Russell A. Poldrack

A few people really feel like they need to go for a run or need to go to the gym, but not in the same way that somebody who's addicted to a drug feels the need to get that drug. The one other difference, one of the things that we've learned about addiction is that one of the reasons that addictions are so hard to break is because over time, instead of taking the drug and getting a high out of it,

A few people really feel like they need to go for a run or need to go to the gym, but not in the same way that somebody who's addicted to a drug feels the need to get that drug. The one other difference, one of the things that we've learned about addiction is that one of the reasons that addictions are so hard to break is because over time, instead of taking the drug and getting a high out of it,

A few people really feel like they need to go for a run or need to go to the gym, but not in the same way that somebody who's addicted to a drug feels the need to get that drug. The one other difference, one of the things that we've learned about addiction is that one of the reasons that addictions are so hard to break is because over time, instead of taking the drug and getting a high out of it,

The drug just gets the person from sort of an emotional low back to their normal state. So the brain in general is kind of an adaptive machine, and it'll adapt to whatever the world is doing.

The drug just gets the person from sort of an emotional low back to their normal state. So the brain in general is kind of an adaptive machine, and it'll adapt to whatever the world is doing.

The drug just gets the person from sort of an emotional low back to their normal state. So the brain in general is kind of an adaptive machine, and it'll adapt to whatever the world is doing.

And so that's one of the big changes is people who become addicted, when they're in withdrawal, they feel this very kind of unpleasant, negative emotion, and the drug just sort of takes them back to their normal emotion.

And so that's one of the big changes is people who become addicted, when they're in withdrawal, they feel this very kind of unpleasant, negative emotion, and the drug just sort of takes them back to their normal emotion.

And so that's one of the big changes is people who become addicted, when they're in withdrawal, they feel this very kind of unpleasant, negative emotion, and the drug just sort of takes them back to their normal emotion.

You certainly can create habits. And I think the thing that's most important for creating a new habit is sort of consistent, regular experience or practice, if you will. So if you decide, for example, that you want to let's say that you want to start flossing every night because your dentist told you that you need to floss. What you need to do is first have a way to trigger that behavior.

You certainly can create habits. And I think the thing that's most important for creating a new habit is sort of consistent, regular experience or practice, if you will. So if you decide, for example, that you want to let's say that you want to start flossing every night because your dentist told you that you need to floss. What you need to do is first have a way to trigger that behavior.

You certainly can create habits. And I think the thing that's most important for creating a new habit is sort of consistent, regular experience or practice, if you will. So if you decide, for example, that you want to let's say that you want to start flossing every night because your dentist told you that you need to floss. What you need to do is first have a way to trigger that behavior.

Once it becomes a habit, then you'll walk into the bathroom and start doing it without really thinking about it. When you're starting out, it's not going to just happen on its own. And so you can imagine sort of building scaffolding to help make it happen, right? Put a post-it note on the mirror saying, hey, did you remember to floss or some other way to kind of to remind you to do the thing.

Once it becomes a habit, then you'll walk into the bathroom and start doing it without really thinking about it. When you're starting out, it's not going to just happen on its own. And so you can imagine sort of building scaffolding to help make it happen, right? Put a post-it note on the mirror saying, hey, did you remember to floss or some other way to kind of to remind you to do the thing.

Once it becomes a habit, then you'll walk into the bathroom and start doing it without really thinking about it. When you're starting out, it's not going to just happen on its own. And so you can imagine sort of building scaffolding to help make it happen, right? Put a post-it note on the mirror saying, hey, did you remember to floss or some other way to kind of to remind you to do the thing.

And then once you've done it often enough, then it can become a sort of a thing that you just do without thinking about it. So is it harder to break a bad habit or create a good one? I think it's hard to say in general. It's generally hard to do both. Like nicotine addiction is incredibly hard to break.

And then once you've done it often enough, then it can become a sort of a thing that you just do without thinking about it. So is it harder to break a bad habit or create a good one? I think it's hard to say in general. It's generally hard to do both. Like nicotine addiction is incredibly hard to break.

And then once you've done it often enough, then it can become a sort of a thing that you just do without thinking about it. So is it harder to break a bad habit or create a good one? I think it's hard to say in general. It's generally hard to do both. Like nicotine addiction is incredibly hard to break.

Of people who try to stop smoking, the data show that after a year, only about a third of them have succeeded in not smoking for a year. And so that's that's incredibly hard. I don't know what the numbers are on people who decide they want to start exercising. They're probably not much better.

Of people who try to stop smoking, the data show that after a year, only about a third of them have succeeded in not smoking for a year. And so that's that's incredibly hard. I don't know what the numbers are on people who decide they want to start exercising. They're probably not much better.