We’re drawn to novelty, stimulation and challenge. Risky Kids is built on this concept that challenge is one of the most important parts of living! It motivates us, intrigues us and of course helps us to grow.

However there’s a difference between challenge and novelty. Novelty is the early stimulation that we get from starting things. New things are always challenging, but in a way they’re also easy. If we come to believe that when things aren’t novel, they’re not worth doing any more, then we start to become addicted to that feeling.

It’s a growing issue that Novelty Addiction is emerging, especially as we become more and more spoiled for choice in relationships, activities and interests. We can chase that feeling easily and often. It’s time to explore exactly why that’s the opposite of what we want though.

Novelty happens early in learning. While starting new things can be a bit nerve wracking as we take our first steps, it’s also a highly enjoyable time. We meet new people, forge new relationships, build skills easily because they’re often the basics and we experience big strides in our progress.

At a neurological level, this is highly attractive to a person, especially a young person! Our brains and bodies are stimulated by novelty and it often creates chemical responses. By combining this newness and novelty with those early and easy successes, it’s a powerful cocktail to be attracted to.

When we’re looking for Novelty Addiction, it will often look like people, especially young learners, being initially excited and attracted to something, and then quickly disengaging. Claiming that they’re feeling bored, or that they’re not enjoying it any more or they want to try something new.

At Risky Kids we’ve been seeing this more and more, often coupled with families reporting that they’ve tried program after program and nothing seems to stick.

Novelty Addiction is rooted in our complex neurobiology, but also the ways that we learn and the ways that we’re supported. When we’re learning, the first stage of learning is often one of the most engaging with quick progress and lots of stimulation. The second stage it all grinds to a halt, and it needs to.

When we hit this stage, many learners will disengage and quit. If they have the choice of feeling frustrated and like they’re not getting anywhere, or starting again and getting all of those feelings of newness back, it’s not a hard choice. Early learners especially don’t have a lot of experience in working through to the rewarding later stages. If a young person says that they want to quit, that something’s boring or that they want to do something else, often families or educators will want to support them.

This creates a reinforcing impact. They were unhappy, because learning had become difficult, or just not new any more, they used avoidance behaviour to try and avoid those feelings, and it worked. More importantly they get rewarded not just by reducing those tough emotions, but they also get to start something new again and get all those awesome new feel-vibes again.

Novelty Addiction isn’t just a small problem that impacts kids’ hobbies. It’s a core behavioural mechanism that can be far reaching. Because of the way it functions, it also creates something called a “Doom Loop”. This is a behaviour which self-perpetuates, self-reinforces and keeps getting stronger.

In the case of Novelty Addiction, each time we step away from a challenge as it stops being new, we get the twofold reward. We avoid those emerging tough feelings of latter stage learning, and we get to experience that powerful novelty effect again. This means that the chance of that behaviour happening again gets stronger.

Finally our sensitivity to novelty and adversity begins to diminish. Things need to be more and more novel, we lose interest more quickly, and as soon as things become difficult it triggers our behaviour to head onto the next thing.

This has long term impacts for us, especially if we teach it to young people early. Not only will it create parenting challenges, as families have to move young people between a huge array of hobbies and sports, they’ll have to navigate ongoing issues with resilience instead of seeing it growing. Young people will take this with them into life later on, and jobs and relationships will hold their interest only as long as they’re new and exciting, and as soon as hard work is required they move on.

The tough part about Novelty Addiction and avoiding it is that exploration is just as important as persistence! It’s absolutely our role as guides for young people to help them to explore new things and find the ones which reflect them the most and help them grow.

We should never force young people to stick with things they’re not enjoying out of fear that we’ll be creating Novelty Addiction. But we do have to be mindful that there’s a balance to achieve.

To achieve this balance, we need to identify the reasons that a young person wants to move on from something, by working through their thoughts and feelings with them, where possible supported by their coaches and educators. For detailed info on all of this make sure to read our series on The Art Of Quitting.

When we can identify Novelty Addiction, we need to be able to intervene. Spirals work in both directions, so a Doom Loop can be turned around and turned into growing and self-reinforcing resilience and growth.

When you notice the pattern of giving up in the first stages of learning and disengagement, encourage persistence and engage with those feelings. Use the Validate and Guidance Tools from our Art Of Quitting series, combined with this tool below.

• Mindfulness: Young learners especially won’t often have a vast repertoire of experience to draw on to help them make decisions. They often don’t know that persistence leads to success because they may never have achieved it in a deliberate way! As you guide your young person through this challenge, help them to reflect on the way that it’s feeling, and to remember it.
• Reflection: By pushing through those moments where they want to leave and pursue novelty once more, and achieving the triumphs of later stage learning, you give your Risky Kid something to look back on. This can fuel them later, with a meaningful life experience which can shape their determination.

This will let you reinforce that persistence and determination again and again, each time becoming stronger and more powerful, and then in the future when your young person wants to leave something in the early stages, you know they’re doing it for the right reasons.

We live in a time where there’s so many things to explore, and especially with young people who we’re responsible for we don’t want to get it wrong, or stop them from being their best. It’s crucial though that we do consider what can be at stake. There’s always the case that there can be too much of a good thing.