Stop looking to escape difficult emotions through destructive behaviours, and break free from the habits that hold you back, writes Talitha Fosh
So many of us are addicts. In modern society, it is almost impossible not to be one.
Television, cinema, social media, apps and games are all jostling for our attention. They want us to spend every second of our waking hours interacting with their content: liking, subscribing, binging, browsing, gaming or gambling.
Today, we have emails to reply to, letters, voicemails, texts and DMs. Traditional advertising and social media influencers tell us how to look, what to wear, and how to feel. When we come home from a long day at work or school, or after a day of looking after a toddler, anything that can take our minds off our worries looks enticing. Scrolling through a social media feed, having a drink, smoking a cigarette or binging on sugar can all help us cope. But this can come at a cost.
Our brains haven’t caught up with the 21st century. They weren’t ready for this onslaught of stimulation. Pathways in the brain that we have developed over millions of years to encourage us to eat, sleep and have sex have now been hijacked by drugs, smartphones, and calorie-rich food. As a result, our brains develop a hunger for these stimuli and command us to seek them again and again.
Extracted from Hooked: Why We Are Addicted And How To Break Free by Talitha Fosh (Watkins Media, £14.99)
Since the beginning of the pandemic, we experienced a change in the world whereby we were forced to sit still with ourselves. For a lot of us, this was challenging – perhaps the first time we were ever really still, without all the distractions of our usual busy lives.
When was the last time you sat quietly or went for a walk without any background noise? Sitting with just ourselves means we must pay attention to our thoughts or our feelings, and that can be confronting. So, instead, we choose to listen to the radio, put on a podcast, or have a drink.
Break the cycle
If we want to stop doing something, why can’t we just stop doing it? Aside from the challenges of physical addiction, what stops us from changing?
In life, change is inevitable: we move home, change career, and see friends come and go. Though often it feels more comfortable to hold on to existing patterns, this might not make us happy and lead us to a life we want.
Often our habits are based in deep-rooted beliefs about ourselves and, therefore, can be difficult to break. My whole identity once revolved around being the
