Observed Positive Behavioral Change - Assignment Example

?INTRODUCTION: There are a lot of behavioral factors that affect a person's life, directly or indirectly. These factors start exceeding the normal behavioral level and affect the functionality of human beings. Through self-assistance and introspection of own self a healthy person can overcome and control many issues of his life himself. Self-Introspection which is a way of self-study helps to realize what one's own thoughts and feelings, and through this a person can do his own examination for wellbeing. (Answers Corporation, 2011) Positive psychology which aims to study about achieving happiness and delectation from life greatly focuses on contentment and satisfaction in human beings' life. There can be many factors and aspects in humans’ life which can reduce the contentment and happiness. To overcome such factors and regain therapeutic life is the basic aim of positive psychology. (wisegeek, 2011) MY BEHAVIOR CHANGE TARGET: After my self-assessment, the change I chose for my positive wellbeing is to get rid of caffeine addiction. At first the caffeine addiction didn't look like to have a link with mood and behavior in general to most of people; but being a caffeine addict I have faced many mood swings which eventually affect my wellbeing and efficient functioning in daily routine. The reason to get rid of caffeine and taking it as a positive behavior change is that in recent past I have realized that this addition is not only effecting my daily routine but is also effecting my health. Caffeine addiction has made me completely dependent over it due to which If I don’t get caffeine intake I experience many unpleasant challenges. The main reasons for getting rid of addiction are that I already have hectic and stressful life routine, I don’t get average amount of sleep which had become worse with the regular intake of caffeine. And whenever I tried to quit caffeine intake I felt extreme headache n nausea which led me to grab caffeine again. Adrenal gland main function is to regulate our hormones controlling the body reaction towards stress which help human to cope the stress physically and mentally. When people take caffeine it produces hormones artificially which led to unnatural alertness. After prolonged use of caffeine the adrenal gland functions depletes which affects human normal body functioning leading to psychological and physical problems. (ehow, 2011) The other researches which I came across about caffeine addiction are also related to its effect on human gland and mood swings. According to Stephen Cherniske research “caffeine blues” the intake of caffeine immediately stimulates the central nervous system of human, which triggers stress hormones in the body and leads to fight or flight response; causing stress. The fight or flight response is useful when u have to deal immediate with a dangerous situation but when this feeling of alertness and agitation come up very with every intake of caffeine, then when the effect of caffeine will go the person will feel more tired and low in energy because his body is used to of excessive alertness. And this is why caffeine is also considered an addiction. Because when the effect of caffeine fades away the person starts to feel tired and again look for caffeine intake and the circle goes on. And this not only makes u addict but also makes the body and mind tired as it becomes drained by constant ups and downs in body energy level. (Natural News Network , 2011) GOAL SETTING: I have aimed to get rid of my caffeine addiction. If I will succeed I will be able to sleep more and peacefully which is very important to work properly when you are awake. I will be able to have a sound sleep which was previously very disturbed and short because of excessive caffeine intake. My behavior will become more constant which will lead me to do my work efficiently and calmly. Plus I will be able to enjoy life more as now I most of time feel agitated and anxious. So the outcome of my goal setting includes these points: 1. Would be able to do my work properly and calmly 2. Will have proper sleep which will keep me fresh and active 3. Behavior will become constant and will help me to understand myself better and so will people 4. My body will stay health and will get rid of throbbing headaches and body tiredness. 5. I would be able to enjoy life more as I would be free for agitated feeling. METHOD: Person cannot come over any weakness until the person himself isn’t willing to change. To finally be willing to change certain things many factors are involved. When a person is mentally willing to quit an addiction, his body become reluctant and gives a person a tough time to stick with his mind. All these factors, emotional, physical and mental, they all make quitting difficult. (about.com, 2011) So in my case the first difficulty which I faced whenever I tried to quit caffeine was that my stomach became upset and I used to get acute headache and nausea. And now to overcome all of such emotional, mental and physical affects I have made some interventions which will motivate me to gain my goal of quitting caffeine. Interventions for Quitting Caffeine: As I have given myself a 30 days accomplishing challenge to myself for quitting caffeine, which I will start from this Thursday 11th March. And when I think of this personal goal of mine I get mixed feelings. On one side I feel completely positive and eager to leave caffeine addiction and on second hand I feel too much anxious about coming weeks as I know I will be facing too many physical and mental difficulties. But to attain this goal I have to work with willpower and determination. To list the interventions I am going to face in quitting caffeine will make my mind prepared about the difficulties I will face. Following are the difficulties I am preparing myself to face: 1. Throbbing headaches and nausea 2. uncontrollable urge to get caffeine drinks or coffee 3. tiredness and fatigue 4. mood swings probably because of agitation 5. sleeplessness (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine , 2003) This addiction has already affected my relationship with family and friends. It is affecting my work and my level of output I give in work. (Cirque Lodge, 2011) The emotional discomfort in such conditions can be pacified thorough motivating one's own self. In psychology addictions are considered more as a psychological issue than biological. And for that I have made a motivation chart for myself which will provide me reasons to fight against my addiction before it becomes more fatal. To reach a goal of quitting caffeine I have adopted two techniques, one is writing daily diary and other is uplifting statements to keep my morale high. Daily Diary Record: With the help of daily diary writing I will be able to keep a check on how much intake I have deducted from previous day in caffeine. And then this will also help me to keep a check on myself and I will be able to see that how fast or slow the graph is going down. Statements: I have made some uplifting statements for myself which will help me to pacify my mood and will keep my morale high. 1. I am not dependent of caffeine. I can quit it easily 2. I don’t need caffeine to stay active 3. Addiction is an addiction, either its of drug or caffeine 4. I can reach my goal of quitting caffeine 5. Nausea, upset stomach and other biological reactions are temporary. And to overcome the issues I sleep, I have made up my mind that after a week or two, with the deduction of caffeine intake my sleep pattern will also become normal. And for that I have to be patient and with this power I will achieve my goal. Introspection: With the self-introspection of one's own-self person can make his goals strong. In addiction the positive psychology promotes you to gain happiness and enlightenment from daily routine life. And to lead one's own self to get rid of any time of issue which is becoming hurdle in happiness of life, positive psychology promotes you do self-study to change yourself in positive side, either its addiction or anything else. So to make yourself stronger and focus one can ask such question from himself in self-introspection like Who or what are you, essentially? What’s your current strategy? And do your actions align with your values? (giveitathought, 2011) RESULT: In psychology, addiction is considered more of psychological reason. It is because the persons mind which makes him desire for the thing at first which latter leads to dependency. Addiction gives temporary satisfaction and pleasure which fades away in short span of time, after which person urges for it again and ends up leading to repeated need of specific thing. And if not fulfilled then person feels extreme discomfort and agitation. (EzineArticles, 2009) When a person starts his motive to quit an addiction, in the beginning he feels motivated and encouraged but when an urge for addiction starts the level of motivation decreases. And most people give up the motive and the idea to quit. So here the caffeine addiction observed in the subject was typically because of psychological perspective. The subject was observed to be agitated, tired and fatigued in the start of the motive, but later the behavior became constant and the improvement in behavior was clearly observed. DISCUSSION Psychologist and experts now prefer to use the term addictive behaviors rather than the word addiction, as addiction is because of the psychological behavior of the person towards specific stimulus. Michael F. Cataldo, Ph.D, who is chief of behavioral psychology at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes said that the probably truth about addiction is that it is not a single mechanism but an acute problem we just label it with addiction. The fatal addiction is not only of substance abuse and alcohol but any compulsions, dependencies in carving and urges are also addictions which can lead to extreme dependency eventually affecting the daily functioning of the person. (Sussex Directories, Inc., 2011) Works Cited about.com. (2011). "Can I Quit?" "Why Can't I Just Quit?". Retrieved April 9, 2011, from about.com: http://addictions.about.com/od/overcomingaddiction/a/whycantIquit.htm Answers Corporation. (2011). introspection. Retrieved april 9, 2011, from answer.com: http://www.answers.com/topic/introspection Cirque Lodge. (2011). Addiction Affects Life. Retrieved April 9, 2011, from cirquelodge: http://www.cirquelodge.com/DrugRehabTour/AddictionAffects.php ehow. (2011). The Effects of Coffee on Adrenal Glands. Retrieved April 9, 2011, from ehow: http://www.ehow.com/about_5122295_effects-coffee-adrenal-glands.html EzineArticles. (2009). The-Psychology-of-Addiction. Retrieved April 9, 2011, from ezinearticles.com: http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Psychology-of-Addiction&id=1393598 giveitathought. (2011). Self Introspection. Retrieved April 9, 2011, from giveitathought: http://giveitathought.com/self-introspection-questions/ Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine . (2003). USE AND COMMON SOURCES OF CAFFEINE. Retrieved April 9, 2011, from caffeinedependence: http://www.caffeinedependence.org/caffeine_dependence.html Natural News Network . (2011). The hidden dangers of caffeine: How coffee causes exhaustion, fatigue and addiction. Retrieved April 9, 2011, from Natural News : http://www.naturalnews.com/012352.html Sussex Directories, Inc. (2011). Addiction: A Whole New View . Retrieved April 2011, from psychologytoday: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199409/addiction-whole-new-view?page=3 wisegeek. (2011). What is Positive Psychology? Retrieved April 9, 2011, from wisegeek: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-positive-psychology.htm Read More