Where the baseline level of feelings resets in a short amount of
time, even when something good/bad happens.
That is why people who feel happiness quickly become neutral. But this
can also work out in a good way: being so used to pain, for instance,
from flashcard revision that it basically adapts to being (close to)
natural and painless. Pre-meditate the evil that can
occur.
“Don’t even expect happiness, expect the ultimate pain so that the
situation will turn out not as bad as expected.” However, I think that
it's the existence of bad that is the problem, bad that is outside the
person's control. Stoicism helps, but Darwinism may counter it. The education system, of course, is a culprit.
It's like bad becomes normal, which is a horrible trap where goodness
feels strange. Be careful.
But I would argue the hedonic treadmill is more beneficial than
harmful:
Good returns to normal, but the human brain puts more emphasis on the bad -
which also returns to normal - which makes the hedonic treadmill a net
gain!
Otherwise overwhelmed by negativity.
Bad things are still bad things. Pain is still pain. Saying that someone feels pain due to having experienced pleasure does not remove the fact some pains are still pains without pleasures.
It, along with avaliability, ends up masking the fact that daily activities like school or jobs can be painful!