6 Ways To Kick A Dangerous Habit

When you have a habit or an addiction that you can’t seem to stop and is out of your control, it can be an annoyance in your life at the very least. In many cases, these addictions are dangerous – even fatal – and they can stop you from living a normal, happy life. They can stop you from doing all the things you always wanted to do, and from succeeding. Plus, they can be seriously bad for your health. Although it won’t be easy, kicking this kind of addiction is always the best course of action. Here are some ways to do it. 

Know Why 

Before you can start to kick a bad habit that is causing you and your friends and family distress, you need to know what has caused it. It could be drugs, drunk, or perhaps an eating disorder that is affecting you – all of them have extremely negative effects on your health – but whatever it is there needs to be an underlying cause. The problem with habits such as these is that they make us feel good for a short while, and that is the addicting part. When you feel stressed, bored, scared, or worried about anything at all, the need to feel good will come, and the addiction can soon follow after. Once you know what emotion makes you crave your habit the most, you can work on lessening that craving. 

Replacement 

One way to begin to reduce your addiction is to replace your habit with something else that is better for you. In the most severe cases when the addiction has really taken hold this may not be possible, but if you are at a stage where you can do it yourself, then replacement is a great way to attempt to kick that habit. The downsides of any bad habit will always be detrimental to your health or your life in general (or both). Drinking alcohol will give you a buzz, but it will also give you a hangover which means you can’t work, and eventually it will affect your liver and other organs, for example. Smoking will make you feel good, but it can be incredibly harmful to your health and is often associated with an unpleasant smell, makes your teeth yellow, dulls your skin, and of course, can lead to cancer as well as other respiratory diseases. 

The key is to replace the bad habit with something that feels just as good, but that doesn’t have the terrible side effects. This could be taking up sports and exercises, finding a hobby that keeps your hands busy such as mechanics, or taking yourself away to a quiet spot to meditate. 

Avoid The Triggers 

Avoiding triggers is essential. It could be something as simple as the fact that you always smoke a cigarette after you eat, or you always have a drink when watching TV. It could be a lot more serious, as certain traumas or thoughts can be the triggers. 

If possible, make life easier and make it simpler to quit your bad habits by avoiding as many of your triggers as you can. If you always have a cigarette with your morning coffee, don’t make the coffee – go for a walk first, for example. It is the routine that causes the problem, so by shifting that routine slightly, you can help to change your mindset too. 

Ask For Help

There is nothing shameful about asking for help to kick a habit that you can’t seem to rid yourself of. In fact, it can be the very best thing you can do, especially when that habit is a dangerous addiction to potentially lethal substances. You can speak to a healthcare professional or check into a rehab center to get completely clean. Many people won’t consider doing this because of the perceived cost of drug rehab, but when you really start to look at the options open to you, you’ll see that it is not as expensive as you might have thought, and it can help give you your life back. 

If you don’t want to speak to a professional, then you should at least talk to your friends and family. They will want the best for you and won’t want to see you hurting. Talking to them can be the ideal first step to getting better. 

Find A Buddy 

Quitting a bad habit alone can be extremely hard because there will be no one there to help you along when you get stuck or find that you are desperate to go back to your old ways. Not having someone to help you could even make things worse; if no one knows that you’re trying to cut down on your food or alcohol, they might continue to offer you snacks and drinks. They won’t know they are doing you harm, but they could be making things truly difficult for you. This is why letting people know what you are going through, as mentioned above, can be so important. It is also why having a buddy or sponsor to see you through the hard times and on whom you can rely to help you is a great idea. 

Visualize Your Success 

No matter how big or small your habit is, it can be a real struggle to break through it and come out the other side. If you are finding it hard to do, one way that might help is to visualize what your life will be like once you are free of whatever it is that is harming you and holding you back. If junk food is your problem, imagine how fit and healthy you would be if you stopped. If it’s cigarettes, imagine how much easier it will be to run and play with your children, or even to walk around in nature. Think of the money you will save and how you will feel knowing you succeeded, and that success will be easier to come to.
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