"Breaking Bad Habits"

Greetings,
My healthy friends all over the world, I trust you are all doing great, and I hope you are still making your health and well-being your priority.

I appreciate @sahmie for organizing this contest on "Breaking bad habits".
I still remain your girl @tripple-e.

When people hears of bad habits, What readily comes to mind is smoking and drinking. No, even eating too much, talking too much could posed as a bad habit too.
Anything you do excessively, beyond limit is seen as bad habits.

What are bad habits?:

To me bad habits are those behaviors or actions that we do repeatedly on regular basis which can have a negative effects and consequences on us. It could be mental, physical or emotional.

Now, let's look at the hint questions:

👉What are some bad habits that are hard to stop, and why is it tough to quit them?

There are some bad habits that people finds difficult or hard to break out and stop like;

These are well known bad habits which are very common in our locality.

And why is it tough to quit them?

I think when once a person indulge in these bad habits, they are tend to get addicted, along the line they would start deriving pleasure from indulging, that would make them to start craving for more not minding that it can be detrimental to their health as long as they satisfied their longings and desires.

👉How can we tell if a habit is just a habit or if it's more like an addiction? And what can we do to break them?

Link

You can tell if a habit is just a habit by being able to easily control it but you see addiction, an addiction controls you. Even if you want to stop, you will still find yourself doing it; that's the power of addiction.

The both impact on you differently. You might just get angry or pissed because of an habit, but addiction would have a very negative impact on your relationship, your health, finances (because you need to keep buying whatever you are addicted to).

Habits can make you feel indifferent if you miss them but the craving of an addiction will keep coming to the extent it will cause a withdrawal symptoms to an individual if he/she is not engaging.

And what can we do to break them?

👉What are some challenges that people might face when trying to quit bad habits, and how can they overcome them?

I know quitting a bad habit can be very tough, but I know you can overcome them, it's possible if you make up your mind to stop. But the challenges you might face trying to quit are;

• Many bad habits such as drugs use or smoking, the cravings can be very intense and difficult to resist when trying to quit them because of their physical and psychological effects or dependency they have on the individual.

• Temptations can come from our environment maybe the sight of a cigarette can trigger back longing and make an individual to return back to an old pattern or even boredom can cause it.

• Another challenge is peer pressure; if you don't disengage yourself from from bad company, you'll definitely fall back into your bad habits.

And how can they overcome them?

This question appear twice; is like saying what can we do to break them?. So is going to be the same answers like;

They should identify what triggers them
Thereby finding a healthy replacement
They should also seek support from friends and family
And also be forgiving and patience with the healing process or change.
(Have mentioned these before).

👉How can we support and encourage others to quit their bad habits without being judgmental or pushy?

We should bear in mind that nobody is perfect by that everyone has their weaknesses, so we can encourage someone to quit his/her bad habits by showing them care instead of being judgemental and condemning, if we noticed a change in their health and physical appearance, we should ask questions like: are you okay?, is there anything I can do to help?. By that it will make them want to confide in us and open up a conversation and when they open, we should give them a listening ears, we should also try to avoid them while speaking, get to know the root of the habits or addictions and probably the challenges they are facing also. By that we can offer them our helps, ask them what strategies would they find beneficial to them.

Remember that quitting a bad habit can take time, and its requires patience and efforts, by that celebrates your achievements and successes and don't allow setbacks to discourage you from moving forward.