4 Tips For Finally Breaking Your Worst Habits

Bad habits: We've all experienced them in some form, and we all know how difficult they can be to remove from our routines. Whether your vice is staying up all night doom-scrolling on social media, leaving all your studying to the night before your exam, or biting your nails, feeling helpless in the face of potentially harmful behaviors is completely normal. The first step in overcoming this hurdle is understanding why your subconscious mind is clinging to these bad habits even though you understand they aren't good for you on a surface level.

"Habits play an important role in our health," Dr. Nora Volkow, the United Kingdom's National Institute on Drug Abuse director, tells News in Heath. "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." Dr. Volkow explains that habits typically form through repetition, but the University of Texas at Austin neurologist Dr. Russell Poldrack reveals to the outlet that they also form by activating the release of dopamine, commonly known as the brain's "feel-good" hormone. "If you do something over and over, and dopamine is there when you're doing it, that strengthens the habit even more," he shares. "When you're not doing those things, dopamine creates the craving to do it again."

While breaking your unhealthiest habits is difficult, it's certainly not impossible. There are several techniques you can apply to make the process easier, including understanding why you're dropping the habit and introducing healthier replacement habits. You may have a few setbacks along the way; if you ever find yourself returning to your old bad habits, just remember to get back on the horse and try again.

Breaking bad habits is so tricky because of the hormonal activity in our brains; when something triggers the release of dopamine, we want to do it again and again. But a powerful way to counteract this is to gain clarity around why you want to break that habit. A 2013 study in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine suggests that individuals are more likely to stick to behavior changes if they can see the value or personal benefit in it. If you're consciously trying to drop a habit because you know that it will benefit you, not someone else's expectations, you'll be more motivated to stick it out. 

There might be more than one reason why you want to break a particular habit, so write them all down to make that motivation crystal clear in your mind. Some reasons might be more pressing than others, so continue to remind yourself of those when you're tempted to engage in that behavior again. For example, if you're trying to give up eating chocolate before bed, your reasons for stopping might range from feeling sick while you sleep to preventing weight gain or dental cavities. Health reasons are likely more urgent, so hone in on that. 

Interestingly, it can also be helpful to jot down the reasons why you want to keep the bad habit going. Registered psychotherapist Natacha Duke, M.A., R.P., told the Cleveland Clinic that you can gain even more clarity by being honest about what's making it so difficult to ditch the habit: "If you don't acknowledge your ambivalence, it will be difficult to make true, lasting changes." Your reasons for maintaining your chocolate habit might include that it tastes good and briefly makes you feel good. Balance those against your reasons for stopping to weigh up what's really important to you.

When we deprive ourselves of a bad habit we've come to enjoy, like eating chocolate before bed, that lack of dopamine release is noticeable. That effect is amplified when we don't have anything to replace the habit with. Your brain will certainly notice and resist the missing bad habit, but introducing a new and healthier alternative can ease some of those uncomfortable feelings. "It doesn't work for everyone," Dr. Nora Volkow shares with News in Health, revealing that this technique may be particularly helpful in the case of drug addiction. "But certain groups of patients who have a history of serious addictions can engage in certain behaviors that are ritualistic and in a way compulsive — such as marathon running — and it helps them stay away from drugs. These alternative behaviors can counteract the urges to repeat a behavior to take a drug."

For the best results, you might want to pick a healthy alternative that's still enjoyable. Replacing your nightly chocolate fix with celery will probably be tricky to maintain, so you could opt for a low-sugar treat that still tastes good instead. Or, if you tend to reach for a glass of wine when you're feeling stressed, look into other stress-relief activities that don't involve alcohol, like doing a quick meditation or watching baby animal videos. Keep in mind that simply learning new habits won't automatically push the old ones out of your routine. Making an effort to replace your old habits just makes the process easier to deal with as you resist diving back into those unhealthy behaviors. Overall, it takes anywhere from 18 to 254 days to build new and lasting habits.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Mindfulness has been increasingly popular since the '90s, when Westerners first started to truly embrace the idea. Put simply, mindfulness is about being present and passively observing everything about the moment you're in. There are also specific types of mindfulness, like mindful eating, where you really focus on your food. According to psychiatry professor Dr. Jud Brewer, M.D., PhD, an expert in both habit change and mindfulness, this practice can help us to let go of habits that no longer serve us.

Writing for the Harvard Business Review, Dr. Brewer explains that the key to habit change is understanding that habits usually form because our brains find that behavior to be rewarding, so self-control often isn't enough to get us to stop. Instead, we have to be aware of that "reward" feeling we experience when we engage in these habits. By practicing mindfulness, we can explore that sensation and eventually develop a more accurate view of it. Then, the habit becomes easier to drop. If you're a total beginner, there are some great apps for mindfulness and meditation to help you get the swing of it.

Dr. Brewer notes that the first step is identifying the triggers that lead to the habit you want to change. Maybe your overeating is preceded by feelings of sadness, or maybe you scroll endlessly on social media because thinking about work fills you with dread. Then, check in with yourself while you're engaging in those behaviors, and also a short time after. As you overeat or doom-scroll, look into your body and notice how it feels, physically and mentally. In particular, Dr. Brewer recommends thinking about how it feels to know that the behavior, though it may be rewarding in the moment, is keeping you from achieving certain goals. Get as clear as possible about the negative consequences of those habits, from feeling physically full to regretting wasting time. The next time the habit comes up, respond curiously rather than giving in. Noticing what the urge feels like and mindfully unpacking it is also rewarding, so it may also help you to ditch that habit altogether.

This last tip is a more practical, tough-love approach to dropping bad habits. Rather than trying to practice self-control or retraining your brain to not want to engage in the habit anymore, you focus on removing the opportunity to do it. Then, like it or not, you won't be able to keep up the habit. For example, if your bad habit is eating chocolate late at night, you simply won't be able to do it if there's no chocolate in the house. "Make yourself have to step out and buy it, creating a boundary or obstacle," board-certified psychiatrist Dr. Sue Varma tells Today. 

You can also go a step further and limit your choices when it comes to bad habits. Instead of telling yourself you'll decide whether or not to doom-scroll based on how you're feeling later, automatically decide that you won't doom-scroll, and let that be the end of it. "Choice is the enemy of a habit because you are leaving it up to whim and willpower and discipline," Dr. Varma goes on. "There are too many variables involved including energy, interest, other people, discipline, motivation." The psychiatrist explains that if you leave it up in the air, these factors can easily come in and sway you off course, adding, "Make the [habit change] non-negotiable and it becomes an automated habit."

While this approach doesn't eliminate your craving or tendency towards your bad habits, the reality is that techniques like mindfulness and gaining clarity around your motivation can take some work. Though they're powerful and worth trying, sometimes you just don't have room in your life for something else that requires effort and energy. Removing the temptation is a quick fix that won't necessarily solve the problem, but it can make things easier until you have the time to properly address your bad habits and do the inner work required.