Losing interest in things

That's OK. You can find a new hobby. Go read a book or play video games.

 

I feel the same way, it takes allot for my interest to get into a Anime again.

When I was 20 I would sit each day and watch it for hours on my down time. Now I am finding it hard to sit threw at least one episode of anything that I want to really watch. Every blue moon I will find something worth watching and it'll take me a while to finish it and I won't binge like I used to.

I do have depression and I was put on anti depressants in the past. It did help me enjoy passions a little bit more though. I felt more focused and into my hobbies. But I stopped them because it's just a unnatural daily high and they flat line dopamine receptors especially in the first week or two I'll usually have a flat line..

What I can suggest is working on your sacral chakra, second primal energy source. When we feel the lack of enjoyment its coming from this energy center. I have done meditations in the past from Youtube and I have felt more natural Joy in my days.. I think it can benefit you in healing.

 

Are you trying to establish a link between this and porn use, or just making an observation?

"Not Enjoying Hobbies or Activities that Once Held Your Interest" is a key symptom of depression. I've never seen a formal study on it, not that I trust formal studies, but anecdotal evidence around here shows heavy porn users tend to have depression. Does porn cause the depression? Do we turn to porn to treat the depression we are already experiencing? Unknown. But in my experience the correlation is strong.

Not being able to concentrate on things is also a big symptom, of both depression and heavy porn use, and I think it has to do with dopamine. I believe humans were developed, both biologically and socially, in a much different environment than we are in today. When I was a kid most people has televisions, and even those are terrible for training your attention span. Now we have TikTok and X, progressing toward shorter and shorter entertainment content. We don't even finish songs anymore.

My proposed solution is to return to a more natural environment. We can't unwind the clock, but we can spend less time on the phone and more time training our brains to work through stuff to the end, to focus. Put your phone down. Stop watching TikTok, or YouTube shorts, or IG stories. Watch a full film, read a book, try not only listening to a song all the way through, listen to an album, in order, all the way through. Those artists used to design albums as a total musical experience, not some sort of buffet where you impulsively sample and never fully enjoy.

And remember, as with anything, it takes time. Train up to it. Use discipline. Be stern, but kind to yourself.

 

The answer to happiness may be to stop looking at anything digital and go into the real world and explore what's out there. I'm isolated at home most days and the only way I can find more happiness is to get out of the house. Walking in the woods is great, and I also look for events where I can meet other people to increase my social life.
Good luck,
Nomo

 

Try to find other things which make you excited. I recently realized that i love nature and now try to go for a walk in the woods at least couple of times a week. Last time i had state like that, i contacted virgin hotels customer service and stayed three days in a hotel, surrounded by mountains and trees. It helped.