Archibald D. Hart - Thrilled to Death: How the Endless Pursuit of Pleasure Is Leaving Us Numb

Praise for THRILLED TO DEATH

Dr. Hart is one of the wisest men on the planet. I have worked with people and had friends who could not live without the rush of a recent thrill. Now I have a great resource for them.

Stephen Arterburn

Author, Healing Is a Choice

We live in a world gone completely high-tech with little or no time to stop and enjoy the simple pleasures God created: a stunning sunrise or sunset or a fragrant rose, the simple joys of life. Dr. Archibald Hart not only offers scientifically proven research to explain the growing phenomenon of a life without joy but also outlines the steps toward recovering the pleasures in life that God created. Every one of us needs to read this book.

Robert Anthony Schuller

Senior Pastor, The Crystal Cathedral and The Hour of Power

An excellent resource for counselors and for those who want to slow down, get control, and embrace the finer things of life. Arch teaches how to live joyfully.

Dr. Tim Clinton

President, American Association of Christian Counselors,
and Author, Turn Your Life Around

Arch Harts ability to keep our leadership focus boldly realistic, clear-headed, and genuinely holy is well established. This newest book is our summons to meet again in his classroomto grow in wisdom and increase in true effectiveness.

Jack W. Hayford

President, International Foursquare Churches,

Chancellor, The Kings College and Seminary,
and Founding Pastor, The Church On The Way

THRILLED TO
DEATH

2007 by Archibald D. Hart

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, TN, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted MSG are taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted TLB are taken from The Living Bible. Copyright 1971 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hart, Archibald D.
Thrilled to death : how the endless pursuit of pleasure is leaving us numb / Archibald Hart.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 10: 0-8499-1852-9
ISBN 13: 978-0-8499-1852-0 (pbk.)
1. Pleasure. I. Title.
BF515.H37 2007
152.4'2--dc22

2007013507

Printed in the United States of America
07 08 09 10 11 RRD 5 4 3 2 1

[ contents ]

Recovering Your PleasureDiscussion Questions for
Personal or Group Study

As every author knows, the hardest part of any book to write is the acknowledgments page. Not because one doesnt know who to thank, but every book is the product of so many influences that it is impossible to do justice and acknowledge all who have played an important part in shaping a book. This book is no exception.

While there are a few who must be mentioned, I particularly want to express my appreciation to the many whose names must remain private but to whom I am nevertheless deeply indebted for the influence they have had over my life. Top of this list are the many patients I have had over the years. I often wonder whether psychotherapy benefits the patient more than the psychotherapist or the other way around. Maybe Ive just been fortunate because in my case, I have been the primary beneficiary of the many intimate therapy hours spent with them. I am in their debt more than they realize. (Let me hasten to add that while the stories in this book are generally true, they reflect an amalgam of many, not any one particular patient. All identifying information has been concealed and confidentiality protected.)

Now to those whose help is especially appreciated, I want to thank the staff of Thomas Nelson, starting with Ernie Owen, who published my first book and has never given up on me as a writer, and David Moberg, a longtime supporter. To Debbie Wickwire, for her unfailing trust in the topic of this book and her expertise in guiding its form and content, I owe special gratitude. And to my editor, Jennifer Stair, who so expertly guided me through the maze of style sheets and crisp writing, I am particularly indebted.

Nearer home I am indebted to my oldest daughter, Dr. Catherine Hart Weber, for her help in several important areas, and to my dear wife, Kathleen, who patiently and lovingly read and reread drafts of each chapter, encouraging me to clarify and qualify whenever it was warranted. I couldnt imagine ever being able to write a book without her help.

To all of you I say, Baie dankiethats Afrikaans for the deepest felt thankfulness one could possibly express.

WHY WE ARE BEING
THRILLED TO DEATH

Pleasure. Everyone knows what it feels like: it is the delight of a mouthful of Sees candy, or the afterglow a young man feels after a date with the girl he has fallen in love with. For a businessman, it is clinching a sale; for a mother, it is her babys first smile. For me, it is completing a building project around the house or finally getting all the bugs out of a computer program I am writing for my lab research. The pursuit of pleasure underlies almost everything we try to achieve in life.

Yet today we have taken the pursuit of pleasure too far, and in so doing we have lost the ability to experience the very pleasure we are pursuing. As this book will show, consistent overuse of the brains pleasure circuits causes us to lose our capacity to experience pleasure. When we seek pleasure primarily through extreme, overstimulating thrills, we hijack our brains pleasure system and rob ourselves of the ability to experience pleasure from simple things. Literally, we are being thrilled to deathto the death of our ability to experience genuine pleasure.

We have taken the pursuit of pleasure too far, and in so doing we have lost the ability to experience the very pleasure we are pursuing.

The discoveries being made with new brain-imaging techniques help us better understand how the stress of modern life contributes to our emotional numbing. Whereas this loss of pleasure, called anhedonia, was previously linked only to serious emotional disorders like depression, schizophrenia, and drug addictions, we are now seeing it in otherwise healthy people. We are all, to some extent, losing our ability to gain pleasure from normally pleasurable experiences. This is the topic of this book.

Compared to the ease with which, say, our grandparents were able to find delight in relatively low-stimulating activities, it now takes an enormously high level of stimulation to deliver us just a modicum of enjoyment. There is a pervasive emotional numbness overtaking us. Just ask my grandchildren, and they will tell you exactly what it feels like. Many people now report what someone has called ajoyless existencea life where even the most significant accomplishments leave you feeling empty, and what used to bring great excitement and happiness now leaves you numb and unsatisfied.

We are all, to some extent, losing our ability to gain pleasure from normally pleasurable experiences.