(Post share from the IRATAD Blog)
As I interacted with clients in various addiction recovery groups I often heard a common theme expressed. Clients would repeatedly state, “my life is boring”, “nothing is fun anymore”, or “the day is so hard to get through”. These expressions of opinions got me curious to discover why these clients were feeling no pleasure. The only explanation given to me for quite some time was, “it is common for people overcoming addictions to not experience pleasure”. This makes sense, right? But what is causing this happen? Why do people who are not former addicts experience similar symptoms of no pleasure? The answer is found within one word: anhedonia.
