You probably know that bad habits can make you sick. From eating only junk foods to not moving your body enough, these habits can eventually catch up to us when we grow older. It’s also the same with our mental health. These bad habits can severely affect our mental health and can make us more prone to mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, etc.
But with that in mind, what bad habits should we avoid to keep our mental health in top shape? To answer this question, we gathered some habits you should not acquire ever. Let’s start.
Perfectionism
To an extent, perfectionism helps us achieve much greater things in life. It also helps us do our best with what we have and be proud of ourselves for a job well done. However, when done wrong, perfectionism can undermine us to the point that we lose faith and confidence in ourselves.
Psychologists describe perfectionism as two things, which are positive and negative perfectionism. Positive perfectionism helps us do our best, not allowing us to deliver something less than our best. It’s often accompanied by good traits such as setting realistic goals for yourself, letting go of mistakes, and seeing these mistakes as opportunities for growth.
On the other hand, negative perfectionism can destroy our self-confidence and even make us wallow in self-pity. Some signs that you have negative perfectionism are setting standards beyond belief, dissatisfaction with anything less than perfect, and seeing mistakes as being unworthy.
Comparing Yourself to Others
People usually compare themselves to others to see how successful they are compared to the person they set as a rival or goal. It might seem like a good thing to an extent, but it can also harm your mental health.
Like perfectionism, comparing yourself to others has two sides, which are positive and negative. The positive one is setting an example from other people and seeing them as someone you need to be to call yourself successful. On the other hand, negative comparison is seeing yourself as inferior to that person and putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.
Instead of comparing yourself to others, however, one thing you can do is to compare yourself with your past self. This way, you can set your past self as an example of how you grew as a person and see your future self to be better than you are right now.
Not Having Personal Goals
Goal-oriented behavior is what activates our reward system. Looking at a reward greatly influences our mood and motivation since it makes us do more or better toward our goal. Of course, once you achieve your goals, your mental health will be rewarded with catharsis, ultimately relieving the pressure of doing better from ourselves.
For example, perhaps after a day of work, you can get yourself a scoop of ice cream to lift your spirits, or after a week of grueling work, you can let yourself go to your local bookie and have fun betting on Phoenix Suns odds.
That said, when people have no personal goals, they will stagnate. They will then find alternative ways to feel that catharsis in other things, commonly leading to self-destruction. To eliminate this habit, you can do simple things like making to-do lists and set a simple reward for yourself when you complete it.
Failure Mindset
Everyone experiences failures regularly. However, while it is normal to feel inadequate or a failure, what’s not healthy is to dwell too much on it. Fostering these negative thoughts can interfere with your ability to be motivated and succeed. Ugly thoughts like this can be company at night, but ultimately, they hinder your ability, perpetuating a vicious cycle that can be hard to escape.
Not only that, but these thoughts can also make you prone to anxiety and depression. Because you’re constantly afraid of failure, it will make you anxious about doing the work or life. It can lead to depression because it would make you prone to wallowing over your weaknesses and self-pity.
You Don’t Talk to Anyone
If you’re thinking that talking on Facebook and other social media sites can be counted as talking, then you’re wrong. These are not conversations that allow us to know people deeply. It lessens our experience in social interactions. It also creates false expectations, leading to disappointment once we meet the person we’ve been talking to on social media.
Instead of using social media, you should find other ways to talk to people in person. For example, you can join a local group related to your hobbies or take on a new skill by attending trade school.
Final Words
Getting rid of these habits can take time. It also takes a lot of work, making it seem not worth it. However, these habits can ultimately ruin your mental health, eventually destroying how you enjoy life and will even change your perspective for the worse. If you have some of these habits, you should eliminate them as soon as possible.
