I don’t know if I have anhedonia, but I’m someone who just doesn’t feel much about the good things in life. It’s like I’m only ever able to scratch the surface of things that ought to make one happy.
It’s not a lack of gratitude; indeed, I consciously remind myself that I’ve got a good life that the majority of people in the world don’t have, or past eras would have loved to have. Objectively, I recognize that even with low-to-middling income, having a 1-bed-1-bath apartment with all kinds of modern appliances, being debt-free, having a retirement portfolio, dual citizenship, most of my life spent in the United States, having rich parents and siblings, never experiencing danger, a remote work-from-home job, extensive travel to many places in the world - all of that stuff is stuff that I intellectually know many would envy. I’m not rich, but I’m not poor. So it’s not ingratitude, it’s just not sinking in.
Like, if my favorite NFL team won the Super Bowl (which I’ve never seen happen,) my reaction would probably be a “well, that’s good,” and then not register any or much more dopamine. That’s been much of the story of my life - having lots of good things that other people would envy, but it it just not triggering any sort of pleasure in me. It’s not greed, like, “I live in a 630-square foot small apartment but if I lived in a 9,000-square foot mansion then I’d be happy!” - not at all. It’s just that I seem to have a really ‘flat-line’ brain.
I don’t like being this way, because it feels like I’m wasting things. After all, the point of things is to enjoy them, and if some person in a worse off situation than I would love to have the things I have, but I don’t get much kick out of my things, then it’s a waste. So, any tips or tricks on how to make oneself maximize or enjoy more what one has? Lecturing myself about how other people are worse off doesn’t seem to do it.