What is anhedonia?
Anhedonia comes from the Greek an-, meaning ‘not, without’ and hedone, meaning ‘pleasure.’ Hence, a person with anhedonia experiences a lack of pleasure. Specifically, anhedonia is when a person no longer finds previously enjoyable activities pleasurable.
Anhedonia is the core symptom of depression and is also present in other mental health conditions, like:
- Schizophrenia
- PTSD
- Eating disorders
- Bipolar disorder
- Substance use disorders1Cogan, A. B., Persons, J. B., & Kring, A. M. (2024). Using the beck depression inventory to assess anhedonia: A scale validation study. Assessment, 31(2), 431-443.
Anhedonia can occur independently of any mental health condition. Typically, it occurs when a person is experiencing a negative emotional state or neuropathic pain, a form of physical pain.2Yalcin, I., Barthas, F., & Barrot, M. (2014). Emotional consequences of neuropathic pain: insight from preclinical studies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 47, 154-164.
Numbness and detachment
Anhedonia is similar to emotional numbness. Emotional numbness is usually talked about in the context of avoiding emotional pain. Anhedonia is discussed in the context of pleasure- the inability to experience pleasure. It is reduced sensitivity to pleasurable stimuli.3Bevins, R. A., & Besheer, J. (2005). Novelty reward as a measure of anhedonia. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 29(4-5), 707-714. The things you previously found pleasurable either no longer give you pleasure or give you very little pleasure.
Of course, when you shut down your emotions, you shut down both positive (anhedonia) and negative (emotional numbness) emotions. So anhedonia and emotional numbness are really two sides of the same coin. Emotional detachment, on the other hand, is essentially a state of social-emotional numbness where you detach yourself from other people and consequently, their feelings and emotional states.
About the test
This test consists of 10 items on a 2-point Yes/No scale. When answering the items, think about what applies to your current situation and recent past. The test is for informational purposes only and isn’t meant to be a diagnostic tool. If you get a high score, it’s recommended that you seek professional help. Your results are only shown to you and not stored in our database.
