When the emotions are taking us up, hypnotizing us and letting us into doing what it wants to do, something has to be done. One rule of thumb is that if one can't find a generic solution, take up special cases and handle them separately. Eventually, you may find a pattern.
That said, I am tempted to write some general thoughts about it. :-) Whenever we are about to decide (either voluntarily or involuntarily) to do something that we regret later doing it, it is because of a lot of factors:
- As already said, it is because you have been doing it.
- The first thing is to become conscious about the fact that you are about to be entrapped.
- The next thing is to try to resist it. It can be through many ways:
- Through will power. It ceased to work for me.
- Through diversion. You strongly focus on something else that you completely forget about the current urge to give into it.
- Through reasoning. This is the most professional way of preventing one from giving into it, IMO. But it is very subjective. I mean, what reasons are you going to give? Say, take that habit for example. The moment has come when you started feeling the urge to give into it because you envisioned, heard, saw, touched, felt something that has invoked those hormones and is compelling you to go for it. What do you do? Emotions have completely taken control over you. Will you even have the consciousness to realize that you can invoke reason to get away from it?
