(Photo : Pexels: Ketut Subiyanto)
During the pandemic, reports say, bad habits continue to induce us, and it's been hard to say "no" due to overstress. When in fact, that extra glass of wine or eating half a cake in one sitting won't make us feel better, even in the long run.
The answer could be, it seemed rational to do whatever it takes to escape the overstress lockdown life. Nonetheless, nine months on, when experience has demonstrated that chain-smoking a pack of cigarettes doesn't compensate for human interaction but overstress, why do bad habits continue to compel us?
READ: Trump Threatens COVID-19 Relief Deal, Calls for $2,000 Direct Payments to Americans
University of California, San Francisco professor emeritus of pediatric endocrinology," Dr. Robert Lustig said, "The prolonged traumatic, or "chronic toxic," stress that most people have been experiencing throughout the pandemic makes it more challenging to keep desires in check, and it, in turn, promotes illogical pleasure-seeking." In scientific terms, when brains are swamped with cortisol or stress hormone on a long-term, it impedes the function of the prefrontal cortex, leading to the "reward center" of excessive brain activation, which triggers extreme baking, drinking, eating, smoking, and shopping that occupied the idle hours. He is also the author of "Metabolical.
Lustig further said, "Dopamine is the reward neurotransmitter. It is held in check by the prefrontal cortex. When that inhibition is released, the reward center looks for hedonic stimuli. Those can be chemicals like cocaine, heroin, nicotine, alcohol, sugar or behavioral like shopping, gambling, internet gaming, social media, pornography."
Like hand sanitizer and alcohol, flour and yeast were rapidly swiped from store shelves because a baking frenzy swept the country, offering both a relatively accessible low overstress quarantine hobby and a constant supply of carbs beloved and carbohydrate sugar.
But what made baking best for overstress quarantine life? Lustig explained, "Baking means carbohydrates and particularly sugar which are both for diversion and for addiction. And aren't they really the same?"
But then again, it raises the query of why people turn to fleeting comfort activities to escape overstress isolation. Baked goods preparation in quarantine was more than just the joy of cooking-a newly developed addiction to sifting flour activities and et cetera.
ALSO READ: Fox News Calls Smartmatic Challenge after Legal Action Due to Reports of Vote Manipulation
A psychology professor at Yale University and host of "The Happiness Lab" podcast, Laurie Santos, said, "That's the million-dollar question. We know neuroscientifically, that there's a disconnect between the kinds of things that we want and the kinds of things that we like. Wanting is a motivational process. Liking is how you're going to feel when you get it."
She explained, "the strongest detach in the addictive activities domain is craving, or "wanting," the drug will drive people to obtain extremes, but the actual "liking" is little since they're already familiar with it.
Santos said, "The flip side is that we don't have 'wanting' for the things that are going to work. Things like taking time to experience social connection, doing nice things for others, taking time to experience gratitude. We just don't have mechanisms to seek that stuff out. We don't realize that that's what's missing."
Alcohol, though, is widely wanted during the pandemic. During quarantine, women were more susceptible to stress drinking since they were overstressed with declined job security and increased social isolation, which factually have driven alcohol consumption.
