Curbing Bad Habits Later In Life

Why Do We Form Habits?

Habits are automatic responses that are learned over time. They are built by associating cues with behavioral responses intentionally or unintentionally. With repetition, the behavioral responses become automatic. Habits make behaviors more efficient and give you more energy for other tasks.

The formation of a habit occurs through a 3-step process^:

1. Cue: A trigger that your brain can use to determine which action is appropriate
2. Routine: The behavior or activity that the body uses to respond to the cue
3. Reward: The way that your brain perceives a response to the behavior

When a routine is repeated regularly, it becomes automatic, and the brain no longer has to devote energy to decision-making for that specific cue.

The automatic nature of a habit is part of what makes it difficult to break. Several neurochemical systems in the brain are believed to be involved in the formation of a habit. The dopamine system is the most commonly researched, but the serotonin and opioid systems are also implicated.

How to Start Curbing Bad Habits

Breaking bad habits as an adult, or at any age, can be challenging and uncomfortable. It requires deliberate actions to stop the automatic approach.

The first step to breaking a bad habit is to decide which habit or habits you’re concerned about and why. You’ll also want to identify triggers and consider what kind of support you may have in place to help you. Sometimes, making a list can be helpful for goal setting.

The American Heart Association recommends six steps for changing habits:

1. Identify cues that trigger automatic behaviors. Common cues include time of day, location, certain emotional states, specific thoughts, specific beliefs, and certain people.
2. Disrupt the cues by using alternative actions.
3. Replace the bad behavior with a good one. One example is going for a walk when you get the urge for a cigarette.
4. Keep the behaviors simple. Habits are automatic, so replacing them with an overly complicated behavior will make it difficult to break the habit.
5. Think about your long-term goals. Because habits trigger the neurochemical reward centers in the brain, they satisfy short-term needs. Thinking about your long-term goals can help remind you why you are working to break the habit rather than succumbing to short-term urges.
6. Be persistent. Repeated actions build habits over time, and breaking a habit requires the same. Your habits didn’t form overnight, so they won’t change overnight. Curbing a habit requires persistent work.

Changing habits is hard, and slip-ups may occur. It’s important to be kind to yourself. You can help yourself by avoiding temptation and creating incentives and rewards for small steps towards achieving your goals.

How Long Does It Take to Break a Bad Habit?

The average time to break a habit is around 66 days, though individual values can range from 18 to 254 days.

Curbing a habit may also take more than one attempt. In a 2023 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, researchers noted that more than 50% of people who set a New Year’s resolution for increased physical activity are physically inactive after one month of setting an exercise goal. Setting smaller goals on the way to the ultimate goal can help improve your chance of success and keep you motivated.

Can You Retrain Your Brain?

The brain is remarkable in its ability to adapt and change. It is capable of adapting its structure and function when necessary. This is called neuroplasticity. This is commonly seen in people who have had a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Neuroplasticity can be self-directed and modulated in many ways.

Physical activity is one way that brain activity and even cognition can be affected throughout the lifespan. While its known that regular exercise has many benefits, a 2023 study in Cureus suggested exercise can also improve resilience, which can improve conditions such as depression and anxiety. This may help you develop new coping strategies for stress and other triggers that can affect bad habits. There appears to be a link between the number of neurons that get stimulated during an experience: the more they are maintained and strengthened with each subsequent exposure to the experience. This reinforces your ability to change your brain through repetitive behaviors and new habit formation.

Specific therapeutic techniques, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), can also help with brain adaptation and habit formation. CBT helps you identify certain behaviors and routines that are potentially interfering with your goals and develop tools to understand and change them. Therapists frequently offer this type of therapy, as it has a significant amount of data supporting its efficacy.

When to Get Professional Help

If your habit is interfering with your daily life or is part of an addiction or mental health condition, enlisting the help of a professional may be beneficial. A professional may also be helpful if you have tried repeatedly to break the habit and have not been successful.

It’s Never Too Late to Change Your Habits

Habits form over a lifetime and can cause significant health problems or distress. Fortunately, with planning and dedication, there is always time to curb bad habits and improve your future.