My reward system theory

But by a depressed and/or anhedonic person still choosing to continue to live his/her life, help others, and pursue his/her goals and dreams as though he/she really does have good meaning in his/her life, then he/she would be fooling (deluding) his/herself without realizing it. His/her brain would be fooling itself into thinking it has good meaning in its life when it doesn't.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

True some of us may struggle a lifetime to find meaning in our lives. But meaning is not the only source of pleasure we have to focus on. There are so many immediate sources of pleasure that require no meaning at all.

Such as sitting contently in Nature. Observing a sunset. Taking a bike ride on a nice day. There are so many immediate and pleasant sensations we can direct our senses toward.

If you're born unable to walk, it follows you don't look for happiness in winning the decathlon. You go with what you're given. Everyone does this. Even the able and the non-depressed. Many people know they can't be great leaders or athletes (even if they'ed like to be), so they seek happiness in something else.

It's no less different for those given lives without meaning. You go with what you're given. Maybe those with lives without meaning and purpose were meant to intensely enjoy the immediate experiences? Many people with great meaning and action in their lives can't stop to enjoy a sunset.

There is a Neil Peart lyric (despite my distaste for his connection with Objectivism) that I think is apt here:

"It's cold comfort
To the ones without it
To know how they struggled
How they suffered about it
If their lives were exotic and strange
They would likely have gladly exchanged them
For something a little more plain
Maybe something a little more sane"

- Neil Peart (from the song Mission)

And from Time Stand Still:

"I turn my back to the wind
To catch my breath
Before I start off again.
Driven on without a moment to spend
To pass an evening with a drink and a friend"

-Neil Peart (Time Stand Still)

People who lead the kind of lives you're talking about pay a price. They miss out on lot of basic experiences because that lifestyle demands their attention.

There's no perfect happiness. You'll always want what you don't have at that moment and want to experience what you missed out on. That's why you shouldn't poo poo the simpler experiences because there is always someone who wishes they could be doing what you're doing at that moment.

One last example: There is no end to the people who bemoan their loneliness and solitude on this planet and yet there are people, equally as desperate, to just find some time alone and can't get that either.

But none of this means you should stop trying to fulfill whatever deprivation you are experiencing. Just include some perspective with it.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

You are having an optimistic mindset about all of this. Having an optimistic mindset is the very definition of having good meaning in one's life. But like I said before, optimism can only be our pleasant emotions. So to express optimistic tones, acts, and expressions and to think that you are in an optimistic mental state while depressed and/or anhedonic, then you are fooling your brain into thinking that you are having good meaning in your life when you really didn't.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

You're not fooling yourself. It's just accepting that you're not going to find pleasure in a search for meaning. It's giving up on what you can't have and focusing on enjoying what you can.

I assume you can enjoy the stimulation from the taste of a refreshing beverage or the warmth of the sun, even though you might be mentally depressed, can you not?

So that's not fooling yourself. A depressed person is not fooling themselves by enjoying a cool beverage anymore than a deaf person is fooling themselves by enjoying a cool breeze. The deaf person can enjoy a cool breeze because they are focused on what is within their capacity to enjoy. That's not fooling themselves. They still understand they're deaf. they just accept that there's nothing they can do about it and enjoy the cool breeze without the sounds instead.

Learn to enjoy your life without the meaning. Some people have too much meaning in their lives. Imagine that. Imagine just wanting to cut ties with everything and you can't because your life is connected in so many ways to everything and everyone. No matter what you do your life is this big important monster you've created when all you really want to be is small, humble and unimportant. Think of all the celebrities that would love to go somewhere without being recognized. Maybe they're not feeling well that day and they look like shit but they have to go out in public and deal with the public and everyone is going to know how shitty they looked that day and it will be plastered all over the tabloids, etc.

 

Enjoyment is optimism. Optimism can only be our pleasant feelings/emotions based upon my theory since optimism is always a rewarding experience. Our rewarding experiences can only come from our reward system (pleasant emotions) since science has defined the term "rewarding experience" as only being our pleasant feelings/emotions and not our thoughts or anything else alone. And no, I cannot enjoy anything without my pleasant emotions. So you really would be fooling yourself here.

 

Okay. Now I think I see now. So you're claiming you lack even the capacity to experience any kind of enjoyment. Much as if you had no sensory organs and so could not experience any sensory stimuli?


So let's see if that's accurate. Tell me what your typical day is like. What do you do throughout a normal day? As you are a person, I assume you consume food. You are a person, right?

 

I struggle with depression and a chronic 24/7 absence of all my pleasant feelings/emotions (anhedonia). So I cannot get any enjoyment out of anything whether it be playing videogames or composing. Of course, I am obviously a person here. I am a human being. But I am living for a possible recovery of my pleasant emotions and nothing else. If I can't get them back and I am stuck with this anhedonia and/or depression most or my entire life, then my composing dream and my life would of been wasted.

Even if I was the next greatest composer who changed the world, even that would all be a waste to me without my pleasant emotions. So I would just choose to end that life by taking my life away. But since it can't be proven as to whether I will have this anhedonia/depression most or my entire life or not, then I am still choosing to live for a possible recovery of my pleasant emotions.

 

You can't control it? Is it entirely an internal problem? Nothing external can change it? No change of environmental conditions or social circumstances would make a difference?

 

No. People cannot just snap themselves out of anhedonia or depression at will. I have and always have been stuck with this 24/7 complete chronic absence of all my pleasant emotions. It has lasted for over a year and there are never any given brief moments in which I can experience any enjoyment whatsoever.

 

What about addressing physical requirements such as hunger and sleep? Obviously, addressing those requirements has to be accompanied by some kind of satisfaction.

 

No, not even that brings any enjoyment.

 

Eres un perdedor, si?

 

Why would you make it worse?

 

How could it get worse?

If 'anonymous' wants to wring his hands and shed real tears online, what the hell help or hindrance is there?

Am I being abusive for assuming facts not in evidence? Yes. As we all are.

If this persona is in need of help and intervention, the site admin can make that judgment and notify the authorities nearby.

Otherwise, it's just another troll.