Addiction Masterclass: The Habit Loop

I'm guessing that every single person at some point in their life has tried to make a change to better themselves, whether it's eating better, exercising, or meditating more. But anyone who's tried it, which I'm pretty sure is everyone, will tell you that it is not easy. However, I find there are certain strategies to make it as easy and painless as possible. So in this video, let's go over them. I'm Evan. I'm your resident addiction and mental health therapist. And today I'm going to talk about the science around how habits form in our brain using something known as the habit loop.

When we understand the habit loop, which are three variables, basically a three step process, and how habits form in our brain, we can learn some of the most effective strategies for quitting any habit or behavior, and that includes deeply ingrained and problematic addictions. So let's go ahead and dive in and talk about the habit loop. I first heard of this principle when reading a book called the Power of Habitat by a guy named Charles Duhigg, who is a journalist. And he dove really deep into this topic, speaking with neuroscientists, to truly understand the change process.

Now, through digging deeper into the research speaking with neuroscientists, they told him about something known as the habit loop, which consists of three variables. First, you have the cue, then the routine, and then the reward. So let's break these down. The first element in the habit loop is. Is known as the cue. And the cue is anything in our environment or in our mind that prompts us to do a certain behavior. For example, you'll often find that if you eat lunch around the same time every day, you'll start to crave lunch or feel hungry around that same time.

This is our body telling us it's time for nourishment at the same time. We usually do. That serves a certain purpose for survival. Now, when it comes to a substance, let's say, for example, smoking, you often have cues which come in the form of cravings. For example, if you are a smoker, which I'll use this example quite a bit, and that is because this is something that I dealt with at some point and had this habit loop form. So the cue in this case would be, let's say first thing. You wake up in the morning or after a meal, whenever you crave a cigarette, and it tends to happen on a time schedule or whenever you have a certain cue.

And that could also be an emotion. If I'm feeling stressed or I'm feeling angry, I'm going to crave a cigarette or any other substance more. The next variable of the habit loop is known as the routine. And that's just simply the behavior we're talking about, whether it's eating lunch or smoking. Now, our brain doesn't know the difference between a habit that is good or bad. It just is. It is just something we need to do for survival. So, essentially, we just have to understand here is that we have the cue that prompts us to do the routine, and then the next thing is what really seals the deal and makes this such a powerful process.

Now, the last element of the habit loop is what makes it so reinforcing, and that is the reward. And we already talked about this when we broke down how addiction or other highly reinforcing behaviors like gambling form and become so ingrained as that is because of the reward released through dopamine and other secondary chemicals that serve a very specific purpose in our body. Okay, so, now that we have a basic idea of these three examples, what do we do with this information? So, I'm going to go ahead and put it all together using an example of when I quit smoking.

So, the year was 2008. I had quit substances. I'd been sober for a year, and I was finally ready to apply that process to quitting cigarettes, which I knew was going to be really difficult. Now, I didn't understand the scientific process of the specifics of a habit loop, but I knew intuitively that if I wanted to quit, it wasn't enough to just stop smoking. I needed something to replace it when I had those cravings. So, for me, the habit loop was I would get a cue. I would get a craving to smoke.

And for me, the most difficult time was after a meal. So the cue for me was a full stomach. I would get the craving to do the behavior, which was the cigarette. And then the reward was, well, it helped settle my stomach, but also, I got that little pep, a little bit of buzz from it. And this is what made the habit loop for me. Now, what the neuroscience shows to be the most effective way to change is that you need to find a new routine that gives you the same reward when you have the cue. For example, I knew that if I just stopped smoking after a meal, I would continue to crave.

And if I left that gap open, if I didn't find a new routine and I kept craving, it's so easy for water to fall to as lowest point, which for me, would be continuing to smoke because the cravings were too frequent and overwhelming. So even though I didn't understand the science. I intuitively knew I had to find a new routine to give me that same reward. And for me, I found tea. The problem was, I didn't like tea whatsoever when I came to this idea was because I knew that drinking something like coffee, something that was warm, would help settle my stomach and then give me a little bit of buzz.

And drinking something like coffee or tea is going to be less problematic than smoking cigarettes. Now, the only problem with coffee, which I did like at the time, is that if I drank it after dinner, I'm pretty sensitive to caffeine, and I probably wouldn't be able to fall asleep. So that wasn't a really a great idea. So I figured I would try to find some tea that I liked, and I did. I found one that I liked, and I started drinking it after the meal. Now, was it as reinforcing as a cigarette? No, but it did just enough to help remove that craving.

And then what happened was really interesting. So after a lot of time of making that change, I continued to crave tea, which is okay. It didn't create the same amount of consequences. And still, 15 years later, I still crave tea. And that's okay. It still serves a purpose, and I still have that cue. So if you want to quit a behavior, the best thing you could do, again, is to find a routine, a different routine that's healthier and less consequential, that gives you the same reward after you have that cue or a craving.

Now, this is easier said than done. I just went over the 50 yard view. But there are some very specific strategies that I want to go over to give you ideas on how to form new routines and to make it easier. So stay tuned for the next video.