The Story of Habit

           On Wednesday morning Billy, a restless sleep, scrolling screens for hours, woke up depressed and tired. He dragged himself out of bed, brushed his teeth in the shower, drank his coffee, and was off to what would promise to be another challenging day with a foggy mind and the lifelessness of a sleepless night compounding his depressed state. Throughout the day he told himself over and over, “I’ve got to stop doing this.”

         On Thursday morning Billy woke up, troubled, another sleepless night, scrolling screens for hours, dragging himself out  of bed, shower, coffee, off to work and the lifelessness of another day, compounded by minimal sleep from the night before. “I’ve got to stop this.” 

         Friday morning, same story, shower, work, lifelessly navigating the day.

         Billy endured this routine on more days than not, and the longer it went on the more helplessness he felt, the more failure crept into his mind. As the end of his workday approached, he would start thinking I need to do something about this. Living a life of a habit of inactivity and screen time to distract himself, habits that severely compounded his mental health, not an escape but rather addictions driving poor health outcomes 

         Habits are powerful things, even more so when the behaviour crosses the line into addiction. Even when we know that a certain behaviour isn’t working in our favour, it’s challenging for us to modify what we’re used to. A recent study has shown that we develop a chemical bias to things for which we’ve been rewarded with in the past (the dopamine axis contributing to activities that fed the addiction of dopamine hits). Whether it’s a piece of cake or screen time, if we’ve previously had a good experience with an object or behaviour, we are almost immediately predisposed to engage with it again. Of course, as we engage over and over, the chemical response in our brains grows stronger. It’s the downside of the old adage, “practice makes perfect.”

         But just as we unconsciously train our brains to pick up bad habits, there are proven techniques to help us develop healthier routines that lead to healthier habits. It might be hard to believe sometimes, but we aren’t always at the mercy of compulsion. So how do we turn things around?

Professional Help

         First of all, if your habit is impacting yours or your families’ wellbeing, accepting this in pure honesty, is the first step that needs to be taken. From this pivotal moment, seeking professional help is the next step. You don’t need to be an alcoholic (“addicted” to alcohol) to have your life impacted by alcohol misuse disorder, similarly you do not need to be on screens 6 hours a night (addicted) to have a “screen-misuse disorder” and there is a lot of value in breaking the cycle before it develops into a Bonafide addiction.

           But the right professional can help you overcome other, seemingly less toxic habits as well. Nutritionists can help you build healthy habits around your relationship with food, and a good physical trainer will work with you to turn your sedentary life into one that is active, healthy and happy.

Most importantly, there is absolutely no shame in reaching out for help. Although it might seem like a simple exercise of willpower to “just say no” to a bag of chips, habits are usually strong enough that such an oversimplified response won’t be of much use. 

 Habits are established, ingrained brain pathways that a trigger immediately activates a behavior (Desirable or undesirable) to immediately happen without you even thinking about it.

Substitution

         Other studies have indicated that replacing old habits with new ones can be an important step in breaking our undesirable behaviours. Again, “just say no” isn’t likely going to be an adequate response to changing ingrained routines.

         One of the keys to habit substitution is the idea that the replacement behaviour distracts us from what we’re trying to change. It should invoke a similar reward and be simple to accomplish. It should be paired to the trigger that launches the undesirable habit.

Mindfulness Therapy

           Mindfulness has become so popular in recent years that the term is almost gaining cliche status. But the reason for its popularity is largely due to its effectiveness in a large swath of circumstances, and that effectiveness is being measured by credible science.

          There is a growing body of evidence indicating that “MBIs (Mindfulness-based Interventions) reduce undesirable behaviours and cravings by producing changes in the brain that provide the individual with greater control over impulses. The added benefit of developing simple awareness also helps us break habits by being able to pay attention to the fact that a habit is taking place or identifying that the trigger just happened upon us. One of the reasons for the strength of any given habit is because the behaviour occurs without us giving it a second thought. We put our keys down in the same place when we come home, or we keep our phones in the same pocket of our pants whenever we put it away (well, I wish I did, half my life is looking for said item that is never in any place it should be). We don’t have to think about these actions, they’re just something we do.

          Now when we introduce mindfulness, we can train ourselves to pay attention to the habits we’re hoping to change. We might not stop the habit immediately, but we gain the benefit of witnessing the behaviour as it unfolds. Eventually, as that awareness builds, we’re afforded the opportunity to make alterations.

         Humans will always have habits. They are devices we employ subconsciously to save time, to maintain order, and to improve our lives. Our culture places a focus on our bad habits but doesn’t often give kudos to all the ways routine behaviour benefits our daily lives. As brain science continues to gain a better understanding of compulsive behaviour, we’ll be able to take better control of our little temptations and turn them around into healthy and productive action. 

Kevin Dyck

Kevin owns & operates TheWriteCheese.com, a communications company that specializes in clients trying to further inclusion, diversity, and overall community good. He lives with a brood of animals and his tolerant wife on a small acreage in the mountains of British Columbia.