Take our Depression Test

Find an expert on mood disorders near me.

Not feeling happiness may be based on associating happiness with eventual disaster or self criticism.

People who struggle with feeling joy are often hypervigilant or overanalyzing, all driven by anxiety.

The antidotes are mindfulness, following preferences and excitement, and pushing against self criticism.

We know we can’t simply make ourselves happy or joyful. These feelings are byproducts of other things in our lives, such as good relationships, a satisfying job, and opportunities to be creative and use our talents. Yet some people say they never feel happy. They may know they should—others around them certainly do—but for them, those positive feelings never come.

4 Sources of Anhedonia

Such people would be clinically diagnosed with anhedonia, a lack of pleasure, but the label doesn’t explain its cause. Here are four common sources:

1. Growing up in an environment of depression and/or anxiety

If you had parents who were depressed or anxious, rarely happy, and always worrying or braced for the next bad thing, you may not only have inherited their temperament but also likely absorbed their view of life—that it is difficult, full of obstacles, and foreboding.

And if your parents were volatile and unable to provide the stability you needed, or if you suffered emotional or physical trauma, you likely learned to be hypervigilant to survive—always looking around corners, never relaxing into the moment, always on guard. As an adult, this software continues to run in the background, leaving you wired for anxiety, expecting the worst, and feeling vulnerable.

2. Being wired for........

© Psychology Today