Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi
What do you do when you feel like you don't enjoy the things you love anymore. I don't know whether its because of my Asperger's, because of COVID or of something else completely different. I'm really sorry but I don't feel like I can talk about this to anyone close to me. I haven't done anything music related since I graduated from unviersity, I hardly do anything outside of work, i.e. don't go out to places, meet up with friends as I barely know anyone outside of work. Also recently, I feel like I'm starting lose my other passion for books as well as I have barely read for the past week or so.
I feel like I'm stuck. Help
I'm really sorry to hear that you're feeling this way, and I've been there myself - not too long ago. In some ways, I'm still emeging from that state- with effort. In my case an emotional trauma tilted my world on its axis and while I sought to make sense of everything (an impossible task I couoldn't stop attempting anyway) the only thing I could feel was intense anxiety coupled with a complete inner deadness. OUtside of work, all I could handle was a quiet room, a ticking clock, and the space to ruminate - endlessly. Then gradually, I could tolerate the glacially paced reintroduction of diversions, entertainments, hobbies. Starting with the blandest food, the least noisy tv, the quietest and most sober podcasts, and so on. There's a clinical term for it - anhedonia (the inability to feel pleasure, even in things once enjoyed) and you may be relieved to hear that it is often temporary, even if you have it for quite a while. Please hang in there and don't give yourself a hard time - the issue cannot be forced, and recovery is slow. But you will get there. Maybe contact your doctor and see if you might need treatrment for depression - or just a chance to talk things through with them, therapeutic in itself if not a magic bullet. Very best wishes for the coming days and weeks, and I hope you find yourself picking up a book, or playing a tune (an instrument?) or something, almost without thinking about it as an act of recovery, sooner than you may be expecting. Take care.
Thank you very much for your lovely message. I read it this morning and it made me feel not only a great deal better, but have also given me a few ideas on different things to try.