By Sarah Klein, Prevention
It's tough to break a habit. If it were easy, there wouldn't be so many different tricks to doing it that people swear by. It's an exercise in willpower that, frankly, a lot of people don't see all the way through— myself included.
[post_ads]A new wrist-worn device called Keen, made by the company HabitAware,
aims to help. The device is geared toward people with habits like hair
pulling, skin picking, nail biting, even kids who can't quit thumb
sucking—anything involving the hands on or near the head and face. It
gently vibrates whenever the habit is performed, alerting the user to
that often subconscious activity, which in turn helps her eventually
stop. (Uncover the five traits of stress-free people—and how to be more
like them—with the tips in Prevention's Ageless Brain.)
Aneela Idnani Kumar, the designer of Keen, lived with
trichotillomania, a hair pulling disorder, for more than 20 years,
subconsciously yanking out the hairs of her eyebrows and eyelashes. She
kept her habit a secret, relying on makeup to disguise her sparse brows
and lashes. She "got caught" pulling one day, she says, and finally told
her husband about her habit. Together, the two dove deep into
trichotillomania research. Aneela says her love of technology made her
realize a smart bracelet might be able to help her curb the behavior. In
less than six months, she says, her brows and lashes had regrown fully
thanks to the device. (Here's what it's like to live with trichotillomania.)
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I'm not a hair puller, but I am a hair twirler, and frankly, I'd like
to quit, because it feels juvenile, like a habit a 7-year-old might
have.
Before I gave Keen a test drive, I spoke to James E. Maddux, PhD, a
senior scholar at the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, who
researches the use of technology in mental health interventions, for a
little background on the theory behind the bracelet. (This is what your hair says about your health.)
There hasn't been any research conducted on the Keen device
specifically—Maddux was quick to say he'd want to see some evidence of
how well it actually works—but "the theoretical principles are sound,"
he assured me. Essentially, he said, the Keen operates on a reward and
punishment system. The gentle vibration when the wearer performs the
behavior isn't exactly painful, but it's still enough to tell the brain
that was a no-no, which starts to program your mind not to do that
action again.
"Behaviors that lead to something unpleasant happening apt to not be
repeated," he says. (It's why lab rats avoid the levers that, you know,
shock them.) Since many of the behaviors Keen aims to curb are done
subconsciously, "you need to become aware of what you're doing in order
to begin to change them," Maddux says. When you feel the vibration,
you'll be awoken out of your subconscious actions and realize what
you're up to, so you can choose not to pick or pull or bite or twirl.
[post_ads]Now, obviously a little twirling isn't as serious as actual hair
pulling, which can be truly distressing, Maddux says. Some of the
behaviors that Keen aims to curb may typically require mental health
treatment, he says, but for many people there are several obstacles to
getting that kind of care, including cost, access to therapists, and the
stigma surrounding seeking mental health help. A device like Keen could
eliminate all these issues, he says. At $129 or $149, depending on the
model, the device will cost you about the same as one single therapy
session in many big cities, and it's delivered directly to you.
Plus,
now that so many people are wearing tracking devices of all kinds,
chances are no one will even ask you what it is (here are 20 different trackers that will tell you more about yourself than you probably wanted to know).
Technology, Maddux says, "is taking us a step away from the
old-fashioned model that says mental health services have to be
delivered one on one, face to face."
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Once my Keen arrived in the mail, I charged it for a couple hours and
was ready to go. I fiddled a bit with the settings—you can customize
how sensitive the device is to your behavior, which makes it vibrate
more or less often, and change the intensity and duration of each
vibration. There were a few false alarms at first, but it's not the end
of the world—when you do perform the behavior you're trying to stop, you
simply push a button on the side of the device to log that as the
action and not a false alarm. (Check out this fitness tracker, which shocks you with electricity when you slack off.)
I found that extra step extra helpful, actually. I twirl my hair
completely without recognizing it while I'm editing a story or zoning
out watching TV. I wouldn't realize I was doing it until the Keen
buzzed, and then I had to acknowledge what I was doing by pressing a
button. Each press of the button is logged in the accompanying app, so I
could see my progress over the week.
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I twirled 7 times the first day I
wore the Keen, and I was down to 5 by the very next day. The following?
Just 1 twirl. I found that even just strapping the thing on my wrist
made me more aware of my habit. Lifting my hand to my head, I might
catch a glimpse of the bracelet and pin my hand back down to my side.
Eventually, the time came to return my sample Keen, and I wondered if
the changes would last. I'm happy to report that I'm still thinking
about the Keen whenever my hand is near my hairline. I seem to have
seriously diminished the behavior, at least during the workday. TV time,
I must admit, is still my weak spot, but I'm more aware even then.
