Difference Between Enjoyment and Pleasure (With Table)

Human beings will experience enjoyment and pleasure at least once in their life. This will help them to lead their life stress-free as well as depression-free. Many people think that enjoying and pleasure are the same thing and the experience will be the same. But they are not. Even the time duration and the way they are getting them will differ. 

Enjoyment vs Pleasure

The main difference between Enjoyment and Pleasure is that when you do some work and enjoy that, then you will be able to feel enjoyment. On the other hand, when you get help from others, then you can feel the pleasure from that. Having enjoyment in life will not lead you to addiction. But having pleasure in your life will lead you to addiction. 

Enjoyment will help people to lead a happy and healthy life. We should not feel like enjoying every single moment and search for happiness in that place. But once you find enjoyment in something that you do, it will be with you for a long time and won’t fade away faster. It has been found out that people who enjoy their life will also succeed in their life. 

Pleasure is a short-term feeling which will be experienced by the human alone. They can only get it from others in many forms. Getting pleasure or experiencing pleasure once is fine. But if you find yourself getting addicted to it, then you should stop doing that, or else your body will release more pleasure hormones which will be difficult to stop later. 

Comparison Table Between Enjoyment and Pleasure

Parameters of Comparison

Enjoyment

Pleasure

Time limit

This will last more than pleasure

This is very short-lived

How to attain

When we do something that we like, we enjoy that time

When we take something from others

Experience

It can be experienced with a group of people

It will be experienced alone

Addiction

Enjoyment will not lead you to addiction

Pleasure will lead you to addiction

Hormone

It will release serotonin

It will release dopamine

What is Enjoyment?

Enjoyment is something that we experience when we feel satisfied with what we have done. When we have happiness in the thing that we have or someone is getting benefitted from that, or they appreciate you for what you have done, you will become happy that will lead to enjoyment. Some people will enjoy it when they talk with their friends or their loved ones. Some people will love to enjoy their life instead of moping around this stress around them.

In simple words, when you have a good time, you will experience enjoyment. You can even spread this enjoyment to others and experience it as a group. If you are going to the place that you like the most then you will enjoy it. If you go to a hospital or something that you don’t like, then you will feel a lack of enjoyment in that place. It also comes under the seven universal emotions. Enjoyment not only lies in going out or chit-chatting with others.

It even lies in small things around us. Expressing gratitude is also an enjoyment. We can’t find enjoyment in every single thing. But we can make it to be joyful for us. Enjoyment is very important in life so that you won’t lead a life with stress or depression. It will give you a healthy mental life. When you enjoy whatever thing you do, you will be able to do that work amazingly without any difficulty. Finding enjoyment in whatever work you are doing is very important. 

What is Pleasure?

Pleasure is something that humans can experience alone. This cannot be shown to others. This is very short-lived, and it will not last for a long time or the time that you have anticipated. When you cook someone a special food, then you are giving pleasure to that person. That person will feel pleasure when they eat the food cooked by you. When you are pleased or feel gratitude, then you are experiencing pleasure.

Pleasure cannot be given to other people. We can only take the pleasure from others can experience it for a short moment. But that short moment will be very much worth it. Sometimes you can find pleasure in illegal activities like drugs and alcohol. In that case, humans will try to deal with them often to get that shirt term pleasure. Soon, it will lead to addiction because of the hormone that will realize when you have the pleasure. The hormone is called dopamine.

This hormone will make you think that you are having pleasure in the thing that you are doing. Involving yourself in these forms of addiction will eventually kill you even though you have the pleasure when you involve yourself. When you experience it, it will give you some strange sense of excitement which will make your brain think that it wants to experience it again and again. Having too much pleasure will make your life miserable. 

Main Differences Between Enjoyment and Pleasure

  1. The time duration of enjoyment will be longer than pleasure. On the other hand, the time limit of pleasure will be short.
  2. When we do something that we enjoy we will be able to feel enjoyment. On the other hand, when we take something from others, we can feel pleasure.
  3. Enjoyment can be experienced with a group or set of people. On the other hand, pleasure can be experienced by the person alone.
  4. Enjoyment will not turn into addiction in life. On the other hand, pleasure will turn into addiction in life.
  5. The hormone released during enjoyment is serotonin. On the other hand, the hormone released during pleasure is dopamine.

Conclusion

Both these can be experienced in many ways. Choosing the type in which you are going to experience it is very important. Enjoyment is not a bad thing. Likewise, pleasure will not turn bad unless you have too much pleasure in whatever thing you do. It might also hurt the other person. When you want to experience pleasure, you need the help of another person.

They need to make efforts so that you will feel pleasure. Soon this will turn into an addiction. When something turns into addiction, stopping it is a difficult task. You have to control yourself. Enjoyment can also be made with the things around us, like helping others. In this way, you will get enjoyment, and the other person will get the pleasure of being helped. 

References

  1. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01490400.2014.915772
  2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029216301285