03/10/2025
Goodbye streak and why Addictions Aren’t Always Obvious
commitment can sometimes slide into compulsion. It gave me structure, achievement, and maybe a sense of “I’m doing something good for myself every day.” But the shadow side is when it becomes less about learning and more about not breaking the streak.
Sooooo… Here’s where addiction and neural pathways come in:
Addiction isn’t just about substances like alcohol or drugs. It can show up in behaviours
scrolling, exercise, work, even learning apps.
What links them all is the reward cycle in the brain.
Every time I completed a language lesson, my brain released a little dopamine hit. Over time, my nervous system learned: do lesson = feel good.
The streak reinforced this by adding pressure: if I didn’t do it, I felt discomfort, guilt, or even anxiety.
Our brain loves efficiency. Repeated actions create well-trodden neural pathways, like grooves in the snow on a ski slope. The more you go down that path, the easier it becomes for your brain to default to it.
It became a daily ritual, and my brain wired it in deeply. That’s why stopping feels like a real rupture I’m literally rewiring my nervous system by not taking that path.
Healing from any addictive pattern is about creating new, healthier pathways. It’s not about forcefully cutting something out but gently guiding your attention and energy into habits that feel aligned and nourishing.
By choosing to stop, I’m breaking the cycle of compulsion and proving to myself that I’m in charge, not the streak.
It’s a reclaiming of MY time, energy, and nervous system. I’m telling my brain: “I don’t have to obey the old wiring, I can choose what serves me.”
And this is neuroplasticity in action baby
Every time you resist the urge and instead channel your energy into something intentional (movement, rest, journaling, or just being present), you’re strengthening new pathways.
So it’s not that the consistency was bad as it kept a part of my brain engaged and gave consistency, but by letting it go, I’m moving from achievement for its own sake into freedom and conscious choice.
