Are you decision-impaired? Stuck in a rut? Tend to backslide to the same old choices and habits because it’s easier than making a change?

Want to exercise more, eat healthier, get up earlier, stop eating too much chocolate, or break your substance misuse habit?

Adapting to change and adopting healthy strategies in that process is what helps you reach a goal. For this kind of change to happen, however, you need to be flexible and open to change. And more importantly, be able to overcome the urge to fall into dysfunctional or destructive patterns and replace them with shiny, new, healthier habits.

The two foundational skills to changing a habit

Most of us succumb to stimulus-driven attention which means reacting to the smell of doughnuts in a grocery store and buying a dozen of those instead of the dozen apples you went there to get in the first place.

Changing a bad habit can be brutally hard because old habits wear like a great pair of worn-in jeans. They are usually on autopilot, have a firm foothold, and are stubbornly resistant to change.

Flexibility and inhibitory control, are essential for changing behavior and they give you the control and motivation to walk away from old habits and adopt new ones.

Inhibitory Control means learning to take a pause and then using voluntary attention and reasoning to make the right choice and respond appropriately. (aka impulse control)

Flexibility, in the context of changing habits, refers to the cognitive ability and adaptability to modify behavioral patterns, routines, or responses to various stimuli or situations.

Here’s one method of breaking dysfunctional and self-destructive habits

One way is to play brain games. And we’ll focus on a specific one here since there is so much science behind it. This one is called Stroop and is more commonly known as “Color Match.” (An example of the game is here).

The original Stroop game is named after, J. Ridley Stroop who discovered this strange phenomenon in the 1930s. This version involves identifying the color of the word and not saying what the word spells.

So if you see

Yellow

You might want to say yellow because the word says that, but you are supposed to say the color the word is written in, which in this case is red.

The game of Stroop has other variations which is good if you are color blind.

The classic version pictured below is about identifying the color of the word and not what the word spells although at times they will be the same. Try saying each of the colors of the words below, or test your ability here.

Regularly engaging in the Stroop game, you can train your brain to resist automatic responses, promoting a more conscious approach to decision-making and behavior. Seriously. This exercise can be a stepping stone in breaking free from unproductive habits like impulsivity and embracing positive change.

You can find it on a lot of brain game apps or on the internet but this game helps you make a conscious choice to ignore stimuli that stirs up a habitual response.

In fancy, science-y terms this is called “response inhibition.” The Stroop game requires this skill to get a good score because it allows you to practice making a conscious choice to ignore stimuli and engage your executive control network.

The Stroop game effectively challenges the brain’s automatic response mechanism and forces individuals to make a conscious decision, overriding the ingrained impulse.

Threats to your goal of changing habits

There are many threats to your reaching your goals. Anxiety and ADD are two examples. But we’re going to focus on a big one–substance use disorder.

In the pursuit of habit change, substance misuse, particularly drugs and alcohol, significantly impairs cognitive functions but they can be rebooted and rebuilt.

Addictions trigger the brain’s reward system and hijack inhibitory control

That’s because the dopamine rush associated with these behaviors creates cravings that overpower the individual’s ability to control impulses and make rational choices that help foster habit transformation. This is what often leads to lapses. But remember lapses are part of recovery and not failure.

This color match or Stroop game can actually help you break bad habits or help those in recovery regain the necessary cognitive functions to stay in recovery.

It does so by….

Enhancing Cognitive Flexibility: Also known as task shifting, cognitive flexibility refers to the brain’s ability to switch between different tasks or concepts. (Most brain training apps will list the skill as “task shifting”)

• How it helps: This mental agility is vital for breaking habitual thinking patterns and adapting to new circumstances.

Building Inhibitory Control: Also known as response control, or self-control, this skill requires you to suppress one urge in favor of another priority. For example, in the Stroop game, you have to suppress the urge to say the word and instead name the color.

• How it helps: The Stroop game works by encouraging individuals to pause, evaluate, and consciously choose a response, bypassing the automatic, habitual reaction. If you have impulse control issues, this is an important one. While impulsiveness is the tendency to act too early and without careful consideration, response inhibition or inhibitory control refers to the ability to suppress responses that do not meet current demands or inappropriate behaviors.

Neurological Impact: Studies have shown that practicing tasks that demand inhibitory control, can lead to changes in the prefrontal cortex—the area of the brain responsible for decision-making, planning, and behavioral regulation.

• How it helps: Over time, these exercises can strengthen neural pathways associated with self-control and override entrenched habits. In short, practice helps.

Transfer to Real-Life Situations: The practice of inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility can be applied when faced with tempting but unhealthy choices, enabling individuals to make deliberate decisions aligned with their goals.

• How it helps: So maybe you get the bag of apples instead of the great-smelling donuts. Or order coffee instead of a drink if you have AUD, Alcohol Use Disorder.

Successfully changing habits requires an environment that supports cognitive flexibility and robust inhibitory control.

So what other games might help you build these skills?

The Stroop game covers both skills and some form of this game is on a lot of brain apps. Here are a few.

• On Luminosity, this game is called “Color Match“
• On Peak it is called “True Color” (here it is on YT)
• Gwakkamole is the name of the free game on iOS. (You have to get past the first few levels to get into the real brain training.)

In most of the apps, the skills you seek for habit change are those labeled as sustained attention, response control, and flexibility.

1. Sustained attention
   • Games include Hidden object games, Stroop game (color match)
2. Response control and Flexibility (aka Inhibitory control, also known as response inhibition. The one that helps with impulse control).
   • Games include Stroop (color match), the classic game of Simon Says, Face Shift, Flexibility group games here
3. Flexibility games, not response control games, include Games like Sudoku, chess, and Minesweeper. These challenge you to approach problems from different angles, teaching you to be flexible in your thinking.

Also helpful is this supporting skill.

1. Working memory
   • Games include puzzle slider games (physical puzzle or app games), concentration games, or concentration card game

This isn’t all you have to do to change a habit. But it will help support your effort to change the one you have in mind in addition to future ones.

While the following works for anyone wanting to break a bad habit and make healthier choices, a lot of what you read here is based on work for an app developed to help those in recovery from SUD stay in recovery. Hamed Ekhtiari, M.D., Ph.D.; Jasmin Vassileva Ph.D. VCU Institute of Drug & Alcohol Studies. I’ve worked with this team to build out the scripts and we are awaiting grant approval.

AnneMoss Rogers

AnneMoss Rogers is a leading wellness and suicide education expert and one of the top mental health speakers and suicide prevention speakers. Known for her powerful, motivational keynotes, AnneMoss combines her personal story of loss with proven strategies to help organizations build a wellness culture that drives results and saves lives.  She speaks at conferences, workplaces, K-12 schools, and universities, delivering impactful presentations that inspire change and promote mental health awareness.
AnneMoss does this work in memory of her son, Charles, who struggled with anxiety, depression, and addiction, and died by suicide at age 20 in 2015.