![]() It’s not guaranteed to work, but it certainly can help.” “If you’ll be at a party and want to eat vegetables instead of fattening foods, then mentally visualize yourself doing that. “Mentally practice the good behavior over the bad,” Poldrack says. Stay away from friends and situations linked to problem drinking or drug use.Īnother helpful technique is to visualize yourself in a tempting situation. Resolve to avoid going places where you’ve usually smoked. You could develop a plan, say, to avoid walking down the hall where there’s a candy machine. For example, habits can be linked in our minds to certain places and activities. Then develop strategies to counteract them. One approach is to focus on becoming more aware of your unhealthy habits. Volkow notes that there’s no single effective way to break bad habits. “Any regular act of self-control will gradually exercise your ‘muscle’ and make you stronger.” “We’ve found that you can improve your self-control by doing exercises over time,” Baumeister says. ![]() In recent years, though, he’s found evidence that regularly practicing different types of self-control-such as sitting up straight or keeping a food diary-can strengthen your resolve. Once you’ve exerted some self-control, like a muscle it gets tired.”Īfter successfully resisting a temptation, Baumeister’s research shows, willpower can be temporarily drained, which can make it harder to stand firm the next time around. His studies on decision-making and willpower have led him to conclude that “self-control is like a muscle. Roy Baumeister, a psychologist at Florida State University. “Humans are much better than any other animal at changing and orienting our behavior toward long-term goals, or long-term benefits,” says Dr. We have many more brain regions to help us do what’s best for our health. The good news is, humans are not simply creatures of habit. And the brain’s reward centers keep us craving the things we’re trying so hard to resist. “These routines can become hardwired in our brains,” Volkow says. In a sense, then, parts of our brains are working against us when we try to overcome bad habits. “This explains why some people crave drugs, even if the drug no longer makes them feel particularly good once they take it.” When you’re not doing those things, dopamine creates the craving to do it again,” Poldrack says. “If you do something over and over, and dopamine is there when you’re doing it, that strengthens the habit even more. Enjoyable behaviors can prompt your brain to release a chemical called dopamine A brain chemical that regulates movement, emotion, motivation and pleasure. And this difference makes the pleasure-based habits so much harder to break. “But there’s one important difference,” Poldrack says. Both types of habits are based on the same types of brain mechanisms. Russell Poldrack, a neurobiologist at the University of Texas at Austin. “The general machinery by which we build both kinds of habits are the same, whether it’s a habit for overeating or a habit for getting to work without really thinking about the details,” says Dr. ![]() This can set up potentially harmful routines, such as overeating, smoking, drug or alcohol abuse, gambling and even compulsive use of computers and social media. Habits can also develop when good or enjoyable events trigger the brain’s “reward” centers. This frees up our brains to focus on different things. “When behaviors become automatic, it gives us an advantage, because the brain does not have to use conscious thought to perform the activity,” Volkow says. We can drive along familiar routes on mental auto-pilot without really thinking about the directions. “We wake up every morning, shower, comb our hair or brush our teeth without being aware of it,” Volkow says. They are a normal part of life, and are often helpful. “Understanding the biology of how we develop routines that may be harmful to us, and how to break those routines and embrace new ones, could help us change our lifestyles and adopt healthier behaviors.” Nora Volkow, director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Habits play an important role in our health,” says Dr. And they’re developing strategies to help us make the changes we’d like to make. They’ve found clues to why bad habits, once established, are so difficult to kick. They’ve studied what happens in our brains as habits form. NIH-funded scientists have been searching for answers. And many of us have unhealthy excess weight that we could lose if only we would eat right and exercise more. Drug and alcohol abusers struggle to give up addictions that hurt their bodies and tear apart families and friendships. ![]() If you know something’s bad for you, why can’t you just stop? About 70% of smokers say they would like to quit.
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