A habit is mostly characterised as bad until it begins to negatively affect the life of a person.

Similarly, a habit isn’t said to be an addiction until it begins to negatively impact the mental, physical and psychological health of a person.

An addiction is a maladaptive behaviour maintained by a person despite its negative consequences.

This is different from one or two bad behaviour here or there, but this refers to behaviours that lead to a persistent urge for something unbeneficial to you.

To avoid these traits, it is, therefore, important that we know them. Thus, this article will discuss three unhealthy habits of individuals which leads to addiction.

• Constant Craving

There is a constant; persistent craving for a thing that can lead to addiction, such that one can barely live without it.

In this instance, a constant craving for alcohol is an unhealthy habit that can lead to alcoholism and compulsive addiction. Therefore, when you notice yourself persistently craving a thing, be careful because it can lead to addiction.

• No Control Over Frequency Of Use

When a person does not have control over the time spent doing a thing, it could lead to addiction. For instance, if you can’t control the amount of time you spend playing video games, there is a high chance that you’ll get addicted to them. So, this is another unhealthy habit that leads to addiction we should look out for.

• Continued Usage Despite Consequences

Addiction is approaching if you continue to use a thing even when it continues to bring adverse consequences for you and others.

This is a state when a person cannot stop drinking alcohol or using an overdose of a drug, even when such a person knows the consequences. Undoubtedly, this is a bad habit that leads to drug addiction or alcoholism.

Therefore, despite everyone havinh their flaws, there are unhealthy habits which if not cautioned can lead to addiction. And surely, we have discussed three key unhealthy habits you should look out for to prevent potential addiction in yourself, family, and friends.

If you are recovering from alcohol or drug addictions, it is a wonderful turn in your life. It will also be a difficult journey in the beginning because the changes in the brain that would have occurred during the period of addiction are likely to cause powerful cravings and create a compulsion to use the addictive substances again.

Even though the road to full recovery often involves obstacles, bumps and setbacks, by understanding the problem and thinking about change, you’re are well on your way to live a healthy and sober life. The following life-style tips can be useful to keep the course to complete recovery.

Cultivate Healthy Habits

Doctors and counselors emphasize that healthy habits play a crucial role in keeping our lifestyle healthy and stress-free. A balanced diet and regular exercise certainly make it easier for people to deal with stressful life. It is because a healthy diet and exercise produce certain chemicals in the brain that calms down the system. This in turn, will reduce one’s temptation to rely on drugs and alcohol.

Be Calm When Dealing With Life Pressures

The difficulty in dealing with regular life stresses and pressure is one of the main why people start on the path of consuming alcohol and drugs. For them, the substance abuse is a way to escape from the realities of life. As a recovering addict, even though learning to cope with these pressures appears to be a long way, it is advisable to practice remaining calm and follow a path of serene living.

Decide to Make Change

Recognizing the problem and then making a decision to change is important for people struggling with addiction and for those seeking recovery. Making a commitment to be sobriety requires changing multiple habits and ways of thinking. It is normal to feel conflicted about giving up a drug of choice, even when we know it’s causing problems in life. Recovery needs time, motivation, and support, but by making a commitment to change, one can certainly win over the addiction and take control of life once again.

Addiction Treatment Options

Once someone is committed to recovery, the next step is to explore treatment choices. While addiction treatment can vary according to the specific drug, a successful recovery program has various elements such as: Detoxification; behavioral counseling and medication; and follow-up procedures.

Support for Addiction Recovery

It is always advisable to reach out for support because doing it all alone is very difficult if not impossible. Having the support of family and friends is a valuable asset in recovery.  Positive influences and a strong support system is critical. The more you feel encouraged and get the right type of guidance, the better would be your chances to fully recover and stay sober.

Drug and alcohol addiction increased in modern society. Addictions take a toll on the human body – both physically and mentally.

A key strategy to prevent addiction in the first place or relapse if I you are already addicted to substance abuse is through achieving a healthy lifestyle. When you are able to direct your stress and make your health and wellbeing a priority, you have a better chance to avoid drug addiction or reduce chances of relapse. Here are some means towards a healthy lifestyle:

Eating Healthy

Making a priority to eat a health and nutritious is a first step towards a comprehensive strategy. With a balanced diet the body gets the amount of nutrients needed for smooth functioning of different metabolic activities. A healthy diet includes balanced portions of fruits, vegetables, carbs, protein and fat. Avoiding unhealthy options such as highly processed or sugary foods and reducing frequency of fast-foods should also be part of the plan.

Exercise Daily

Exercising on a regular basis will help your body to maintain its health and keep fit. Exercise is key to ensuring your muscles and joints receive the movement that they need to be strong and flexible. Without enough regular exercise, the human body will start losing its motion-related ability and will likely feel more lethargic.

In addition to the many benefits of exercise, there are also several regular exercises influences your mental health in a positive manner. It has been scientifically shown that during exercise, the body releases endorphins, which create feelings of happiness.  When you feel happy and at peace, it helps to stick to the path of a healthy lifestyle and avoid abuse of drugs and alcohol to feel peaceful.

Practicing Meditation

Meditation offers calmness and peace of mind. Those who incorporate meditating in their daily lives, even as little as 10-15 minutes a day, experience the benefits of feeling peaceful and in control of emotions. By achieving proper psychological and mental balance, you can drastically reduce your stress and anxiety which will control thoughts that overwhelm you that could eventually lead to unhealthy decisions.

Positive Attitude

You can gradually bring positivity into your life by consciously thinking uplifting thoughts and surrounding yourself with optimistic people. The more positive thoughts, feelings, and people you have in your life, the better you will feel mentally. Along with thinking positively, it is also important to find a way to avoid negative thoughts and people that drain energy. Mental health advocates recommend that practicing gratitude on a regular basis is an excellent way to increase positive feelings and creates a sense of happiness and wellbeing.

The concept which surrounds making healthy lifestyle choices is a broad one, and people get confused when they are posed with this question. However, we have a clearer perspective when we take a step forward, and we become objective about them.

There is a possibility we fall into patterns and habits which are detrimental to our lives, but since we are too busy with our lives, we do not pay enough attention to them.

• Spirituality: This is one of the healthy lifestyle choices you need to pay attention to, and most people are not aware of this. Most times, people confuse the concept of spirituality with religion, but they are two different terms. Religion is a concept which people do not live with, but it is advised that everyone has a spiritual connection.

Spirituality has a great effect on mental health, and when you believe that there is a higher power, you are certain that your safety is ensured to an extent.

• Relationships: This is another healthy lifestyle choice which you need to put into consideration. It is hard for you to live this life without having people around you. There are people who are born into families, but they do not leverage on the benefits which comes with belonging to a family.

• Purpose: Anyone who lives this life without knowing what their exact mission is, would end up wandering. Everyone has a purpose which they came to this life with, and it is advised that we look into ourselves and know what we are set to do in this life, before we get old, and it becomes impossible to accomplish.

• Health: Our health is paramount, and it is advised that, we pay good attention to the physical and mental state of our health. This determines to an extent, how far we fare in all our endeavors. Our physical health involves our diet, exercise and the likes. We need to pay good attention to all this, in order to ensure our overall state of health.

When we make good lifestyle choices, our lives are rich and rewarding. When we make poor lifestyle choices, our lives reflect it by being more dysfunctional. Our lifestyle choices have a lot to do with how healthy and balanced we are as individuals. It is important to everyone’s well being that they evaluate their own lifestyle choices to see where they can improve. It is time to execute your plan. Get excited! You are about to improve on you! Be sure to tell your support system so that they will be aware of the changes you are going to make so they can encourage you when you struggle. Congratulations on your self improvement!

The first step in evaluating your lifestyle choices is in being objective about yourself. Do some critical thinking about your lifestyle choices. How is your diet in comparison to the national food guide? How many times a week do you exercise? Do you have a support system and a personal community to socialize with and have recreation with? Are you aware of where your physical health stands and are you following your doctor’s orders for any conditions you have? Are you satisfied with your vocation, your level of spirituality, your hobbies and your relationships? Write down your thoughts on these matters to be organized about them.

Next, note which areas you find yourself lacking in. Where is it that you know you can do better, and your lifestyle needs you to do better? Set goals for yourself and make a clear plan for how to take control of your lifestyle. Write up a clear diet plan that consists of foods that are good for your personal body chemistry. Create an exercise plan that will ensure you workout consistently in a way that you enjoy and at a time of day that you will not be disturbed. Ensure that you are setting appropriate boundaries in your relationships that allow you to accomplish what you need to accomplish. Be honest with yourself about what you want to see change in your personal goals and accomplishments.

The topic of lifestyle choices may seem somewhat broad, but it is when we take a step back to look at the big picture of our lives that we can sometimes be the most objective about them. We are all capable of falling into patterns and habits that are not good for us, and with busy being the new normal, we often do not even have the time to become aware of them. This blog will encourage you to gain some perspective on your life, not to fine tune or perfect specific skills, but rather to examine how all the parts of your life come together to form your brand of lifestyle.

There are four areas of thought that come together to form a picture of a person’s lifestyle. These areas are spirituality, health, relationships and purpose. Spirituality is arguably the most important of these four, as it includes your belief systems and where you turn for the optimism and energy to continue moving through life. Your health is vital because it is the vehicle of your existence. This can include your physical health and your mental health and wellness. Your relationships can make or break you, considering that they are so deeply enmeshed with your personal success and happiness. And your purpose in life is instrumental in defining your character and your quality of life.

Many think of spirituality in a religious sense, and while religion and spirituality often closely dialogue with one another, spirituality is much broader than religion. It is responsible for the way you interpret the world, and informs you on what is worthy of joy, purpose, pursuit and fulfillment. How is spirituality reflected in your lifestyle choices? Do you go to church or meditate? Have you organized your thoughts and beliefs about why we are here?
Your personal health is a complex matter, but a vital one. We all have some exposure to an understanding of physical health (diet and exercise), but your personal physical health profile is something you get to know about yourself over time. Mental health is included in this area of thought, because biology and psychiatry work so closely together. How is your health reflected in your lifestyle choices? Do you put thought into the substances you ingest? Do you have an exercise regimen? Are you aware of how your thought patterns affect your bodily chemistry?

Some people choose to have many personal relationships, while others prefer to limit the number of personal relationships they have. Either way, relationships are not optional. Relationships are our means of being reared when we are young and understanding the human world we live in, so it is important to seek and build healthy personal relationships. How are your relationships reflected in your lifestyle choices? Do you have relatively many relationships, or few? Do new relationships energize you or make you weary? How healthy are the relationships you do have?

And lastly, our chosen purpose is what we make our business to accomplish in life. The stronger we feel called to accomplish a purpose, the more rewarding the journey toward the purpose will be. This may be a career, a vocation, a role or just a really good idea. How is your purpose reflected in your lifestyle choices? Would you say you have a passion for something? Are you working toward that passion or do you have it on a back shelf?

Lifestyle choices affect your existence…

Good lifestyle choices…

Bad lifestyle choices…

Spirituality is mistakenly confused with religion frequently, but they are two entirely different entities. Religion is something that many people live without, but spirituality, according to mental health experts, is something that no one should be without. Spirituality constitutes an organized, reverential personal value system that informs a person about why they exist and why the things that take place in existence matter. Some people have a very strong sense of spirituality while others have little to none, but mental health experts agree that spirituality is critical to a person’s personal condition. It is considered to be one of the four primary factors that determine a person’s quality of life. Spirituality is profound its own right and in the way it informs the other factors that determine our personal condition.

People highly value their personal relationships as safe vessels on turbulent seas, but people seldom appreciate how spirituality informs how we think about our personal relationships. A person with no spirituality will think differently about their spouse than a person who believes that a personal God brings spouses together. In the same way, a person with no spirituality will think differently about their child than a person who believes in reincarnation.

In the same regard, people who are not spiritual have a very different take on the purpose of existence than spiritual people do. People who are spiritual tend to feel that existence is very purposeful and meaningful. They also gravitate toward optimism and positivity being the true nature of existence. People who are not spiritual are either much less organized about their thoughts on purpose and meaning, or they are decidedly uninterested in it.

Even when it comes to personal health, being a spiritual person means you will respect your state of health in a different way than a non-spiritual person. Spiritual people feel there is a great deal of meaning to our personal health while non-spiritual people believe that health has no consequence beyond personal comfort and longevity.

Apart from how spirituality informs other areas of life, spirituality has a very profound effect on people in its own right. Spirituality is something that people interact with when they have it because it is essentially some form of belief that a greater plan is unfolding around us and within us. Whether it is a great reverence for nature, a belief in organized cosmic energy or a meaningful relationship with the one called the God of the universe, it is its own life-altering pursuit that greatly enriches the lives of those who embrace it.

 

Personal relationships are very commonplace. We all have them to some degree. Some are chosen for us and some we hand select. Because they are so common, we often take them for granted for what they really are. Personal relationships are one of the four main factors that determine our quality of life and our personal condition. Despite being so accustomed to our friends, family and peers, if they were taken from us, our sense of self would be lost. At some level, we are acutely aware of this as we love and have concern over the people we care about. This should make us appreciate the importance of our personal relationships, and how they should be prioritzed over a great many other things we think we need.

We humans are evolved to be social creatures. We thrive when we are in cooperation with one another. No matter what you believe about why we are here, it is indisputable that humanity could not have been the most prosperous animal on the planet if it were not for our social sensibilities. We have a very long history of social organization which begins within the family unit and extends outward to larger communities. A large majority of the things we do in life are set up to be done socially because it is how we know to operate.

We have evolved to have strong, personal attachments to the relationships we consider most valuable in life. One reason for this is because it makes the hardships we encounter much more bearable. Life can be dark even for the strongest among us, let alone for people who struggle with mental issues. Personal relationships are very important to coping with life’s hardships. Those who feel a loss for personal relationships in their lives are more likely to fall into depression.

And even when times are not hard, personal relationships do a lot to enhance the quality of a person’s life. Most people’s favorite moments are ones that they shared with their loved ones, laughing, having fun and making memories. Loving personal relationships are a comfort and a source of joy to people.

Having a purpose in life is often considered a way to live life to its full potential. This sentiment almost makes it seem unnecessary to have a true purpose, as if life is manageable without one. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Purpose is actually one of the four main components that determines our personal human condition. If we forego purpose and try to subsist on a totally uninspired life, it will deteriorate us from the inside out. Living without purpose is toxic to our personal condition and can actually depreciate the quality of our health, spirituality and personal relationships.

Without purpose, we struggle to feel a sense of worth and usefulness. It is innately human to attribute value to one’s self based on one’s talents, intellect or ability. In general, people are aware of what they are good at or in what ways they are intelligent, and they strive to make use of their abilities in their vocations. One enormous frustration with capitalistic values is that people cannot always make a living at their talents and are forced into vocations that do not meet their need to be purposeful. This is often referred to as “giving up on your dreams,” but the question is, is it the individual who gives up on their dreams or is it society that gives up on the individual? Humanity would be much happier if everyone was filling their time with the things they considered meaningful instead of lowering themselves from their talents in order to make a living.

The other thing about having purpose in life is that it occupies our talents and minds in the way they were meant to be occupied. People are aware that their personal talents are where their full potential lies. Our brains all have different areas of development which gives us our incredible diversity of talent and ability. Finding one’s purpose in life involves matching up these talents with a legitimate vocation that a person can spend their lifetime focusing on, which will keep their interest better than any other pursuit. When a person is forced to settle for a vocation that does not make use of their true abilities, they are condemned to a life of feeling unsatisfied and not using the most developed parts of their brain. The moral is, a purposeful life is worth fighting for, even if the cards are stacked against you.