Do You Ever Find Yourself Unable to Listen To Your System?


I was unsure how to pose this question.

I don't mean in a any technical capacity, as in, your system for some reason is not sounding good and therefore you can't stand to listen to it or some component is not functioning correctly.

I mean in the sense that your having some issues in life perhaps that is affecting you emotionally or mentally and you are unable to enjoy your system.

For me there is some personal issues that has been affecting me and my family for the past couple of years and there are times I just am not able to sit down and enjoy the rig.

For the past month I have been unable to bring myself to listen to anything. Heck, even hardly been on this forum.

I know different people deal with issue's in different ways. Some might completely immerse themselves in their system to forget about the world for a little bit.

I mean that would make sense. Music is not just enjoyable but therapeutic. 

I should actually be using my system even more in these type of times but I usually just seem to lose interest in things I like when I am a bit mentally disturbed due to some issue going on.

So I am just curious, do you any of completely turn away from your system or the opposite, immerse yourself even more?

Thnx

Jay
128x128jay73
my mood def affects my enjoyment of music so that when very stressed or feeling low for any reason I tend not to listen to it. Hope you find your way back to enjoy listening again, for me and I'm guessing most other audiophiles out there music is food for the soul. without it I miss the frisson but am unable to experience it when my mood is badly affected, a double edged sword.
I feel sincere gratitude to all responding to OP and to OP for his post. Many of us had/have some similar experiences,. Responding to such kind of question could be more valuable than a technical advise regarding a particular gear. Compassion that you express is important and can well be encouraging and helpful for OP. 

I found it particularly useful to create some kind of intimate (positive) feeling and relation with my audio system. Enjoy both, the SQ and the music. Depending on your mood, try to decide which kind of music may please you. Sometimes I find it calming to listen to silence. 
I have a very specific attitude and relation with each of my (three) audio systems. Independently of the cost of each of them, i enjoy all of them in different ways.  Try to create an intimate relation with your system as if it were a member of your family. Despite  your personal problems, do you still communicate with the members of your family/friends? So do the same with your system.

Dependencies are no good,  but here in this world we always depend on many things (as an extreme example, we even cannot exist without an air - our existence is subject to the environment and one small component of this environment is our audio system). 
To keep things fresh, I dial up either Qobuz or Primephonic and happily choose what musical morsel I might next want to listen to. Will it be something I'm familiar with? Or something/someone I've totally never heard of?  And yes all you literalists, I actually do dial up my choices...on the ethernet-connected payphone/PC presently parked in the parlor.
For me, music tends to increase the emotional pain. When my gf left me a decade or so ago, I surrounded myself w/ music (which did no good, of course--only allowed me to exercise my self-indulgence).  
I had an experience like that. My grief had a soundtrack in the form of a playlist loosely based on this album, which I think allowed me to overindulge and prolong the pain. For a long time the first notes would bring me right back into that headspace, and I so put it away for a while.

Then I decided to revisit it, expand the playlist, and now it's just music that I enjoy again. 

But more to the point of the OP, if you are going through a tough period, I think it is important to be in the right headspace to enjoy your system, and not force it. The music you listen to will become entwined with whatever is happening in your life at the same time. As was pointed out earlier, engaged listening is a form of work; budget your energy accordingly.