Nobody wants to be sick and weak. Why then do people make many attempts to change and still fail to do so? One of the common reasons is getting into a vicious circle, which over time worsens health and makes breaking out impossible. A vicious circle is like a swamp—the more you try to get out, the stronger it sucks you in. In this case, it is important to understand where it can be broken, and on which link to act. Thoughtless heroic efforts to change at any cost can only worsen the situation.
In medicine, a vicious circle is a situation where the disorder itself becomes a factor that supports the same disorder. Cause and effect are connected: for example, with blood loss, the blood supply worsens, which leads to heart failure, which worsens the blood supply even further. The same goes for our habits. For example, the worse we feel, the less we want to move. The less we move, the worse we feel. Don't wait for a "convenient moment" or "inspiration"—just start moving.
A vicious circle occurs with many health disorders—at the tissue, hormonal, and behavioral levels. Consider the relationship between low testosterone and visceral obesity in men. The lower the testosterone level, the more fat is deposited in the abdomen. The peculiarity of visceral fat is that it has a high activity of the aromatase enzyme, which converts testosterone into estrogen. More fat leads to less testosterone, less testosterone leads to more fat. Not surprisingly, waist circumference correlates with testosterone levels. Of course, the more the situation is neglected, the more difficult it is to fix it because to have the strength and energy to lose weight, you need testosterone, which will only rise when you lose weight.
Many addictions also create vicious circles. At first, a person may become addicted to alcohol for pleasure, but then, when an addiction forms, they begin to drink just to return to their normal well-being. High dopamine levels activate neuroplasticity, which imprints bad habits deep in our brains. During addiction, a person enjoys dangerous things, but unlearns how to enjoy everyday things. This is why "free dopamine" is so dangerous.
People can fall into a vicious cycle of abusive parenting, where parents abuse their children in various ways, and children grow up to copy this behavior and pass it on through the generations. Also, the poverty trap forces you to work hard and get into debt, aggravating poverty. A person's environment can suppress their desire to change and later the specific social circle supports and provokes bad habits. So, attempts to change something eventually come to naught. Social isolation impairs communication skills: the longer a person is out of society, the more difficult it is for them to make new contacts; therefore, isolation increases, and so on.
Fasting. Prolonged fasting during extreme diets leads to specific hormonal and behavioral changes which are used by the body to conserve energy. At first, weight decreases, we limit calories even more, then this approach depletes willpower, a breakdown occurs, and we quickly gain even more weight. The cycle then repeats itself, often with even worse health consequences. To get out of this cycle, it is important to build a daily nutrition system.
Circadian rhythms. A vicious cycle of lifestyle can occur
when a person gradually eats and goes to bed at an increasingly later time.
This makes it even more difficult for a person to wake up, they have no
appetite in the morning, and they skip breakfast, which causes nighttime
overeating.
Therefore, you should not fight night hunger but start with a hearty early
breakfast every day. This will break the vicious circle.
Stress. We get into a vicious cycle of stress when daytime anxiety and stress lead to insomnia; a lack of sleep makes us even more vulnerable to stress, which once again worsens sleep, which worsens stress tolerance, and so on. The higher the stress, the less adaptively we act, and this further increases stress. Under stress, we tend to perceive the world catastrophically, in black and white—such a violation of perception also only increases stress. Therefore, to break the vicious circle, it is important not to act impulsively but to focus and curb stress impulses.
The feeling of guilt and overeating. If you planned to abstain from certain foods but backed off, you usually feel guilty about your weakness. This is an unpleasant feeling you want to get rid of. So, you "punish" yourself with even more restrictions or "redeem your guilt" by training. After punishing yourself, the feeling of guilt passes, and you, with a clear conscience, once again break your rules. You constantly eat junk food, feel tormented by guilt, scold and punish yourself—how can you break this cycle? In this case, it is optimal not to feel guilty but to focus on acceptance—to realize that what happened cannot be changed because it has already passed.
The vicious circle also occurs at the cellular level. For example, with atherosclerosis, fat particles are oxidized, they remain in the cells of blood vessels, and the immune system cells try to get them out and destroy them. These destructive attempts are associated with the release of reactive oxygen forms, which further oxidizes fats and increases damage by attracting other immune cells—as a result, atherosclerotic plaque only grows. Chronic inflammation reduces insulin and leptin sensitivity, further increasing appetite and overeating. The more a person eats, the more they want. Even a few days of high-calorie food is enough to gain weight.
With age, the ability of vascular muscle cells to relax decreases and their rigidity increases. This leads to higher blood pressure. A stronger hit of blood flow into the vessel wall leads to its cells synthesizing even higher amounts of durable collagen and lower amounts of extensible elastin, which further reduces its extensibility and can again provoke higher tension.
Thus, vicious cycles can maintain harmful behavior for a long time and stimulate the development of diseases. It is important to identify such mechanisms and actively break them since they will not disappear on their own. It is useless to wait for “motivation” to do something.
Also this vicious cycles is possible too
How to Break Any Vicious Cycle
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Name the cycle: clearly describe what keeps repeating and how the end feeds back into the beginning.
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List all reinforcing elements: actions, reactions, signals, environments, people, biology—anything that strengthens the loop.
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Map the feedback: note how each element amplifies the next.
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Identify all breakpoints: every place where you could intervene, even slightly.
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Choose the weakest link: the simplest, most controllable point with the least resistance.
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Apply a minimal intervention: reduce intensity, add a pause, change timing, or do the opposite action.
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Observe the effect: if the loop weakens (slower, quieter, less frequent), you’re on the right path.
Appendix 1. The Vicious Cycle of Chronic Stress — and How to Break It
Stress resilience depends on how well our feedback systems work. The body’s main stress pathway—the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis—operates through a hormonal cascade involving CRH, ACTH, cortisol, adrenaline, and others. Once activated, this system behaves like an avalanche: it starts fast and is hard to stop. Evolutionarily, that makes sense—delays could cost survival.
Under normal conditions, cortisol shuts itself down through negative feedback: rising cortisol levels signal the hypothalamus and hippocampus to reduce further release. The higher the cortisol, the stronger the brake. What matters here is not just cortisol levels, but how well the feedback loop functions. In depression, for example, this feedback is impaired. Antidepressants partly work by restoring receptor sensitivity within this system.
Chronic stress is usually moderate but persistent. Hormone levels may not be extremely high, but the exposure is constant. And biology follows a simple rule: receptors exposed to a signal for too long become less sensitive. As a result, cortisol becomes harder to regulate, while the amygdala—the brain’s alarm center—becomes hypersensitive.
Worse, research shows that chronic stress can even activate positive feedback loops in the hypothalamus, reinforcing stress signaling instead of stopping it. This creates a vicious cycle: stress makes the system more sensitive to stress.
The universal way to restore receptor sensitivity is simple: reduce exposure. Give the system real breaks.
Want better stress control? Create cortisol-free windows.
Want more pleasure? Stop overstimulating dopamine.
Want better insulin sensitivity? Reduce constant high-glycemic load or use fasting.
Paradoxically, it’s better to rest before you’re exhausted. Research shows that early and frequent short breaks improve productivity more than one long break later in the day. What you do during breaks matters less than one thing: it must be voluntary and enjoyable.
From a stress-physiology perspective, evenly spreading workload isn’t always optimal. Acute stress with true recovery is healthier than constant moderate pressure. High cortisol can shut itself down—but only if the system is allowed to reset.
That’s why having a regular personal “Sabbath”—even half a day with no demands—is not a luxury, but a biological necessity. It helps restore feedback sensitivity and rebuild true stress resilience.
Appendix 2. The Dopamine Trap: Hyperstimulation, Hedonic Adaptation, and Burnout
Dopamine is not a “pleasure hormone.” It is a motivation and anticipation signal that drives seeking, effort, and goal-directed behavior. A healthy dopamine system relies on contrast, pauses, and recovery.
Problems begin with chronic hyperstimulation Modern environments provide constant high-intensity dopamine triggers: social media, ultra-processed food, pornography, endless novelty, multitasking, and artificial rewards. Each stimulus produces a dopamine spike—but when spikes come too often, the system adapts.
The brain follows a basic regulatory law: continuous stimulation reduces receptor sensitivity. Dopamine receptors downregulate, baseline motivation drops, and ordinary life feels dull. To compensate, people increase the dose, intensity, or frequency of stimulation.
This creates a vicious cycle:
Less sensitivity →
Less motivation and pleasure →
Stronger stimulation needed →
Even lower sensitivity
Over time, this leads to anhedonia, emotional flatness, reduced focus, impulsivity, and burnout. Importantly, the problem is not low dopamine—but a dysregulated dopamine system
Just like chronic stress, dopamine can enter a positive feedback loop. High stimulation increases craving, salience, and compulsive seeking, even as enjoyment declines. Motivation becomes detached from satisfaction: you want more, but enjoy it less.
This is why hyperstimulation feels energizing at first—but draining in the long run.
The solution is not “more willpower,” but restoring sensitivity. The universal rule is simple: reduce exposure.
Create dopamine-low periods: silence, boredom, monotony.
Stop stacking stimuli (e.g., phone + food + video).
Separate effort from reward again.
Reintroduce contrast: work first, reward later.
Just as with cortisol and insulin, pauses restore receptors. Paradoxically, pleasure returns not when stimulation increases, but when it temporarily disappears. After a period of reduced input, ordinary experiences—movement, conversation, learning, nature—become rewarding again.
Appendix 3. Vicious behavioral cycles (CBT Perspective)
Many psychological problems persist not because of one event, but because of self-reinforcing behavioral loops. Thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and reactions from others form closed circuits that escalate over time.
The key CBT insight: to change the outcome, interrupt the loop at any point.
1. Bad Mood → Hostility → Social Rejection → More Anger
The cycle
Low mood or stress
Irritable or sharp communication
Others respond defensively or withdraw
Feeling rejected or misunderstood
Increased anger and resentment
How to break it
Act opposite to the impulse: speak slower, softer, and more neutrally
Reframe reactions: “They’re responding to my tone, not rejecting me”
Delay responses when emotionally activated
2. Anxiety → Avoidance → Short-Term Relief → More Anxiety
The cycle
Anxiety about a task or situation
Avoidance
Temporary relief
Loss of confidence and increased fear next time
How to break it
Reduce avoidance, not anxiety
Use graded exposure: small, controlled steps
Focus on function, not comfort
3. Fatigue → Procrastination → Time Pressure → Stress → More Fatigue
The cycle
Low energy
Task delay
Deadlines pile up
Stress and guilt
Further exhaustion
How to break it
Start with a very small action
Lower standards temporarily
Separate “starting” from “finishing”
4. Self-Criticism → Low Motivation → Poor Performance → More Self-Criticism
The cycle
Harsh inner dialogue
Reduced motivation and risk-taking
Weaker results
Confirmation of negative self-beliefs
How to break it
Replace judgment with data: “What exactly happened?”
Use performance-based feedback, not identity-based
Treat mistakes as experiments
5. Low Mood → Withdrawal → Loss of Positive Feedback → Deeper Low Mood
The cycle
Sadness or apathy
Social and activity withdrawal
Fewer rewarding experiences
Mood declines further
How to break it
Behavioral activation before motivation
Schedule small, predictable pleasant activities
Mood follows action, not the other way around
6. Stress → Poor Sleep → Reduced Coping → More Stress
The cycle
Stress and rumination
Sleep disruption
Lower emotional regulation
Heightened stress response
How to break it
Protect sleep as a regulation tool, not a reward
Reduce cognitive arousal before bed
Standardize sleep routines
