What drives our healthy or unhealthy behaviors?

Can you remember the last health related thing you did good or bad? Are you like me and every day after class you get your bottle out and take a few shots of whiskey? Are you like the people that light up in between class? Do you go to the gym once, twice, ten time a week? Let’s take a small amount of time and discuss what drives these behaviors.

Much of what we do usually is stress related. Eustress or distress, We all have a trigger. Lets focus on emotional triggers. This “include fears and anxieties (such as worries about whether you’ll be fired or whether you’ll make a good impression on a blind date) as well as certain personality traits (such as perfectionism, pessimism, suspiciousness, or a sense of helplessness or lack of control over one’s life) that can distort your thinking or your perceptions of others.” It is easy for us to blame our actions on stress. For the most part we can say that the stress causes it, but it is what we get from our behaviors that keep us doing it. For example, my stress trigger is a lack of sleep. Some may think that’s not really a factor, you also are often tired. I work third shifts 30-40 hours a week. This Takes up eight hours of my day and then we are also students, we have class. This results in less than 3 hours of sleep during a four day span. When you can’t turn off for a time it becomes hard. For me this is where whiskey comes in i have in a way become very dependent on it. Logically i know it’s not healthy but i still drink my glass or four each day. Can you relate?

Our behaviors typically are results of our life stress factors and how we cope with them. Think of the last times you were hit in a violent manner and how you behaved because of it? Do you become passive of aggressive? When i am hit i become Rhianna and shrink into myself. Where i then will turn to whiskey yet again. However my roommate is the type that flies into a rage and hits back, maybe with a brick.

To shorten this, the point i’m getting at is to watch yourself and how you react to certain stress, good or bad.If you want to change, try not to put yourself in a situation where you feel the need to do your unhealthy behaviors. But if you’re like me and trapped in your trigger motions, either like what you do, or change what your behavior is instead of drink eat a carrot! Yes i am joking, i will never replace whiskey with carrots. 😉

A link to triggers and different types is at the bottom of the page if you so wish to look through them and see what stresses you out.

D. Hopster

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/how-stress-works2.htm