7 Habits That Are Putting Your Mental Health At Risk.

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Maintaining good mental health is a growing problem in our society, especially since what has happened with incidents related to COVID. If you are not already seeking therapy, we suggest and urge you to try therapy if you have the funds or resources to do so. There are many mental health issues that people can deal with, including clinical depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, lightheadedness, and dissociative disorder, and the list goes on. In this Article, we aim to cover some of the bad habits that can harm our mental health.

How often do you check up on your physical health versus your mental health? For physical health, you know what foods are better and that exercise is important, right? However, your mental health is often not greatly emphasized. You may go about your daily life without really thinking too much about how certain habits affect you mentally. 

Here are seven habits that are Are Putting Your Mental Health At Risk. 

Too much self-deprecation and negative self-talk. 

Self-deprecating jokes seem to be the only way out of awkward situations, right? Making such jokes about any aspect of yourself is often a nod towards low self-esteem or having a negative image of yourself. It can be an unhealthy coping mechanism you fall back onto every time you face an uncomfortable situation. 

Another habit connected to this is fishing for compliments by making negative comments about yourself so that others can complement and validate you. Patricia Celan, a psychiatry resident at Dalhousie University explains that making negative comments about yourself serves to cement those beliefs and reinforces brain pathways for negativity. 

Lack of Sleep 

I’m in a hurry, I’m late, I’m late. People were always in a hurry. Has this habit rubbed off on you too? Does it feel like you have so much to do and not enough time to rest? Your piling tasks and responsibilities don’t allow for any downtime, in all this frenzy, you forget to get proper sleep. Poor sleep can result in being irritable, becoming easily overwhelmed and having difficulty concentrating explains Patricia Celan. She states that for people with mental illness or for those vulnerable to mental health issues, sleep deprivation can even trigger a mental illness episode.

Spending too much time on Smartphones. 

Smartphones are basically a part of your hands now, right? You use them for work, appointments, social media, connecting with friends and family and checking the weather or news. However, according to the University of Gothenburg, checking your phone too often is also a cause for mental distress, especially after you’ve just woken up or before you go to bed. It causes mood and sleep dysregulations. This can also give you a case of tech neck, which creates tension and can cause pain in your neck and spine area.

Procrastinating and Disorganization. 

Have you heard that procrastination is the thief of time? Not only that, it also eats away from your mental health. It’s an avoidance strategy that raises stress levels and lowers levels of wellbeing. Chronic procrastination can also result in low self-confidence, reduced energy and poor performance at work or at the school. This leads to poor mental health down the road. It is a feeling of life passing you by, says Forrest Talley, a California based clinical psychologist. 

When you don’t have a daily routine or order, it provides hopelessness about your future and a lack of faith in yourself. Wellness coach, Annie Michalski, explains that creating predictability does wonders for your mental health, as well as your physical and emotional health. 

Overspending

Do you overspend even if you are not on a budget? How closely do you keep a budget? Spending money on things you enjoy once in a while is fun. And it’s like a reward. However, overspending as a habit is actually harmful to your mental and financial health. Not having a budget can spell disaster as it creates money related stress. Clinical psychologist Derek Mihalcin explains that we have the ability to reduce or eliminate financial stress, but sadly, live with the worry it creates every day. 

You spend too much time trying to justify our actions instead of changing our habits. While living on a budget might not be something you enjoy or want to do, it can have great benefits for reducing stress about money.

Not having enough alone time

Do you make time to enjoy your hobbies? How often do you hang out with friends and family? It’s true, human beings do require healthy amounts of social interaction and that amount is unique to everyone. The threat to your mental health starts when you start putting too much time into being around people rather than having time to be by yourself.

One of the benefits of being alone is listening to your body and using that time to reset and get more me time and to continue to discover and create your own identity. It can be really exhausting to be around people all the time. So having a time where you are fully yourself in your own space is extremely important.

Worrying too much about being nice

Do you agree that kindness is a virtue that the world can always use more of? It’s a balance between being generous and open whilst having boundaries and focusing on respect. A 2017 University of Oxford study showed that kindness boosts happiness, not only for the recipient but for the giver. 

But, there’s always a but, right? When you start to think too much about being nice, it is harmful to your mental health. Yes, that’s because you’re not operating from a place of genuine honesty and kindness. You are trying to be liked or going with a flow you don’t want to be going along with, you worry too much about what people think and put their needs above your wants and needs. 

If you especially don’t enjoy spending time with someone, licensed health counselor Don Friedman states that it’s not mean to limit your time with them. We’re allowed to not like people and we don’t owe them anything more than basic human respect. While you can’t change habits overnight, challenging yourself to start with just one can have a big impact on your mental health going forward, keep doing your best.

We hope you enjoyed this article 7 Habits That Are Putting Your Mental Health At Risk. Please comment and share this with your family and loved ones. That keeps us motivated to provide you the best of ours.

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