Anhedonia - not finding pleasure in things you normally take pleasure in - is a symptom of depression.
When depressed, you will also be reluctant to start things, and wonât find things appealing.
This sets up a nasty vicious cycle where âlife feels bleakâ -> ânothing sounds funâ -> do nothing -> donât have fun -> âHey Iâm not having fun, life really is pretty bleak right nowâ -> More depressed.
The way to break that cycle is to do things that you enjoy. Doing things solely for the sake of having fun is an important part of handling depression. Not only does it keep you from getting more depressed, but it can make you go âHey Iâm having a really nice dayâ and give you bouncy energy to do productive things with.Â
I get so focused on all the things that need doing that I forget that when depressed, doing things solely because theyâre fun is the practical thing to do if I want to get thing done.
There is a difference between procrastination and having trouble activating. If thereâs a thing you need to do and you know you arenât going to be able to do it now, do something fun, and afterwards you will have better odds of actually doing the thing.
If you find yourself in the situation in the picture, pick something that you are intellectually aware you would find fun if you were feeling better and start doing it.â This means that you are focusing on something other than *sigh* and playing a game can make you feel productive, put âlife is good!â and âI can succeed at things!â chemicals into a brain that is sorely in need of them.Â
A couple weeks ago when I couldnât even find any interest in reading fanfic, I eventually managed to start playing a random RPG and felt much better a few hours later.
i certainly wasnât expecting anything close to actual, halfway decent advice that might help some folks out when i threw this little Funne Picture out into the wild, but thatâs nice. thank you. iâm not sure if iâll ever break this little cycle for more than a few hours, but .. yeah man. itâs just a little nice to see folks trying to help other folks out on posts of mine instead of the usual terrible nonsense
Exactly what I needed right now.
Easy to parse version:
Anhedonia is a symptom of depression, itâs not finding enjoyment in things that once made you happy.
If you find yourself in this situation, pick something that you KNOW you would find fun or enjoyable.Â
When youâre depressed, the best thing to do is do things BECAUSE theyâre fun, itâll help motivate you more.
