[Health Column] Make Your Three-Day Resolution Last Three Days

It is the New Year. To celebrate the New Year, fitness clubs offer discounts, and various advertisements for diet products and foreign language learning programs flood the market. Many people start the New Year with hopeful hearts and make new resolutions. "I will quit smoking," "I will cut down on drinking," "I will exercise," "I will definitely succeed in dieting," "I will read books every day," "I will study English for 10 minutes daily".... Three weeks have passed since January began. Are these resolutions being kept? It is not easy to maintain and endure the new habits. The mind feels uneasy.

Stopping a habitual daily behavior is distressing. Symptoms such as anxiety, restlessness, irritability, decreased concentration, and depression peak 2 to 3 days after a smoker quits smoking. Similarly, a person who is accustomed to daily heavy drinking experiences insomnia, anxiety, restlessness, hand tremors, cold sweats, and palpitations, which also peak 2 to 3 days after stopping alcohol. This is why people often resume smoking or drinking just three days after quitting. This is the reason why quitting smoking or drinking often lasts only three days.

On the other hand, when we engage in pleasurable activities, dopamine is released in the brain. The more dopamine is released in the brain's frontal lobe, the more intense the pleasure felt. As a result, we repeat the behavior, and it eventually becomes a habit. Eating delicious food when hungry is a typical example. Drinking water when thirsty, seeking warmth when cold, and sharing love with family also release dopamine.

By repeating these behaviors, we can protect our lives, and humanity has survived for a long time. Moreover, the reasons people become addicted to cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, gambling, and games are also closely related to dopamine from a neuroscience perspective. Addiction occurs when one cannot control the substance or behavior and becomes excessively obsessed to the point that it interferes with social activities, interpersonal relationships, and job functions.

Habits you want to discard disappear by creating new habits. American author James Clear, in his book Atomic Habits, emphasized that consistently repeating small things is important to form good habits. His methods include making plans that are small but very specific, linking habits to enjoyment, and repeating them easily and simply 100 times. He said that by repeating these small attempts, one can ultimately change their life.

The significance of 100 is proven in myths and medicine. In the Dangun myth, Ungnyeo survived by eating only mugwort and garlic for 100 days in a cave and became human. The first stage of recovery from addiction, early recognition, is also about 3 months, roughly 100 days. Our brain needs at least 100 days for a new habit to form.

These days in January, many patients receive smoking cessation or alcohol abstinence treatment in clinics. It is a good time to abandon bad habits and start new ones. Do not give up just because you failed after three days. One mistake does not mean failure. Mistakes can happen during the process of change. But remember, habits collapse after the second mistake. Fortunately, in Korea, you can make New Year's resolutions twice. The Lunar New Year is coming soon. Make your resolutions again. Every three days, that is.

Seongwon Noh, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Hanyang University Hospital