There are some things that don’t take thought; don’t take concern or care or an ample amount of your focus. These things, these habits, have been so imprinted in your mind that you don’t have to tell yourself to do it anymore than you have to tell yourself to breathe. A habit, whether it be good or bad, is hard to shake. If the habit is bad, though, it takes great will-power and commitment to be rid of something that’s so volatile to your well-being. Smoking, cracking your knuckles and even picking your nose are examples of negative habits. What happens when a ➭ habit becomes an addiction? What happens when that peer-pressure enforced “one smoke” turns into a compulsory one-pack-a-day craving? What can you do when the habit of cracking your knuckles becomes so routine, that you’ve acquired a conspicuously painful case of arthritis in your right hand? As for the consistent nose pickers, especially the ones that argue “idle hands are the Devil’s play things’ – they should really take their idle hands and pick up an instrument instead of their nose. Nose picking must be by far the nastiest of all possible habits, or at least in the top ten. In all seriousness though, negative habits lead to negative addictions. An addiction, a severe habit, takes much more time and effort to break than a habit in most cases. To stop drinking one beer everyday before noon, is not nearly as difficult as successfully completing rehab for alcoholism.

Life is a game of choice. You make all these decisions that invariably shape your very being. Habits are pawns of choice and addictions are there raging consequences. I find addiction so scary, as would most people. What is most scary about it is that it’s preventable. You can put down the cigarette. You can say no to the drugs. You can turn from the gambling table. You tell yourself, “It’ll only be once”… and then, you look back on your life with the fifth cigarette that morning in your hand, you look at the bankruptcy papers in your hand, or you glance in the mirror at the reflection of your misshapen face due to one shot of meth too many. And then you think, “It was only supposed to be once.”

REMEMBER: An addiction starts as a habit and habit starts as a choice to “do it again.” Be careful when you make your “only once” decisions.

Tags: Addiction, Autumn, Bad Habits, Drugs, Teen Diaries, Teen Reporters

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