Stressful periods often reinforce established habits, whether they be constructive or detrimental.
Article: Stress and Habits: How Stress Affects Our Behaviour and How to Break Unhealthy Habits
Stress can have a significant impact on our daily habits, according to a study conducted by Wendy Wood and her colleagues, which will appear in the June issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The research, which was also contributed to by David Neal, a former assistant psychology professor at USC, and Aimee Drolet of the University of California, Los Angeles, reveals that stress can reinforce both good and bad habits, making it crucial to focus on forming healthy, productive habits.
The study found that during periods of stress, individuals are more likely to stick to established habits, such as eating unhealthy foods, reading the newspaper, or exercising. This is because stress often triggers habits as coping mechanisms that satisfy needs for certainty, control, or escape, even if those habits are harmful. These behaviors repetitively stimulate the brain’s reward system, notably dopamine spikes that create a sensation of relief or comfort, reinforcing the habit loop in the basal ganglia. Over time, habits—whether good or bad—become neural pathways strengthened by repetition, turning into automatic comfort zones even if their outcomes are negative.
However, simply eliminating a habit without replacing it with a healthier alternative that serves the same need often leads to relapse. Effective habit change involves identifying the function the habit fulfills and designing new, constructive routines to meet that need, especially in stressful moments.
Chronic psychological stress also activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, causing overproduction of cortisol and inflammation, which impair overall health and cognitive functions such as focus, self-control, and decision-making. This biological stress burden can hamper the formation of positive health habits like exercise, sleep hygiene, or nutrition by affecting energy, motivation, and mental clarity.
Mindfulness practices that increase awareness of habit triggers and responses can enable individuals to consciously interrupt automatic, stress-driven habits and replace them with healthier behaviors. By observing the mechanics of the habit loop (trigger → behavior → reward), individuals can develop intentional responses that do not simply provide temporary relief from stress but contribute to long-term wellness.
Techniques like habit stacking leverage brain chemistry for good habit formation under stress. Integrating new positive habits onto existing routines can use the brain's neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine to strengthen habit formation, even in stressful contexts. This leverages existing neural pathways to build new, health-supporting habits that can persist despite stress.
The study also found that students who had a habit of reading the editorial pages in the newspaper every day were more likely to perform this habit during exams, even when they were limited in time. Regular gym-goers were found to be more likely to continue exercising when stressed, according to the research.
Wendy Wood, professor of psychology and business at University of Southern California, is an expert on habit and the automatic behaviors that make it possible for us to function every day. The author of the article, Suzanne Wu, is a former director of research communications at University of South California and an author at Futurity.
In summary, stress tends to strengthen existing habit patterns by triggering the brain’s reward circuits and physiological stress responses, often leading to reliance on familiar (sometimes unhealthy) coping behaviors. Successfully forming and maintaining good health and wellness habits under stress requires mindful awareness, functional replacement routines addressing the underlying needs the habit fulfills, and strategic techniques like habit stacking to build new neural pathways for positive behaviors.
Mental-health is crucial when trying to break unhealthy habits during stressful periods, as these habits often provide a sense of certainty, control, or escape that satisfy our needs. Science has shown that stress reinforces both good and bad habits by stimulating the brain's reward system, notably dopamine spikes that create a sense of relief or comfort.
Therefore, focusing on mental-health and wellness along with fitness-and-exercise can help counteract the negative impacts of stress on our habits, as mindfulness practices and strategic techniques like habit stacking can enable individuals to consciously interrupt automatic, stress-driven habits and replace them with healthier behaviors.
