a bad habit thesis statement

Essays About Bad Habits: 5 Essays Examples and Writing Prompts

Writing about bad habits poses an interesting topic; to help with your essays about bad habits, read our top essay examples and writing prompts below.

Many people tend to discount their bad habits as small. They get blinded to their life-shattering and long-term effects because they don’t think of it as a “big deal,” they get blinded to their life-shattering and long-term effects. 

Whether smoking or procrastination, these habits are detrimental to our quality of life. Many people don’t realize how detrimental these habits can be until they create more significant problems in their lives.

Writing about bad habits and how to kick them will create an engaging, compelling, and thought-provoking essay. Read on to see the best examples of essays about bad habits and 8 intriguing writing prompts.

1. Weekly Reflections – The Ordeal of Breaking Bad Habits by Steven Lawson

2. how to break a bad habit and replace it with a good one by james clear, 3. how bad habits form (and why they’re so difficult to break) by ian kan, 4. break your bad habits by amy novotney, 5. 5 bad business habits you need to stop immediately by dylan ogline, 8 prompts on writing essays about bad habits, 1. causes of bad habits, 2. how bad habits take a toll on the health, 3. getting past the challenge of changing bad habits, 4. how to know if a habit is bad or good, 5. does stress drive us to form bad habits, 6. are bad habits contagious learn how to avoid adopting them, 7. american habits that are considered weird or bad habits in other cultures, 8. understanding the time it takes to break a bad habit.

“Our external realities are always tied to and flow out of our interior/spiritual core. Change occurs first at one’s core and then manifests itself on the surface, not the other way around.”  

Lawson uses a spiritual approach to understand bad habits, including how they’re formed and how to get rid of them. He delved into his difficulties with transforming his bad habits and wrote about how he perceived his bad habits as a behavioral reaction to a problem.

“You can teach yourself new and healthy ways to deal with stress and boredom, which you can then substitute in place of your bad habits.”

Clear’s take on bad habits is that they are methods of dealing with stress and boredom. After explaining the formation of habits from stress and boredom, he provides methods and tips for replacing them with good habits. Clear also included examples that his readers can easily relate to.

“Of course, you might feel guilty, but the goal is to be aware of those bad habits and how often they happen. Then from there, you can hatch a plan to break those habits.”

Ian Kan’s essay on bad habits dives into the psychology behind habit formation, including the various stages. After this in-depth look, he offers various methods of transforming bad habits into good ones.

“Self-motivation is best sustained by having a clear, long-range goal that can be broken down into a series of specific, attainable smaller goals to guide one’s efforts along the way.”

Novotney’s essay focuses on the top ten habits that grad students have that prevent them from gaining further academic success. She emphasizes how these habits keep students from making it through graduate school. On top of listing a good number of commonly practiced bad habits among students, she also included solutions for fixing and correcting them.

“But with each habit I shed, my prospects got brighter. When I shed all five, my agency was on track to becoming the seven-figure business it is today.”

Ogline takes bits and pieces from his experience as a business owner to write his essay on bad habits. He also provides business smarts and wisdom for readers of his essay, whether they’re simply interested in the essay or fellow entrepreneurs.

Consider the essay ideas and topics we’ve listed below if you’re more interested in writing your essays about bad habits.

Understand why bad habits exist or how they form by reading and writing about them. Use this essay writing opportunity to talk about how certain actions, situations, or emotions may lead to the formation of some bad habits.

Like stress, bad habits can worsen a person’s health. This essay focuses on the harm bad habits may cause to a person’s physical or mental health. You can even include how bad habits caused by stress can stress a person even more.

This idea will drive you to consider how difficult it is to get out of a habit cycle. When you choose to write about this topic, ensure you research the different methods of effectively dropping bad habits for different kinds of people. It gives immense help if you’ve already experienced how hard it is to break a bad habit. 

Figure out how to write a narrative essay to better share your story.

Sometimes, a habit lies in the gray area. It can be good in certain situations and bad at other times. Thus, it’s helpful to figure out how detrimental or beneficial a habit is. Consider including a habit’s effects in the short and long term.

Bad habits can form from many things, including stress. This essay prompt encourages you to read about how stress can create bad habits in a person. For example, drinking alcohol can become a way for someone to cope with stress from work or family pressure. Then, consider other forms of bad habits and how stress might have a hand in encouraging their formation.

Like diseases, bad habits can spread from person to person. In extreme cases, bad habits can even affect entire nations. Think about the bad habits you’ve gotten from being around or observing other people. You can also apply this essay to fictional works wherein the characters start adopting each other’s bad habits. It provides a good study on how bad habits can

What you may see as a bad habit can be good in a different culture. A famous example is slurping noodles loudly in East Asian countries. Loud slurping is unpleasant and rude in the West, but it’s a sign of appreciation for the food in East Asia. Research other habits that create cultural divides and discuss the different ways people view them, whether negatively or positively.

Let’s say you’re ready to break a bad habit. The challenge is to endure until you’ve gotten rid of it or changed it into a good one. This essay idea is a perfect topic for people who have tried breaking several bad habits and want to write about the experience. Use this essay topic to explore why some bad habits took longer to stop and how difficult it has been to break them.  

Get more writing ideas from our informative essay topics list for students.   

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Compare & contrast essay structure, how to assess the strength or weakness of a thesis statement, how to write an essay for the ged test.

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In essays and research papers, your introduction should contain a thesis statement. Your thesis will express the main idea of your paper and share your position on the topic. A thesis statement will drive your essay, and this helps keep your points on track. Not all thesis statements have the same impact, however. Knowing what makes a good thesis and how to form one will help you write an effective paper.

General vs. Specific

A good thesis statement will not contain specific details, but it should not feel too general either. Finding a balance may seem tricky, but with some refining, your thesis will come together. In looking at a general thesis statement, you need to give the reader enough information to see the potential argument on the topic. For example, you do not want to say, “People go hungry without food to eat.” This is not a thesis, but rather a general fact that does not help the reader understand the position you will take on the topic. When looking at specifics, you need to make an argument for your topic without giving the supporting arguments or details that you will use in the body of your paragraph. An overly specific thesis may give data or other research instead of giving your take on the subject.

You need to make sure the reader understands your thesis statement and which side of the argument you will prove in the body of your essay. If you vacillate between one side of the argument and the other in your thesis, this will confuse your reader. Make clear, well-thought out statements that identify your perspective on the topic. To get to that level of clarity, particularly if you can see both sides of the argument, you may need to do more research. Another option might include taking a stand on the side of the topic you agree with most but include the information for the other viewpoints as a part of your paper. Whatever you choose, make sure your reader can identify both the information and the point you will prove.

If you struggle with starting a thesis statement, you may want to begin by answering two questions and then build your thesis from this. First, write down a single sentence that states the topic of your paper. Second, write down what the body of your paper will prove or argue. Finally, combine those statements and revise until the sentence not only makes sense but gives a strong position for your paper.

When considering a thesis statement, you may want to evaluate its strength. Ask yourself if someone could argue an opposing viewpoint based on your thesis. This may help you easily identify whether you have the basis for a good thesis statement.

Seeing examples of both good and bad thesis statements may help you craft a strong statement. As a bad example, you might see, “I will show the negative effects of not studying for a test.” This statement does not give the reader information or share the writer’s position on the topic. A better example may look like this: “Poor study habits result in lower grade point averages, and this can lead to fewer academic opportunities and career options for students.” In this example, you could argue an alternate point of view. As well, the reader knows your position on the topic, and she will know what to expect throughout your essay.

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Kate Beck started writing for online publications in 2005. She worked as a certified ophthalmic technician for 10 years before returning to school to earn a Masters of Fine Arts degree in writing. Beck is currently putting the finishing touches on a novel.

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How to Break Up with Your Bad Habits

Why is breaking a habit so difficult? Because habits are made up of three components: a trigger (for example, feeling stressed), a behavior (browsing the Internet), and a reward (feeling sated). Each time we reinforce the reward, we become more likely to repeat the behavior. This is why old habits are so hard to break — it takes more than self-control to change them. But after 20 years of studying the behavioral neuroscience of how habits form, and the best way to tackle them, researchers have found a surprisingly natural solution: using mindfulness training to make people more aware of the “reward” reinforcing their behavior. Doing so helps people tap into what is driving their habit in the first place. Once this happens, they are more easily able to change their association with the “reward” from a positive one to a more accurate (and often negative) one.

Breaking habits is hard. We all know this, whether we’ve failed our latest diet (again), or felt the pull to refresh our Instagram feed instead of making progress on a work project that is past due. This is largely because we are constantly barraged by stimuli engineered to make us crave and consume , stimuli that hijack the reward-based learning system  in our brains designed initially for survival.

• JB Jud Brewer MD PhD is an addiction psychiatrist and neuroscientist specializing in anxiety and habit change. He is an associate professor at Brown University’s School of Public Health and Medical School and the author of The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love — Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits .  Dr. Brewer has posted 20+ short videos on how to develop resilience and work with Coronavirus-related mental health issues on his YouTube Channel .    

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5 Ways to Overcome a Bad Habit

These actionable steps can help you conquer harmful habits..

Posted February 23, 2021 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina

Breaking your habits down into these fundamental categories can help you understand what a habit is, how it works, and how you can break it. This is known as the habit loop. Primarily, a cue is developed, which, when activated, triggers a craving.

The craving then motivates a response, which provides your brain with a reward, which satisfies the desire, and ultimately becomes associated with the cue. Together, these four things end up forming a neurological feedback loop that eventually allows you to develop automatic habits.

Fortunately, there are many ways that you can destroy your bad habits and keep them away for good. Which one works best will depend entirely on your individual circumstances and specific inclinations.

1. Quit Cold Turkey

You can eliminate bad habits by not indulging in them, not even for one day, starting now. Unfortunately, this is much easier said than done. It can be incredibly challenging to get rid of a bad habit because it is deeply ingrained in your brain.

When the bad habit’s trigger repeats, it can quickly reignite the old behavior. This is the greatest weakness in this particular method. Often, when an old pattern or behavior recurs, when you slip back into your old bad habit just once, you tend to make a huge fuss over it, and you feel like you wasted all of your time being abstinent.

You end up becoming crushed by self-disappointment that when you slip just once and return to your old habit, you completely slip back into your old ways. However, there is a power to such an approach. If you can quit cold turkey and persevere in your resolve, you can prove to yourself that you are entirely capable of making changes.

2. Change Your Habit Loop

Recent studies discovered that habits are stored in the brain in a different way than more standard memories. Typically, your emotion triggers a behavior that ends when the emotional urge has been satisfied when it comes to your habits.

There are twofold repercussions to these findings. First, if your habits are hardcoded in your mind, it means they are impossible to remove. This means that once those habits have been formed, they will stay with you for the rest of your life, which is why drug addicts and alcoholics relapse into their addictions, sometimes after decades of sobriety.

Second, there isn’t any such thing as getting rid of your old habits. Instead, you have to overwrite the bad habit with a new routine. The most efficient method for achieving this is by reprogramming the behavior. However, you have to make the new habit stronger than the old habit if you want it to stick.

Fortunately, by changing your habit loop, you can more easily solidify the new behavior, which will make it much more difficult for you to return to the old habit.

3. Use Small Steps

Using small steps to overcome a bad habit is a combination of quitting cold turkey and changing your habit loop, as discussed above. While you disagree with your bad habit, you also freely admit that you cannot quit your habit cold turkey.

This makes it necessary to analyze your behaviors and identify your triggers. When you can accomplish these two tasks, you can gradually limit your bad habit. For example, if you are trying to break the habit of eating poorly, you can start small by indulging in fewer sweets. With each passing week, you need to reach another milestone in eliminating your bad habit from your life.

After enough time has passed and you've continually worked toward making small changes in your habit, you will finally arrive at a point when you can completely stop engaging in your bad behavior automatically. Theoretically, with this method, you should be less prone to feeling discouraged when you slip. You have to assume some failure with this method but are better equipped to keep your motivation . This method is much more convenient for those who can quantify their bad habits.

4. Track Your Progress to Reinforce Your Determination

While this isn't necessarily a method for breaking a bad habit per se, it is beneficial in every instance of getting rid of a bad habit. In the above method of taking small steps toward getting rid of your bad habit, the approach is relatively apparent. If you are about to restrict yourself by having only a few cigarettes, you need to track the number.

When you change your habit loop, it is also a great idea to start tracking what isn’t working. At the bare minimum, tracking your progress comes down to checking whether or not you engaged in your bad habit that day. You can also use the tracking method when using the cold turkey method of eliminating bad habits.

When you quit your bad habit, you should be counting the days without the behavior or habit and try to build a streak that motivates you to keep going. When you find yourself clean for a single day, and you haven't been in years, it can be incredibly blissful. The second day that you add to the chain feels like an event worthy of a celebration.

Then comes the joy of going a week, later a month, then the first year. These kinds of milestones can provide you with a sense of accomplishment, even though you aren't really doing anything other than abstaining from engaging in a habit, which is the whole point of this particular method.

What's more, tracking your progress works in the same way as building your good habits. It focuses your attention on the essential things and provides you with the motivation to keep moving forward. It can also provide you with valuable data points that can help you to identify your pitfalls and critical points.

5. Focus on Your Good Habits

This method will ultimately kill your bad habits by starving them. Getting rid of bad habits focuses your attention on the negative aspects of your life. It can end up feeling incredibly restrictive rather than liberating. When you focus on eliminating bad habits, you watch yourself and end up denying yourself the pleasures you’re used to having in your life.

While you know that it is better to avoid engaging in your bad habits in the long run, those bad behaviors are a part of who you are, whether you like it or not. They were the mechanisms you used to relieve stress and help you cope with anxiety and low self-esteem . Without them, your life might seem to be less bearable.

So, instead of focusing on your bad behaviors and what you can’t do, you should focus on new activities that contribute to your life in a more positive way. To break your bad habits, funnel all of your energy into habits that will improve your experience rather than avoiding what is wrong with it. While your bad habits will continue to lurk in the depths of your brain, the only time they will resurface is if you lower your guard.

When it comes to eliminating bad habits from your life, it is essential to remember that you are about to embark on a long and challenging journey. You will continually be tempted to return to your old ways and risk succumbing to your old habits.

While these methods will help you break your bad habits, you must remember that the temptation to fall back into your old ways will always be there. Don’t continue to let your bad habits dictate your life. Take the first positive steps toward changing your bad habits today and start living a happier and healthier life now.

Sarah-Len Mutiwasekwa is a mental health advocate whose efforts are invested in breaking the stigma around talking about mental health and increasing awareness of these issues in Africa.

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Essay on Bad Habits

Students are often asked to write an essay on Bad Habits in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Bad Habits

Understanding bad habits.

Bad habits are actions we repeat that harm us. They can be physical, like biting nails, or mental, like procrastination.

Why Bad Habits Form

Bad habits often form because they give us temporary pleasure. However, they harm us in the long run.

The Impact of Bad Habits

Bad habits can harm our health, relationships, and productivity. They prevent us from reaching our full potential.

Overcoming Bad Habits

To overcome bad habits, we must understand why we do them. Then, we can replace them with good habits that benefit us.

Also check:

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250 Words Essay on Bad Habits

Introduction to bad habits.

Bad habits are often the result of patterns of behavior that have become ingrained in our daily routines. They are actions that we engage in repeatedly, usually without giving much thought to their consequences. These habits can range from the seemingly innocuous, such as nail-biting, to the more harmful, such as smoking or excessive drinking.

The Psychology Behind Bad Habits

Understanding the psychology behind bad habits is crucial. They often serve as coping mechanisms for stress or discomfort, providing a temporary sense of relief or distraction. The brain’s reward system plays a significant role in their formation and persistence. When a behavior triggers the release of ‘feel-good’ chemicals like dopamine, it reinforces the habit loop, making it harder to break.

Bad habits can have far-reaching impacts on our lives. They can negatively affect our physical health, mental wellbeing, productivity, and relationships. For instance, procrastination can lead to stress and poor performance, while excessive screen time can lead to sleep disturbances and social disconnection.

Breaking the Cycle

Breaking bad habits requires conscious effort, patience, and persistence. It involves understanding the triggers, replacing the habit with a healthier alternative, and rewarding oneself for progress. Cognitive-behavioral techniques, mindfulness, and self-compassion can also be beneficial in this process.

In conclusion, while bad habits can be challenging to overcome, understanding their psychological underpinnings and impacts can provide us with the tools to break the cycle. With effort and determination, we can replace these harmful patterns with healthier behaviors, leading to improved wellbeing and quality of life.

500 Words Essay on Bad Habits

Introduction.

Bad habits are behaviors we engage in repetitively, often unconsciously, that are detrimental to our physical, mental, or emotional well-being. They range from minor annoyances such as nail-biting to life-threatening addictions like smoking and drug use. The complexity of bad habits lies in their deeply ingrained nature, making them difficult to break. However, understanding their psychological underpinnings can provide us with the tools to combat them effectively.

The Psychology of Bad Habits

Bad habits are often rooted in our brain’s reward system. The brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of pleasure and satisfaction, whenever we engage in activities it perceives as beneficial. Unfortunately, this system can be hijacked by harmful behaviors that provide immediate gratification, such as overeating or excessive use of social media.

Another psychological aspect of bad habits is their association with stress and negative emotions. Many people resort to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as alcohol consumption or compulsive shopping, to deal with feelings of anxiety, sadness, or boredom. These habits serve as temporary distractions but can lead to long-term harm.

Bad habits can have far-reaching consequences. Physically, they can lead to health problems such as obesity, heart disease, and lung cancer. Mentally, they can contribute to conditions like depression and anxiety. Socially, they can strain relationships and hinder productivity. Moreover, the financial cost of maintaining certain bad habits, such as smoking or gambling, can be substantial.

Breaking Bad Habits

Breaking bad habits is a challenging but achievable task. It requires self-awareness, determination, and a strategic approach. The first step is recognizing the habit and understanding its triggers. This can be achieved through mindful observation and introspection.

Next, it’s important to replace the bad habit with a healthier alternative. For instance, if stress triggers cigarette smoking, one could try stress management techniques such as meditation or exercise instead. It’s also beneficial to set realistic goals and celebrate small victories along the way to maintain motivation.

In conclusion, bad habits are deeply ingrained behaviors that can have significant impacts on our well-being. They are often rooted in our brain’s reward system and can serve as unhealthy coping mechanisms for stress and negative emotions. However, with self-awareness, determination, and a strategic approach, we can break these habits and replace them with healthier alternatives. Understanding the psychology of bad habits is a crucial step towards achieving this goal.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on A Personal Habit I Would Like to Change
• Essay on Role of Computer
• Essay on Life Without Computer

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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Bad Driving Habits is an exemplification essay about bad driving habits using the author as examples.

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