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HABIT

During the Connect Class on – there was a discussion whether a repeated observable action construes a psychological pain manifestation. Can’t it just be a habit an individual has picked up down his life span? Prasad had asked me to conduct a research on habit and this blog relates to that subject:

As per definition, “ Habit is a behaviour pattern developed by frequent repetition of the act over and over to the point that the brain does it automatically”.  A Southern California research concludes that 40-45% of our daily behaviours are habits, which is close to 50% of our daily behaviour. Example may be getting up early, brushing, driving a car or just looking at the mobile phone!

Habits are those automated repeated behaviours happening always in the same context or environment, which runs in your subconscious mind (not consciously aware, as you have done it again and again). Habit is normally triggered by some form of Cue, which can be a situation, person or environment and which is rewarded at the end, basically dopamine release in your brain, which recognized it as pleasure. The process of habit formation is called a habit loop:

Cue leads to a behaviour which leads to a reward at the end i.e. Dopamine release and because of the reward of dopamine, we tend to repeat the behaviour again when the cue is presented. We can quote a example here  “ getting into a car is a Cue to put on the seat belt” Habits free mental resource for other tasks, for e.g. learing to drive requires conscious awareness of the clutch, brake and accelerator at first, later after that become a learned habit, attention is freed for looking out the road or for conversation with the occupants. 

Habits can be positive or negative and usually don’t affect the mental ability or memory, a negative habit cannot be considered as addiction. Addictions are universally negative and can affect mental ability, memory and impulse control. A habit can be controlled or modified where as addiction cannot be controlled and requires professional help for modification.

From Psychological perspective a state of mind like stress can be a cue, for example nail biting or rapid leg movement behaviour. This can also be a learned behaviour through modeling. Let us take another example: person A has been hearing stories of lightning strike from his/her childhood, gathering of dark clouds can be a cue to run into the house and sit quiet in a corner.  As clinical psychologist Dr. James Claiborn says, “any behavior which persists is being reinforced,” even if it starts for practical reasons, and can become a damaging habit.