Health and Psychology

There was an article this morning on Houzz about how difficult it is for people to get used to a new piece of furniture. Change is difficult for people. The brain wants sameness. It wants order and routine. Change requires the brain to expend energy. Even when changes are positive-a new job, a new car, a promotion, a new house-it disrupts the pattern and creates stress. The stress is both psychological and physiological. People often get sick with the disruption in routine, the cold someone gets on vacation for example.

The trick to managing change is to make a decision and to focus on the positive aspects. This is more likely to keep momentum going. This can be done slowly or quickly. Rapid change is quite disruptive but may be needed to get the system going. Slow change is more likely to produce long lasting results. Many people want to make dramatic changes in their lives but get caught up in their routine and do not actually effect change. So people want to organize their home, get healthier and lose weight, study differently, parent differently, or manage an illness better. They have great intentions. But it requires changing behavior.

The slow process involves building awareness of what keeps people from the plan. It focuses on small steps that can show progress. In tackling things like debt it’s the snowball method. You pay off small sums of debt and make minimum payments on other debt gaining confidence in lowering debt one step at a time. The person has the time to deal with the feelings that arise about what caused the problem. It’s unlikely they will revert back.

The rapid process is like having a crew clean out someone’s hoarded house. Usually there is a crisis like an eviction notice that prompts the rapid process. Someone get’s told they have a disease like diabetes or hypertension and decides to dramatically lose weight and start exercising. Company is coming, so the house gets at least a superficial cleaning after having been neglected. In these cases the person may or may not deal with the underlying issues. If they don’t, they may revert back, much like yo-yo dieters even adding to their original problem.

Psychologists specializing in behavior difficulties can help to set up a plan, and help to put psychological rewards in place to keep the plan going. The two biggest hurdles are honesty about what is actually being accomplished toward the plan, and getting over the reluctance to make changes.