I was speaking to someone recently who spends hours scrolling Instagram. Daily.

Apart from smoking, drugs and alcohol, we now have a number of behavioural addictions such as video games, phones, food, social media etc.

Of course, not all addictions are on the same level. Some are relatively harmless, whilst others can be destructive.

Religious scholars mention five stages of how a habit forms through an individual;

1) Thought
2) Desire
3) Intent
4) Action
5) Habit

The premise is that it starts off with the thought and if not repelled it becomes a desire.

At this stage if it’s not dealt with, it becomes an intent and so on.

It’s important to note that the ‘thought’ is the starting point of any habit and so cutting it at it’s *source* is much easier than when it travels through the remaining states.

Hence the advice of therapists to remove yourself from areas which may trigger you, establish new hobbies to replace these initial thoughts, utilise CBT to recalibrate your mind from that addiction etc.

We all have our small addictions (nobody is perfect!), but as long as we are not ‘enslaved’ by them, then that’s a good start.