What better time than now to consider changing any bad habits that may be damaging your life.
Bad habits can keep you stuck and some, like addiction, can even change the course of your life. Your best life is waiting for you when you are ready. Dig deep, overcome your fear and take on the challenge to begin again.
Without further ado, I’m pleased to present a guest post by M. Farouk Radwan.
Most people who are addicted to a certain substance have an idea about its harmful effects. However, what most people don’t know is that there are other harmful side effects for addictions that many people are not aware of.
Apart from the general health effects, there are mental side effects that result from addiction. Many people forget about the physical risks when they have a bad habit. They may change their mind if they knew about the short term mental effects that these bad habits cause.
Do you know that your bad habit can be the reason for your depression, sadness or anxiety?
Read the following lines to know how your bad habits can affect you.
How addiction ruins your life:
Dopamine disturbance
When you get addicted to anything even food the levels of dopamine in your brain gets disturbed. Dopamine Is the chemical responsible for activating the reward system in the brain. The more you continue your bad habit, the less sensitive your brain becomes to dopamine.
As a result, the more boring your life becomes. Because new things rarely manage to stimulate your brain the way your bad habit does, your life becomes dull, unsatisfying, and boring.
Low testosterone
Testosterone is produced by both males and females. Testosterone reduces depression and prevents many of the bad moods people experience. It was found that people who occasionally drink alcohol have 20% less testosterone produced in their bodies.
As for hardcore drinkers, their bodies produce 40-50% less testosterone. In other words, alcohol will ruin your manhood if you are a man. It will ruin your mood if you are a woman.
Addiction reduces self-esteem
When the dopamine levels in the brain drop as a result of addiction the person experiences more anxiety and becomes more self-conscious. This leads to a reduced self-esteem. Many of those who gave up an addiction reported feeling more confident. They experienced great improvements in their social relations.
Guilt will ruin your mood
You may think that it’s completely ok to do the bad habit you are doing. However, your subconscious mind will be accumulating guilt each time you do it. After a long time of commitment to your bad habit, you will start getting used to that guilt. Your normal state of feeling will be a bad mood. In other words, you will always be feeling bad but you will assume that that’s how you should be feeling anyway!
Stress and tension
Don’t try to fool yourself by believing that the health warnings you read or the values you were raised to believe in won’t have an effect on your mood. Any conflict happens in the brain will result in stress. If you kept doing your bad habit even though you believe that its wrong, then you will get subjected to a high level of stress which will ruin your mood as well.
Final words
Addiction doesn’t only affect your health in a bad way. It also affects your hormone levels, state of mind and mood. Even if you believe that your addiction is totally harmless, you will be shocked to know about the real psychological effects it can have on you.
Save yourself and stop your bad habits today.
M.Farouk Radwan is the founder of 2 Know Myself, a website that has more than 2000 self-help, psychology, and personal development articles. Farouk is a full-time blogger who makes a living by selling his books on his blog.
Have you struggled with addiction? What suggestions do you have that helped you reach recovery?
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