Unwanted Habits
What constitutes a habit? Habits are, quite simply, learned patterns of behaviour.
Humans are
naturally creatures of habit.
Without habitual responses, we would have to work out afresh what to do each time we
are confronted with a situation. All of us build habits into our lives to make our lives easier and more manageable.
We very often perform these habits without being aware of it.
We are all familiar with how difficult it can be to change a habit.
What the subconscious has dutifully learnt over time, by repetition and association, often doesn’t respond immediately to
a conscious instruction to stop.
Our good habits serve us well, but ‘bad’ habits provide some form of ‘gain’ and unwanted consequences.
Frequently the unwanted problem behaviour was once a ‘solution’ to a different problem.
For example someone may overcome
feelings of
anxiety by biting their nails. Initially this solves their problem, but quite
quickly nail biting becomes a problem of its own.
These habits are usually caused by some level of inner anxiety and
it may be necessary to resolve the inner anxiety before the habitual behaviour will disappear.
These inner anxieties may stem from current issues, but more often from earlier experiences as far back as
childhood.