a negative effect on emotions and mood.

Awareness of what we are experiencing can be the first step in helping to restore our mood to a level where we can enjoy life again. Lifestyle changes can also lift the mood. Exercise in the outdoors, getting good quality sleep, healthy nutrition and social connections are some of those lifestyle habits to implement. Trying new things, like taking up a new hobby can give the brain the new stimulation in

needs to restart the reward system. Carrying out all these activities may be difficult at first due to lack of motivation, but we need to use energy to create energy, so start first and the motivation will follow. Of course, if anhedonia persists it might be helpful to attend your doctor, who can review your health, check for deficiencies in vitamins or hormonal imbalances and treat accordingly. Your doctor can also advise on medication if appropriate. Changes in moods and emotional regulation is very common for everyone at some stage in life. So, be kind to yourself, take things one step at a time and try to remember, there is always something to be glad of, however small and however hard it might be to see right now- this will pass and you will enjoy life again.