It is impossible to remain in one place: as soon as a person stops moving forward, he begins to move in the opposite direction. It often happens that people (especially with age) notice that, for example, it is increasingly difficult to take on work that requires concentration, learning new skills, or which is simply unusual. Increasingly, they are thinking about issues of self-development and how to stop degrading. Spoiler: reading your favorite writers and magazines, your native language, your favorite cafes and films, working in a familiar specialty and communicating with old friends - all this leads to degradation.
About degradation
Many psychologists do not recognize the use of the term “degradation” in relation to personality. However, this does not prevent the phenomenon from happening: sometimes people first slowly, and then more and more quickly, slide down the slope of life. Overall, it's a decline. To lose valuable qualities is what it means to degrade.
The brain and man have something in common - they are both lazy. They try to reduce energy costs for any activity by creating unique programs that are carried out according to a template. According to biologist Richard Simon, these programs are called engrams—a physical habit or memory trace from repeated exposure to a stimulus.
If you fantasize, you can see engrams in the form of paths that neurons lay in the brain while performing the same action. Performs longer - less energy is wasted. Sometimes paths become roads, and then entire highways. And this is an excellent superpower, but only on one hand. The other side of the coin is a decrease in brain plasticity.
The longer people use engrams, the less the basal ganglia function. And their main function is the production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that helps neurons navigate new paths among information noise (this is approximately what happens after reading this paragraph).
It is enough to remember the way to school or work. Typically, people walk or drive along the same route. And if the latter is more than six months old, the “autopilot” turns on, and in parallel with walking or traveling, people can already listen to music, read or respond to messages. It is quite difficult for a best friend to hide his anxiety behind a smile, just as it is quite difficult for the person communicating with him to decipher such communication signals. The same thing happens with the menu at your favorite restaurant.
And it seems that there is no point in changing all this. But life is a constant source of changes (downsizing, falling in love with a Spanish woman, new tasks at work), most of which are not under people's control. You have to adapt to them and it is a matter of survival.
This is why brain plasticity needs to be maintained and trained. You can imagine the brain as concrete, which will harden after a certain period of time. You can also look at old people who are not able to send SMS, do not accept new things and prefer the same type of actions year after year. To cope with degradation, you need to constantly stir the mixture in your head, under no circumstances allowing it to harden.
Deterioration in physical health
There is a strong connection between addiction and physical health.
In addition to psychological instability, the patient experiences frequent ailments, loss of strength, high blood pressure, and panic attacks. All this prevents him from functioning normally as a healthy unit of society. To put it bluntly, a person acquires an “animal” image, where the main task is to satisfy his need for a stimulating substance, and then move away from this state. Those who struggle with addiction are so obsessed with their pursuit of euphoria that their first priority in life becomes finding new drugs that will help them achieve the desired state. They lose concentration, which prevents them from doing even the most basic things, such as eating, sleeping, working, hobbies and activities they love. All this together greatly weakens the immune system.
Signs and causes
In order to understand how to stop degrading and start developing, it is very important to understand the causes and symptoms of the phenomenon. Signs can be varied and related to all aspects of life:
- Decreased interest in the lives of loved ones.
- Loss of communication and social skills. The person does not want to communicate as before, and if he decides to make contact, then its quality is unsatisfactory for any participant. Most of all, a degrading personality avoids communicating with those who point out mistakes and talk about the importance of changing life.
- Deterioration of intellectual abilities, as well as a cooling of interest in reading and learning, learning new things.
- Loss of interest in work, even if it was previously a favorite activity.
- Poor vocabulary, speech mainly consists of filler words and obscene expressions, and answers are monosyllabic.
- Clutter at home and/or workplace.
- Negligent attitude towards one's own health and the well-being of others.
- An abundance of laziness, irresponsibility, indifference. Absent-mindedness, irritability, fears, pessimism and lies.
- Bad appearance. Such people stop taking care of personal hygiene and cleanliness of clothes, do not get their hair cut on time, and so on.
- The emergence or worsening of bad habits, dubious connections, gambling, and a tendency to commit criminal acts.
A person may have all the symptoms, most of them, or just one. Important: all signs individually do not necessarily indicate degradation. For example, a person who works in trade may well get tired of people during the day and need time alone with himself. Writers who are passionate about books (or other representatives of creative professions and people simply in love with their work) may forget about appearance while working. Degradation can also be confused with professional burnout and the need for a vacation.
There can also be many reasons. Some of them:
- All kinds of addictions (gaming, alcohol or drugs).
- New circumstances to which a person is not yet accustomed. For example, this happens after retirement. People don't know what to do. Some never find suitable ways to spend their time and succumb to indifference and laziness.
- Crises (age and others).
- Feeling guilty about something you have done.
- A traumatic incident.
- Achieving the main goal, after which people feel that there is nothing more to strive for.
- Mental disorders.
- Loneliness.
Characteristic symptoms
A degraded personality is easy to recognize, even just by external signs.
There are also deeper symptoms that can be recognized in person
:
Loss of appearance. Unwashed hair, dirty clothes, heavy body odor - these signs appear already at the final stage. A man walks down the street drunk, not embarrassed by it, and does not cover the bruises on his face with dark glasses. Complete loss of shame. And it all can start from refusing to do a manicure and cut your hair regularly, not paying attention to the cleanliness and integrity of your clothes - these are the first signs of degradation. Loss of interest in life, the scope of needs is narrowed to food and drink. Politics, painting, sports cease to matter as such. There is nothing in this world that could evoke emotions in a degraded personality. The world narrows so much that it becomes almost invisible. Loss of feelings such as shame and disgust. Base instincts are not controlled, food from a garbage can does not cause disgust
A person no longer hides from judgmental glances, he simply does not notice them or does not take them into account. Decreased intelligence, memory, primitiveness of judgment
A person’s speech changes, the set of words and expressions becomes minimal. Remember Sharikov from “Heart of a Dog” - this is roughly how a degraded person thinks. The person becomes psychologically unstable. Here the manifestations can be different - irritability, grumpiness, frivolity, aggressiveness, tearfulness. In any case, it is not appropriate to talk about healthy mental reactions.
Of course, it takes a certain amount of time from not wanting to develop yourself to lying drunk on a bench. Degradation does not happen overnight. Therefore, if we notice its first signs in ourselves or our loved ones, then we need to take measures to nip them in the bud.
Foreign languages
Learning new languages is a great way to stop degrading. Everyone can find their own incentive to exercise, for example, related to a hobby, work or travel. A good motivation is the opportunity to read your favorite author in the original, listen to a musical group or become a polyglot.
Learning other languages is the most effective tool for training brain plasticity, since words and the semantic fields associated with them are usually different from the native language. This works especially well if you look beyond tourist vocabulary and delve into cultural specifics.
Criminal activity
When using drugs on a regular basis, all boundaries of decency are erased and control over oneself is lost. According to statistics, the number of offenses related to the use of drugs and alcohol reaches 40% of all cases. This includes such types of violations as:
- domestic violence;
- robberies;
- theft;
- fraud;
- robbery;
- rape;
- vandalism;
- murders;
- creating emergency situations on the road.
Drug addiction leads to personality degradation, and at a rapid pace. After a few months, the first symptoms become noticeable. And after a year, the person may not be recognizable. This process can be stopped only if two conditions are present - the desire of the patient and qualified help. Only by completing a rehabilitation course in a specialized clinic can you achieve lasting results. The struggle does not end there; the person will need to continue to struggle with the consequences of his actions, as well as with the tendency not to repeat his mistake.
No repetitions
Refusing various repetitions is one of the most effective ways to stop personality degradation. Psychologists do not recommend rereading books you have read previously. Even if it is Haruki Murakami’s favorite or one of the best books in the history of world literature. Equally, you should not re-watch TV series and films that you have already watched (even if they are “Friends” or “Sherlock”).
It’s a very pleasant and universal feeling to plunge into the cozy and familiar world of Harry Potter or the masterpieces of Max Fry: familiar characters, lack of surprises, knowledge of the ending and the opportunity to enjoy those little things that were missed the first or previous time. But by watching a season over a weekend or devouring a book in an hour, people are robbing other literary and cinematic works of their chance to discover something completely new to them. There is no need to deprive the brain of the formation of alternative neural connections.
Forget about shortcuts
One of the significant answers to the question of what to do in order not to degrade is to stop labeling people. Yes, it's very convenient. There is no need to understand a person and the motives of his actions; you can simply succumb to weakness and brand him:
- drinks with friends - alcoholic;
- cheated on her boyfriend - a girl of easy virtue;
- mentally ill – dangerous;
- does not say hello - impolite;
- reads cheap detective stories - has no taste, and so on.
Each person is perhaps pressed by an even greater number of life circumstances than the same Rodion Raskolnikov. But many consider his thoughts interesting, and a divorced neighbor with three children as something unworthy of attention and vulgar.
Inhibition of intellectual activity
Two of the most noticeable features of mental decline in men and women struggling with addiction are lack of concentration and loss of interest in everything. This is especially pronounced in adolescence. Schoolchildren and students suffer from declining academic performance and ultimately drop out of school or higher education. People’s memory also suffers greatly, which makes it difficult to develop and expand their knowledge base. Thinking abilities become primitive. Often a drug addict can be distinguished by his superficial and empty conversations, which will be understandable to his degrading environment.
New routes
The next popular way to learn from your own experience how to stop degrading is the novelty of routes. Finding new paths is a great development; it makes sense to reconsider the usual route to work and home, find another supermarket and bookstore, change your favorite billiard club to something new. This may cost time, but will pay off in other ways - lower prices or fewer people in the establishment.
The Parable of the Cucumber
There is a parable about a cucumber that tried with all its might to preserve its own freshness. Having got into a jar of pickles, he was very unpleasant at first, since the brine did not help maintain freshness. In addition, the appearance of a fresh cucumber was a reproach to its salty counterparts. But after some time, the brine ceased to be disgusting to the cucumber, and its neighbors no longer seemed so salty. The cucumber thought that it was very convenient to be like everyone else. Therefore, in order not to turn into a salty snack, you need to follow the right direction in life.
Having a general understanding of this problem, you can easily avoid the fate that is prescribed to a huge number of people.
We briefly looked at degradation in its various directions and how to avoid it. Leave your comments or additions to the material.
No criticism
Stop criticizing - this is how you can stop degradation. Negative reviews about new furniture, design or the ending of a novel, overflowing social networks and all kinds of conversations are all about resistance to changes that have come so suddenly and at the wrong time in life. As a rule, we are talking about things that people cannot change. Or they can, but it will require a lot of effort that is simply not worth it. There are more interesting things to do than keeping records in complaint books.
If we talk about the benefits for development, then it is advisable to accept the changes and engage in motivation in order to continue living in the new reality. This is what it should look like:
- “Road repair? Great, because in a month there will be no more holes here. In the meantime, you can learn something new about the area.”
- “New menu? Great, the old dishes have long since become boring.”
- “New work tablet? Why not treat it like a quest instead of being nervous?”
Children or animals
One of the important methods that will help prevent degradation and/or get rid of it. Children are an eternal source of chaos and uncertainty. Children are living “concrete mixers” in the head; they destroy all stereotypes. Sons or daughters contribute something new every day through their behavior, questions and experiments. Parents often don’t even notice how their thinking is liberated, and they begin to think completely differently.
If you can’t (yet) have children or don’t want to, then you can try the option of having pets. For example, dogs. They need to be walked, and fresh air is good for the brain. Dogs can be just as much of a source of chaos as children. And they involve owners in communication with other dog lovers.
Playlist update
New music is just about how to stop degenerating and start living. Scientists can frustrate even music lovers with tens of thousands of tracks in their playlists. Most often, people listen to 50-100 familiar compositions. They are pleasant for the same reasons - people have adapted to them, and the brain does not need additional resources to process and comprehend these works. But there is so much music in the world that even if you change the radio station every day, your life will still not be enough to listen to everything. However, striving for this means taking care of your own development.
Circle of friends
You need to expand your list of acquaintances and friends in order to find out how to stop degrading and start developing. It’s very cool when you have your own company, with whom it’s nice to get together every Saturday at your favorite bar (probably the same one) and discuss basketball or new outfits of famous singers. It's about psychological comfort.
But at the same time, most people live in big cities and it is absolutely not clear why limit your social circle to 5-6 people. By the way, most often people do not choose their comrades themselves, they are imposed by geography, school, higher education institution, work.
Man is a product of his environment. Society greatly influences people and they often change not only their opinions and interests because of their friends, but even such significant nuances as their type of activity. Is it worth talking about the influence of your social circle on your way of thinking?!
Unfortunately, degradation is an almost universal problem, and many people are concerned about how to stop degrading. The most important thing you need to do for your salvation and development is action. There are many ways to stop the process of decline. Among the most common and effective are learning foreign languages, experimenting with scents, giving up repetition, shortcuts and criticism, new roads, animals or children, updating your friends list and playlist.
Content:
- Degradation of the personal qualities of a drug addict
- Social degradation of a drug addict
- Deterioration in physical health
- Inhibition of intellectual activity
- Loss of personal reputation
- Negative impact on professional life
- Weakened relationships with family and friends
- Criminal activity
Drug addiction not only has a detrimental effect on health, but also significantly affects personal qualities, relationships with others, as well as other important aspects of life. By giving in to temptation, people often become the opposite of themselves before the drug addiction took over. How does the personality of a drug addict degrade? And is it possible to return a person to his previous state?
