Habit-breaking!

The Power of Habit: 

Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

by Charles Duhigg

It starts off with a man with a damaged hippocamus and almost no memory at all, who could still function almost like a normal person--by habit. He could get up and cook himself breakfast and often did--several times a morning. He could do it, but couldn't remember he'd done it.  Habit?

Then the book speeds into an understanding of "the habit loop" and convinces you that habit rules your life...but maybe not your destiny.  It's all about the habit loop: cue--routine--reward. Understanding this and analyzing your own bad behaviors will allow you to improve your life, make money, delight your friends and eat more cookies!.

Just kidding. He's onto something, I'm sure, but you need to remember a couple of things:
1. Change still takes effort.
2. Sometimes you have to manufacture the "cue".
3. Some habits are hiding coping mechanisms for underlying problems.

His description of breaking his afternoon snack habit walks you through #1. #2 is described in the the amazing success story of the Pepsodent toothpaste advertising--and the long-time failure of the ads for the Febreze odor eliminator.

But #3 is one of those examples of Jesus exorcising a demon only to have seven other demons leap in. Breaking any habit that is helping us deal with problems is difficult, period. Alcoholics Anonymous has the habit solution--it teaches people to replace the comfort of hanging out with friends in the bar to talking to a sponsor or attending meetings with supportive people.
But he writes,

Alcoholics who practice the techniques of habit replacement, the data indicated, could often stay sober until there was a stressful event in their lives--at which point, a certain number started drinking again, no matter how many new routines they had embraced.
However, those alcoholics who believed ... that some higher power had entered their lives were more likely to make it through the stressful periods with their sobriety intact.

For people who can't deal with the higher power hypothesis, support groups can fill the void.

After that the book goes onto a description of corporate change; then a great chapter called The Neurology of Free Will. It describes how a sleeping person having night terrors and fighting off an imaginary enemy could be compared to a compulsive gambler.  And that raises the complex question of culpability--if a sleeping person commits assault, is he guilty of a crime? If a compulsive gambler takes a line of credit from a predatory casino, is he liable for the loss?

I almost wish the author gone on to discuss the American response to drug addicts--when is it a crime and when is it a sickness?  Which is more helpful in the end--punishment or treatment? I'd like to see what he says.