get rid of bad habits essay

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Essay on How to Break Bad Habits

What are bad habits and where do they come from? How to recognize a bad habit? How can something that we like be to the detriment of our physical and mental health? What are the effective ways to break bad habits? In this essay, I will try to answer all these questions. Do not consider my work as a guide to help someone get rid of bad habits. These are more thoughts of mine that some people may find handy or even helpful.

What Is a Bad Habit?

When someone says “bad habit”, smoking or alcohol are the first things that come to our mind. However, the term is much deeper in sense. Sometimes, we have bad habits without even realizing they are bad. As stated earlier, it is not only about smoking or drinking. Bad habits may refer to a passive way of life, using swear words, eating unhealthy food, or suffering from low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, boredom, and so on.

In other words, a bad habit is any action that can be to the detriment of health, mood, or even state of mind. What’s more, we need to take into account actions that may harm not only ourselves but also people who surround us. The problem appears to be more complicated than it seems and we need to figure out the main cause of bad habits first.

What Factors Cause Bad Habits

I am concerned that all bad habits mainly result in two reasons. They include boredom and stress. As a rule, people wrong things whenever they need to cope with stress or deal with an unpleasant situation. Every time a person had a fight with the dear one or problems at work, he or she tries to handle them with the help of alcohol or a cigarette just to chill out a bit.

Unfortunately, none of those can bring us to a normal life. What’s more, they may even make things worse and lead to more serious troubles.

The only way to prevent those consequences is to be able to recognize the bad habit on time until it becomes too late. This is where a person may become addicted to smoking, junk food, and so on. The next stage is to break the bad habit.

Steps to Break Bad Habits

After we have successfully identified habits we need to break, we need to get prepared. The task is not as easy as some may think. It will require discipline and patience. Some may start feeling bad. However, the situation will improve in the near future along with your state of mind and well-being. So, the main steps are as follows:

• Find the alternative – a fast and simple way to give up the bad habit. All you need is to substitute it with something less harmful. For example, when you give up smoking, chewing gum can bring great relief. The idea is to keep your mouth busy with it and forget about cigarettes.
• Team up with friends – one is very likely to have a friend or relative with the same problem and the aim of giving it up. A good idea is to team up and try to fight the bad habit back together. You may support each other every time it is hard. Another way is to set several triggers. For example, every time both of you want to smoke you start running instead.
• Create a harmonious atmosphere – the best way to get rid of stress and boredom, which are the main cause of bad habits, is to be among people who love you. They will always find encouraging words or help when you alone fail to cope with the problem.
• Set clear targets – it is not only about visualizing yourself without beer or a cigarette. It is about real actions and steps to take when breaking the habit. Create an outline or plan with schedules and timeframes.

Stick to that plan and try to build your new identity that is not dependent on boredom, stress, or other external factors.

The key to success is to understand your sole responsibility for obtaining a bad habit after having your back against the wall because of some problems. However, it does not mean you are supposed to judge yourself. We are all humans, and all humans make mistakes. It is absolutely natural for every person. The question is how we are going to get over those problems.

On the one hand, the process of breaking bad habits can be very tough and time-consuming. You may have to limit yourself, which will result in more inconveniences at first. However, it is certainly worth taking those steps in case you want to live a full life, have good health, and the ability to cope with any trouble with ease.

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Essay on Bad Habits

Students are often asked to write an essay on Bad Habits in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Bad Habits

Understanding bad habits.

Bad habits are actions we repeat that harm us. They can be physical, like biting nails, or mental, like procrastination.

Why Bad Habits Form

Bad habits often form because they give us temporary pleasure. However, they harm us in the long run.

The Impact of Bad Habits

Bad habits can harm our health, relationships, and productivity. They prevent us from reaching our full potential.

Overcoming Bad Habits

To overcome bad habits, we must understand why we do them. Then, we can replace them with good habits that benefit us.

Also check:

• 10 Lines on Bad Habits
• Paragraph on Bad Habits

250 Words Essay on Bad Habits

Introduction to bad habits.

Bad habits are often the result of patterns of behavior that have become ingrained in our daily routines. They are actions that we engage in repeatedly, usually without giving much thought to their consequences. These habits can range from the seemingly innocuous, such as nail-biting, to the more harmful, such as smoking or excessive drinking.

The Psychology Behind Bad Habits

Understanding the psychology behind bad habits is crucial. They often serve as coping mechanisms for stress or discomfort, providing a temporary sense of relief or distraction. The brain’s reward system plays a significant role in their formation and persistence. When a behavior triggers the release of ‘feel-good’ chemicals like dopamine, it reinforces the habit loop, making it harder to break.

Bad habits can have far-reaching impacts on our lives. They can negatively affect our physical health, mental wellbeing, productivity, and relationships. For instance, procrastination can lead to stress and poor performance, while excessive screen time can lead to sleep disturbances and social disconnection.

Breaking the Cycle

Breaking bad habits requires conscious effort, patience, and persistence. It involves understanding the triggers, replacing the habit with a healthier alternative, and rewarding oneself for progress. Cognitive-behavioral techniques, mindfulness, and self-compassion can also be beneficial in this process.

In conclusion, while bad habits can be challenging to overcome, understanding their psychological underpinnings and impacts can provide us with the tools to break the cycle. With effort and determination, we can replace these harmful patterns with healthier behaviors, leading to improved wellbeing and quality of life.

500 Words Essay on Bad Habits

Introduction.

Bad habits are behaviors we engage in repetitively, often unconsciously, that are detrimental to our physical, mental, or emotional well-being. They range from minor annoyances such as nail-biting to life-threatening addictions like smoking and drug use. The complexity of bad habits lies in their deeply ingrained nature, making them difficult to break. However, understanding their psychological underpinnings can provide us with the tools to combat them effectively.

The Psychology of Bad Habits

Bad habits are often rooted in our brain’s reward system. The brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of pleasure and satisfaction, whenever we engage in activities it perceives as beneficial. Unfortunately, this system can be hijacked by harmful behaviors that provide immediate gratification, such as overeating or excessive use of social media.

Another psychological aspect of bad habits is their association with stress and negative emotions. Many people resort to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as alcohol consumption or compulsive shopping, to deal with feelings of anxiety, sadness, or boredom. These habits serve as temporary distractions but can lead to long-term harm.

Bad habits can have far-reaching consequences. Physically, they can lead to health problems such as obesity, heart disease, and lung cancer. Mentally, they can contribute to conditions like depression and anxiety. Socially, they can strain relationships and hinder productivity. Moreover, the financial cost of maintaining certain bad habits, such as smoking or gambling, can be substantial.

Breaking Bad Habits

Breaking bad habits is a challenging but achievable task. It requires self-awareness, determination, and a strategic approach. The first step is recognizing the habit and understanding its triggers. This can be achieved through mindful observation and introspection.

Next, it’s important to replace the bad habit with a healthier alternative. For instance, if stress triggers cigarette smoking, one could try stress management techniques such as meditation or exercise instead. It’s also beneficial to set realistic goals and celebrate small victories along the way to maintain motivation.

In conclusion, bad habits are deeply ingrained behaviors that can have significant impacts on our well-being. They are often rooted in our brain’s reward system and can serve as unhealthy coping mechanisms for stress and negative emotions. However, with self-awareness, determination, and a strategic approach, we can break these habits and replace them with healthier alternatives. Understanding the psychology of bad habits is a crucial step towards achieving this goal.

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Process of Quitting a Bad Habit Essay

The only way of quitting a bad habit that seems to be most effective one is to replace it with a good habit. Human nature cannot tolerate a hole or vacuum in life, if anybody wants to eliminate a bad habit from his or her personality, it is required to fill that gap with something influential and positive. Otherwise, that vacuum might follow a path of least resistance and get filled with the same bad habit again.

Undoubtedly, process of quitting or replacing bad habit is very difficult and emotional. It requires motivation and determination as well as an aim with a defined time limitation. In this paper, we will discuss the important steps that may help achieve the targeted goal.

People who realize that they need to bring change in their lives by quitting their particular bad habit can easily achieve their target as compared to those who fear facing problems during the process of quitting bad habit. They are more likely to deny the fact that quitting bad habit can alter their lifestyle in a better manner. As a beginner, it is vital to take a start by defining particular attitude aims (Brizer, 2011). It can be done by altering daily activities and gradual changing the behavioural characteristics.

Do not try to do it alone, as it is a crucial attempt. It needs motivation from such a partner who is also willing to quit the same bad habit. For example, if two persons try to quit smoking together then it becomes easier to get success. Otherwise, it has been noted that when a person sees another person with the same bad habit he or she loses motivation and turns back to the same old habit (Brizer, 2011). But, if one individual with the same goal keeps on motivating another partner during the critical process of kicking bad habit it surely brings a positive change.

Quitting or developing any habit is not that easy as it might seem to be. It needs time along with determination. A person needs to maintain a diary or calendar in which sub-goals should be mentioned with timeline. It means this process also needs proper planning before implementation. For example, if a person drinks 15 cups of tea daily, he or she needs to cut down the number of cups slowly and accordingly i.e. cutting down two tea cups per week. Also, hourly division can help in this situation (Lock & Grange, 2004).

Such as, if a person is addicted to puff two cigarettes in an hour then he or she should try to take one cigarette per hour. At this stage during the process of quitting bad habit, it is significant to replace bad habit with the positive ones. In such a situation, physical exercise, intake of healthy foods, and spending time with friends and family can help overcome a bad habit successfully (Febish, Febish, & Oxley, 2011). For example, if a person is habitual of drinking too many soft drinks, it will be very helpful for such a person to drink a chill glass of water to fulfil the urge of having soft drink.

During the process of overcoming the bad habit, slippage also gives motivation to the person. For example, if a person is aiming to quit habit of eating too many chocolates in order to put off some weight then after following a strict diet plan for two or three weeks that person can eat a piece of cake or a sweet – say once in a fifteen days (Febish, Febish, & Oxley, 2011).

It will give him or her motivation that he or she is not being completely deprived from what he loves to eat the most. It is a known fact that quitting bad habit can make a person frustrated or aggressive. It does not mean that the person starts giving headache to his family members or friends because that person is not getting, what he or she is addicted to (Brizer, 2011).

It is because this attitude can affect their behaviour and relations with others in an adverse manner. One should continue to realize the significant importance of bringing change in the life by quitting a bad habit. Self-motivation and rewarding are other important factors that play key role during the whole process. It is vital to keep on rewarding yourself for all the initial steps you may undertake daily. Also, other people may also reward you (Lock & Grange, 2004). Try to meet those people, who can appreciate you for the change and those who could get motivation from the positive changes in your personality or behaviour.

From the above process analysis of quitting bad habit, it has been observed that the will of a person is the foremost important without which no one can bring change in his or her life. Process of quitting bad habit requires inspiration and courage of face all difficult phases of the process and to attain the targeted aim successfully.

Brizer, D. (2011). Quitting Smoking For Dummies. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.

Febish, G., Febish, G., & Oxley, J. (2011). Food for Thought. New York: Xlibris Corporation.

Lock, J., & Grange, D. (2004). Help your teenager beat an eating disorder. New York: Guilford Press.

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How to break a bad habit

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Make it easier by taking a hard look at motive, modification, and mindset

We all have habits we’d like to get rid of, and every night we give ourselves the same pep talk: I’ll go to bed earlier. I will resist that cookie. I will stop biting my nails. And then tomorrow comes, we cave, and feel worse than bad. We feel defeated and guilty because we know better and still can’t resist.

The cycle is understandable, because the brain doesn’t make changes easily. But breaking an unhealthy habit can be done. It takes intent, a little white-knuckling, and some effective behavior modification techniques. But even before that, it helps to understand what’s happening in our brains, with our motivations, and with our self-talk.

We feel rewarded for certain habits

Good or bad habits are routines, and routines, like showering or driving to work, are automatic and make our lives easier. “The brain doesn’t have to think too much,” says Stephanie Collier, director of education in the division of geriatric psychology at McLean Hospital, and instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Bad habits are slightly different, but when we try to break a bad one we create dissonance, and the brain doesn’t like that, says Luana Marques, associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. The limbic system in the brain activates the fight-flight-or-freeze responses, and our reaction is to avoid this “threat” and go back to the old behavior, even though we know it’s not good for us.

Often, habits that don’t benefit us still feel good, since the brain releases dopamine. It does this with anything that helps us as a species to survive, like eating or sex. Avoiding change qualifies as survival, and we get rewarded (albeit temporarily), so we keep reverting every time. “That’s why it’s so hard,” Collier says.

Finding the reason why you want to change

But before you try to change a habit, it’s fundamental to identify why you want to change. When the reason is more personal — you want to be around for your kids; you want to travel more — you have a stronger motivation and a reminder to refer back to during struggles.

After that, you want to figure out your internal and external triggers, and that takes some detective work. When the bad-habit urge hits, ask when, where, and with whom it happens, and how you are feeling, be it sad, lonely, depressed, nervous. It’s a mixing and matching process and different for every person, but if you notice a clue beforehand, you might be able to catch yourself, Collier says.

The next part — and sometimes the harder part — is modifying your behavior. If your weakness is a morning muffin on the way to work, the solution might be to change your route. But environments can’t always be altered, so you want to find a replacement, such as having almonds instead of candy or frozen yogurt in lieu of ice cream. “You don’t have to aim for perfect, but just a little bit healthier,” Collier says.

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What are bad habits?

How bad habits form and persist, how to break bad habits.

• Tip 1: Explore reasons for changing

Tip 2: Set the right goals

• Tip 3: Identify the triggers

Tip 4: Build your action plan

Tip 5: bring in mindfulness, tip 6: cope with habit changes.

• Tip 7: Know when to seek help

How to Break Bad Habits Tips for Changing Negative Behaviors

Feel stuck in a cycle of negative or addictive behaviors? No matter how ingrained they feel, you can learn how to break bad habits and replace them with healthy, positive alternatives.

Bad habits are unhealthy behaviors we engage in so often that they’re automatic. While some habits can be healthy—brushing your teeth before bed or buckling your seatbelt in the car, for example—bad habits can often have negative effects on your well-being. Eating junk food, skipping exercise, drinking heavily, smoking, or staying up late to binge-watch TV or scroll through social media could all impact your mental and physical health, increasing stress, and even exacerbating symptoms of depression or anxiety .

Bad habits can also take on the form of social behaviors. If you habitually make yourself the focus of every conversation, for example, it can annoy those around you and create divisions in your closest relationships. Or if you’re a people-pleaser who always says “yes” without thinking, others may take advantage of your kindness, impacting your own welfare.

Other common bad habit examples include:

• Skipping meals or not staying hydrated.
• Pulling your hair or biting your nails when stressed or bored.
• Being bossy or giving unsolicited advice.
• Waiting until the last minute to study for an exam or prep for a work meeting.
• Listening to music at a volume that’s harmful to your hearing .

Sometimes the consequences of your bad habits are obvious. You waste weekends nursing a hangover, for example, face legal issues due to your habitual speeding, or experience money problems due to your gambling or online shopping habit.

Despite the negative consequences, bad habits can be incredibly persistent and difficult to shake. You may have tried many times to drop an unwanted habit, only to find yourself sliding back into the same patterns of behavior. Repeatedly failing in your attempts to change a habit can leave you feeling disheartened and hopeless.

But no matter how long you’ve had a bad habit, or how automatic a behavior it seems, it is possible to make a real and lasting change. The first step to changing a negative behavior is to understand how habits develop and why they stick around.

There can be several reasons how and why bad habits form. In some cases, bad habits may simply be the result of repetition. They allow you to operate on “auto-pilot,” so you don’t have to put much thought into what you need to do next.

They can also be the result of a habit loop. A habit loop has three components: a trigger, a behavior, and a reward.

• A trigger is an external cue to your brain to engage in a behavior. Triggers can come in many forms, such as sights, smells, thoughts, or emotions. For example, if a coworker yells at you, it can trigger you to feel stressed out. Or perhaps you’re bored and then notice someone staring at their phone.
• Next, comes the behavior . You reach for a cigarette when you’re stressed about the coworker conflict. Or you open your social media app when you see someone else on their phone.
• Finally comes the reward . Smoking a cigarette seems to ease your work stress. Scrolling through social media scratches that boredom itch. Your brain finds a benefit to continuing the behavior. The reward could be a negative reinforcer—making something unpleasant, such as stress, go away—or a positive reinforcer—adding something desirable or pleasurable to your life.

Each time you engage with a habit loop, your brain links all three of the components together. This way, certain behaviors become deeply ingrained, especially if you’ve repeated them for years. However, it’s still possible to break bad habits, curb addictions , and replace negative behaviors. The process will require both patience and persistence, but you can change your life for the better.

Rather than focusing on giving up an existing bad habit, it’s often easier to replace it with a healthier habit. After all, when you free yourself of one behavior, some other behavior needs fill the void. This also allows you to use habit loops to your advantage. Essentially, you want your actions to be motivated by healthier rewards.

Of course, bad habits can be stubborn, so it’s important to have realistic expectations as to how long it will take to replace them. One popular myth suggests that it takes about 21 days to form a new habit. More recent research indicates that 66 days is the average amount of time that it takes for a new behavior to feel “automatic.”

The actual timeline can vary widely based on the person and their goal. In general, the simpler the new behavior, the quicker it will turn into a habit. For instance, it might be easier to make a habit of buckling your seatbelt in the car than it is to start and maintain a daily workout routine.

Expect to spend two to three months, or perhaps even longer, trying to replace a bad habit. But know that it gets progressively easier the more you stick with your plan.

Focus on changing one habit at a time

Many of us have multiple bad habits that we’d love to give up. But trying to change several habits at the same time can often feel overwhelming and be difficult to maintain. It’s also easier to become discouraged when you try to change too much at once: if you fail at changing one habit, you may feel hopeless and decide to give up on changing the other habits as well. For most people, it’s better to narrow your focus to changing one bad habit at a time. You can give the habit your full attention and then move on to the next when you feel comfortable you’ve broken the first.

However, in some cases, multiple bad habits may complement one another or contribute to a common problem in your life. For instance, your habit of staying up late can fuel your habit of drinking too much coffee throughout the day—or vice-versa—and both habits contribute to your anxiety. When habits closely overlap in this way, it may be worth trying to tackle them both at once.

When you decide on the bad habit you want to break, the first steps often involve clarifying your motivations and goals, then identifying your triggers and coming up with a plan to address them. Finally, learning new ways to cope with your lifestyle changes can help to reinforce healthy new habits.

Tip 1: Explore your reasons for changing a bad habit

We tend to label bad habits as “bad” because we recognize there’s some real consequence to our behavior. Your smoking habit could be severely damaging your health, or your habit of impulse shopping wrecking your budget. Procrastination might be standing in the way of your academic success, or overworking adversely impacting your marriage.

Exploring your own reasons for wanting to change can help you stay motivated, even in the face of setbacks.

Write down what you stand to gain by dropping this habit. Consider the small and large benefits. For instance, maybe you want to drop the habit of leaving your lights and television on all night. The benefits of turning off your electronics could be to improve your sleep , lower your electric bill, and reduce your carbon footprint.

Write down what you don’t want to change and why. It may be unnecessary or even counterproductive to drop certain parts of a bad habit. In the example above, you could decide that you want to leave a sound machine on at night because it helps you to sleep.

Regularly revisit your reasons. Keep your list handy. Put it on your phone or keep a physical copy on your nightstand. Any time you feel discouraged or disenchanted with your goals, look at the list. You might even decide to add or subtract reasons from the list as time goes on.

Coming up with the right goal is an important step in dropping a bad habit. If the goal is too general, too difficult, or too hard to measure, you risk sliding back into old patterns of behavior.

“Approach” rather than “avoid.” As mentioned before, you want to replace the bad habit with a healthier one. So, when forming a goal, focus on “approaching” a new behavior (“I want to start using a stress ball when I’m feeling tense”), instead of putting all the emphasis on avoidance (“I want to avoid chewing my nails when stressed”).

Use the “SMART” approach. SMART stands for specific , measurable , achievable , relevant , and time bound . It’s a common framework for setting effective goals.

• Is the goal specific enough? When objectives are poorly defined, it’s easier for you to move the goalposts and give in to cravings. Instead of a vague goal, such as “I want to stop sleeping in,” try, “I want to get out of bed by 8 a.m. each day.”
• Is it measurable ? Tracking how often you engage in the new habit helps you identify milestones and stay motivated. This could be as simple as putting a checkmark on your calendar for each day you get out of bed by 8 a.m.
• Is it achievable ? If a goal is unrealistic or too ambitious, you might be setting yourself up for disappointment. For example, if your bad habit is being messy, don’t expect to drop it completely in several days. Instead, consider setting small goals for gradual improvement, such as tidying up room by room.
• Is it relevant ? Will the new habit actually work as a healthy replacement for the bad habit you’re trying to break? Perhaps you cut back on drinking on the weekdays, only to binge drink on Saturdays. In that case, you’ll need to adjust your approach.   
• Is it time-bound ? You might decide that in one month you’ll reevaluate your goals and your progress. Maybe you’ll determine you’re doing well enough to move onto a new habit. Again, the length of time it takes to form a new habit can vary.

Celebrate the small victories. Meeting incremental goals and acknowledging your successes can help motivate you to continue. Reward yourself with a self-care session (such as a hot bath in the evening after exercising) rather than indulging in new unhealthy habits (opening a tub of ice-cream as a reward).

Tip 3: Identify the triggers of the bad habit

Identifying habit cues can be tricky. Sometimes, they’re obvious—the stress of an argument triggers you to begin chewing your nails, or a push notification on your phone prompts you to begin scrolling. Other times, they’re more subtle—just looking at the clock at the end of the workday triggers you to head to your favorite bar for happy hour.

Getting to know your triggers can help you better understand what drives your habit and then establish a workable action plan. Jot down a list of possible triggers for your bad habit. Know that triggers can be:

• Emotional states , such as loneliness , boredom, or anxiety.
• Settings that you associate with the habit, such as a bar.
• People who engage in the habit or encourage your behavior.
• Time , such as a point in the day in which you typically indulge in the habit.
• Preceding actions that serve as a cue, such as picking up your phone whenever your screen shows a notification, or smoking after a meal.

If you’re having trouble identifying the cues or believe you’re missing something, try recording the time and location of your last craving. Consider who was around you, how you were feeling, and any events that took place beforehand. Repeat this exercise multiple times throughout the week, and then review your list for patterns.

It’s also possible that a single bad habit has multiple triggers. For instance, you might be more likely to impulse shop when you’re stressed out , browsing online before bed, or in a store with your best friend.

When it comes to breaking a bad habit, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. The action plan that is most effective for you might be different from another person’s, even if the habit you’re trying to change is the same. Try out a few of the following strategies and determine which to incorporate into your daily life.

Create barriers to bad habits. To make overeating more difficult, don’t keep junk food in your home. To avoid sleeping in, set an alarm and leave it on the other side of the room. Delete the app that feeds your scrolling habit. Spend less time around people who pressure you to drink or smoke.

Remove any barriers to the new habit. Maybe you’ve decided that instead of scrolling on social media, you’ll go for a 10-minute walk each day. To make the action as easy as possible, leave a pair of walking shoes, a jacket, and an umbrella near your door. This helps ensure you’re ready to go outside no matter the weather.

Build a routine around the new habit. You might make a cup of coffee and sip it as you walk around the neighborhood. Or you could use that time to chat with a loved one on the phone. These types of actions can also further incentivize you to maintain the healthy habit.

Visualize yourself succeeding. Visualization techniques can be a powerful tool for some people. Use your imagination to strengthen your resolve and set your intention. Envision yourself prepping dinner once you get home instead of ordering out. Imagine yourself being a listener rather than dominating the conversation.

Have an accountability buddy. You might know other people who are also trying to curb a negative or addictive behavior. Chat with coworkers, friends, and family members who share similar goals, and then agree to hold each other accountable. For example, you may decide to go for daily walks with a coworker instead of heading to the bar after work. Even if the other person isn’t wrestling with a destructive habit, they might still offer you support and encouragement.

If you can’t find in-person support, online message boards and support groups can be useful resources.

Habitual behavior involves an element of thoughtlessness. You find yourself reaching for junk food or your phone as if you’re on “autopilot.” Mindfulness, a nonjudgmental awareness of what you’re feeling in the moment, can help you recognize and cope with cravings.

[Read: Benefits of Mindfulness ]

The next time you feel a craving arise, try the following method, known as RAIN, to ride out the urge until it passes. The purpose of this activity isn’t to banish the craving but rather to become more familiar with it and see it as a temporary state.

With consistent practice, you’ll have an easier time noticing your craving and enduring it until it passes.

• R ecognize when the craving is starting. Maybe you feel the desire for a sugary treat building, or perhaps you have the urge to make an online purchase.
• A cknowledge and accept that the craving is here. You don’t need to do anything to solve it. A craving can be uncomfortable, especially if you don’t act on it, but imagine it as a wave that will pass in time.
• I nvestigate the feeling. Get curious about your experience. What’s physically going on with your body? What sensations are present? Perhaps your muscles are tensing or your mouth is watering. What are your thoughts or emotions like in this moment?
• N ote the sensations. Label what you’re feeling. Restless thoughts. Fidgeting. Quick breathing. Put the feelings into words and note how they change throughout the wave. After a few minutes, you will likely notice that the craving naturally subsides.

Pay attention to how the habit feels

Even when you give into a craving and perform the habit, you can use mindfulness to your advantage. Take note of what indulging in the habit feels like. What does it feel like to bite your nails? How does your body feel after hours of scrolling through social media? What taste is left in your mouth after you finish a cigarette?

Being mindful of these sensations can lead you to realize that the bad habit doesn’t actually feel good at all. What you initially interpreted as a reward is now a consequence. You may even find yourself becoming disenchanted with the action altogether.

Just because you’ve established a healthier habit it doesn’t mean the work is done. In fact, it’s easy—and common—for old behaviors to return. Here are some tips for navigating the road ahead:

Continue to build on your newly formed habits. If you’ve started a routine of daily walking , consider progressing to regular jogs around the neighborhood. If you’ve started to let go of your people-pleasing habits at work, move on to setting firmer boundaries with friends and family. If you’ve replaced junk food with healthy eating habits, continue experimenting with new recipes. All of this will further reinforce good habits as a regular part of your life.

Update the people around you. If the old habit was something you indulged in with others, such a drinking after work, let them know that you’re trying to make a change. This can help cut back on intentional or unintentional peer pressure.

Let go of all-or-nothing thinking. On occasion, you might find yourself sliding back into bad habits. If you feel particularly stressed one week, you might look to your old comforts: eating junk food, smoking cigarettes, or chewing your fingernails. In those moments, it can be tempting to think, “This puts me back to square one. What’s the point?”

• Self-compassion is important here. When you’re feeling discouraged by a setback, try offering yourself the same level of reassurance and encouragement you would offer a friend or loved one.
• Remind yourself that setbacks happen, but they don’t negate all your progress. You’ve developed tools, learned strategies, and built willpower that can help you get back on track and continue making progress.

[Listen: Being Kind to Yourself: A Meditation ]

Tip 7: Know when to seek help for a bad habit

When a bad habit seems particularly stubborn or interferes with your daily functioning, consider that it might be part of a deeper underlying condition. Some examples of bad habits that you may need to seek professional help for include:

• Smoking or drinking to cope with social anxiety .
• Oversleeping due to episodes of depression.
• Binge eating due to an eating disorder.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can involve engaging in ritualistic actions that you might label as bad habits. You might constantly wash your hands to alleviate intrusive thoughts about germs. Or always seem to be running late because you spend too much time sweeping the floor or rearranging items on your desk.

Other bad habits are actually addictions. When you try to drop them, you experience uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms. For instance, your nightly drinking or recreational drug use could be due to a substance abuse disorder.

Even when a habit is fueled by an addiction or disorder, though, you can still make lifestyle changes to improve your sense of well-being. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may be needed to help you understand the thoughts and feelings that drive your actions.

Speak to a Licensed Therapist

BetterHelp is an online therapy service that matches you to licensed, accredited therapists who can help with depression, anxiety, relationships, and more. Take the assessment and get matched with a therapist in as little as 48 hours.

A mental health professional can guide you through CBT, but you can also continue to use these self-help steps for curbing bad habits to make the journey easier.

More Information

• The Habit Mapper - Visual tool to understand the three components of a habit (Dr.Jud.com)
• CDC - Information on identifying and replacing bad eating habits (CDC)
• Alimoradi, Z., Jafari, E., Potenza, M. N., Lin, C.-Y., Wu, C.-Y., & Pakpour, A. H. (2022). Binge-Watching and Mental Health Problems: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , 19 (15), 9707. Link
• Bailey, R. R. (2017). Goal Setting and Action Planning for Health Behavior Change. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine , 13 (6), 615–618. Link
• Breaking and creating habits on the working floor: A field-experiment on the power of implementation intentions—ScienceDirect . (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2024, from Link
• Breaking Bad Habits | NIH News in Health . (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2024, from Link
• Brewer, J. (2018).  The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits. Yale University Press. Link
• Changing Habits – Learning Center . (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2024, from Link
• Gardner, B., Lally, P., & Wardle, J. (2012). Making health habitual: The psychology of ‘habit-formation’ and general practice. The British Journal of General Practice , 62 (605), 664–666. Link
• How to break a bad habit—Harvard Health . (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2024, from Link
• Hyman, D. J., Pavlik, V. N., Taylor, W. C., Goodrick, G. K., & Moye, L. (2007). Simultaneous vs sequential counseling for multiple behavior change. Archives of Internal Medicine , 167 (11), 1152–1158. Link
• Karim, F., Oyewande, A. A., Abdalla, L. F., Chaudhry Ehsanullah, R., & Khan, S. (n.d.). Social Media Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic Review. Cureus , 12 (6), e8627. Link
• Trade bad habits for good ones—Harvard Health . (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2024, from Link
• What Is the Habit Loop? —Dr. Jud . (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2024, from Link

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5 Ways to Overcome a Bad Habit

These actionable steps can help you conquer harmful habits..

Posted February 23, 2021 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina

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Breaking your habits down into these fundamental categories can help you understand what a habit is, how it works, and how you can break it. This is known as the habit loop. Primarily, a cue is developed, which, when activated, triggers a craving.

The craving then motivates a response, which provides your brain with a reward, which satisfies the desire, and ultimately becomes associated with the cue. Together, these four things end up forming a neurological feedback loop that eventually allows you to develop automatic habits.

Fortunately, there are many ways that you can destroy your bad habits and keep them away for good. Which one works best will depend entirely on your individual circumstances and specific inclinations.

1. Quit Cold Turkey

You can eliminate bad habits by not indulging in them, not even for one day, starting now. Unfortunately, this is much easier said than done. It can be incredibly challenging to get rid of a bad habit because it is deeply ingrained in your brain.

When the bad habit’s trigger repeats, it can quickly reignite the old behavior. This is the greatest weakness in this particular method. Often, when an old pattern or behavior recurs, when you slip back into your old bad habit just once, you tend to make a huge fuss over it, and you feel like you wasted all of your time being abstinent.

You end up becoming crushed by self-disappointment that when you slip just once and return to your old habit, you completely slip back into your old ways. However, there is a power to such an approach. If you can quit cold turkey and persevere in your resolve, you can prove to yourself that you are entirely capable of making changes.

2. Change Your Habit Loop

Recent studies discovered that habits are stored in the brain in a different way than more standard memories. Typically, your emotion triggers a behavior that ends when the emotional urge has been satisfied when it comes to your habits.

There are twofold repercussions to these findings. First, if your habits are hardcoded in your mind, it means they are impossible to remove. This means that once those habits have been formed, they will stay with you for the rest of your life, which is why drug addicts and alcoholics relapse into their addictions, sometimes after decades of sobriety.

Second, there isn’t any such thing as getting rid of your old habits. Instead, you have to overwrite the bad habit with a new routine. The most efficient method for achieving this is by reprogramming the behavior. However, you have to make the new habit stronger than the old habit if you want it to stick.

Fortunately, by changing your habit loop, you can more easily solidify the new behavior, which will make it much more difficult for you to return to the old habit.

3. Use Small Steps

Using small steps to overcome a bad habit is a combination of quitting cold turkey and changing your habit loop, as discussed above. While you disagree with your bad habit, you also freely admit that you cannot quit your habit cold turkey.

This makes it necessary to analyze your behaviors and identify your triggers. When you can accomplish these two tasks, you can gradually limit your bad habit. For example, if you are trying to break the habit of eating poorly, you can start small by indulging in fewer sweets. With each passing week, you need to reach another milestone in eliminating your bad habit from your life.

After enough time has passed and you've continually worked toward making small changes in your habit, you will finally arrive at a point when you can completely stop engaging in your bad behavior automatically. Theoretically, with this method, you should be less prone to feeling discouraged when you slip. You have to assume some failure with this method but are better equipped to keep your motivation . This method is much more convenient for those who can quantify their bad habits.

4. Track Your Progress to Reinforce Your Determination

While this isn't necessarily a method for breaking a bad habit per se, it is beneficial in every instance of getting rid of a bad habit. In the above method of taking small steps toward getting rid of your bad habit, the approach is relatively apparent. If you are about to restrict yourself by having only a few cigarettes, you need to track the number.

When you change your habit loop, it is also a great idea to start tracking what isn’t working. At the bare minimum, tracking your progress comes down to checking whether or not you engaged in your bad habit that day. You can also use the tracking method when using the cold turkey method of eliminating bad habits.

When you quit your bad habit, you should be counting the days without the behavior or habit and try to build a streak that motivates you to keep going. When you find yourself clean for a single day, and you haven't been in years, it can be incredibly blissful. The second day that you add to the chain feels like an event worthy of a celebration.

Then comes the joy of going a week, later a month, then the first year. These kinds of milestones can provide you with a sense of accomplishment, even though you aren't really doing anything other than abstaining from engaging in a habit, which is the whole point of this particular method.

What's more, tracking your progress works in the same way as building your good habits. It focuses your attention on the essential things and provides you with the motivation to keep moving forward. It can also provide you with valuable data points that can help you to identify your pitfalls and critical points.

5. Focus on Your Good Habits

This method will ultimately kill your bad habits by starving them. Getting rid of bad habits focuses your attention on the negative aspects of your life. It can end up feeling incredibly restrictive rather than liberating. When you focus on eliminating bad habits, you watch yourself and end up denying yourself the pleasures you’re used to having in your life.

While you know that it is better to avoid engaging in your bad habits in the long run, those bad behaviors are a part of who you are, whether you like it or not. They were the mechanisms you used to relieve stress and help you cope with anxiety and low self-esteem . Without them, your life might seem to be less bearable.

So, instead of focusing on your bad behaviors and what you can’t do, you should focus on new activities that contribute to your life in a more positive way. To break your bad habits, funnel all of your energy into habits that will improve your experience rather than avoiding what is wrong with it. While your bad habits will continue to lurk in the depths of your brain, the only time they will resurface is if you lower your guard.

When it comes to eliminating bad habits from your life, it is essential to remember that you are about to embark on a long and challenging journey. You will continually be tempted to return to your old ways and risk succumbing to your old habits.

While these methods will help you break your bad habits, you must remember that the temptation to fall back into your old ways will always be there. Don’t continue to let your bad habits dictate your life. Take the first positive steps toward changing your bad habits today and start living a happier and healthier life now.

Sarah-Len Mutiwasekwa is a mental health advocate whose efforts are invested in breaking the stigma around talking about mental health and increasing awareness of these issues in Africa.

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Bad Habits Are Hard to Break—These Tips Can Help

Sharon Basaraba is an award-winning reporter and senior scientific communications advisor for Alberta Health Services in Alberta, Canada.

webphotographeer / Getty Images

How Is a Bad Habit Reinforced?

Steps to breaking a bad habit, a word from verywell.

It often feels like everyone is talking about habits. There are supposedly a million little habits that can 'change your life', but what about getting rid of the ones that inhibit us from becoming our best selves?

Habits are a valuable part of a healthy lifestyle because good daily behaviors get locked in as they become automatic. However (though we may not always like to admit it), we all have bad habits, which can range from the merely inconvenient like biting your nails, to seriously longevity-threatening like smoking. But man are bad habits hard to break!

Unfortunately, there's no single answer that will work for everyone. However, just becoming aware of your negative behaviors is an important first step. Habits develop with repetition. Understanding the pattern that supports a bad habit can then help you short-circuit the loop.

As New York Times investigative reporter Charles Duhigg outlines in his authoritative book The Power of Habit , all undesirable behaviors share these fundamental traits:

• An external cue or trigger
• A routine that ensues
• An inherent reward for the behavior

Let's dig into some of the reasons we perpetuate our bad habits and unpack some (admittedly, probably not so easy) ways to overcome them.

At a Glance

The information in this article should help you devise a plan to break a bad habit, and perhaps substitute a healthier or more positive behavior in place of the negative one. If it's social contact you desire, plan a walk with a friend instead of drinks at the end of your work shift; if it's a calm moment in a frantic day, consider a mini- meditation session to refocus. You need to find the cue, identify the reward, and trust that very small behaviors can lead to big change.

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It's easy to see that a habit like brushing your teeth may be triggered by bedtime (the cue), the teeth brushing itself (the routine) follows, and the reward delivered (mouth tastes clean and fresh, bedtime readiness is underway).

Even negative behaviors offer a reward of some kind. Perhaps it's anxiety relief, as it might be in the case of cigarette smoking; maybe you crave social contact and find it most easily over too many drinks at the bar after a stressful day at work . Unless you try and dissect the powerful components of this loop, you are doomed to repeat the bad habit.

According to Duhigg's research, the only way to short-circuit the habitual pattern is to identify the cue, the routine, and the reward they deliver. Since the habit (the routine) might be more obvious as the behavior you're trying to eliminate, the greater challenge can be isolating the cue and the reward.

Try these strategies to help you interrupt the cycle of negative behavior.

"It's important to remember that any change (good or bad) can feel overwhelming. When we want to change a behavior, it can be difficult (but not impossible!) and take time. We need to be patient and kind to ourselves," says Rachel Goldman, PhD.

Find the Cue

Try writing down at least five events that occur the moment the urge for the automatic behavior hits, to reveal the cue. Ask yourself who else is on the scene, what time of day it is, or what happened immediately prior? After a few days, the cue should become evident.

Identify the Reward

This can be more difficult and may require a bit of experimentation. Try altering the routine to get a different reward. Is it the fresh air? Does it provide a distraction? Or is it an energy boost?

Be curious and open to whatever you discover. Duhigg recommends writing down your impressions or emotions as the routine wraps up. After a few tries, the reward may be revealed.

Small Changes Make a Big Difference

Sometimes a simple tweak can derail an entrenched habit. For example, a team of psychologists led by David Neal of the University of Southern California studied subjects eating popcorn at a movie theater. The cinema setting was the contextual cue.

Subjects ate the popcorn regardless of whether they were hungry, and even when it was stale. When asked to use their non-dominant hand (for example, a right-hander forced to eat with their left hand), however, the habitual eating stopped.

Published in 2011 in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , the study concludes that disrupting the automatic consumption pattern brought the subjects' eating under "intentional control." In other words, the unconscious eating habit stopped, and the subjects became more aware of what they were doing.

Replace Bad Habits With Good Ones

When we've been doing something consistently for many years it takes up a specific amount of time in our lives. That time is filled with you doing something, so when you stop a bad habit that time can suddenly feel like a void.

For instance if we bite our nails or pick at our cuticles when we're idling, we associate doing something with our hands during the in-between moments. Instead of stopping the hand centric action altogether, you might try buying a fidget toy that you can play with in order to replace the finger biting or picking.

If you tend to go out to a bar with friends after work but you want to drink less, you don't have to stop hanging out with your friends. Have fun trying out the different mocktails your local bar offers, or suggest meeting up at a place that has fun coffee and tea options in addition to alcohol.

Neal DT, Wood W, Wu M, Kurlander D. The pull of the past: when do habits persist despite conflict with motives? Pers Soc Psychol Bull . 2011;37(11):1428-37. doi:10.1177/0146167211419863

Charles Duhigg. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business . Random House. 2012.

National Institute of Health. Breaking bad habits . US National Institutes of Health Public Information Sheet. Published January 2012.

By Sharon Basaraba Sharon Basaraba is an award-winning reporter and senior scientific communications advisor for Alberta Health Services in Alberta, Canada.