The Important Take Away
Addictions are one of the most destructive conditions that can affect a person, their family and friends. The steps above can help you to recover from any addiction in 30 days or less. With strength, determination and the lessons from these steps, you can put your addiction behind you and turn over a new leaf.
Why Should You Quit Your Addictions
Those who do not find time for health will sooner or later have to find time for illness.
A saying I like a lot.
Being healthy for me has become a much higher priority than before. And it changed my life for the better.
I’m feeling better than ever, and I don’t get sick anymore. Do you know how much energy that saves me? I see no reason to spend money on medicine and doctors when you can just avoid it in the first place.
Over the last years I have ended a lot of bad addictions, and I have become really good at letting go of things that doesn’t serve me in the long run.
No regrets. Of course you can always avoid getting addicted in the first place, but then you’ll miss the pleasure out of quitting!
My strength comes from pure will, but there are tricks and techniques you can use to make it easier. Let me share some of my thoughts about it.
What Are Your Everyday Addictions
Im not laying this out to scare you. I want you to understand how your mind works and how much of the modern world is designed to create addictive behaviors and capitalize on them. . I think it is only fair that you know at least some of what the companies marketing to you know to level the playing field a little bit.
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How To Permanently Get Rid Of Bad Habits And Addictions
- Gambling
- Video games
the list goes on and on.
The chances are that youve already tried quitting one of those before and failed. Even if you were successful for a while, the negative behavior probably came back.
Its depressing having to put in all that effort and see that its all been for nothing.
Yet, there are some people that succeed long-term. They stop the bad behavior and never look back. So you know its possible but somehow it doesnt work for you.
Is it that you just suck at this? Are you not as good as those other people? Are you doomed to live with bad habits until the end?
You can make it, just like all the people before youand Ill show you how to do it permanently, not just for a few weeks. All we need to do is look at what successful people do differently and model it.
Dont Charge Your Phone Near Your Bed
Want to know the best way to keep your kids off their phones too much? Dont allow them to charge their phones in their bedroom.
Want to know a great way to keep yourself off your phone? Dont charge it in your bedroom.
Many of the negative effects of overuse can be eliminated by keeping your cell phone out of your bedroom. As with many of the items on this list, this is a principle Ive found personally helpful.
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Difference Between Habit And Addiction
Addicts are prone to denial. In fact, denial is one of the hallmarks of addiction. Addicts continue to use drugs and alcohol despite negative consequences, believing they can stop when they want to despite evidence to the contrary. Over time, addiction can cost them their job, health, and family. Until they are willing to acknowledge the reality of their situation, the addiction will run its course and sabotage every aspect of their life. This is why Continuum Recovery wanted to explain the Difference Between Habit and Addiction.
A common struggle we hear from the families of addicts is that their loved ones say theyre using out of habit. In other words, they deny the addiction, not the habit. So how do you know when a problem has gone from a habit to a full-blown addiction?
Fortunately, there are ways to Tell the Difference Between Habit and Addiction and recognize when its time to seek Phoenix outpatient treatment for drug abuse. Below we cover the differences between a habit and addiction and the questions to ask about your own behaviors.
Strategy #1: Ignore The Naysayers
Sadly, there will be people, such as fake friends, who will subconsciously try to sabotage your efforts at self-improvement. They could be random strangers, close friends or even family members. Their words can be poison because theyll flood your mind with self-limiting beliefs. Listen to their advice at your own peril. The moment you start believing them, is the moment youll take that first step towards failure.
Having a plan for handling naysayers is as important as knowing what to do when youre tempted by an impulse. You need to know what to say and what to do whenever a person says something that causes you to second-guess a habit change. My suggestion is to find a way to ignore their comments or immediately rebuff these statements.
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Strategy #2: Forgive Yourself
A major reason why people give up on a habit change is they dont know what to do after they fall off the wagon. Sure, theyll strictly follow a goal for a few weeks, but they dont know what to do when they slip up. What often happens is theyll use this mistake as an excuse to give up.
At the risk of sounding like a touchy-feely psychologist, what you need to do is forgive yourself. We all make mistakes. Beating yourself up over a slip-up is counterproductive to your long-term goals.
While its important to be strict about eliminating a bad habit, you want to avoid filling your head with negative thoughts. A mistake is a mistake. It doesnt mean youre weak-willed. It means youre human like the rest of us.
Getting In The Right Mindset
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In This Episode You Will Learn:
- About the ego and how many people are addicted to themselves
- How mapping out your habit loops can help you understand the truth about your experiences.
- The power of curiosity
- About reward-based learning
- The science behind reward-based learning and how it helps us understand changing behavior
- How to hack cravings with curiosity
- How Dr. Juds apps help you map out your habits and start your habit-breaking journey
- About positive habits and when they become problematic
- About the two types of curiosity
- Why we continue to struggle so much when the answers are often right in front of us
- The science behind the effect of true generosity, kindness, and connection on our habits
- Plus much more
Emotional Habits And Addiction
HomeBlogAddictionEmotional Habits and Addiction
Addiction is a word we tend to associate with dependence on drugs or alcohol. It can also be associated with eating, gambling or even sex. However, not many people realize that there is another type of addiction that is more internalized Emotional Addiction. Many of us were taught to accept the ebb and flow of our emotions. But sometimes emotions can present dangerous realities to the people who feel them.
Emotional addiction is different than addiction to drugs or alcohol because it presents as more pervasive and less obvious. It colors how you view the world and respond to circumstances. To break emotional addiction, you must become conscious of these unhealthy patterns and learn to adapt these feelings with more constructive responses.
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This Is Your Brain On Drugs
No matter what the substance, repeated use of anything that mimics and over-stimulates the natural feel good dopamine that our brains produce causes problems. The dopamine receptors reduce over time, leaving the brain less efficient, which makes it difficult for the addict to feel good without the addictive substance. This effect leads to withdrawing symptoms and makes it difficult to quit.
Recognizing the dangers of addictive substances is a step toward preventing drug use. For those already using, either recreationally or with well-developed habits, helping them identify the underlying causes for turning to the substance and offering them help and support with rehabilitation will provide them the chance to rewire their brains and develop healthy habits.
Helping Others Break Bad Habits
Do not patronize the person you are trying to help, by telling them why their habits are bad. They already know this and dont do their bad habits for the reasons they shouldnt do it. They do their bad habits to feel normal.
Do not tell them breaking bad habits is easy as it will only irritate them. Give them the support and praise to keep them moving forward.
Do not force them to break their bad habits. Even if they try, they will use willpower to quit and end up failing. Tell them that people who succeeded in breaking their habits did not use willpower but instead addressed their flawed beliefs. Tell them how their bad habits only remove their need to do the habit which is perceived as pleasure by the brain. But in reality, their bad habit do not give them anything.
When they start believing that they can break their bad habits, their mind will begin to open up and that is when they are ready to read this post. Mention that there is no pressure to break their bad habits. If they want to continue to do their bad habits after reading this post, they can.
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Ideas To Help You Break Unhealthy Habits After Kicking Your Addiction
Youll often hear people repeat the adage that humans are creatures of habit. Patterns help us figure out the world around us and learn how to do things faster, but they can also be detrimental when we fall into routines that harm us. Here are some strategies for getting out of a rut and continuing with your addiction recovery on a positive note.
Strategy #2: Remain Positive
We all experience temptations from our bad habits. This is a natural part of the process, so dont let these feelings get you down.
The trick is to know what to do whenever you have an impulse. The moment you experience a cue for a bad habit, reaffirm your commitment to stick to the new plan.
You can even recite a simple mantra whenever you experience a moment of weakness. This could be a silly phrase that you repeat on a regular basis like: smoke-free in three months. Say this over and over whenever you feel the urge to light up.
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The Causes Of Bad Habits In Recovery
Accomplishing anything in life takes work, and continued effort in your recovery is no different. Many relapses occur because of a progressive lax in standards. Several factors contribute to loosening the standards you worked so hard to implement. Here are just a couple of key factors that can cause us to be susceptible to falling into old patterns.
Willpower Doesnt Workfix The Cause Instead
One bad habit doesnt seem like a big deal. Its not going to make a big difference from day to day. But think about the damage its doing long-term. Think about how your life will be different 10 years from now.
If you get rid of the addiction now, how much better could your health be in 10 years? How would your relationship change long-term? How would your financial life change?
If youve been trying to break the bad habit with willpower, its time to stop. That approach hasnt been working for you in the past and wont work in the future.
Try something different.
Its time to take a hard look at why youre doing it in the first place and change the underlying cause.
Now you have a simple formula for finding out the underlying cause and start working on a real solution. But just knowing about the formula is not enough. Its all about taking action.
Take the first step today and your future self will thank you for it.
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Slow And Steady Wins The Race
Breaking a large task into smaller chunks can help it feel more manageable. When youre working on changing your behavior, focus on making small improvements every day. Taper off gradually by decreasing the amount of time you spend doing the bad habit. For example, if youre trying to spend less time watching TV, you could start by cutting out one half-hour show per week.
Fix The Underlying Need Not The Habit
Dealing with the underlying problem might take a lot more effort and time than simply breaking a habit. But given that the alternative is just pushing a rock up a hill only to start from the beginning again, why not focus on the real problem instead?
To start addressing the real needs, we have to know what they are.
A great model that I learned from Tony Robbins is the Six Core Human Needs.
Four of those needs, which were going to focus on in this article, are essential. We always find ways to fill those four needs in a healthy or unhealthy manner.
Heres the list:
These core needs are universal. We all have them, regardless of our goals and purpose in life.
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Pay Attention To Your Bad Habit Triggers
We are constantly getting cues to take certain actions. The cue can be internal or external based on what one of your senses pick up.
To really change bad habits, you have to understand why triggers happen. To do this, you should record information whenever you feel the desire to commit to your bad habit. The information is as follows:
Location: Where are you?
Set Aside One Day/week
This is, by far, the most common approach I see among people who have taken intentional steps to curb their cell phone habit nowadays. But I credit Tammy Strobel for being the first person I heard talk about italmost ten years ago. Choose one day each week and set your phone aside. Thats it, make a habit of it.
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Habit Vs Addiction: 4 Questions To Determine The Difference
How do you know if you have developed an unhealthy habit or if you are actually suffering from addiction? Determining the difference between the two can be difficult, since both grow out of repeated behaviors. Given the difference in scope and treatment, though, it is important to distinguish between a troublesome habit and addiction.
One notable difference between habit and the disease of addiction is the amount of time and effort required to change the behavior. Altering habits requires minimal effort, time, and attention.
Addiction, on the other hand, often demands an integrative, long-term plan to treat physical symptoms like withdrawal as well as the emotional disconnect between body and behavior.
There is an ongoing debate among experts about whether the abuse of drinking and drugs represents the development of troublesome habitual behavior or addiction. As a human being, you are naturally drawn to habitual patterns because repetition creates familiarity and comfort. Positive habits can even become tools of survival.
Sometimes, however, habitual behaviors take a dark turn and develop into addictions. Recovery requires that you honestly assess your behavior and how it affects your health, relationships, job, spirituality, and life to understand the difference between habit and addiction.
