Are You a Nihilist or Anhedonic?
How to tell the difference between philosophy and depression.
Posted April 17, 2026 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan
By Mengzhe Wei and Darby Saxbe
You worked for this. Years of school. Sacrifices. Late nights. You told yourself that once you arrived—once you got the degree, the job, the house, the partner—it would feel different.
The goal that carried you for years now feels strangely hollow. You stare at what you once wanted and feel… almost nothing. You start to wonder: If this doesn’t matter, what does? It feels like Sisyphus pushing a rock uphill only to watch it roll back down again. Life begins to look less like a story with a protagonist and more like a pointless and repetitive loop.
During a late-night search for answers, you stumble across a philosophy that seems to fit. Existential nihilism is a school of thought that questions whether anything has inherent meaning or value (Veit, 2018). The words resonate immediately. Maybe this is it. Maybe nothing matters.
But before you jump to a conclusion, pause. Is existential nihilism truly what’s behind this emptiness? Or could something else be happening beneath the surface?
Anhedonia , the reduced ability to experience pleasure, is a core symptom of major depressive disorder (Treadway & Zald, 2011). Depression doesn’t always look like sadness or tears; it can appear as indifference or a diminished capacity to feel that anything is worth the effort. Sad mood and anhedonia can occur together, but they can also appear separately (Leventhal et al., 2014). In fact, one large subgroup of those with depression is characterized primarily by anhedonia rather than obvious despair (Zhu et al., 2024).
Existential nihilism and anhedonia may feel similar
Here is where the overlap becomes important: Existential nihilism questions whether anything has value, while anhedonia kills the subjective experience of value. Though one is a philosophical position, and the other is a core depressive symptom, subjectively, they can feel strikingly similar.
Interestingly, philosophers themselves have drawn parallels between nihilism and anhedonia. In The Will to Power , Friedrich Nietzsche described nihilism not only as a worldview, but a “psychological state” reached when the consistent failure in search for meaning leads to discouragement (Nietzsche, 1968/ 1887–1888, p. 12). He distinguished existential nihilism from what he called "affective nihilism": a weariness toward life itself (Nietzsche, 2008). Long before depression was formally conceptualized as a psychological disorder, Nietzsche recognized that the cognition of meaninglessness and pessimism could arise not only from abstract reasoning but also from the accumulation of tiredness.
Modern science supports this idea. Our emotions are not just responses to our beliefs; they play crucial roles in shaping our global beliefs about ourselves, the world, and the future (Barrett & Bar, 2009). Empirical studies have found consistent evidence that increased positive emotions were linked to higher meaning-in-life (King et al., 2006; Lo et al., 2025), and higher meaning-in-life is linked directly to lower anhedonia (Demir-Kassem et al., 2025). Qualitative studies have also identified patterns of co-occurrence between anhedonia and a diminishing sense of purpose and the bigger picture (e.g., Watson et al., 2020). When pleasure and motivation diminish, the philosophical conclusion that nothing is worth pursuing and nothing is inherently meaningful can feel like the most logical explanation available. What subjectively feels like an existential realization may, in some cases, be how the mind makes sense of an underlying reward deficit.
We can hold nihilistic beliefs and still feel joy
None of this means nihilism is anhedonia. It is entirely possible to hold existential nihilistic beliefs and still experience joy, curiosity, love, and engagement. Many people do. For some, it can even be liberating. Existential thinkers, including Albert Camus, argued that even in the face of absurdity, one can create one's own meaning and live defiantly and fully, with the famous quote “one must imagine Sisyphus happy” (Camus, 2000). Hedonistic nihilists, of course, may simply shrug at the void and say: YOLO. In other words, if you can still feel pleasure, motivation, and connection, your nihilistic worldview may simply be a worldview. But if everything feels flat, effortful, and empty, nihilistic beliefs might be how the brain makes sense of the consistent lack of pleasurable experiences.
The danger of untreated anhedonia
This potential misattribution carries serious consequences. When anhedonia becomes interpreted as a metaphysical position rather than a treatable condition, it may discourage people from seeking therapy and medication , leading to a delay in intervention. But untreated anhedonia is dangerous. It predicts persistent suicidal ideation even after other depressive symptoms improve (Serretti, 2023). When anhedonia and solidified nihilistic beliefs converge, the combination may create a particularly potent vulnerability—research suggests that nihilism predicts suicidal ideation independently of meaning in life and depressive symptoms, and can amplify the impact of interpersonal distress on suicidal thoughts (Kyron et al., 2025). That does not make nihilism inherently dangerous. But it does mean that when emptiness is severe, persistent, and accompanied by diminished pleasure or motivation, it may be important to consider whether something more than a philosophical stance is at play.
Is the problem philosophical or physiological?
Before concluding that life has no meaning, ask yourself: Is the problem philosophical, or physiological? If your interest, motivation, and pleasure were restored, would the world still feel entirely pointless? You do not have to abandon a nihilistic worldview, but if what you are experiencing is anhedonia, the next step is not a deeper dive into philosophical debate. It is treatment. And sometimes, restoring the machinery that allows meaning to be felt can change everything, without requiring you to change what you believe.
If you or someone you love is contemplating suicide, seek help immediately. For help 24/7, dial 988 for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or reach out to the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. To find a therapist near you, visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.
Facebook image: DarKinG/Shutterstock
Barrett, L. F., & Bar, M. (2009). See it with feeling: Affective predictions during object perception. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences , 364 (1521), 1325–1334. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0312
Camus, A. (2000). The myth of Sisyphus (J. O’Brien, Trans.). Penguin Classics.
Demir-Kassem, S., Frey, A.-L., & McCabe, C. (2025). Meaning in life mediates the effects of sense of self and prosocial behaviours on anhedonia: A path analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders , 368 , 503–512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2024.09.106
King, L. A., Hicks, J. A., Krull, J. L., & Del Gaiso, A. K. (2006). Positive affect and the experience of meaning in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 90 (1), 179–196. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.1.179
Kyron, M. J., Page, A. C., Chen, W., Delgadillo, J., & Ngo, H. (2025). Beyond meaning in life: How a perceived futility in searching for meaning in life predicts suicidal ideation. Death Studies , 0 (0), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2025.2529281
Lo, H. K. Y., McIntyre, R. S., Tsui, I. W. T., Ho, F. Y. Y., Ng, T. K., Wong, C. S. M., Yuen, S. Y., Lee, C. T., Poon, C. Y., Myin-Germeys, I., & Chung, K. F. (2025). Bidirectional associations among positive affect, anhedonia and meaning in life during major depressive episode: Ecological momentary assessment study in unipolar and bipolar individuals and healthy controls. BJPsych Open , 11 (4), e141. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2025.10067
Nietzsche, F. (1968). The will to power (W. Kaufmann, Ed.; W. Kaufmann & R. J. Hollingdale, Trans.). Random House.
Nietzsche, F. (2008). Twilight of the idols . Oxford University Press UK.
Serretti, A. (2023). Anhedonia and depressive disorders. Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience , 21 (3), 401–409. https://doi.org/10.9758/cpn.23.1086
Treadway, M. T., & Zald, D. H. (2011). Reconsidering anhedonia in depression: Lessons from translational neuroscience. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews , 35 (3), 537–555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.06.006
Veit, W. (2018). Existential nihilism: The only really serious philosophical problem. Journal of Camus Studies.
Watson, R., Harvey, K., McCabe, C., & Reynolds, S. (2020). Understanding anhedonia: A qualitative study exploring loss of interest and pleasure in adolescent depression. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry , 29 (4), 489–499. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-019-01364-y
Share this post Facebook Bluesky Linkedin Email
There was a problem adding your email address. Please try again.
By submitting your information you agree to the Psychology Today Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy
Darby Saxbe, Ph.D. , is a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California.
Get the help you need from a therapist near you–a FREE service from Psychology Today.
This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.