How Do You Stop A Bad Habit?

[Changing4Best]

Have you ever been able to stop a bad habit? If so, how??

Lately I have been gnashing my teeth and moving my left ankle back and forth mindlessly (or tapping it). These things just start up by themselves and carry on, without my even being consciously aware of them! When I do finally become aware of them, and stop them, they stop for awhile. However, as soon as my mind wanders to anything else, these habits start up again.

I think they are because I am under extremely heavy stress right now, and these things are some kind of nervous release. I suppose in that light they are in some way a comforting thing. With the foot tapping, it will tap to the beat of some music I am listening to. I guess the jaw moves to music too, given the opportunity.

I am afraid that I will get TMJ with the jaw moving like that, if I cannot stop it from doing so. Also, with the gnashing of my teeth, I could wear down some of them and then they would be more susceptible to cavities.

Any suggestions on how to stop these bad habits are more than welcome!

 

[Meadowsweet]

I would try a two way approach. I've found that each time I notice a bad habit and consciously stop it, I get better and better at noticing it. However, since you recognise that these are nervous habits caused by stress, then trying to reduce the stress where possible, and using relaxation techniques to counter the effects of the stress when possible, may help reduce the nervous habits.

 

[hodge]

I've also had that problem with grinding my teeth and did end up with TMJ. My doctor told me to keep my tongue on the roof of my mouth and it's now become a habit for me. Meadowsweet is right, too, but this habit has kept me from grinding my teeth.

 

[Friday]

I look at what need or want the bad habit is fulfilling. Then I turn the problem on its ear. Okay. How can I get that need met elsewhere?

 

[Changing4Best]

How has that worked for you, @FridayJones ? Tell me about what you did with it, please.

 

[Friday]

So a couple examples...

- Throwing my clothes on the bathroom floor. What was happening was that I was either in a rush in the morning, or exhausted at night. Strip my clothes off, climb in the shower, go elsewhere to get dressed... And the clothes just sat there. I'd never come back, bend over, pick them up, fetch them to the laundry. Solution? Put a hamper in the bathroom.

- ADHD twitching. (Leg bouncing, finger tapping, constant movement). Personally, I was fine with that. Motion is calming. But it annoyed the crap out of other people. So I learned to do different motions, in order to keep the calming aspect. Just ones that didn't annoy others. To appear sitting still: Keigles. Flexing my thigh muscles. Breathing or blinking on purpose. Turning my tongue upside down in my mouth. Et cetera. For big motions; dance. Climbing. Singing (singing uses a lot of muscles). Complicated cooking. Martial arts. Rosary beads. People are rarely annoyed by task specific movement. If they can explain it to themselves? They're fine with it. Bunch of busybody control freaks who can't mind their own business, in my opinion, but whatever. In order to blend and be invisible, one has to learn what annoys people and what doesn't. I can be statue still for hours if I have a reason to. I do not consider sitting down to be enough of a reason.

 

[SabrinaB]

As a word of caution, body movements similar to the ones you describe could possibly be a medication side effect. Symptoms that develop while on medications, and even in the months after they are discontinued, should be brought to the attention of the prescribing physician for evaluation. Always best to rule out medical cause before attributing symptoms to PTSD, flashback, or even habit.

Movement disorder side effects are referred to as dyskinesias. There are various types and physicians should routinely conduct abnormal involuntary movement scale (AIMS) examinations on patients who are receiving medications known to cause this.

Dyskinesia refers to the involuntary nature of muscular movements or the difficulty in performing voluntary muscular movement. Tardive means a condition has the tendency to appear late. Symptoms of tardive dyskinesia can develop and persist long after use of the medication causing the disorder has been discontinued. Tardive dyskinesia can appear similar to other types of disorders, most notably Tourette's syndrome.

The group of drugs known to cause this disorder are called neuroleptics; they may also be referred to as antipsychotic or psychotropics. These are generally used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and treatment resistant depression. It is estimated that tardive dyskinesia (TD) occurs in approximately 15-30% of persons who receive long-term treatment with neuroleptics. The first generation neuroleptics have the highest incidence, but risk remains with the second and third generation drugs.

First generation drugs examples: Haloperidol (Haldol), Droperidol, Chlorprothixene (Thorazine)
Second generation: Clozapine (Clozaril), Olanzepine (Zyprexa), Risperidone (Risperidal), Quetiapine (Seroquel), Ziprasidone (Geodon), Ziprasidone (Geodon)
Third generation: Aripiprazole (Abilify)
There are a few other medications that can cause this, the most notable being the antiemetics Metoclopramide (Reglan) and Promethazine (Phenergan).

TD is expressed in the tongue, cheeks, mandible, perioral area, and other regions of the face, fingers, and toes. Various facial movements are observed. TD may be observed in the upper face with excessive blinking and brow wrinkling.Orofacial dyskinesias appear as involuntary, repetitive, and stereotyped facial grimacing with twisting or protrusion of the tongue. The individual may initially be unaware of these movements until family and friends draw attention to them. Puckering, smacking, opening, and closing of the lips may occur constantly. The person may appear to be chewing or sucking on items. The movements resemble those of people with ill-fitting dentures.

TD is commonly associated with involuntary athetoid movements (slow, snakelike writhing) of the extremities, including wiggling, twisting, and tapping the fingers and toes. Movements typically become constant during waking hours. Often, the individual cannot suppress them for longer than 1 second. Neuroleptic-induced TD is present at rest and diminishes or subsides when the affected body part is activated. Interestingly, these involuntary movements are more pronounced when the patient attempts to relax. Any emotional arousal or agitation tends to cause these movements to decrease. Symptoms may disappear completely when the patient is asleep.

Didn't mean to go into so much detail on a topic that may not be relevant at all to your situation, but it may be helpful to someone now or down the road so I'll leave it be.

 

[Changing4Best]

Thank you for this info, all of you, especially for the info about meds. I am on one of the meds mentioned, so this makes sense to me now.

 

[sun seeker]

This doesn't answer your question about how to stop a habit, but from the combination of symptoms you describe, I wonder if it's possible you aren't getting enough calcium and/or magnesium?

Having said that, it looks like there may be some interactions between calcium/magnesium and some of the medications Sabrina listed, so you'd need to do some research before deciding to supplement.

 

[Gadgie]

Hypertension is a symptom of depression, well at least that's what I was told by a therapist a long time ago. I never noticed that I was doing it, but she did, and brought the subject up at one of our sessions.

I've also noticed that recently I tend to get in a fluster when I'm with people, and I cant seem to talk normal, I stutter and get all confused, talk too fast, then I feel embarrassed.

Up until recently I attended a bereavement group, and towards the end of the sessions, I did improve, and managed to communicate within the group a lot easier.

But now that I'm on my own, I don't meet a lot of people, but I feel that if I did, I would be able to handle myself better.

As I tend to stop and think, plan out what I want to say, then begin to talk. This does leave an embarrassing moment of silence, but that seems better than what I used to do.

 

[Changing4Best]

... from the combination of symptoms you...

I do take calcium magnesium zinc tablets, as I have osteopenia which is the precursor to osteoporosis.

 

[user27357]

see if this makes sense.

I used to get hung up on telling myself to stop doing something every time I found myself doing it. I would be reaching for a cigarette and start in on chewing myself out for thinking I wanted one, each time a little harder on myself like I was losing patience and also with a little less resolve because on some level I was losing my battle and knew it.

The change that made the difference was deciding that I was going to stop and realising that deciding to stop meant deciding to accept that I would falter and that the urge would continue and I might even do it again, but I was going to stop and the decision had been made. No need to go into the hysterics and self-damnation when the habit kept on, I had decided I was going to stop and it was going to happen and there was a time coming when it will be done and I will not do it anymore.

And guess what? Saying NO one time, with conviction and understanding that it was at the same time a flexible and resilient statement and not a rigid ultimatum that fell apart once broken did the trick. No trick really, just the ability to fail a little less often until you succeed.

I wish I could stop PTSD by deciding it will be over some day. Spending too much, watching too much TV, driving too fast, eating out instead of cooking, letting the garden get weedy instead of spending time out there every morning, yes, it works. Smoking worked. Having nightmares and being hypervigilant to the point of exhaustion? No, not yet.