How Physiology Plays Into Addictive Thoughts
There’s a role between what we do physically and what we can’t stop doing psychologically
The more we do something, the easier it becomes to keep doing that thing. This is the process behind habit formation.
It’s why developing a workout regimen is hard at first. We have to convince our bodies that the repetitive movements that bring pain are worth doing.
This process is psychological yes, but also physiological. After the body has become accustomed to motions for so long, less psychological energy is required to convince it to continue those motions.
If you get a new job that requires you to wake up at 4:30 in the morning instead of 7:00, it can be a struggle at first. But waking up at 4:30 AM isn’t nearly as difficult to do when you’ve been doing it for 6 months. Like everything else a person does, it becomes easier with time.
This is the way physiology helps us to form habits that are beneficial to us.
In reverse, we can see how developing a schedule of sleeping longer than you should can turn that mechanism into a detrimental one. You have taught your body to make it very easy to press snooze and turn over instead of forcing yourself up.
Some people say it takes 2 weeks to form a habit. Depending on the habit, some say more, some say less.
But this is something everyone should agree on: Making a habit of something becomes easier when you use your mind to assist you in seeing the purpose behind it.
The trick is that seeing a purpose behind actions helps motivate us to do them.
This is where purpose-seeking thoughts can also work to our detriment.
The person who starts cutting herself sees a purpose in sliding the razorblade across her skin. It’s a very sinister one that isn’t appealing to the minds of those who would never attempt it.
But regardless of the fact that others don’t see a good reason to do it, some people do. They find that cutting themselves relieves their mind of what was troubling it by forcing it to focus on something more concrete. Psychic pain gets pushed to the back of your mind by the sharp, distinct feeling of physical pain.
We know that cutting becomes a form of coping due to the fact that endorphins start getting released after doing it enough. When this happens, the painful act actually becomes pleasurable.
You may not think that you possess a pain-pleasure complex, but all human beings do to a degree.
Many of the things that bring the most pleasure to us are bad for us. And many of the things we find painful to do turn out to be good for us in the long run.
To bring about what is good for you in the long run, it’s good to make habits out of the right behaviors. As we see with cutters, knowing what behaviors actually do this can be tricky. We can convince ourselves that certain behaviors help us when they really make things worse in the long run.
One of the most common examples people mention when talking about the role of physiology in addiction is smoking. Smoking is a very ritualistic habit. The same repetitive motions are involved every time.
- You grab the cigarette box
- You pull out a cigarette
- You reach for the lighter with your other hand
- You hold the cigarette up to your lips
- You bring the lighter to the end of the cigarette and light it
- You inhale and feel the chemical effect of nicotine being taken in through your lungs
That’s it. That’s how it goes every time. If someone smokes a pack of cigarettes every day, he performs this ritual 20 times a day, 600 times a month, and 7,300 times a year.
But just like with the cutter, the addictiveness of this process is enhanced by a neurochemical reaction in the brain. The brain will want more of this to receive that feeling it grew accustomed to.
Whatever psychological discomfort you felt as a non-smoker gets amplified when you try to stop smoking. You introduced this physiological habit into your world as the best way to relieve yourself of that discomfort. Now any other habits you may have used to help deal with your stress are always acknowledged as less effective than the act of smoking.
Have you ever come across someone who had been doing something the exact same way for years? And found that when they were introduced to another way of doing it that was more effective, they showed resistance?
Even in the face of a better option, the option we’ve been carrying out for so long seems to still make slightly more sense.
But that’s only because we’ve been doing it for so long!
The motions we’ve engaged in have hardwired a reward system into our brains that has to be challenged. We’ve filled our minds with so many reasons to perform that action, now we are forced to flood it with new reasons to perform a different action if we really want change.
Sometimes the way to do this is actually by not think about it.
To break a habit, sometimes you have to get out of your mind. All those reasons, excuses, permission statements, and delusional purposes that rule your world have become so powerful your ability to make beneficial decisions is now broken.
Your way of thinking can no longer be trusted.
That’s why thinking about working out can be the worst way to approach it. You get down and you do those push-ups before your mind can trick you into seeing reasons not to. Because, believe me, if you let it, your mind will start rattling off excuses to be a couch potato ad infinitum.
The easiest way to go from zero exercise to a strict workout regimen is by simply doing it enough times that you now gain pleasure from it.
When that happens, you have flipped the role of physiology in addictive thinking to work for you again instead of against you. Then the purposes you needed to motivate yourself to do it will inevitably come flooding into your mind because you’ve experienced their benefits.
When in the grip of addictive thinking, the devil on your shoulder has hopped into the operator’s seat in the control room of your thoughts. That’s what happens when you keep engaging in negative habits for so long. He takes charge.
If you try to tell yourself you’re gonna quit smoking today, he hurls a random thought at you that convinces you to say screw it and just quit tomorrow. If you stay strong and ignore it, he’ll throw you another curve ball later. This time it may be one of those thoughts you’ve made a habit of thinking that affirm you of continuing just so you feel good in the present moment.
Kick that motherf*****r out!
That devil took control of you by stealth mode. So the way you reclaim control by stealth mode is by silencing your mind and forcing physiological habits that soon become the default.
After forcing yourself through the motions for so long, you have actually forced your mind to find a purpose in doing them. You have hijacked the mechanism that you know in your heart wasn’t benefiting you in the long run.
We complicate the idea of quitting something by referring to it as a Herculean feat and setting up all these groups and organizations that try to assist you in the seemingly unbeatable war you fight. Believe me, as an ex-heroin addict, smoker, cutter, and participant in negative behaviors that resulted in a 5-year prison sentence, I know it’s easier said than done.
But if you would just shut up and stop doing these things you know aren’t good for you, no matter how awful it feels at first, then you’re on the right path. Silence your mind.
Give it time and the veil of thoughts that control you like a puppet will lift up.
They will no longer control you.
Keep saying no to the needles, cigarettes, razorblades, and anything you personally have a hard time saying no to and start saying yes to new habits.
