Addictions and habits, explained by a neuroscientist, a psychologist, and a journalist

"Why are bad habits so hard to break? Neuroscientist Carl Hart, PhD, journalist Charles Duhigg, and psychologist Adam Alter, PhD explain how your brain wires habits as cue-routine-reward loops that control nearly half of your daily life. They show why willpower alone rarely works, why technology fuels new forms of addiction, and why habits can only be replaced, not erased."

"We are living through this huge evolution in our understanding of habits, and it's being driven primarily by understanding the neurology of where habits come from. I thought that drugs were the source of the problems that we were seeing in our community. Turns out not only was I wrong, society was wrong. Basically, we tend to develop addictions when we have a psychological need."

Habits form when the brain encodes cue-routine-reward loops, enabling complex behaviors to run automatically. Willpower alone rarely breaks entrenched habits because neurological pathways persist and require alternative patterns. Technology accelerates new addictions by delivering rapid psychological rewards, with smartphones serving as convenient vehicles for satisfying needs. Addictive behaviors often arise from underlying psychological needs rather than external substances. Effective change relies on replacing existing routines with new ones that satisfy the same cues and rewards, effectively tricking neural circuits. Many people recognize problematic habits but lack clear strategies to initiate and sustain replacement behaviors.

Read at Big Think