Breaking Bad Habits
Nowadays, many discuss the importance of building new habits, without, however, focusing on the equally important opposite process: selecting and breaking bad habits. In this article, we will address the topic of bad habits, from their formation to advice on how to get rid of them. A note to our readers: if the behavior you are trying to overcome is related to addiction or to very deep and ingrained bad habits, this article may not be sufficient and appropriate to your situation, and you may want to seek help from a professional.
Habits 101
Through repetition over time, any behavior, action, or reaction can become a habit: from the tiniest micro-tic to a way of thinking and solving a particular type of problem.
Thanks to this process, for instance, we don't have to recalculate the necessary steps to move our legs and walk in every single moment, and our body doesn't forget how to inhale and exhale.
Habits emerge as a result of their repetition and reinforcement over time, typically in response to specific triggers. Among the many theories and approaches to habit formation, one of the most popular is the "3Rs": reminder, routine, and reward. The reminder consists of a trigger or cue in the form of a stimulus, thought, or feeling, such as thirst. The routine represents the behavior associated with the reminder, in this case, getting a drink of water. The reward is any positive effect caused by the routine itself, the motivational core which helps that particular habit to stick; in this case, this would be not feeling thirsty anymore. This way, the next time you're thirsty, you already know what to do to feel better without having to go through the whole process again, and the more this is repeated over time, the more effective this rule becomes.
When we anticipate a reward, an area of our brain called the Ventral Tegmental Area (controlling reward behavior, learning, and memory) is stimulated to produce dopamine, which then travels to another area of our brain called the Nucleus Accumbens (known primarily for its roles in pleasure, reward, and addiction). In the nucleus accumbens, dopamine binds to receptors on neurons, changing their activity. This change then translates into us experiencing pleasure and reward. After the rewarding event, the prefrontal cortex (which plays a role in decision-making and planning) assesses the entire event and connects the pleasure experienced with the action. The stronger the pleasure, the stronger the signal sent to the prefrontal cortex and other areas responsible for memory and behavior. As a result, we will try to engage in that behavior again.
Breaking bAD HABITS
There are some things that give us more pleasure than others, and unfortunately, some of these things are also bad for us. For example, smoking, using drugs, eating sweet things, or scrolling social media. All of these activities produce a lot of dopamine in our brain. For this reason, we develop bad habits.
The best way to get rid of bad habits is by developing a plan, which would allow us to become aware of what our bad habits are, and motivations and behaviours we can use to get rid of them. With that said, I now suggest you all take pen and paper as I am going to present you some useful prompts to help you understand and manage your bad habits. To make this more relatable, we are going to use an example: Francesca, that wants to get rid of her habit of scrolling social media too often throughout the day.
Step 1: In order to get rid of a bad habit, the first round of questions we need to ask yourself is: why do I want to get rid of that bad habit? How would my life improve if I get rid of that habit? I suggest listing five reasons onto why you want to get rid of that specific habit. For example, Francesca wants to get rid of her habits of mindless scrolling social medias, because this would improve her concentration, her productivity. Getting rid of this habit would also prevent her comparing herself with others, whilst making her more intentional with her time. Asking ourselves these questions will really help us get the motivation we need to get rid of that habit. In fact, some studies show that it may be easier to change your behaviour when the change you want to make is valuable or beneficial to you.
Step 2: Secondly, we are going to identify our triggers. We can ask ourselves whether the habit happen at a certain place or time or whether there are any emotions, people or events that are particularly linked to are linked particularly to the habit. For example, Francesca identifies that she scrolls social media in the morning, as soon as she wakes up. She also does it often on the train to work, and when she is doing things that get her bored. She might also scroll social medias when she is sad to distract herself from that feeling. And she also does it when she is in uncomfortable situations, or with people that she does not know, as she wants to look busy on her phone.
Step 3: After doing this, we are ready to identify the skills we can use to get rid of the habit. For example, Francesca thinks that taking some deep breaths before opening social medias will help her with the habit, as she is actually taking a second to think whether she needs to go on social medias or not. Another helpful skill could be to replace the habit with another action. If Francesca wants to distract herself, could she read a book instead of scrolling scial medias? Could she maybe do some house works? Or since she has her phone, could she use it to call some loved ones instead? Another way would be to leave post-it notes near her bedside table, or put a message as her phone wallpaper that say, for example, “don’t scroll social media, to x instead".
Step 4: The fourth round of questions is the following: can I do this with someone else? Can I find an accountability partner? Francesca has a friend, Chloe, and she wants to get rid of her habits of eating too many sugary foods a day. Could they support each other throughout the process? Could they maybe plan to update themselves once a day to check in with each other on their progresses. Studies show that having an accountability partner is very beneficial in helping people making and breaking habits.
Step 5: The fifth question is a nice one: how am I going to reward myself? This part is very important. Thinking about the reward system that we mentioned before, we know that we need to release that dopamine if we want a new habit to stick. For example, Francesca has decided that whenever she succeeds in bringing down her screen time, a piece of chocolate will wait for her after dinner. In other words, find a reward that is appropriate to your situation and make sure to go through with it.
Step 6: Finally for the last part of the plan, we are going to think about what we are going to do in case we slip up. This is probably the most important step as no one is immune to mistakes, and slips might happen. Francesca has decided that whenever she breaks her intention she will practice some positive self-talk. Perhaps she will keep a log of her journey with her mistakes in it too, to reflect on what went wrong or how can she make sure the same doesn't repeat in the future.
Conclusion
In conclusion, habits can be very useful in our everyday life, though it is very easy to develop bad ones. But if that happens, we can draw a plan to get rid of those bad habits. The important thing to stress is give yourself time. Some studies have shown that it takes at least 21 days to build or break an habit. However, it may take more time depending on the type of habit, how long you’ve had it, and how strong that habit is. Finally, I also want to stress again that if your fighting against deeper addictive behaviours, such as emotional eating compulse or substance misuse, these tips might not work for you, and the best advice I can give you is to seek support from a mental health professional.
References
https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2012/01/breaking-bad-habits
https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-break-a-habit