Beware of Negative Healing Trends

(PLVN) - A stressful life forces many people to resort to healing methods such as meditation, traveling, volunteering, taking care of pets... However, instead of aiming for a healthy life, some people binge eat, shop excessively, and surf the Internet all night to relieve stress. Instead of healing, these stress-reducing methods are affecting their own health.

"Toxic" pleasures

Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh (30 years old, living in Vinh Phuc ) said that she gained nearly 10kg after seven years of entering the labor market. Currently, Thuy Linh is working for a foreign-affiliated enterprise, with an attractive income and relatively stressful work, causing Linh to fall into a state of constant mental stress.

Linh shared that there were days when she worked from 9am to 12am to complete contracts, translate for her boss and answer customers' questions. A day she was attached to work, coming home tired, sleepy and hungry. In the rare free time of the day, Thuy Linh often ordered fast food, delicious, nutritious and fatty dishes to "nourish" and reduce mental stress.

She said: “At first, I only ate to energize my body. But after each delicious meal filled with fried, hot, greasy food, I felt happy and excited, so I ate even more.” Although she realized the harmful effects of her eating habits that directly affected her health, Thuy Linh still could not give up this unhealthy habit.

Another story belongs to Tran Anh Tu (33 years old, living in Hanoi ), Tu works in the beauty industry, so he has a high need for self-care. His work is busy from morning to night. During his free time, Anh Tu spends looking at beautiful items on e-commerce platforms and continuously placing orders. He is even a "diamond" customer on some e-commerce platforms.

Anh Tu said that shopping, looking at and owning beautiful, fashionable items helps him reduce the pressure in life. He said: "There are days when I have to take care of dozens of customers, making me extremely tired. But just wearing a new item or ordering a favorite outfit or makeup set, looking at it for a long time is enough to make me happy and joyful for a whole day." Therefore, Anh Tu's spending on shopping is about ten million each month, accounting for nearly half of his income.

“Toxic” hobbies are often very difficult to change. (Illustration - Source: Pinterest)

In fact, nowadays, when life is increasingly stressful, people face countless worries about food, clothing, rice, money, work, study, and an uncertain future. This causes people to fall into a state of mental stress. However, not everyone has time to rest and recover after stressful days of work and exams. Therefore, each person has a different "measure" to heal. For example, taking a deep sleep, eating, shopping, reading stories, watching movies, watching short videos online,...

However, healing comes with good effects for the body, not just short-term pleasure, helping people to be excited for a short time. After that, the body, spirit and quality of life all decline. For example, science has proven that eating sweets can make people happy. The food contains a large amount of sugar, helping the body inhibit the secretion of cortisol - a substance that causes stress and anxiety in people. However, sweets help to temporarily relieve pain but can gradually make people more dependent on sugar and increase the risk of obesity and related diseases.

According to a study by Substance Rehabilitation - an addiction recovery agency working with leading European rehab facilities - shopping and spending can be as destructive as other substance addictions.

Shopping helps the brain release Dopamine and Serotonin, positive neurotransmitters that humans need. Serotonin helps regulate mood, reduce anxiety and stress. Dopamine allows us to fully enjoy the excitement and satisfaction of "closing the deal".

When customers feel happy with the shopping experience, Dopamine will help the brain remember that feeling, to encourage people to repeat it next time. As a psychological therapy, the brain assumes that shopping will relieve stress. Therefore, gradually everything becomes a habit, the phenomenon of "shopping addiction" is becoming popular in the current era of fast consumption.

Similar to shopping, eating, other pleasures such as drinking alcohol, smoking, and social media dependence are becoming an “addictive” therapy for many people. Although they can relieve stress for a certain period of time, it comes with harmful effects on the body such as obesity, impaired functions, or a large deficit in their monthly budget.

Form good habits to maintain a sustainable healthy lifestyle

Most recently, the healthy, happy image of a Vietnamese female singer appearing on the show “Em xinh say hi” was praised by many audiences. In the past, due to her living habits, she gained weight quickly with a round face and heavy body. Recently, the female singer scored points in the eyes of the audience when appearing with a healthy body, a radiant face and a confident smile. The female singer said that recently, she changed her living habits, focusing on gym, tennis and a healthy diet.

In fact, giving up harmful pleasures and forming good habits is not easy for everyone, at different ages. Some studies also show that people often have countless reasons about genes, stress, family traditions to justify maintaining unhealthy habits. Because bad habits such as unhealthy eating, staying up late, drinking, shopping... are very attractive, easy to do and bring quick joy to people.

For example, exercising and playing sports are initially quite difficult for people who are sedentary. However, maintaining daily exercise for a long time, in addition to supporting flexible musculoskeletal joints, increases longevity, according to many scientific studies around the world. The more you exercise, the more your body will produce dopamine and serotonin, neurotransmitters related to feelings of joy, excitement and comfort. This is the reason why many people are "addicted" to exercise after a period of practice.

It is similar to volunteering, meditating, looking at a beautiful painting, taking care of a pet, immersing yourself in nature, etc., all of which help people produce the “happy” hormone. However, unlike harmful pleasures, healthy habits require practice, patience, and discipline to gradually adapt.

According to Kiana Shelton, an expert at the mental health organization Mindpath Health (USA), the brain does not distinguish between good and bad habits, so it takes people an average of 30 - 60 days to really give up a habit. Some studies show that it takes people an average of 66 days to form a new habit, depending on factors such as the complexity of the behavior. Starting to change a habit can be a challenge. Experts affirm that it is not uncommon for us to be afraid of failure, which prevents you from starting to give up a bad habit and then get stuck in it, creating an endless cycle. Therefore, self-awareness is the first step to creating a suitable, feasible plan to help break the habit.

Once you have a strong will to change, you need to do it gradually and patiently to practice good habits. As Charles Duhigg, author of the famous book Power of Habit, shared in his work, wanting to completely change habits is not easy and quick. If you force yourself, it can be counterproductive. Instead, people should consider change as a long-term goal. Sometimes, just completely eliminating a bad habit can improve the quality of your life. Therefore, people should not force themselves too much, but just be determined to change each time a habit negatively affects their life.

For example, instead of shopping for dozens of outfits a day, people can set a goal of reducing two outfits each month, completing the set quota in one to two years. Or simply, people who are "addicted" to social networks can regulate the number of times they go on their personal pages in an hour, after a few months, increase it to one day, two days, or even a whole week, only "surfing the internet" within the allowed time frame while still feeling happy and comfortable.

Huong Ngoc

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/can-than-truoc-nhung-xu-huong-chua-lanh-tieu-cuc-post552482.html